Roller shutters

Every indoor blind is managing heat that has already come through the glass. A roller shutter stops it before it gets there. The slats sit on the outside of the window, so the solar energy is absorbed and re-radiated outdoors instead of into your lounge — which is why external shading outperforms internal shading by a wide margin on a hot afternoon.

They roll down from a neat headbox above the opening, run in side guides, and stack completely out of sight in the box when you don't want them.

What they do

• Heat control. The most effective thing we fit on a west-facing wall in January.
• Glare control. Lowered part-way, they shade the top of the glass and leave the view below.
• Insulation. The air gap between a closed roller shutter and the glass slows heat loss on cold highveld nights too.
• Blackout. Fully closed with the slats locked together, a room goes genuinely dark — useful for a media room or a shift worker.
• Light control by degree. Most systems let the slats sit slightly apart, giving ventilation and a soft striped light rather than all-or-nothing.

Specifying them here

• Motorisation is standard on anything wide — a manual strap on a four-metre patio roller shutter is a daily chore nobody keeps up.
• Timers and sun sensors will close them automatically during the worst hours while the house is empty.
• Powder-coated in a colour matched to the window frames or the fascia, so they read as part of the building.
• Several estates around Bryanston require exterior colours and box profiles to be approved before installation. We quote to the approved specification, and give you the sheet to submit where the rules aren't published.
• Built-on boxes suit existing houses; built-in boxes disappear into the lintel and are best decided at build stage.

What these cost

These sit at the top end of the range and it is fair to say so plainly. By the square metre installed, as a guide: a hand-operated shutter runs R3,500 to R5,500, a motorised one R5,000 to R7,000. The slat, the headbox and how the box has to be detailed into the building are what decide where a particular opening lands.

Narrow openings attract a minimum, because the box, the side guides and the installation crew do not scale down with the glass. Power for a wired motor is a separate electrical item. And because a shutter fixes to the outside of the house, an estate or body corporate may want sight of the finish before it goes up — a conversation worth having before the quote is accepted rather than after. The written quote follows the free measure.