Sun, glare and sand, stopped outside the glass

What roller shutters actually are here

Interlocking aluminium slats roll down external guides to seal a window completely — a garage-door-like curtain that closes on the outside of the glass as one continuous face, with nothing swinging into the room. Together with external venetians and zip screens, this is the premium end of what we fit on this coast, because it works before the glass rather than after it. We need to be plain about one thing though: roller shutters are a shading product on this site. They are not security-rated shutters, which is a different product available on request. Lead with what they actually do: cut sun, glare, wind-blown sand and outside-in privacy at the glass, before any of it reaches the room.

Why they earn their keep on this stretch of coast

A roller shutter closed over a west-facing sliding door on a Big Bay glass box does something an interior blind can't: it stops the late afternoon sun and the wind-blown sand off the dunes before either reaches the glass, rather than managing them once they're already inside. On the older cottages near Stadler Road, a shutter over a smaller punched window gives the same total-blackout, total-privacy option for a holiday home left empty for stretches at a time.

Built for the wind and the grit, not just the sun

Powder-coated, marine-grade slats in a colour matched to the facade, motorised as standard with manual override, and a headbox that's sealed rather than open — the same dune-sand argument that applies to every exterior product here applies doubly to a shutter box that sits closed for long stretches. We say plainly that even a sealed box wants an occasional clean this close to the dunes.

What a roller shutter costs here

A shutter is an engineered exterior system, and it is priced like one. As a guide per square metre installed, a manual unit comes in between R3,500 and R5,500, and a motorised one between R5,000 and R7,000 — and since we fit these motorised as standard on this coast, the second band is the realistic one for most homes. Where a window lands in that range depends on the box, the slat profile and how wide the opening runs.

Under about a square metre a shutter is billed at a minimum instead of an area, since box, guides and fixing are one piece of work at any size. No exterior figure is firm until someone has stood at the wall with a tape: build-up, exposure and the fixing detail each shift it, which is why the quote follows the visit.