6 Mistakes To Avoid When Installing Outdoor Blinds

The great thing about installing outdoor blinds is that they prevent the hot sun from hitting your window, ensuring that your home remains cool. With interior blinds, the sun is allowed to reach the window, heating up the glass and acting like a radiator that channels heat into your home. The aesthetics of the exterior of the house can also be improved. If you are considering installing external blinds, the following are six mistakes to avoid.

1. Wrongly Stating Your Measurements
When you are installing Outdoor blinds, the first thing you need to do is to measure your window like a professional would do. Organize your measurements on a worksheet in a good manner so that selection, ordering and installation can be made easier. One mistake that you can avoid is the order in which you state the width and the height. When you are stating your measurements, start with the width and then state the height. In addition, your measurements should be provided in inches and you round off your measurements to 1/8 inches.

2. Not measuring each window
The second mistake that you need to avoid is to assume that your windows have a similar size. This means that you have to measure all the windows in your house. Never order blinds using measurements of previous blinds that were installed in your windows. When you start measuring your windows, there is a simple pattern that window professionals use. This is a clockwork pattern that is easy to do. Stand outside your front door and face the inside of your house. Begin with the room that is on your immediate left, and continue like that until you have gone round the hose in a clockwork pattern.

3. Misplacing your measurements
While you are measuring your windows, it is important that you note which measurements correspond with which window. To avoid forgetting which window you measured, you can use simple codes. For instance, if you are measuring the windows in your living room, you can use a code like LV1 for your first window, LV2 for your second window, continuing in this manner until you have measured each window. Once you have measured your windows and given each measurement a code, you can use them when placing your order so that you can provide information about the window location.

4. Wrongly recording your measurements
If you would like to avoid making any mistake when measuring and recording, you can work with another person. One person can begin to measure and read the tape measurements to the other person. The second person then writes the measurements and room tag on a work sheet. Continue measuring and recording in this manner until you have measured the whole house. Now trade places and the person who was recording will now be measuring. If there are any differences, recheck them just to be sure. It is also recommended that you use a steel tape measure to avoid mistakes.

5. Choosing The Wrong Set Of Blinds
For large windows, vertical blinds are recommended, while smaller windows work well with blinds that have horizontal slats. Since you are installing the blinds outside your house, they have to deal with all weather conditions. This means that you should choose blinds that are made of tough and hard wearing materials like aluminum, PVC, timber and tough fabrics. The one concern with utilizing timber is to have it appropriately treated so that it can remain protected against the elements. Popular types of exterior blinds include the following:
• Louvre blinds
• Roller blinds
• Shutter blinds
• Fixed awnings
• Retractable awnings
• External screens
• Solar blinds
• External Venetian blinds

6. Wrong installation
There is no need of having the perfect blinds if you cannot install them properly. If you are installing external blinds on French doors, you need to measure each door for accuracy. This is because to make the doors fit, the installer may have shaved some of the wood off one of the doors. Outdoor blinds are suitable for light to medium winds and rain. For places that have high winds, you have to roll up the blinds. The good thing is that there are electric blinds that can be rolled up when there is high wind. Having the wrong installation is a situation that can have perilous consequences.