Cincinnati's Frequently Asked Questions About Shutters

For more than 30 years, we’ve heard every question about shutters you can think of from our customers in Cincinnati. And we’ve collected the top ten of them here. Maybe in these questions and answers you’ll find answers to questions of your own. If not, please don’t hesitate to contact Sunburst Shutters Cincinnati directly. We’re here to help you and happy to do so.

That hinges on how you would like the shutters to interact with your home’s décor. Do you want a shutter that contrasts your wall paint color and has clean lines? Polywood® plantation shutters are ideal for you. Or are you looking to match the wood in your home as closely as possible? Ovation® wood shutters are an absolute fit for you.

Plantation shutters are celebrated for being energy efficient. And to get the greatest energy savings, our Polywood Shutter Insulation System is the only choice.

For the budget-conscious, blinds can be temporary window treatments to cover your windows. Cheaper store-bought blinds are susceptible to deteriorating over time, with its strings giving way and the loops that hold the slats in place falling apart. And they are difficult to clean. Even if you're budget-conscious, Sunburst Shutters blinds have the durability and craftsmanship lacking in off-the-rack, store-bought, or online blinds.

Shades offer a host of colors, materials, and unique patterns, transforming your window into artwork. Just by pulling up the fabric of the shade, your entire window is exposed and you can see out onto your Cincinnati neighborhood.

Draperies also come in a wide assortment of color, fabric, and patterns. They are a traditional alternative for a window treatment. Adding thick panels between the drapes and the window allows for light and temperature block-out capabilities. And unlike other window treatments, there’s no need to clean draperies for five years.

If you want a window treatment that lasts more than 10 years, saves you real dollars on your energy bills, and looks exquisite on your windows, shutters are the choice for your home. Not only are shutters durable, but they’re also beautiful and energy efficient. In fact, Polywood shutters insulate up to 70% better than a similar wood shutter. That's energy savings you will miss out on with any other window treatment.

Plantation shutters are unparalleled when it comes to control over privacy and light. And with their large louvers, Polywood plantation shutters give your house a clean in vogue feel whether they’re closed or open.

An inappropriately installed window treatment can be difficult to open and can get damaged easily. We have an expert installation crew that comes to your home and installs your window treatment with great accuracy, ensuring that each one operates flawlessly – and doesn’t get damaged when opened and closed.

But before we start installing your shutters, we bring shutter samples to your home so we can custom fashion your window treatment together. Learn more about our free in-home consultation.

Your plantation shutter slats – or louvers – can be moved easily by tilting them up or down. Generally, a tilt rod mounted on the front of the shutters lets you adjust the louvers. If you want to move the louvers with your hand, we recommend buying shutters with hidden tilt-rods or rear-mounted tilt rods. This gives your shutters a clean, contemporary feel.

Our Polywood shutters last over 50 years – more than any other shutter in the industry. That’s why these plantation shutters are a permanent fixture that boosts your home’s resale value. Learn more about the durability of our shutters.

Plantation shutters are a breeze to clean because they have large louvers and their tilt bars are either hidden or mounted on the rear. Gently tilt them open and dust them like furniture – or wipe smudges with a wet cloth.

Plantation shutters are custom fashioned to fit your windows exactly. They become a permanent fixture of your home, increasing its resale value. This means they can’t be moved from one house to another.

Plantation shutters are an investment that provides you with temperature control, energy efficiency, and privacy. They are custom made and installed on your windows to become permanent fixtures. Not only are they charming and energy saving, but plantation shutters also boost the value of your residence. We’ve seen it first hand in Cincinnati!

A half shutter gives you privacy on the bottom and leaves the top open for light and view. It’s called a café style shutter. But is it the ideal look for a plantation shutter?

Cafe Shutters Cafe Style Shutters With Divider

What it comes down to is style choice – whether you like the look of a half shutter or that of a plantation shutter with a divider rail.

A full length shutter with a divider rail “completes” your window, giving it a fully finished look – and allowing you to close the bottom louvers for privacy while leaving the top louvers open for light. At night, you have the option of closing the top louvers as well for privacy and security. That’s also helpful during the day when the sun is stopping you from watching TV. And don’t worry about sacrificing any of your view. A 3.5" or 4.5" louver will almost disappear when opened flat and gives you abundant room to look through.

Simple! Call us at 513-216-9740 or fill out the form below to schedule your free in-home consultation, and we’ll handle it from there. We come out to your home to measure the windows you want to cover with shutters and bring samples of all of our shutter products and their available options. This way we can provide you with the most accurate shutter quote for your project. Schedule your in-home consultation today!

Yes! There’s seldom a need to get rid of or make alterations to your current window trim when installing new plantation shutters. Natural Ovation wood shutters and deluxe Polywood shutters can be customized with an array of frame styles to fit naturally into your existing window trim. If your windows have no trim, we also have frame styles available to install directly onto the wall around your window to fix your beautiful new shutters to your window opening.

Your shutter installer will measure each of your house’s windows during your complimentary design consultation to make sure that your new shutters will fit perfectly with your window trim.

Sunburst Shutters Cincinnati is proud to offer a range of shutters made right here in America. Not only are Polywood plantation shutters America’s #1-selling shutter, but they’re 100% made in America. Not only does that result in a lower final price without unnecessary shipping and handling costs, it also gives you the perk of knowing you’re choosing an all-American shutter for your Cincinnati home.

And Polywood isn’t alone in hailing from America. Our stunning Reclaimed Wood shutters are constructed using lumber gathered from sources across the country, from rustic Midwest barn doors to beautiful New England fences and more.

