Two tips to follow when buying interior shutters for an old property

26 May 2021
 Categories: Home & Garden, Blog


Here are two tips you might find useful when buying interior shutters for your old property.

Get PVC or metal shutters if your home gets damp

Whilst damp is a pretty rare issue in modern properties, it is very common in older ones. If your home often becomes damp in the chillier seasons, you should not get wooden interior shutters but should instead go for PVC or metal ones.

Whilst wooden interior shutters are ideal for most well-insulated modern homes, they're not the best option for damp, old properties. This is because wood swells when it gets damp; if you get wooden shutters, you might find that during the winter, they become stiff and difficult to move due to this swelling. This may result in the shutters abrading the frame they're attached to each time you squeeze them shut or pull them open. Additionally, over time, this regular exposure to your home's high humidity levels might make wooden shutters rot.

Conversely, if you get metal or PVC shutters for the insides of your windows, moisture won't have any problematic effect on them (as long as you get a type of metal shutter that does not corrode).

Be prepared to buy custom-made ones or to customise some ready-made shutters

In older properties, it is sometimes necessary to buy custom-made interior shutters or to have changes made to a set of ready-made ones. In addition to having damp issues, many older properties have structural problems and the shifting that these cause can result in the windows not being perfect rectangles or squares like they are in most modern homes. As such, if for example, the vertical sections of your window are not perpendicular to the floor but instead lean to one side slightly, then you might need to get custom shutters for this window. These will be more expensive than ready-made shutters.

It's important to be aware of this before you start purchasing any shutters, as this will enable you to manage your budget better. If you know that buying custom shutters for your property's one irregularly shaped window will use up a third of your budget, you can then look for less expensive ready-made ones for the other windows. This, in turn, means you won't find yourself without enough money left to purchase shutters for one or more of your property's windows.

Keep these tips in mind as you look for shutters


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