Hout Bay
Zipped side channels hold the fabric tight in real wind — mesh for glare and insects, clear PVC to make winter patios usable.
The zip screen turned patios into rooms: mesh or clear PVC held drum-tight in zipped aluminium channels, sealing against wind and insects while the outlook stays. It is the specification that survives wind that destroys ordinary drop blinds.
Wind is the deciding factor everywhere in the valley. Beachfront & Harbour side and Llandudno patios face the south-easter head-on, so motorised screens with wind-sensor retract are the default there. Constantia Nek side homes lean on the same channels to keep forest damp and pollen out of covered patios, and on the Valley smallholdings and around Scott Estate we size wide spans for entertainment areas and stoeps.
The difference between an outdoor blind that lasts in this valley and one that does not is entirely in the edges. An ordinary drop blind hangs free at the sides, so the first serious gust gets behind the cloth, lifts it, and starts working the hem and the fixings loose. A zip screen welds a continuous spline into each edge of the fabric and runs that spline inside an aluminium side channel, so the cloth stays under tension down its full drop and there is no loose edge for wind to find. That is the whole trick, and it is why the south-easter is survivable with one and expensive without one.
Held tight like that, a screen stops being a blind and becomes a wall you can see through. Insects stay out. Wind-blown drizzle mostly stays out. The braai stays lit. And because the channels are colour-matched to the frames or the beam they hang from, a closed patio still reads as part of the house rather than a bolted-on afterthought.
Sunscreen mesh is the everyday choice: it cuts glare and low sun off the water, keeps the outlook and lets air move through, so the space does not turn into a glasshouse in February. Blockout fabric suits the rare position where privacy from a neighbouring stoep matters more than the view. Crystal-clear PVC is the winter answer — it makes a covered patio genuinely usable through the wet months by stopping wind and drizzle completely. The trade-off is honest: clear PVC needs care, it scratches if it is rolled away dirty, and on a hot still day a fully closed PVC screen will heat the space up. Most homes here end up with mesh on the prevailing-wind side and clear PVC where they eat in winter.
Above roughly two and a half metres of drop, or on any span wide enough to be awkward, motorisation stops being a luxury and becomes the practical option. In exposed positions a wind sensor is part of the specification rather than an upsell: it retracts the screen before a gust does the retracting for you. We will also say plainly when a position is too exposed for a particular fabric or width, and quote a narrower screen or a different cloth instead of selling something that will not last the season.
Guide bands per square metre of screen, installed. A hand-operated crank screen runs about R2,800 to R4,500 per square metre. Motorised — tube motor, control, and a wind sensor where the position calls for one — allow R4,000 to R6,000 per square metre. Clear PVC, wider spans and heavier channel sections all push a screen towards the upper figure.
Small screens carry a minimum charge, since the channels, spline, tube and fixing work barely shrink with the opening. Exact pricing per position follows the free measure, where exposure and the fixing substrate are assessed properly, and it comes to you in writing.
Hout Bay Blinds