In short ‘No’. We only supply interior shutters.
Even though our shutters are very durable it is the component parts that would weather badly, not the wood.
Are they custom-made shutters or do you sell the shutters off the shelf?
We only supply and fit custom-made interior plantation shutters. All window and door recesses are different so require extremely accurate measuring. This why there is a delivery time of 6-8 weeks.
What are solid shutters?
These are panels that have no louvers. They were originally installed in reveal boxes in pre-Edwardian houses and were used a couple of times a year only, when the owners decamped for the season. They were not designed to be opened and shut daily like our present designs and that is why so few remain today.
What are Interior Plantation Shutters?
Interior Plantation shutters are louvred panels fixed either inside or outside windows and doors. Plantation Shutters originated in America and the West Indies and date back to before the American Civil War. The term Ante Bellum means pre-war and is used to describe a style of plantation shutters. The louvred shutters offered by Premier Shutters are Ante Bellum.
Archive for May, 2010
Can the shutters be fitted externally?
Friday, May 28th, 2010How do I measure my windows and doors for shutters?
Friday, May 28th, 2010To attain a price indication for interior shutters just measure the width and height of the opening and either call us or use the quick quote facility on the website.
Do you offer onsite measuring and installation service for your shutters?
Premier Shutters currently operate in and around London, Hertfordshire, Essex, Surrey, Middlesex, Berkshire, Kent and Sussex but have associations with experienced dealers in all areas (nearly) who use our interior wooden shutters too. Call us for your nearest dealer if you are not self fitting.
If you opted for the full measure and fitting service then rest assured, as all our dealers have been selected because of their experience with designing and installing shutters. Our products are only as good as the installation!
If you are think of fitting the shutters yourself then please contact us on 0845 200 2743
Can shutters be installed on any window?
Thursday, May 27th, 2010Shutters can be installed on virtually any window, French door or patio sliding doors. Shutters can also be used effectively as room dividers fitted on tracks. If the window/door opens inwards then the shutters can always be mounted outside of the reveal. Bi-pass tracking allows for shutter to slide past each other and is used where there are overhangs preventing the panels from swinging out.
Thanks to a number of different framing options we are also able to fit the shutters on most UPVC windows and in 5 and 7 panelled bay windows.
Can I fit the shutters myself?
Of course you can. Some of our customers have fitted very complex tracked installations beautifully. If you know how to scribe, use a planer and possess a level plus a degree of practical common sense, then fitting our DIY shutters should not be a problem. We are available on the phone should you get stuck to help you out. BUT if you are like me, a person who has to cut three times to get the right length, then definitely don’t.
The shutters are delivered pre-hinged all frame work is pre mitred, so making mistakes on hinging up have been removed. We do not supply screws and rawlplugs etc for the wall fixing as we do not know what you are fitting into. We supply magnets to hold the shutters in position, but no catches or knobs.
When ordering shutters please make us aware of where the shutters will be fitted and if any handles or other obstructions are protruding in/from around the windows or doors. The opening should always be measured for shutters after plastering/tiling/flooring has been completed.
All products are guaranteed against warping and defects of workmanship for a minimum of 12 months.
Shutter Preparation – Things to Check
Thursday, May 27th, 2010What if my windows are not square?
There is virtually no such thing as a window that is perfectly square. If using a regular L-Frames you can scribe or fill small gaps. For larger gaps you can use cover strips much the same way as UPVC companies do.
What should I check for before I have a shutter survey?
Before we can conduct a survey for shutters you will need to ensure that you have checked the following:
Your walls surrounding your windows do not require plastering after the survey has been completed and before the shutters will be installed (as this may render the measurements incorrect).
There is no BT or aerial points obstructing where the shutters would be fitted (as they may need to be reallocated prior to the survey)
Your windows will not be changed after the survey has been completed (as this may render the measurements incorrect).
How many shutter panels do I need in my window opening?
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010Our smallest panel width is 200mm and widest is 750mm, although with larger louver panels we do sometimes go wider, but void warp warranty with your permission. Generally a window looks best with 4 panels, two opening as pairs either way. A 3 window bay, however, will usually have 2 panels on the smaller side windows and 4 in the centre. All shutters panels will open away from the middle.
There are as many exceptions as there are norms. For instance, a long window with 3 panes of glass, i.e.; 1800mm wide and 1000mm high, would have 6 panels; three folding either way or if you are only going to open them to clean the windows you could easily have just 3 panels. The Americans never open the shutters, only the louvers so design with large panels.
