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A stone chip is a repair. A crack that has run out to the edge of the glass is a replacement. The calls in between are where these shops earn their keep. An honest one will tell you that a chip sitting straight in front of the driver is often better replaced than filled. A repair always leaves a faint mark, and that mark ends up in your line of sight.
Replacement is bonded work. The old glass comes out, the pinch weld is cleaned back, fresh urethane goes down, and the car has to sit until the adhesive reaches safe drive-away strength. Ask what that time is before they start. Mouldings and clips should be new rather than reused, since a water leak down the pillar or a whistle at highway speed a week later is a fitting fault, not bad luck.
Then there is the camera. Cars with lane keeping or automatic braking read the road through the windshield, so moving the glass moves what the camera sees. Recalibration is part of the job, not an upsell.
Listings show what each shop states on its own website about mobile service, calibration and warranties. Use the state and city lists below to find the shops working your area.
Size, depth and position decide it. A chip smaller than a coin, not through to the inner layer and away from the edge, usually fills well. Damage that reaches the edge keeps running, because that is where the stress lives. A chip in the driver's line of sight is the judgment call, since a repair leaves a small blemish you will look through every day.
Because the camera behind the glass aims through it. Lane keeping, automatic braking and adaptive cruise all read the road through the windshield, and new glass sits a fraction differently. Static recalibration uses targets set up in the shop; dynamic recalibration needs a road drive at steady speed on clear markings. Some cars need both. A replacement that skips it is unfinished work.
Once the urethane reaches safe drive-away strength, which the adhesive maker sets and the shop should tell you before they start. Cold and damp stretch it out. Leave a window open a crack for the first day so closing a door does not push against the fresh bond, skip the pressure washer for a few days, and leave any retaining tape where they put it.
Often, and it depends on your policy and your state. Glass falls under comprehensive coverage, and some policies cover a repair with no deductible because filling a chip is cheaper for the insurer than fitting a windshield. Ask yours before you book. Ask the shop whether calibration is billed as a separate line, because that is where glass claims get argued.
Take it back to the fitter. Damp carpet in a footwell, water inside a pillar, or a whistle that only shows up at highway speed points at the bond or at a moulding that was reused instead of replaced. A decent shop rebonds it under warranty. Say when you first noticed it, because a leak caught early is a reseal and a leak caught late is rust.
Often, and the limits are weather and calibration. Urethane needs dry glass and a temperature inside the adhesive's range, so rain and hard frost stop the job. Static recalibration needs a level floor and clear space for the targets, which a driveway rarely offers, so cars that need it usually go in to the shop instead.
