Bluff City's Frequently Asked Questions About Shutters

For more than 24 years, we’ve been asked every question about shutters you can imagine from our customers in Bluff City. And we’ve gathered the top ten of them here. There’s a good chance that in these questions and answers you’ll find answers to questions of your own. If not, please don’t wait to contact Sunburst Shutters NE Tennessee directly. We’re here to aid you and happy to do so.

That is based 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 duplicate the wood in your home as closely as possible? Ovation® wood shutters are an absolute fit for you.

Plantation shutters are known 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. 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. Not to mention, they might be troublesome 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 an assortment of colors, materials, and unique patterns, changing your window into artwork. By simply pulling up the fabric of the shade, your full window is exposed and you can see out onto your Bluff City neighborhood.

Draperies also offer a wide variety of color, fabric, and patterns. They are a traditional choice for a window treatment. Placing thick panels between the drapes and the window gives you light and temperature block-out capabilities. And unlike other window treatments, it’s not necessary to clean draperies for five years.

If you’re looking for a window treatment that lasts beyond 10 years, saves you money 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. As a matter of fact, Polywood shutters insulate up to 70% better than a comparable 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 room a clean in vogue feel whether they’re closed or open.

A poorly installed window treatment can be difficult to open and can get damaged easily. We have a skilled installation crew that comes to your home and installs your window treatment precisely, making sure that each one moves smoothly – and doesn’t get damaged when opened and closed.

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

Your plantation shutter slats – or louvers – can be moved simply by adjusting them up or down. Most commonly, a tilt rod mounted on the front of the shutters lets you adjust the louvers. 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 over 50 years – more than any other shutter in the US. That’s why these plantation shutters are a permanent fixture that raises your home’s resale value. Learn more about the durability of our shutters.

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

Plantation shutters are custom made to fit your windows down to the last one eighth of an inch. They become a permanent fixture of your home, increasing its resale value. These shutters cannot be moved from one house to another.

Plantation shutters are an investment that allows temperature control, energy efficiency, and privacy. They are custom crafted 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 home. We’ve seen it first hand in Bluff City!

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

Ultimately, 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 giving you the option to close the bottom louvers for privacy while leaving the top louvers open for light. At night, you can close the top louvers as well for privacy and security. That’s also helpful during the day when the sun is hindering 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 a lot of space to look through.

Piece of cake! Call us at 276-685-5343 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. Once you’ve selected a shutter that matches your style, we can provide you with the appropriate shutter price for your project. Schedule your in-home consultation today!

Absolutely! There’s rarely a reason to remove or alter your current window trim when installing new plantation shutters. Natural Ovation wood shutters and premier Polywood shutters can be customized with a variety of frame styles to fit naturally 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 fix your gorgeous new shutters to your window opening.

Your Sunburst Shutters installation team will measure each of your home’s windows during your free in-home consultation to make sure that your window trim is tastefully complemented by the frame of your new shutters.

Sunburst Shutters NE Tennessee is proud to offer a collection of window treatments made right here in the U.S.A. Not only are Polywood plantation shutters America’s #1-selling shutter, but they’re 100% American-made. Not only does that mean a lower final price without unnecessary shipping and handling costs, it also gives you the bonus of knowing you’ve chosen an all-American shutter for your Bluff City house.

And it’s not just Polywood that’s from America. Our historic Reclaimed Wood shutters are built using lumber repurposed from sources across the country, from homespun Southern barn doors to sturdy Texas ranch fences and more.

The primary divide between painted and stained shutters is how the color interacts with the material of the shutter. Paint lays atop the material it’s coloring, covering the surface. Stains conversely, penetrate the shutter, bonding to the natural wood or Polywood material.

Both methods come with their individual benefits. There are usually a larger number of color choices for paints. With stained shutters, the color won’t lie over the natural wood grain, so you can see the random knots and bumps of the material without a layer of paint hiding it.

For your in-home window design consultation, we’ll bring paint and stain samples right to your door so you can easily match and complement colors with your current design.