A lot of the time you will have to consider where the shutter panels are going to fold back to and if there is enough room for this to happen. This is also true where you are fitting inside the reveal next to the window and you will not want the shutters, when open, to protrude into the room too much.
We would not recommend hanging more than 3 panels from a single batten hinged together, unless they were not going to be opened apart from window cleaning and were resting on the sill or door step. As the maximum recommended width of our panels is 750mm, you may say that this equates to 4500mm maximum width, but it would be asking a lot of the batten to hold panels of this width and weight without sagging at a later date. So quite a lot of common sense is needed to achieve a good installation. Openings over 2400mm generally need a top track. Even if not using a top track at this width try to use a light panel such as the Richmond Shutter Range or Kensington Shutter Range.
For partitioning or for large windows where tracking is needed at the top to suspend the shutter panels, you will really need an even number of panels or they will look odd and not hang from the track properly. Ideally 8 panels or 12 panels for very large openings is best, although quite often it is wise to hang even 6 panels from tracking if they are quite large. With the heavier Chelsea shutter this is clearly an option to be considered. We do not charge for tracking, it comes in the square metre price for the opening.
In summary, the window will normally dictate the number of shutter panels. If the window is split into two halves you would either have 2 or 4 panels and it follows that if it is three panes, then three or six panels will suffice. The vertical dividers of the windows are where the vertical stiles of the shutters should be ideally.
How do you justify the price of Interior Plantation Shutters?
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010If it’s any help, the price of shutters were double this 5 years ago on average however we do owe you an explanation:
A shutter panel may look like a door or kitchen unit panel but it has to live in a totally different environment. Normally a shutter panel fixed inside a window will have to endure some quite extreme variations in heat and humidity. Quite often it may have a radiator underneath it too, to add to the fun. In the UK the inside glass temperature reaches 55c in summer. Our shutters are tested in Arizona (69c).
The Kensington Shutters Range is made of Western Red Cedar. The timber is so durable and stable it can be left outside untreated due to its resin content. We don’t have to laminate these shutters to prevent warping as Cedar has a relatively straight grain and is very stable. The Richmond Shutter Range is made from Phoenix timber, sometimes called Parasol. It is a very light hardwood and has a laminated core similar to the Chelsea. The timber goes through many processes before it becomes a shutter. Our engineered Chelsea Shutter Range is made from a composite of many materials and is totally maintenance free, whilst our Cedar shutters may need repainting in 10 to 15 years time.
All but the Kensington Shutters are laminated in some way in construction, this is actually more expensive to make than solid timbers. We do this to make a better product. We can only sell Cedar Shutters for these prices because although the wood is relatively expensive it is also the cheapest to make in labour and machinery terms. (Cedar is considered the very best timber for shutters as it has some unique properties although with laminating technologies other materials can produce quite different looking shutters of similar quality.)
Old furniture has some of its appeal in the warped and split aged look but we don’t think you would want your shutters to do this, especially after the guarantee has run out.
Apart from our Oiled Kensington Shutters, all the other finishes are carefully developed to be UV resistant and long lasting. They look almost too perfect when we install them but tone down very quickly and gain character. The Cedar Shutter finishes may darken slightly. We don’t use regular domestic paint, if we did you would have to repaint/varnish your shutters every couple of years. These materials inevitably cost more. See colour ranges.
Louver or Louvre?
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010Why do you use two spellings for louver?
In America the spelling is louver and here louvre. We use both to get as many hits from search engines as possible and because Microsoft Word keeps changing our spelling.
What louver size should I choose?
When making your louvre choice, consider the size of the window and the desired effect. Generally larger windows command a larger louvre size.
The larger the louvre the more light but the less privacy.
In the USA most shutters are made with 3.5 (89mm) louvres or (114.3) but here in Europe we tend to generally choose smaller louvres such as 47mm or 64mm.
If you have Georgian style windows with small window panes then we would definitely advise using the largest louver possible or the windows can look very busy. See louvre styles.
What wood do you use and is it Eco friendly?
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010“The Kensington Shutter Range” is made from Western Red Cedar. The timber is very durable and has a most interesting grain. It is very expensive timber but does not need to be laminated to retain stability.
We buy our Cedar from The Western Red Cedar Association in Canada. It is either replanted Cedar or taken from designated forest areas where it is a managed forest. Cedar is one of the most used timbers in the world, in the USA a lot of houses are built entirely of Cedar and it is used extensively for roofing shingles and decking because although a softwood, it is amazingly long lasting a resistant to wet and rot. As a result it is farmed in very well managed forests. (It is also the national tree of Lebanon and on their flag, however I don’t think they use it for shutters).
