In an apartment you close one or two openings, usually the balcony door, and the answer is standard. In a villa there are a dozen openings and they differ, so a single type across the house means overpaying in one place and living with the wrong thing in another.
01IN AN APARTMENT IT IS ALMOST ALWAYS THE BALCONY
Panoramic glazing and one sliding door: that takes a sliding screen or a pleated one. The whole job comes down to one or two openings.
02IN A VILLA IT IS FOUR DIFFERENT PROBLEMS
The garden portal, the kitchen door, the bedroom windows and a shaped transom. One type across the house means overpaying in one place and putting up with it in another.
03BUILDING RULES SET THE DATE, NOT THE TYPE
A contractor pass and a service-lift booking decide the installation day more than our production schedule does.
04WHAT TO SETTLE IN ADVANCE
- Count the openings you actually open, not the windows
- In a villa, the whole house in one visit costs less than a fitter per opening
- Motorised systems are decided before the fit-out, while the walls are open
- A window that is never opened needs no screen at all
Apartments: nearly always the balcony
In a tower the windows rarely open independently: there is usually panoramic glazing with one turning sash or a balcony exit. So the request comes down to one or two openings.
The balcony door is normally sliding, and the answer is a sliding screen or pleated.
The constraints come from the building rather than the opening: a contractor pass, a goods-lift booking, a narrow balcony with an air-conditioning unit in the corner. None of that decides which screen you want; all of it decides when it gets fitted.
Height adds wind. On upper floors light fixings do not hold.
Villas: different openings in one house
A villa usually has a panoramic exit to the garden, a kitchen door, bedroom windows upstairs and sometimes an arched fanlight or a double-height window.
Those are four different problems. The panoramic opening takes pleated or motorised, the kitchen door hinged with a closer, the windows framed screens, the fanlight a shaped screen made from a template.
So in a villa the right question is not which screen is best but what goes into each opening. A single type across the house is nearly always a mistake.
What costs what and why
In an apartment the total is small, because there are few openings.
In a villa the sum is built from a dozen items, and here real savings appear on volume: closing the house in one visit costs less than calling a technician to each opening in turn.
A second point for villas: some openings need no screen at all. A window that is never opened does not require one, and that is an honest way to reduce the estimate.
In a villa the right question is not which screen is best, but what goes into each opening.
What to think about in advance
In an apartment: find out the building's rules before ordering. The pass and the lift decide the fitting date more than our schedule does.
In a villa: if motorised or automatic screens are on the list, decide before the decoration is finished. Power is far easier to build in now than to chase into finished walls.
In both cases: count the openings you actually open rather than the openings you have.
