Exterior Shades
What do you need to know about planning for exterior shades in pre-construction?
There are options to use exterior shades manually however, you will be limited to fabrics and sizes. Most of the time, exterior patio areas are large and require motors to raise them.
The majority of homeowners that do not plan in advance or buy an existing home with large openings, are frustrated to find out they’ll have to split their opening into 2 shades(big ugly gap in the middle). BUG (big ugly gap) doesn’t help if you’re trying to block sun, gain privacly or keep the bugs out.
Planning ahead can help in sooo many ways and here are the most important:
Planning for electrical-where and what type and can we conceal any wires?
Planning the space where shades will mount to ensure proper depth, space for tracks, and distance to electrical.
Can we plan for shades to be in between straight, flat surfaces?
Can we embed the tracks into the column?
Understanding the direction of the home as it pertains to wind and weather. (exterior shades are weather rated, but be mindful of what you’re purchasing)
There are shade products that are sold at home improvement stores that shouldn’t be classified as exterior shades. They may work for awhile but eventually the rolls will be super hard to roll up and down becasue they are not protected properly and the wind can and will tear up a shade that is left down during inclement weather. One way to know the difference between an exterior rated shade and one that isn’t, is price. It is an investment to purchase weather rated, motorized exterior screen shades. If the price is $300 vs. $3000, you can guarantee the $300 shade is a screen shade, but not exterior rated. Also use certified, professional installers for exterior shades.
A few great manufacturers we purchase from are,
https://www.draperinc.com/windowshades/exteriorshades.aspx
https://insolroll.com/patio-shades/
Call us anytime if you need more information. We’re happy to come on site and discuss options.