“The Richmond Shutter Range” is made from a laminated constructed Phoenix wood, sometimes called Parasol. It grows in sub-tropical areas of the southern states of the USA, China and Japan. It is a very fast growing tree reaching full height in about 15 years. Ideal for farming.
It is a hardwood but very light. We treat it with a special secret process to make it that light but it still has a very hard skin. It weighs in at almost the same as Cedar, making it ideal for shutters where the lighter the better generally applies.
It has an interesting story in that it is written in ancient Chinese history, that the most famous musician of the time, lost his beautiful house in a terrible fire. In the ashes though was his harp-like instrument that had survived, although it lost it horns, and now the national instrument of China is the Zither, designed by fire 3000 years ago. It is said that the Phoenix bird only will nest in a Phoenix tree and eat the berries from it. This is because it is the slowest burning wood on the planet, it needs a secondary heat source to burn. In Japan it is believed that it has mystical properties.
After the Hiroshima Atom Bomb blast in 1945 the Phoenix trees that were only 1.3km away from the epicentre survived and the following year flowered and brought forth seeds. The Japanese saw this as a sign of re-birth and sent the seeds to world leaders as a gift and signal of their intentions to bring in new life from old.
I hope this isn’t too much information but we really like this timber and hope you will too.
“The Chelsea Shutter Range” is our most eco-friendly product because no trees at all have been cut down to make this product. Made from a laminated veneered lumber core (Basswood or other strong frame materials strips that are off cuts not usable elsewhere, laminated together with epoxy making a light, strong core), LDF laid bulk and polymer sealed outer coating.
Some shutter companies websites whine on about MDF and the dangers of formaldehyde poisoning. However, these shutters are sealed with a polymer coating. The dust from MDF maybe dangerous if you work with the stuff all day long and don’t wear a mask however, MDF is used very extensively all over the world and is an extremely versatile material. However, we don’t recommend you eating your shutters, making sawdust of them and then breathing in large quantities over weeks, so please don’t as we won’t be held responsible!
Do the shutters warp, shrink, change colour or age in any way?
Monday, May 24th, 2010Yes it does, all of those and so it should. If it doesn’t, it ain’t natural.
Cedar can warp in very rare occurrences, like any wood, but is less prone to do so than virtually any other timber we know of. We do give you a guarantee though against significant warping. (See our terms and conditions) To date though, we have had less than one in 5000 panels do this. Similarly, Cedar can shrink and does, but very little and we always advise fitting tight in the first instance. Shutters can quite easily be adjusted should this occur as it is never that much but it is probably better to leave them as they can just as easily swell again should the humidity increase.
Wood is a natural material and with its inconsistencies delivers pleasure. We do make perfect shutters because the market today expects perfect manufacture. Rustic looks as it does, because the products are made in rustic environments with basic tools and little technology, or badly/cheaply made or specifically finished to look that way. We think buying old Levis is OK if you don’t want to wear them for long. If you want an aged look then you can add it later, order it specially or just wait until it happens naturally. In fact within a week or two they develop a more lived in look and your decor adds character by proxy too.
And finally on this subject: Valuable antique furniture looked new 100 years ago and our shutters will be valuable antiques too, in a 100 years. Your curtains won’t be. The Chelsea Shutter Range is a different animal altogether. Although from 3 feet away you almost cannot tell the difference from white painted wood shutters. If you have young children still in their destructive period you should definitely consider this range. If you do break louvers or damage a panel seriously we can usually remake one exactly from our records or replace louvers in situ. We use ISO 9002 recorded process manufacture.
Questions and Answers Regarding Shutters
Monday, May 24th, 2010How long from order will it take to get my shutters?
Shutters are custom manufactured to fit individual openings and are ready for installation in 6 to 8 weeks from the date of the order and receipt of the deposit. For special shaped shutters, please allow 8 – 10 weeks from date of order.
We now offer a Premium Service which means we can fit your shutters in approximately 2-3 weeks. This service costs an extra £100 per square metre and there is a minimum charge of £500 for this service.
What about maintenance?
Shutters are easily cleaned using a feather duster, damp sponge/soft cloth or run a vacuum cleaner over them. The finish shouldn’t need repainting for many years, indeed the Chelsea shutters are totally maintenance free and cannot be repainted anyway.
What colours and stains can the shutters be made?
View the colours section of this site for a full list of colours and stains that are available for each shutter range.
-
Our Services
-
Our Products
-
More Information
-
Featured in...
Premier Shutters Ltd Head Office & Showroom 15 Braiswick Place, Laindon, Basildon, Essex SS15 6EB.
© 2012 Premier Shutters all rights reserved.