It’s officially a trend; this week we’ve been called every single day of the week to fix a roller shutter that has been closed onto an open window!

Homeowners with awning windows (windows that open outward, as opposed to sliding open) run the risk of damaging their motorised roller shutters by accidentally leaving an awning window too far open and then trying to close the shutter.  The open window will obstruct the roller shutter and prevent it from closing. If this happens, stop the shutter motor as soon as possible – more damage is done the longer the motor is left running.  Same if the shutter is closed onto any other obstruction, e.g. a broom handle.

Once the obstruction is removed, be wary as the curtain may fall down at high speed.  If there are any funny noises or the shutter refuses to open/move afterward, it’s time to give us a call on 8447 3443 for advice or a free quote to repair.

Helpful tips for homeowners with awning windows and roller shutters:

• leave the windows open through the summer months (winter too if you’re brave!) to just short of where the roller shutter passes down. This gives you the benefit of air circulation without having to judge the distance every day.
• if you have a remote control for your shutter and you’ve opened the awning window right out, remove the remote control from its cradle and place the remote near the open window.  Then when it’s time to close the roller shutter – you’ll have to find the remote by the window before you can close the shutter, jogging your memory that the window is open and needs to be closed!

As I’m typing, Adelaide is being lashed with winds up to 60km per hour, with a possible thunderstorm developing throughout the afternoon.  Even if I couldn’t see the trees nearly bent sideways out the office window, I’d know there was wild weather in Adelaide judging by the number of panicked calls we’ve received today from people whose shutters have been blown off their walls.  Yep: blown – off – the – walls!

In weather like this where very heavy wind is hitting the home, we strongly recommend roller shutters be either completely rolled up, or completely rolled down.  Leaving a shutter partially rolled up provides an avenue for a gust of wind to funnel into and potentially lift the curtain – or the whole shutter – away from the wall.

Don’t be too worried though; roller shutters will generally only ever come away from the wall if they are oversize width-wise, have been left partially open in high gusts of wind, or have been very poorly installed.

If you have shutters affected by today’s weather please give us a call on 8447 3443.  We now have a few extremely busy days ahead however we will give you what advice we can over the phone and schedule a time asap to get out and have a look at any damage.

This is an older but still very interesting article by Ian Weir, Head of Landscape Architecture at Queensland University of Technology about building bushfire safe homes and roller shutters:

http://theconversation.com/we-can-build-homes-to-survive-bushfires-so-why-dont-we-35899

While perhaps not a concern for metropolitan Adelaide homes, we don’t have to travel far from suburbia to be in fire danger areas in this South Australia.  We can assist with bushfire rated roller shutters – if you have any queries please call (84473443) or email us (contactus@trsrc.com.au).

We’ve had a real run of positive customer feedback these past few weeks!  Here’s one example from a customer who was appreciative of our tech Rolando, who recently faced down an overgrown cactus to reach a roller shutter in need of repair…

Cactus 1 : Rolando’s vest 0

Ouch!  And so to thank Rolando for his enthusiasm and commitment to fixing her roller shutters, our appreciative customer sent across this lovely note – and a gift card!