Blinds question...

Hey,

Just wondering ... we were hoping to be able to organise blinds during construction so they will be ready for handover... can anyone advise whether the window dimensions on the plan can be relied upon for blinds sizing?

Cheers

A short answer. No. Wait till you are about 6 weeks away from handover or until the plastering and arhitraves are done and a good SS should allow you to get the Blind Company in to measure.

I think it also depends a lot on what type of windows you are getting and what is in the diagrams. Your builder would be the best ones to approach for this.

ie, most sectioned windows that I have seen have a pretty deep-ish window reveal that would allow you to add something like thermal honeycomb blinds inside the window reveal and not have it hit the joins between the sections. We were expecting this. However, the joins between the sections protrude as far as the window reveals, so we have NO chance of using the blinds that we'd been planning on (as they are not effective if they don't sit within the window frame). Short of having a separate blind for each section of our windows (and they have six sections per window for most!!), we just can't do it. Had we ordered the blinds based on the extremely comprehensive (apart from depth of sectional partitions) window measurements supplied with our plans, we would have wasted close to $30,000.

I think it's not such a problem with aluminium window frames as they are all pretty thin, and the reveal is always deeper than the actual aluminium frame. Someone correct me if i'm wrong...

At any rate, chat to your builder about just how accurate this is, or maybe even go and check out a display home. The builder may even tell you that they have changed manufacturer and that the window sizes are only approximate based on the old supplier, in which case you really can't afford to base anything on what the plans say.

Good luck!

Depends in you are planning to mount them within the recess or outside.
If inside then the measurements need to be accurate - if the blind is made too big it won't fit or operate correctly. If you supply a company to make blinds for your windows and they make them to your measurements you carry the risk that they don't fit.

If outside the recess then the measurement does not need to be mm perfect, and small variations should be ok

We waited until our house was painted (just this last week) to measure up. We have two bedrooms where the windows should be identical... but each window (two per room) varied by up to 8mm in width for the same window.

ah thanks for the measuring tips, I was thinking I'd just take a list of my window sizes in to the blind place for a quote but i think i'll re-measure them myself now!

There's nothing to stop you getting quotes based on your plans. At least then you have time to shop around, and you'll know in advance how much cash you need to come up with. Once you're a few weeks off completion, you can go back to your company of choice and organise a measure and they'll adjust the quote if need be. Some site supervisors are OK with allowing carpet and blind people in to measure up, some aren't.

We had both carpet and blinds quoted off the plan, then paid a deposit to hold the price and got the guys to go out and do a proper measure once skirtings and other trims were all done. The price of the carpet didn't change, but a couple of the blinds had to be done differently, which altered that quote by a small amount.

+1.
We did the exact same thing as kek with the blinds & carpets.