richardg

we have rep from thomas sanderson coming to talk conservatory blinds on fri night. i have been advised to expect 60-90mins for their visit

does anyone have experience of costs for conservatory blinds? my conservatory cost £5k plus the footings and minor blockwork/rendering so i'm not willing to spend a fortune on blinds. i have no idea what sort of money we should budget and asking for a rep to call seemed to be the only way of getting a quote.

any advice would be appreciated, although please keep it related to conservaotry blinds as i receive general advice on lots of other things on a daily basis

The Chief

My buddy does blinds for a living and they can cost a fair bit - conservatories can be 1000 quid plus depending on size.

where are you based?

richardg

we're in essex. i know they can easily run into the thousands - what i was hoping to avoid was a visit from someone who gives me a price of say £4k and then doesn;t understand why i won't sign up there and then. this would be a waste of my time as well as the rep's but it seems this is the only way most of the big firms work, so i guess i'll see what they say and if the pricing is reasonable, then look into it further by comparing with a couple of other suppliers

we're talking about 2no sets of french doors (1800 wide each) plus 3no glazed panels (approx 900(??) wide ea) on the side with top 1/4 opening fan lights. i have a 'white' polycarb roof, so not bothered about blinds for that.

Scooby Snacks 23

We had some of their blinds fitted to our conservatory 2 years ago and I think they did a fantastic job

TRUST ME - YOU CAN HAGGLE ON PRICE

Our conservatory is 10ft x 15ft and with blinds on each window (not roof) I think we orginally quoted circa £2000. My wife, who was heavily pregnant at the time, said it was too much with the baby on the way and said we couldn't go more than £1500 and they accepted. Might not have been exactly those figures but we she got us at least 20% off the original price.

As far as the blinds go, we were (and still are) very pleased with the quality and wouldn't hesitate to recommend them. They stayed with us for a good hour primarily because they have so many different designs!

The Chief

I will send this link to my mate who will print it out and show my buddy (who lives around the corner from him) how much (at most you shoudl be paying)

unfortunately were Northern Monkeys so Essex is a bit far - but he might be able to reccommend a blind company down there.

The Chief

BTW i'm no expert but if your not having your roof done it should be a lot cheaper.

I'd say a grand at most but i'll wait until what my buddy says

richardg

thanks scooby snacks. i have a "50% off" voucher and i'm well aware of the mechanics of a money off deal!

Good to hear positive feedback - i do like some of their stuff and was hoping i would get balanced views

chrisgreenall

Thomas Sanderson..... ho ho ho... get ready for a £10000 quote.... Thats what they intially quoted us for a 14" by 11" conservatory.

The guy couldn't understand why I wouldn't stop laughing at him.. anyway, this had come down to £7000 by the time he left... with me still laughing at him....

richardg

ok thanks, much appreciated.

richardg

hence why i ask...
las ttime i had a rep round to quote for something was for my conservatory shell. their quote was £25k. i paid £5k.

Abx

iTrader: (15)

We had TS blinds fitted earlier this year and got quite a few different quotes from various companies.

The TS saleman was a complete **** and tried to push the 'sales ends tonight' line to make the sale, told him I would think about it over night and would rather pay the extra than make a forced decision, he got pi$$ed off and promptly left. I called the head office the next day and they told me the offer was still on and they did not have an end date, then I called the salesman just to anoy him and told him I was still thinking about it and to tell him he was wrong about the offer deadline!

Even though I did not like him the blinds were by far the best available and are very good quality.

We had 12 vertical panels in their dearest range (some sort of male designers range from one of those TV shows) and it came to about £1500 all in fitted, they are about 14" wide and have a drop of about 7ft.

We were alos quoted for the roof but that was just too overpriced at about 4k so had solar film fitted which is superb, cuts down on UV, heat etc but does not cut out much light.

Hope that helps,
Arron

richardg

anyone else?

The Chief

Spoke to my mate last night TS blinds are part of the Luxiflex group which are very very good quality blinds - at least you wont be buying crap, but you will be paying top whack for them.

My mate said there is no reason why you cant get your consevatory done for a grand especially as you leaving your roof alone.

