Roof Lantern Blinds Latest News!

The conservatory in its traditional form is dead, or so they say!  The glazing industry has evolved now and with TV programmes such as Grand Designs, showcasing ever more ingenious glazing structures to compliment listed buildings or new structures for contemporary houses, these newer designs have broadened out into the wider market.  Homeowners are now choosing glass extensions incorporating roof lanterns, but this move still maintains natural light levels.

Although glass technology today helps to prevent temperature extremes inside conservatories, blinds are still needed in the majority of cases to provide either shading from the intense heat of the summer or insulation and privacy for the colder winter months.  With increased uncertainty over future climate patterns with hotter summers and colder winters, it has never been a more appropriate time to consider fitting blinds to ensure that you don’t get caught out with a conservatory that is uncomfortable or unusable.

With these new developments in glazing structures, we at Oakhurst are being asked if we can supply blinds, especially for lanterns with no visible support wires.  We have been asked this question for some years now and the answer has always been that we cannot. It’s a wholly understandable question; when you have invested in creating a clean, contemporary feel to your space, but you still need shading.

Good news!

With a roof lantern the single blind covering it is usually a long way down from the glass, therefore traditional fabric support systems become very obtrusive in appearance once the blind is open.  The great news, however, is that we can now solve these problems.

The Options

Here is a quick guide to the options

• 1) The old way.  Pleated blinds are fixed to each glass panel in the roof lantern.  Suitable for very hot south facing installs where blinds are essential and you require the flexibility to control the blinds individually as the day progresses.

The advantage of pleated blinds is that the vast choice of fabric ranges and colours available.  We would recommend that these blinds are motorised for ease of operation, but in some cases they could be operated with a pole.  A system of wires and cords are used to keep the fabric tensioned and even.  This can sometimes be a less expensive option.

• 2) ‘ClearVue’ Single cellular honeycome blind.  This is similar to the above, but it is just one single blind.  It is the least expensive option.  Improvements in design mean that using duette honeycome fabric, we can now offer a motorised ‘wire-free’ single blind ‘ClearVuet’ up to 3.0 m wide and 5.8 m long without guidewires.
• 3) ‘SmartZip’ TESS 660 Single Roller blind.  Designed specifically for roof lanterns, this a specialist product, not to be confused with lightweight roller blinds used for side windows.  Blind sizes up to 3.0m wide x 9.0m long without guidewires

We only recommend the SHY systems.   They are original innovators of the Zip Roller Blind and still hold the licence for zip technology.  They have many years experience of ensuring their product development is engineered to provide the right solutions for a perfect finish.  To minimise the issues with rippling or sagging of a blind that covers a large area without wires, requires robust system technology that other zip type blind sellers cannot replicate.

Beware of solutions purporting to be zip technology roller blinds.  They may be considered a cheaper, value option but compared to the authentic zip blind we offer and based on our experience will have issues will sagging and rippling.

The tensioning support wires are concealed behind an unobtrusive box system in which the blind sits, in order to be supported.

When considering which option would most suit your budget and individual requirement for the right result we would highly recommend you consider a motorised solution as operating a large blind with a *pole may become a frustrating task.  We use Somfy motorised products and all our blinds come with a full 5 year guarantee.

Oakhurst is a premier specialist manufacturer and supplier of conservatory blinds to the retail sector having been established nearly 30 years.  All products are made to measure by our team of in-house experts.  Please click here for more information.

Pole operation only available on pleated option 1 and 2. 

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