Anyone who has a small child in their home will be all too aware of the worry of window blinds. The traditional blinds that can be hung at windows and doors have free hanging cords (and often 2 chords to operate a separate raise and tilt action). They are an accident waiting to happen, not only for small children but also for pets and I am forever tying my chords up out of the way … out of reach of little hands and paws.
The blatant safety issues that come hand in hand with free hanging chords, are enough of a reason not to have blinds at your windows and doors at all. But there is a better solution, with which the risks of children harming or strangling themselves in the chords are eliminated totally. Integral Blinds – a glass system, which integrates the blinds between the cavity of the double-glazed unit! They are such an ingenious design that they will pretty much fit into any type of window frame and include sliding ones. This means that older windows can also be upgraded to install the new glass. The units also have the added benefit of up grading the energy efficiency of the window and come equipped with a warm edge space bar, which will contribute to reducing energy costs and air conditioning also.
The blinds can come as pleated or Venetian and have manual options to rise, lower and tilt and are an extremely versatile system. They are a fantastic add on to a new window and door installation but can also be used to upgrade existing products. It is so user friendly that only one device is used to raise and to tilt the slats unlike the traditional 2 chords. The pleated blind fabric option, is coated with an aluminum layer on one side, reducing solar heat gain and improving the u-value, whilst controlling the amount of light and glare that passes through into the room. Perfect for Orangeries, Conservatories or suntrap rooms. The blinds are built within a double glazed unit with a 20mm cavity and are a manually sliding system operated with the use of a magnetic device. This is positioned centrally, on the outer surface, of the internal pane across the glass surface. This magnet connects with an internal one located at the moveable head rail.
The other annoyance with traditional blinds is pets climbing through them, popping the beading threads, spreading their hair and slobber and generally adding to another house hold cleaning chore to add to list. The beauty of the Integral blind system is it’s super hygienic. So this means no sticky fingerprints on the blinds and the glass, instead it will just be the glass that needs cleaning! The external slider is also treated with the Sanitized patented antibacterial finish.
The integral blind glass system is particularly suitable for bi folding doors, sliding doors, conservatories and windows, but they can also be used in interior partitioning.
We are now offering a package to include integral blinds in our bi-fold door installations – for which there are currently limited blind solutions available on the market. The blinds come in the colour options white, beige, grey and anthracite and have a fast manufacturing lead-time. We have seen the Integral Blind market slowly building over the last year and are taking more enquiries each month. We predict that the installation of Integral Blinds in the Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire areas, will continue to grow in popularity throughout 2016.