Are DIY Shutters Difficult?
Doing home improvement projects by yourself in Southern California is easier than ever. With resources easily available to savvy homeowners, many once-difficult projects are now very doable.
There are exceptions, though – projects that may be unwieldy, time-consuming, or just too difficult to do on your own. One project that might fall into that category is putting in DIY plantation shutters.
Below are just a handful of the issues that might arise when trying to put in shutters as a DIY project.
Measuring Your Windows
Though it may look easy at a glance, getting the correct window measurements for plantation shutters can get somewhat tricky. As one of our installers says, “There’s about a thousand wrong ways to measure windows, but only one way to do it right.” There’s a lot of differences between individual windows that can change the way you measure.
Do you know if your shutters need to be on an inside mount or an outside mount? How thick is the shutter frame you’re looking at and how far into the window opening will it need to sit? Which kind of frame is best for tilt-in windows, crank windows or sliding windows?
Each of these can affect which kind of shutters and frame are best for you. That also changes how you should measure your windows.
Buying DIY Shutters
The next pitfall for DIY shutters can arise in the buying process. Just like the variation in windows, there’s a lot of differences between types of shutters, and if you’re on your own, it can be easy to purchase the wrong thing. Here are a few common DIY mistakes:
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Purchasing the wrong material for shutters. For instance, ordering natural wood shutters for a space in your home that might actually need a moisture-proof window treatment.
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Picking a shutter configuration that doesn’t let you open or close your window all the way.
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Ordering a shutter with a frame that doesn’t work well with your specialty window such as your French doors.
In addition, there can be some added confusion about certain shutter terms. Working with a shutter company helps eliminate any confusion, so you get exactly what you want for your windows.
DIY Shutter Installation
Where DIY shutters can become really hard is when it comes time to install them, as you likely guessed.
There are a few reasons it’s hard – first, shutter installation needs to be precise, and a tiny mistake in measuring at the start or in hanging a bracket can throw a wrench in the whole project. Shutters can also be physically hard to maneuver on your own; depending on the material and your window’s location, lifting a shutter can be strenuous and in some cases dangerous.
The majority of shutter DIYers are unaware that it’s fairly typical for shutters to not exactly fit your window frame. This is mainly due to the fact that few window frames are perfectly square. Attaching the shutter flush to one edge of the window could force the entire shutter to be crooked and make gaps. Needing to caulk a quarter or half-inch gap is typical with shutter installations, and if you’re an inexperienced DIYer a caulking job could be more than you bargained for.
Last, when you do a shutter installation yourself, you don’t have a safety net. If a shutter company installs your shutters for you, they’ll usually guarantee the product and installation with a warranty. However if something goes awry when you try to install yourself, you’re on your own if there’s any damage to your windows or the shutters.
