Detroit's Frequently Asked Questions About Shutters

For more than 25 years, we’ve received every question about shutters thinkable from our customers in Detroit. And we’ve put together the top ten of them here. Perhaps in these questions and answers you’ll find answers to questions of your own. If not, please don’t be reluctant to contact Sunburst Shutters Detroit directly. We’re here to help you and happy to do so.

That hinges on how you desire 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 copy 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 maximum 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. Chances are, store-bought blinds will deteriorate over time, with its strings giving way and the loops that hold the slats in place falling apart. Additionally, they’re not easy 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 variety of colors, materials, and unique patterns, changing 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 Detroit neighborhood.

Draperies also offer a wide variety of color, fabric, and patterns. They are a traditional alternative for a window treatment. Adding thick panels between the drapes and the window gives you light and temperature block-out capabilities. And unlike other window treatments, you won’t have to clean draperies for five years.

If you are searching for a window treatment that lasts beyond 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 lovely and energy efficient. As a matter of fact, Polywood shutters insulate up to 70% better than a similar wood shutter. That's energy savings you can't get with any other window treatment.

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

A poorly installed window treatment can be challenging 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 moves perfectly – and doesn’t get damaged throughout.

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 effortlessly by pushing them up or down. Most commonly, a tilt rod mounted on the front of the shutters allows you to adjust the louvers. If you would like to move the louvers with your hand, we propose buying shutters with hidden tilt-rods or rear-mounted tilt rods. This gives your shutters a clean, contemporary look.

Our Polywood shutters last 50+ years – more than any other shutter you can find. That’s why these plantation shutters are a permanent fixture that adds to your home’s resale value. Learn more about the durability of our shutters.

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

Plantation shutters are custom crafted to fit your windows just right. They become a permanent fixture of your home, adding to its resale value. These shutters cannot 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 designed and installed on your windows to become permanent fixtures. Not only are they elegant and energy saving, but plantation shutters also add to the value of your house. We’ve seen it first hand in Detroit!

A half shutter allows 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

In the end, it’s a 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 well-rounded look – and letting you close the bottom louvers for privacy while leaving the top louvers open for light. At night, you are able to close the top louvers as well for privacy and security. It’s also convenient during the day when the sun is preventing you from watching TV. And don’t worry about forfeiting any of your view. A 3.5" or 4.5" louver will almost disappear when opened flat and gives you a lot of room to look through.

Easy! Call us at 248-429-9294 or fill out the form below to schedule your free in-home consultation, and we’ll take it from there. We come out to your home to measure the windows you want to add shutters to and bring samples of all of our shutter products and their available options. This allows us to provide you with the most accurate shutter price for your project. Schedule your in-home consultation today!

Yes! There’s rarely a reason to get rid of or alter your current window trim when installing new plantation shutters. Natural Ovation wood shutters and deluxe Polywood shutters can be customized with a variety of frame styles to fit seamlessly into your existing window trim. If your windows are trimless, we also have frame styles available to install right onto the wall around your window to secure your gorgeous new shutters to your window opening.

Your shutter installation crew will measure each of your individual windows during your free design consultation to make sure that your new shutters will fit perfectly with your window trim.

Sunburst Shutters Detroit is committed to offering a range of window coverings made right here in the U.S. Not only are Polywood plantation shutters America’s #1-selling shutter, but they’re 100% American-made. Not only does that mean saving you money on unnecessary shipping and handling costs, it also gives you the perk of knowing you’re choosing an all-American shutter for your Detroit house.

And Polywood isn’t the only shutter that’s from America. Our historic Reclaimed Wood shutters are constructed with lumber repurposed from places across the country, from homespun Southern barn doors to beautiful New England fences and more.

The primary difference between a shutter that’s stained or painted is the way the material of the shutter interacts with the color. Paint sits atop the material it’s coloring, covering the surface. Stains conversely, seep into the shutter, becoming a part of the natural wood or Polywood material.

Both methods come with their individual benefits. There are usually a larger number of color choices for painted shutters. With stained shutters, the color won’t obscure the natural wood grain, so you’re able to see the random grooves and bumps of the material without a layer of paint hiding it.

During your in-home window design consultation, our team will bring paint and stain samples straight to you so you can easily match and complement colors with your current design.

The complete plantation shutter process, beginning with your in-home consultation through installation, will take about four to six weeks on average. The reason it takes this long is because we want to build the perfect shutters for your windows. To do that, we need to take precise measurements, use sophisticated software to design your shutters, assemble your custom shutters manually, and deliver them to your home for installation. Shutters made from real wood tend to take longer due to the staining and finishing process.

It will take a little time, but it’s an investment that’s well worth it.

We sure do! We’d be happy to walk you through our showroom to see our entire collection of shutters and window treatments. The showroom is located at 5499 Perry Dr Suite M, so you’re welcome to stop by anytime during our standard business hours to take a look for yourself.

