Outdoor roller blinds for a front patio, balcony or carport: what to know before ordering

Most people searching for a sun blind for the front of the house have the same kind of space: there is already a roof over it, but the front or the side is open. When the sun comes in low the area can't be used, and passers-by can see right into the house. One common answer is a large roller blind fixed under the roof frame, which comes down across the open side at the press of a remote. This guide is written from a job we actually fitted, and it says plainly which questions can be answered now and which have to be settled job by job.

What is an outdoor roller blind for the front of a house?

It's a motorized roller blind fitted outside the house. A single sheet of fabric is stored on a roll at the top and travels down as a vertical screen when you run it. The one we fitted is a single motorized roller blind spanning the full opening of a covered front patio, run from a remote. The fabric travels from the roll at the top down almost to the floor and screens the whole seating area. That job uses the Novo K45 motor and the same fabric as indoor roller blinds. The clip from the site is on our real installations page.

It is not an awning. An awning projects out to cover from above, while a roller blind drops straight down as a fabric screen across the front or the side, so it goes on spaces that already have a roof or eaves. It is not a zip blind either. On an ordinary roller blind the side edges hang free. On a zip blind both edges run inside channels for the full height. If you're not sure which one your site needs, read what is a zip blind and compare first.

Where can an outdoor roller blind go? Front patio, balcony, carport

• A covered sitting area at the front of the house, as on the job we fitted. The blind fixes to the roof frame above and comes down across the side facing the street or the low sun. Rolled up, the space is open again.
• The side of a carport, to close the side where the sun reaches the car, or the side facing the neighbours. Make it a side and not the side the car drives through: across the driveway it has to be rolled fully up every time before you drive through. Check too that the lowered fabric won't be in the way of the car doors.
• A house balcony, fixed under the eaves or the slab above, closing the front or the side. Look for railings, pipes or outward-opening windows in the line the fabric will travel.
• A condo balcony. Whether it's allowed depends on the building's rules, since a balcony is visible from outside. Ask building management first, before measuring or asking for a price.

Wherever it goes, the first thing the fitter looks at is what the top fixes into (a steel frame, a concrete beam or timber) and whether there's room under the roof for the roll and its motor. The floor and the soffit both need to be finished, because the measurements have to be the final ones.

Balcony sun blinds: sunscreen fabric or blackout?

Most front sitting areas want daylight and a view of the garden, so sunscreen is usually where people start. Blackout suits a side that needs serious privacy by day and by night. Our roller blind fabrics include sunscreen with 5% openness and blackout fabrics whose cloth blocks 100% of light, per the manufacturers' sheets. The 100% refers to the cloth: every roller blind still leaks light at the edges. The job we fitted uses the same fabric as indoor roller blinds, but before settling on a fabric code always ask whether that one suits the spot you have in mind. The two fabric types are compared in detail in blackout vs sunscreen fabric.

Why does a wide outdoor roller blind need a higher-torque motor?

A roller blind motor sits inside the tube at the top and has to lift the whole sheet plus the weighted bottom bar every time it rolls up. A front-of-house blind is usually far wider and taller than an indoor window, so there is more fabric, and fabrics don't all weigh the same. Per the manufacturers' sheets, our roller blind fabrics run from about 340 to 520 grams per square metre. The bigger the sheet and the heavier the cloth, the greater the total load, so the motor has to be a model with enough torque and load capacity. The table compares the two Novo motors for motorized roller blinds, with figures from the manufacturer's spec sheet.

The K45 is the higher-torque model in the spec table on the motorized roller blind page, and it is the one used on the front patio job described above. It is run by a radio remote. Which model your job gets is decided by the fitter after the real measure, once the fabric is known. It isn't something you need to pick from the table yourself. The line worth understanding is IP44: it keeps out objects over 1 mm and splashing water, and it is not made to sit in rain or take water directly. So where the headrail sits relative to where the rain reaches is something to go through with the fitter at the measure.

Both motors run on mains power, so there has to be a socket near the headrail, and outside a house there usually isn't one yet. An electrician needs to add it before the fitting day, because we don't do electrical wiring. What kind of outdoor socket it should be and where it goes is the electrician's call. If you're interested in a rechargeable battery motor, ask first whether there's a model that suits the size and weight of the blind on your site.

What does an outdoor roller blind cost, and what do we need for a quote?

The table below gives the starting rates for motorized roller blinds: fabric by the square yard with a minimum per unit, the motor charged separately per unit, and fitting charged by the size of each unit. It's fine for a rough idea of where a job lands. But an exterior blind is usually a large sheet and sites vary a lot, so we don't total anything up on this page. The real price for your job is in the written quote after the on-site measure. Every figure is before VAT. How motorized roller blinds are priced is covered in what a motorized roller blind costs.

1. The rough width and height of the opening: post to post, and from under the roof frame to the floor. It doesn't have to be exact yet.
2. A photo of the whole opening, from inside and from outside, showing which side is open.
3. A photo of the top corner, showing whether it's a steel frame, a concrete beam or timber, and whether there's a soffit.
4. Where the nearest power socket is, or that there isn't one yet.
5. See-through or opaque fabric, and which way that side faces: morning sun or afternoon sun.
6. Anything that matters to you in particular, such as strong wind, driving rain or mosquitoes. Say so at the start so it can be talked through before you decide.
7. For a condo: whether building management has approved fitting it on the balcony.

Send all of that on LINE, and we arrange the on-site measure. It costs 500-1,000 THB in Bangkok and the metro area and is credited back in full when you order. Outside that it starts at 3,500 THB and is not credited back. We send a written quote within a day, and the price holds for 7 days. From confirming to fitted takes 7-14 days, depending on how many units.