External shutters

Davesnave

My friend, who's a carpenter and joiner, has just finished making bespoke internal wood shutters for a large country house. It's not the first set that he's done either.

External shutters are not generally part of our historical building vernacular, which is why they are regarded as rather silly by many in the UK, especially when they have no function. They are, of course, fine in the places where they are common and have a purpose.

Luca_Festa

Exactly Davesnave, you hit the target: Purpose.

Bear in mind that external shutters, where it is use, protect your windows against bad weather!!

Smiley_Dan

Yeah, external shutters not that common here. But a good idea for many reasons.

One thing I wonder is about the sound they make when the wind is blowing a gale?

The housing market in the UK is very conservative so you might face an up hill struggle.

System

I don't see much call for external shutters, they look out of place on traditional buildings here and look even further out of place on modern ones!
Timber is not the ideal material to attract people to use them either imo

dominoman

This whole thread is a bit spammy isn't it?

A new joiner called "Luca Timber windows" asking about windows and shutters. Hmmm.

Smiley_Dan

What would you use, alu?

Plenty of modern buildings look good with them to my eye.

System

Smiley_Dan wrote: »

What would you use, alu?

Plenty of modern buildings look good with them to my eye.

interested to see some examples...

not sure what I would use, the difficulty with timber in the uk is that timber expands/contracts and deteriorates if not properly maintained so when you have two things that are meant to sit tightly together that have been exposed for years, the likelihood of them fitting snugly is minimal and they are not easily maintained given their location.
My understanding is that they are normally used in warmer climates so that you can have lots of ventilation and shade rather than protection from wind and driving rain?
I'm partial to a wee brise soleil or two but shutters like this I just don't see as appropriate for the uk

Luca_Festa

Hi Smiley Dan,
don't warry...in Italy near Trieste blow the "Bora" a particular wind that can blow at 171 km/h...

Luca_Festa

Hi the_r_sole,
do you know Accoya wood? It is a particular kind of wood guaranteed 50 years against rot, the maintenance on this kind of material is once a year with a water based spray.
Also the painting can be guaranteed for 15 years!

System

Luca_timber_windows wrote: »

Hi the_r_sole,
do you know Accoya wood? It is a particular kind of wood guaranteed 50 years against rot, the maintenance on this kind of material is once a year with a water based spray.
Also the painting can be guaranteed for 15 years!

I do know Accoya wood yes, do you know the climate on the west coast of scotland?
What's your basic costs for this product?

I have no doubt that these things would last fine if they are properly maintained, but external shutters anywhere other than ground floor are unlikely to be maintained properly looking around the country

anyway, good luck with the venture - do you have a website?