conservatory roof blinds

There is some controversy over whether or not it is essential to install conservatory roof blinds.  It is neither  easy nor cheap to actually install blinds in the roof of your conservatory  and often professional help is needed.  Of course that often adds to the overall cost of your conservatory.

Most people build a conservatory, hoping it can be used to provide extra living space, and often with the idea of it being used as a place for entertainment, recreation and relaxation much as outdoor kitchens, patios and gazebos are. Unfortunately, unless properly taken care of and furnished, they can often simply fall into neglect with the main reason for this being that they are either unbearably hot in summer, or extremely cold during the winter months.

If you have gone to all the trouble of building a conservatory, please take the next step and put up adequate conservatory window blinds.  Whether you decide to add blinds to your conservatory roof or not, you will need to cover the roof with something. There are alternatives these days to conservatory roof blinds, including inserting solar strips in the roof, or using a type of roofing that incorporates transparent heat reflectors to exclude a large percentage of heat during summer, while still allowing light to come in through the roof.  Actually, adding solar strips or solar reflective material to your conservatory roof is probably one of the cheaper ways to solve the problem of what to cover your roof with.

If you do decide to go with the option of using conservatory roof blinds, you can rest assured that as they come in all shapes and sizes they are pretty easy to fit into your roof, no matter what shape and size it is. Pleated roof blinds are by far the best to use for conservatory ceilings as they can be made to fit in any sized shape.  Usually pleated conservatory roof blinds are made from special material that reflects the sun’s rays during summer, or alternatively acts as a barrier to keep the warmth from escaping through the roof during winter.

Most likely a deciding factor on what type of conservatory roof covering you will buy will be the cost of the material.  It goes without saying that it is necessary to somehow cover your conservatory roof if you want your conservatory to be habitable and also if you want to protect your furniture and rugs from fading.  While I think pleated conservatory roof blinds look the best, adding solar control strips for example still reduce temperature and glare, but can save you thousands of Pounds.

One idea, that many people have successfully used, is to buy pleated conservatory blinds for the roof, and then simply hung the much cheaper roller blinds around the sides of the conservatory.  In this way you can save, while still ending up with a nice looking conservatory that, best of all, is comfortable to enjoy.  Mixing and matching conservatory blinds in this way has been a good solution for some, especially when building cheap conservatories. The main thing to decide is what will best fit with your budget, as well as what looks nice and will help your conservatory remain cool in summer and warm in winter, then make an informed choice.

Time factor: If you are able to fit your own blinds but don’t have a lot of time available to do so, you should probably try to schedule things so that you get the main blinds up first. From my experience, if you don’t actually lay down a plan on when and how you’re going to do it, you’re likely to let other things come in the way of completing the job of fitting your own conservatory blinds. You could plan on doing a little each evening till they’re all done, or set aside a long weekend just for doing it.

Whatever the time you have available, make a plan, decide when you’re going to work on it and how long you’ll devote to it, and then don’t let anything (aside from an emergency of course) come in your way.

Ease of fitting: Without a doubt, putting up roman blinds on your main windows is generally pretty easy for most people who know one end of a screwdriver from the other to accomplish. This is pretty straightforward and you should be able to get your own up, if you’re willing to dedicate the time needed to doing so. Pleated conservatory roof blinds, on the other hand, are a specialist job and you’d probably want to get someone to come in and fit those for you.

Savings versus time spent: If you have the time to spend on fitting your own blinds, or if you’re just the type of person who enjoys tinkering around and fixing things yourself, then I’d say to go ahead and do it yourself. You’ll certainly save a fair bit of money by doing as much of the work and fitting yourself as you can. If money is not an issue and you’re anxious to get the conservatory blinds up and your conservatory finished, then you’d probably want to get someone to come in and do it for you. That way it’s all over and done with, the blinds are fitted properly and the work is most likely guaranteed (it should be, at least.)

I recently visited a friend who was celebrating the finishing of his conservatory. The building itself was a nice bit of work, it wasn’t huge but it was very nicely planned and built. He’d had builders come in and do the work of adding the aluminum patio covers, as he’s not a handyman at all. It ended up costing him a fair bit more than he’d planned, hidden costs that probably shouldn’t have come up but that did.

He wasn’t in a position to negotiate with the builders, so he had to go with the added costs. Anyhow, it meant that he depleted his budget for his conservatory window blinds, so he decided that he’d tackle the job himself. Unfortunately he didn’t know what he was doing and in my opinion (and I hope he’s not reading this!) I thought that the poorly fitted blinds actually ended up ruining what would have otherwise been a very nice conservatory. He knew it too, and I think he has plans to re-do the blinds in the future, but for now he’s stuck with them.

So, if you have to wait to get enough money to have someone else fit your conservatory blinds, it’s probably a good idea to do so rather than fitting them yourself if you aren’t capable of doing a good job. Why ruin a beautiful room with a shoddy job?