We offer a complete shop-at-home experience. So we send a representative to you to measure all your windows, walk you through your options, and give you a quote. The design consultation is absolutely free. That’s the simplest way to start a window treatment project. If you only want a ballpark estimate, you can submit the measurements of your windows through our contact form, or by calling us at 248-429-9294.

That’s up to your own taste. If you want to keep your existing trim, we’re able to build custom shutters to complement your current trim. If you like our shutter frames better, then you can remove the trim—but it’s not a necessity. If you’re trying to go trimless or replace your trim, we can help you choose the best option to fit your perfect vision.

If you’re an experienced handyperson, you might be familiar with what goes into installing shutters. However, installing shutters yourself may be a tad complex for most Detroit homeowners. We would suggest leaving the installation to our certified and insured professionals, that way you won’t be at risk of damaging your shutters, your windows, or anything else in your home.

By far our most popular shutter offerings are our classic white Polywood® faux wood plantation shutters, and Ovation® hardwood shutters.

More specifically, the most common shutter configuration we sell is a 3.5” louver, smooth finish, and an interior-mount Z-frame. If those words don’t mean anything to you, that’s ok. We’d be delighted to show you what all those things mean in person. Set up a complimentary home consultation and we’ll show you what will work best in your house.

Shutters with a smooth finish have a more fashionable look, whereas shutters with a textured finish look a bit more historic. However the perks to each style of plantation shutter finish are a little deeper, and ultimately it comes down to your own taste.

Benefits of shutters with a smooth finish – A smooth finish to your shutters offer a solid, chic, fashion-forward look. A smooth finish may be what you want if your home doesn’t have much in the way of wood grain surfaces or furniture. A smooth finish is easier to see when it needs dusting, in comparison with a wood grain finish. We typically recommend a smooth finish for faux wood shutters like Polywood.

Benefits of a textured finish for shutters – A textured finish on your shutters gives you a more natural, rustic look to your shutters. That’s perfect if your goal is to bring the look of nature indoors, particularly if you want to complement the look of your hardwood flooring. A textured finish on your shutters may also make dust harder to see, meaning you won’t need to wipe them down as frequently as you would if they were smooth. A textured finish looks especially great on real wood shutters in Detroit.

For the most part, the larger the surface area of your window, the more shutter panels you’ll need. The most ideal layout is to use a single panel for windows up to 26 inches wide, two panels for windows up to 50 inches wide, and four for windows up to 98 inches wide.

Single wide panels aren’t as user-friendly as multiple panels. Often, wide panel shutters can’t fit flush against the wall because of their size. Two smaller panels don’t have that same issue.

For any windows that you may want to open or shut often, you’re usually better suited with multi-panel shutters, since they’re easier to open and get better support from the shutter frame when you do open and close them.

With Sunburst Shutters Detroit, all of your window measurements will be done by one of our installers for free as part of your in-home consultation. If you happen to have windows in a hard to reach place in your house or you have windows with a unique shape, our installers can get you an accurate measurement so that the final product will fit your windows seamlessly.

During your complimentary shutter consultation, your Sunburst Shutters installer can help you choose from our wide variety of Detroit plantation shutters, including choices for louver size, stain colors, and custom framing options.

So set up your shutter consultation today by calling 248-429-9294 today.

Sunburst can help you pick the ideal shutter for your windows, no matter how small your frame. We will utilize an outside mount installation that attaches to the trim or wall outside the window pane . Your shutters will still have identical functionality and energy efficiency, and will integrate perfectly with other window treatments.

If the louver is detached and drooping from the frame, you likely have a busted louver pin. To repair this you need to take out the pin from both the louver and the stile with a pair of needle-nose pliers or a utility knife. Once the pin is withdrawn, put the new pin base into the same hole in the shutter stile, then direct the louver onto the pin. To get extra louver pins for free, just call us at 248-429-9294.

The cost of plantation shutters revolves on the chosen product line and window dimensions. While we can give you a basic quote over the phone, exact costs are computed after our no cost in-person consultation. Call 248-429-9294 to ask for an appointment today.

To start, clear away the snapped staple out of the louver with a tool like of needle-nose pliers. Then use some adhesive (like wood glue or epoxy) to cover the legs of a replacement staple. guide the staple through the loop on the louver and direct its legs into the existing staple holes on the tilt rod. For extra shutter staples, call us at 248-429-9294.

Polywood shutters are seen as some of the safest window treatments in Detroit. The durable, cordless craftsmanship is perfect for children and pets. The toxin-free and hypoallergenic paint, polymers, and materials will never chip, splinter, or peel. And because Polywood is pest and moisture resistant, you will not have to check for termites, mold or wood rot.