The math on waiting is never in your favour
A rock chip is one of those problems that seems minor right up until it isn’t. You see it, you think you’ll deal with it, and then a cold night and a warm defroster send a crack across your windshield before you’ve finished your coffee.
The repair itself takes about 20–30 minutes and costs nothing with ICBC Comprehensive coverage. No deductible. No premium impact. No phone call to ICBC. We file the claim directly as a Repair Network shop. There isn’t a more straightforward insurance claim in the automotive world, and there’s no good reason to put it off.
What makes a chip repairable
Not every chip qualifies for repair, and we won’t pretend otherwise. Here’s what we look at.
A chip is repairable when it’s smaller than a Canadian quarter (about 24mm across), positioned outside your direct line of sight as a driver, at least 50mm from the edge of the glass, and hasn’t been sitting exposed to moisture and dirt for weeks. Single-point impacts (the kind that look like a bullseye or a small star) respond well to resin injection.
A chip is not repairable when it’s larger than a quarter, located at the edge of the glass where structural forces concentrate, directly in the driver’s primary vision zone, or when the original impact has already branched into multiple radiating cracks. Damage that has gone through both layers of glass isn’t a chip anymore. It’s a crack, and it needs replacement.
When you bring your vehicle in, we’ll look at it and tell you which situation you’re in before we do anything. If it’s repairable, we’ll repair it. If it isn’t, we’ll explain why and walk you through your replacement options.
How the repair works
Rock chip repair uses a process called resin injection. A technician drills a very small access point at the impact site, draws out any air from the damaged area, and injects a UV-cure optical resin that bonds to and fills the glass. The resin is cured with ultraviolet light, the surface is polished, and the repair is complete.
The result restores the structural continuity of the glass; the chip can no longer spread. In most cases the repaired area is difficult to see. In some cases, particularly with older chips that have had time to collect grime, a faint mark may remain in certain light conditions. We’ll tell you honestly what result to expect based on what we’re working with.
The whole process takes 20–30 minutes. You can wait in the shop. There’s no adhesive curing time, no safe-drive-away period. You’re good to go as soon as we’re done.
Rock chip repair and your ICBC coverage
If you carry Comprehensive coverage on your ICBC policy, rock chip repair is covered at $0 with no deductible. This is one of the few claims in the ICBC system that’s genuinely free in every sense: no money changes hands and no record of the claim affects your claims-rated scale.
We’re an ICBC Repair Network shop, which means we handle the claim on our end. We get your policy information, confirm coverage, do the repair, and bill ICBC directly. You don’t call ICBC, submit paperwork, or wait for reimbursement. Most customers are in and out in under 30 minutes start to finish.
Without Comprehensive coverage, we’ll quote your specific chip before we start. Cash, debit, and all major credit cards accepted.