Video Highlights:
00:19 – How plantation shutters make homes look beautiful
00:55 – Control the louvres by grabbing the middle louvre
01:15 – Ensure screws are set to the right tension
01:40 – Make sure to clean plantation shutters regularly
02:11 – Why shutters shouldn’t be opened for long periods of time
03:58 – Proper care makes your shutters carefree for years
Hi there! Now, today we’re going to talk about few simple dos and don’ts when it comes to taking care of your plantation shutters. Plantation shutters are absolutely one of the most beautiful product you should put into your home and they are fairly care free and should last you forty years if you look after them. A couple of things to note, I have discussed before the different types of control so if you haven’t watched that you can go back and watch that.
Control Louvres by Grabbing the Middle Louvres
When you have a hidden view control, you need to make sure that you control the louvres by grabbing the middle louvres, you don’t want to grab the louvres at the end because what this means is that by grabbing the louvre at the end, the force of all the other louvre is on this one hinge here and some time this can snap and that is generally not covered in the warranty.
Do Ensure that Screws are adjusted to the Right Tension
Another thing you need to do is to make sure that you have your screws adjusted to the right tension so that your louvres are not too tight putting too much force on them or too loose causing them to open up by themselves. Once again, we’ve done another video on that on how to correct that if you have an issue with that.
Do Clean Your Shutters Regularly
Of course you want to clean your shutters regularly for no other purpose than they’re a fantastic product and you want them looking their best so clean off their finger marks and everything off them.
Don’t Hinge Open Your Shutters for a Long Time
There’s really one other thing to really be concerned about and the shutters are generally hinged on one side which means the shutters sitting on the window and it opens and shuts like a door with hinge. Now the shutters, while they do hinge open, they’re really designed to hinge open only for a few reasons and that’s really to open the shutter, to enable you to get to the window, to open or shut the window or to open the shutter so you can clean the glass. They’re not really designed to hinge open and leave open for long period of time. You might think well, why is that? It’s pretty simple really. Generally, when you have a door, it’s hinged, it’s open all the time so why can’t I shut it? Well, what you have to remember is a door is a one solid piece and it’s very strong. With the shutter, we basically just have a frame and all the stress is really in the 4 joints or if the shutter has this middle piece, there’s a little bit of strength in there as well. So you don’t have as much strength in a shutter panel as you would in a normal door. So what that means is when you swing the shutter open, all the weight is on the hinges and you have gravity trying to pull it down which overtime can really put a lot of force on these joints here and can cause cracking and could cause the shutter to drop slowly and of course you want to avoid that.
Only Hinge Open When Cleaning the Window
So to open the shutters on its hinges when you need to clean the window or dust or open the window, make sure to shut it straight away again and look they have a brilliant design and they are a beautiful product. They’re designed to look at through and not to open up and have the window exposed because they are a feature themselves. So really that’s all there is to it, just a few small things to be aware of and as long as you’re abiding by the rules, your shutters should be care free for many years. Thanks again!
We hope you’ve enjoyed this news and tips update from Blockout Blinds, we’d love for you to leave a comment about “How to take care of your plantation shutters – The Do’s and don’ts“.
