ᐅ Shutter box not flush with the wall – possible design error? Any suggestions?

Our windows are now "almost installed," but unfortunately there are several deficiencies, which means replacement windows need to be delivered 😡. Unfortunately, issues like these are now affecting multiple trades, which is very exhausting and sometimes even discouraging. The quality of the general contractor (GC) does not live up to the initial praise.

Problem / Question:
Most of our windows have roller shutters with boxes installed inside the window reveal. The issue is that the shutter boxes are not deep enough and recess about 20cm (8 inches) from the interior wall. The plasterer is now supposed to plaster over this.

The plasterer suggests that this should be built up by 20cm (8 inches) so that the roller shutter box is flush with the interior masonry. Honestly, I have never seen it done differently and either didn’t notice before or was not informed about it.

Now we are faced with the decision of whether to have the lintels in the window reveals built up by 20cm (8 inches) with XPS insulation or similar materials for around €1500, or to simply have the recessed shutter boxes plastered as is, at no additional cost.

I have searched for pictures but found none; I believe this is rather unusual. The construction contract does not specify anything about this in detail. In my opinion, this is not correct or the roller shutter boxes should have been ordered with more depth so they would be flush with the interior wall ready for plastering... or am I wrong?

The GC claims this is often done this way...

Does anyone have ideas for a different (more cost-effective) solution or experience with this? It is hard for me to imagine the finished result having an additional 20cm (8 inches) of plastered surface inside above the window.

Unfortunately, I don’t have another photo right now; this one was taken at an angle from below and shows the lintel from underneath; the white area is the roller shutter box (to be plastered) and the brown parts are the window frames.

I hope I explained everything clearly, otherwise please ask.

In our build, two windows (bedroom and upstairs bathroom) were ordered with these types of roller shutter boxes (standard roller shutters – not venetian blinds), and we also had a projection there. The window installer initially said that the correct roller shutter boxes could not be ordered for these two windows because of their dimensions. The projection was then plastered over. However, it just looked wrong. Our main contractor also stated that it couldn’t stay like that. After that, the window installer properly insulated and clad the projection, and then it was plastered flush.

In your case, the cost is now not far from the window. Maybe in the end, it won’t look as bad as it did for us. I would still prefer it to be flush. Let’s see what others here in the forum say.

I wouldn’t accept it like that and would only reluctantly cover the costs. Attached is a photo showing how a window was plastered in our build.
Best regards!

In our case, the plasterers added an extra layer. However, my father-in-law told me that this is not always standard practice. Often, the window installer adds the additional layer twice. Idea: since the window installer is already behind schedule, you could ask them to take care of the extra layer at no additional cost. I would suggest this to the general contractor. Whether this counts as a defect by definition, I can’t tell you. Stay strong!

@arthaus Thanks for the picture and the info. You're right, it would probably look different because it’s close to the window frame. But now that we see it this way, it’s hard to ignore.

@Tolentino I still have tons of insulation material 😀, so I’ll ask if it can be used for that. The issue with the delay and the wrong delivery is a very good point... although we’re still not entirely sure who caused the problem.

The problem is, I hadn’t even thought of such a source of error, otherwise I would have ordered it flush, of course.
I found a few other pictures.

Clearly double up, everything else just looks awkward.

How deep is the masonry, and who approved the order for the windows/frames?
This will surely be a case of things going wrong.

guckuck2 schrieb:

Definitely double up, anything else just looks odd.

How deep is the masonry, and who approved the order for the windows/boxes?
This will probably be one of those cases where things went wrong.

Brick masonry is 36cm (14 inches).
We did not approve this.
Wrong move... yep