Roller blinds that work for both halves of Claremont

Sunscreen does the daily work on a tree-shaded lounge

Mature street trees break up the light on Upper Claremont's upper slopes for most of the day, but a west-facing lounge still catches the late-afternoon sun once it drops below the canopy. A sunscreen mesh — usually 3–5% openness — is the roller most of those living rooms end up drawing, cutting the glare while keeping the garden and street-tree view. Lower percentages block more heat and glare at the cost of a softer view; most upper-slope lounges land at 3–5%. Take the canopy away and the number moves with it: the flatter streets east of the railway line in Rondebosch get sun all day and are better answered at the 3% end, and so are the Tokai elevations that sit clear of the tree line.

Blockout, and the double-roller answer for bedrooms

Bedrooms want the opposite problem solved — full dark, regardless of streetlight or a neighbour's security light. A single blockout roller does that on its own. A double roller (day/night) pairs a blockout fabric with a sunscreen on the same bracket, useful on a Main Road apartment that wants some daytime outlook but total privacy after dark without swapping blinds.

Fitted for the window you actually have

A lot of Upper Claremont's sash windows still carry their original timber reveals, and a heavy-handed bracket can chip a hundred-year-old frame before the blind's even hung — we template on site and choose face-fixed or reveal-mounted brackets accordingly. Chain and cord tensioners are fitted as standard on anything corded. Where a body corporate rules out a chain on a shared balcony, or a window's out of easy reach, we quote motorisation alongside the manual option rather than as the only answer.

What you should budget

Roller blinds work out at roughly R1,000–R1,600 the square metre once fitted, on a chain. A plain blockout sits near the lower figure; a 3% sunscreen, or a double bracket carrying two cloths on one window, near the upper. Put a tube motor in and the working figure becomes roughly R2,500–R3,800 the square metre, motor, handset or wall control and commissioning included.

Note two things. A bathroom pane will not cost a fraction of a bay window, because the tube, the brackets and the hour on the ladder are the same — there is a minimum on small openings. And a working figure is not a quotation; yours is written window by window once a consultant has measured.