The ten
- Choosing a louvre size from a photograph. 76mm and 89mm look nearly identical on a screen and clearly different on your own window. Hold the samples up in the room before deciding.
- Buying full height for a street facing room. It is the cheaper style and it is why so many front rooms sit with the shutters closed every evening. Tier-on-tier costs more and keeps the room.
- Matching the colour to the walls. Woodwork is the reference, not paint. A shutter that matches the skirting and architraves looks built in, and a shutter matched to a wall colour looks dated the moment you redecorate.
- Measuring your own windows. Every reputable maker surveys, because a period reveal is rarely square and a made to measure panel cut to a wrong number is not returnable.
- Comparing quotes that are not comparable. Check three things on every quote: is VAT included, is installation included, and are the bay corners mitred or butted. Cheap quotes usually differ on one of those.
- Ignoring what the window has to do. Handles that swing inward, trickle vents, a radiator under the sill and a window seat all change the specification, and all are cheaper to design around than to discover on fitting day.
- Expecting blackout. Shutters are not blackout and never will be. If a bedroom needs to be dark, specify an integrated blackout blind behind the panels at the outset, because retrofitting it is far more work.
- Over specifying material. Premium timber in a dry living room is a preference, not a requirement. Waterproof material in a bathroom or a kitchen window over a sink is a requirement, not a preference.
- Buying on a today only discount. A price that expires at the end of the appointment exists to stop you comparing it with anything else. Nobody who is confident in their price needs that tactic.
- Rushing the lead time. Standard manufacture is around nine weeks from deposit on express shipping, and shaped panels take longer. If you have a deadline, say so before you order rather than after.
How to protect yourself on price
Ask for the quotation broken down window by window, with style, material, louvre size, colour and hinge finish stated for each. If a company will not do that, you cannot compare their price with anyone else's, which is often the point.
Ask what the payment terms are. Ours are 60% deposit to start manufacture, 30% on delivery and 10% on completion, which means the final payment is only due once the shutters are in and you are happy.
Ask what the guarantee covers and, more usefully, what it excludes. Ours runs ten years on structural defects, with parts and labour covered in the first two years and parts only thereafter. That is a real answer. A guarantee described only as ten years, with no detail, is not.