If the sales guy comes back with a quote more than 1500 quid tell him to p*** off

wrx-kris

So they can make £2k seem pennys.... They will probably bring caviar champagne and cocaine

I would of thought you could go to IKEA and get a decent looking set for sub £500. But maybe I'm just a cheap ****

TopBanana

When he comes say, 'before we start, you've got 30 mins and I've got £1000 to spend, so make it snappy ****'.

wrx-kris

David Lock

I have a 4 x 5 m conservatory and got some cheapish roller blinds with the package. The room is in full sun and the blinds are pretty useless for keeping out strong sunlight - so I can't easily use a computer screen (I use room as an office). So quality of blinds is important if you need to keep light out sometimes. I ended up putting blackout blinds on key windows. I never bothered to put on roof blinds as it was so bloody complicated. It might be worth finding a shop that just does blinds as there are all sorts of options and different types which your sales guy won't tell you about. Also check out how easy they are to remove for cleaning etc. dl

Abx

iTrader: (15)

TS really are good quality, in this case you really get what you pay for, as long as you don't getted ripped off by TS. The solarfilm for the roof is also an excellant product for reducing heat and glare but still seeing out without having to pull back the blinds.

richardg

thanks chief

richardg

i did think about that. got as far as buying cable type "curtain rail" and then realised that i would need to drill through what is effectively the plate (although vertical) to get a decent fixing. i then wondered how the pro's did it....

richardg

i like your thinking

richardg

mine is south facing too, but is open on one side to the kitchen; i have a "delia" hob . i'm a big fan of convenience and designing out maintenance etc. didn't really want roller blinds as i don;t have them anywhere else in the house, but i did consider roman blinds (removeable material and capable of being stuck in the washing machine). not too bothered about blackout, we just want to reduce some of the glare, so a voile would probably do the job.

i do know a number of blind companies and have used them for fitting out showhomes and new offices (incl solar reflective film people too), but thought i would try one of the big conservatory blind "specialists" to see where that led me. i take your point about the numerous type of blinds available though - i don;t think fri night will be conclusive as we are bound to have other ideas/queries once he;s left!

David Lock

We have some vertical blinds across a patio door in the kitchen. Supposed to be suitable for gentle machine wash but they aren't as the edges fray. So soak/wash in bath and hang them up dampish. Only other problem is that we have 2 dogs always rushing in and out of the patio door to catch a pigeon in garden (they haven't managed so far ) but they are always catching their feet in the feeble links that hold the blinds together just above floor level.

I just wonder if you have underestimated how hot it can get in the room with sun? I have aircon but even that won't cope on a really hot day. dl

richardg

dl - the conservatory has been up for about 2yrs. been using it properly for about 18months now (i didn;t finish it internally for a while and as we didn't have any furniture for it, it was just a store room and through-route to the garden for a while) so we know what the temps are like (+ i have a temp gauge in there connected to my weather forecaster thingy!). we have a fan on the light fitting and elec windows in the roof, plus the three panels down the side all have opening lights.

it's just the glare that could be an issue. we tend to use the lounge more during the day (as it's more shaded and we have a 10month old daughter to consider) but would use the conservatory more with our little one if we could just darken it down a little. our little one is the main driving force behind the blind investigations - the glare doesn't really bother us too much, so if it were just us using the room, we'd probably just leave it as is

i did think about a/c, but we don't really need it, so i haven't bothered. will certainly reconsider when i build our next house though

RUDDY

you have pm

Abx

iTrader: (15)

If your not worried about blinds why not consider solar film on the whole thing, will cut down glare, heat and UV. My newborn daughter whay also our driving reason so we went fom both blinds and film, would have had the film all over by the missus has wanted blinds for ages so I compromised. The film is so so much cheaper and not visable at all and a quarter of the price!

richardg

will get back to you asap
(your ruddy pm box is full btw )

richardg

mrs g has her heart set on blinds i think

corradoboy

We had Harveys fit venetians at our 1st house as a gift from the mo'in-law and it was a tiny place with just 3 large windows (living, bath and bed) and 2 very small (kitchen and landing) and the bill was over £300. Our current house has 7 large windows and I did the lot myself with Ikea £10 blinds. They look identical and have worked perfectly well for 3 years so far, apart from the cats chewing through the strings Big rip-off potential for an easy job.

richardg

ok, so the dimensions i "remembered" were completely wrong!