ᐅ Installing Exterior Roller Shutters Invisibly as a Retrofit (Timber Frame Construction)

Hello,

In 2013, we built a detached house using timber frame construction with facing brickwork.

Now my wife would like to have exterior roller shutters in the bedrooms/kids’ rooms. Since retrofitted surface-mounted roller shutters look bad, cover the brick lintel, and it doesn’t look nice if on a gable side one window has a surface-mounted roller shutter and the other does not, a roller shutter box recessed behind the brick lintel/above the window lintel of the timber frame would be ideal. Kind of like a built-in roller shutter.

Does anyone have experience with this?

Regards

I find those roller shutter boxes simply ugly, so we decided against them. You can always see the exterior boxes, then there are the ones we had before that hang INSIDE above the window, which look really unattractive and make it impossible to use curtains. It’s just this old box hanging there. Then there’s the option where the box sits directly on the window frame, but that would mean the windows are lower, which also looks unattractive. By the way, we also have a timber frame construction.

Does it have to be a roller shutter box? How about shutters that run on tracks and can be slid automatically in front of the window from the side (some even have adjustable slats)? I actually find traditional hinged shutters even more appealing than those old boxes.

Another option: small awnings with articulated arms, called “markisolettes.” Nowadays, these can also be controlled remotely.

We need something that makes the rooms completely dark... That’s the main reason. Do sliding shutters and external blinds work for this? Interior blinds don’t manage it, and if they do, they are almost as expensive as basic roller shutters and also generate a lot of heat due to the heat buildup between the blind and the window—this is what we have in the children’s room.

In a two-year-old house? Have you already asked the building insurer or the construction company/architect if there is a reasonable solution?

Jochen104 schrieb:

So if you want to get new windows that are 30cm (12 inches) lower, that could be an option

I’m just wondering why you assume that “new” windows—which I would consider the most practical solution given the OP’s requirements—should be lower? Provided, of course, that the OP hasn’t installed floor-to-ceiling windows.

Best regards, Bauexperte

Bauexperte schrieb:
I'm just wondering why you assume that "new" windows, which I would consider the most practical solution given the OP's requirements, should be smaller in height? Assuming, of course, that the OP has not installed floor-to-ceiling windows

So that the roller shutter box can still fit on the window without having to move the lintel. Personally, I wouldn't find that appealing.
I just wanted to show the OP the possibility.