The main differentiator between paints and stains for shutters is the way the material of the shutter interacts with the color. Paint lays atop the shutter, just coating the surface. Stains conversely, seep into the shutter, becoming a part of the natural wood or Polywood material.

The two color options have their own unique benefits. There are usually more color choices for paints. With stained shutters, the color won’t obscure the natural wood grain, so you can see the natural knots and ridges of the material without it being hidden by a layer of paint.

When it comes time for your in-home shutter consultation, our team will bring paint and stain samples right to your door so you can easily match and complement colors with your existing interior design.

The complete plantation shutter process, beginning with your starting consultation through installation, usually takes about four to six weeks on average. The process takes this long because we strive to build the perfect shutters for your windows. To do that, we need to take precise measurements, utilize sophisticated software to design them, assemble your custom shutters manually, and deliver them to you prior to installation. Real wood shutters tend to take longer due to the staining and finishing process.

It will take some time, but it’s an investment that’s definitely worth it.

Sunburst Shutters Cincinnati offers a total shop-at-home experience. We typically send one of our reps to your door to get window measurements, show you your options, and provide an accurate quote. The design consultation is 100% free. That’s the best way to start a shutter project. If you only want a simple estimate, you can submit the measurements of your windows through our contact form, or by calling us at 513-216-9740.

Whether or not to remove the trim depends on your own taste. If you want to keep your trim in place, we can build custom shutters to complement your current trim. If you prefer our shutter frames, then you can take out the existing trim—but it is not a requirement for shutters. If you want to go without trim or replace your trim, your Sunburst installer can help you choose the right shutter to match the vision you have in mind for your windows.

If you’re a seasoned handyperson, you’re probably familiar with some of the process involved in installing shutters. However, installing shutters yourself might be a tad tricky for most Cincinnati residents. We recommend leaving the installation to professionals that are certified and insured, that way you won’t risk damage to your shutters, windows, or injuring yourself.

Far and away our most in-demand shutter offerings are our classic white Polywood® faux wood plantation shutters, and Ovation® wood shutters.

Beyond that, the most popular shutter configuration features includes a 3.5” louver, non-textured finish, and an interior-mount Z-frame. If all that information is confusing, that’s ok. We’ll be delighted to demonstrate what all that means in person. Set up a free in-home consultation and we’ll show you what would look best in your space.

Shutters with a smooth finish tend to look more modern and sophisticated, whereas textured finish shutters look more natural and historic. However the benefits to both types of plantation shutter finish go a little bit farther, and in the end it comes down to your own personal preference.

Perks of shutters with a smooth finish – A smooth finish to your shutters give you a solid, chic, sophisticated look. A smooth finish might be preferable if your home doesn’t have much in the way of wood textured surfaces or furniture. A smooth finish is easier to see when it needs dusting, in comparison with a textured finish. We typically recommend a smooth finish for faux wood shutters like Polywood.

Perks of a textured finish for shutters – A wood grain finish on your shutters offers a more natural, somewhat historic look to your shutters. That’s perfect if you’re trying to bring the look of nature indoors, especially if you want to match the look of your hardwood furniture. A wood grain on your shutters can also make dust harder to see, which means you won’t have to dust them as frequently as you would if they were smooth. A wood-grain finish looks especially great on real wood shutters in Cincinnati.

Usually, the bigger your window is, the more shutter panels you’ll want. Our recommendation is to use a single panel for windows up to 26 in. wide, two panels for windows up to 50 in. wide, and four for windows up to 98 in. wide.

Single wide panels are not as user-friendly as multiple panels. Often, wide panel shutters won’t fit flush against the wall due to their size. Multiple smaller panels fix that.

For those windows that you’ll want to open or shut often, you’re usually better suited with multiple panels, since they’re easier to open and have additional support from the shutter frame when you do open and close them.

With Sunburst Shutters Cincinnati, any and all measurements for shutters will be done by our team for free as part of your in-home consultation. Even if your window is in a difficult to reach area of your home or has a unique shape, our shutter pros can get you an exact measurement so that your shutters will perfectly match up with your windows.

During your complimentary in-home consultation, your Sunburst Shutters expert will help you narrow down your options from our wide array of Cincinnati plantation shutters, including choices for panel width, stains, and custom mounts and frames.

So schedule your shutter consultation now by calling 513-216-9740 today.

Sunburst can help you find the perfect shutter for your home, regardless of how thin your frame. We will work with an outside mount installation that attaches to the trim or wall outside the window pane . Your shutters will still have the same functionality and energy efficiency, and will integrate perfectly with other window treatments.

If the louver is separated and drooping from the frame, you could have a busted louver pin. To mend this you will want to take out the pin from both the louver and the stile with a set of needle-nose pliers or a utility knife. Once the pin is extracted, insert the replacement pin base into the old hole in the shutter stile, then direct the louver onto the pin. To receive extra louver pins at no cost, just call us at 513-216-9740.

The cost of plantation shutters revolves on the chosen product line and window area. While we can give you an estimate over the phone, exact quotes are computed after our complimentary in-person consultation. Call 513-216-9740 to schedule an appointment today.

To start, pull out the snapped staple from the louver with a pair of needle-nose pliers. Then dab on some adhesive (like wood glue or epoxy) to cover the legs of a new staple. Thread the staple through the loop on the louver and guide its legs into the existing staple holes on the tilt rod. For new shutter staples, call us at 513-216-9740.

Polywood shutters are seen as some of the safest window coverings in Cincinnati. The cordless, durable construction is safe for children and pets. The non-toxic and hypoallergenic paint and materials will never peel or chip. And because Polywood is pest and moisture resistant, you will not have to worry about termites, mold or wood rot.