Blinds in Waterkloof Ridge

The Ridge is the reason this business exists in this suburb. Houses up here were designed around the view, which almost always means a north or north-west elevation of very large glass, often double-volume, often opening onto a terrace with nothing between it and the sky.

That orientation is a gift for eight months of the year and a problem for the other four. From about October the high sun starts landing on the floor inside; by January a north-facing lounge can be several degrees warmer than the rest of the house by four in the afternoon, and the glare across a television or a laptop makes the best room in the house the one nobody uses.

Before you read on. The Waterkloof Sun & Reveal Field Guide covers the sun angles and elevation-by-elevation reasoning behind everything below, with sources, for the whole area this site serves.

What we usually specify here

External first, because heat that never reaches the pane never has to be dealt with inside. External venetians are the premium answer — they tilt, so the city view stays open through a horizontal band while the sun is cut. Roller shutters do it more absolutely where a room, typically a bedroom, would rather be dark and cool than have a view. Both are motorised with sun and wind sensors, because on a ridge the wind arrives before the storm does.

Inside, a sunscreen roller at around 5% openness handles residual glare without giving up the outlook, and a blockout with side channels goes in the bedrooms. On the double-volume glass the answer is almost always motorised: a four-metre drop is not a chain-operated blind.

The practical constraints

• High and raked glass needs to be surveyed properly — we measure from the floor with a laser, not by guesswork from a ladder.
• Terraces that face the prevailing afternoon wind want a zip screen rather than an open awning, or an awning with a wind sensor at minimum.
• Anything visible on the elevation is worth agreeing with a body corporate or neighbours' rules before manufacture; we provide the specification sheet.