The entire plantation shutter process, from your in-home consultation to installation, will take approximately four to six weeks on average. The reason it takes this long is because we strive to build 100% custom shutters for your windows. Doing that requires us to take precise measurements, make use of sophisticated software to design them, assemble your custom shutters by hand, and get them to your home for installation. Wood shutters typically take longer than faux wood due to the added steps of staining and finishing the wood.

It does take a little time, but it’s an investment that’s definitely worth it.

Yes! We’d love to walk you through our showroom to see our entire collection of shutters and window treatments. We’re located at 4081 Highway 11 East, so feel free to stop by anytime during our standard business hours to talk about what you need.

Sunburst Shutters NE Tennessee offers a total shop-at-home experience. We typically send a representative to your home to measure all your windows, show you your options, and provide an accurate quote. The design consultation is 100% free. That’s the easiest way to start your shutter project. If you’re just looking for a simple estimate, you can submit your window measurements either by phone or through our contact form.

The answer will depend on your personal taste. If you want to keep your existing trim, we can build your shutters to match your current trim. If you prefer our shutter frames, then you can take out the existing trim—but it’s not a requirement. If you want to go without trim or replace your trim, your Sunburst installer can help you find the right shutter to match your perfect vision.

If you’re a seasoned DIYer, you’re probably familiar with what goes into installing shutters. However, DIY shutters can be a tad complex for most Bluff City homeowners. We recommend leaving the installation to our certified and insured professionals, so you won’t be at risk of damaging your shutters, windows, or any other part of your home.

Far and away our most popular shutter offerings are our classic white Polywood® faux wood plantation shutters, and Ovation® natural wood shutters.

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

Smooth finish shutters have a more modern look, whereas textured finish shutters look a bit more historic. But the benefits to each style of plantation shutter finish go a little bit farther, and ultimately come down to your own taste.

Benefits of a smooth finish for shutters – A smooth finish to your shutters offer a clean, chic, sophisticated look. If you don’t have many other wood accessories like hardwood floors or exposed beams, you might not want a smooth finish. A smooth finish makes dust easier to see, compared to a textured finish. We usually recommend a smooth finish for faux wood shutters like Polywood.

Benefits of shutters with a textured finish – A textured finish on your shutters offers a more natural, somewhat historic look to your shutters. That’s perfect if your goal is to bring the beauty of nature inside, especially if you want to match the look of your hardwood furniture. A textured finish on your shutters may also make dust more difficult to see, which means you can wait a little longer between regular cleanings. A textured finish looks especially great on real wood shutters in Bluff City.

Typically, the larger the surface area of your window, the more shutter panels you’ll need. The optimal design is to use one 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 are not as room-friendly as two separate panels. Sometimes, wider panels won’t fit flush against the wall due to their size. Multiple smaller panels fix that.

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

With Sunburst Shutters NE Tennessee, any and all window measurements will be done by our team for free as part of your in-home consultation. Even if your window is in a hard to reach area of your house or has a distinct shape, our installers can get you an exact measurement so that the final product will perfectly match up with your windows.

At your free shutter consultation, your Sunburst Shutters installer can help you narrow down your options from our extensive array of Bluff City plantation shutters, such as choices for louver size, stains, and custom mounts and frames.

So set up your shutter consultation today by calling 276-685-5343 today.

Sunburst can assist you in picking the ideal shutter for your home, despite how narrow your frame. We will use an outside mount installation that affixes to the trim or wall outside the window cavity . Your window treatments will still have identical functionality and energy efficiency, and will integrate seamlessly with other window treatments.

If the louver is separated and jutting from the frame, you likely have a busted louver pin. To fix this you should take out the pin from both the louver and the stile with a pair of needle-nose pliers or a utility knife. Once everything is taken out, put the undamaged pin base into the same hole in the shutter stile, then guide the louver onto the pin. To get replacement complementary louver pins, just call us at 276-685-5343.

Pricing on plantation shutters revolves on the desired product line and window dimensions. While we can present you an estimate over the phone, detailed costs are offered after our free in-person consultation. Call 276-685-5343 to ask for an appointment today.

To start, pull out the snapped staple out of the louver with some of needle-nose pliers. Then use some adhesive (like wood glue or epoxy) to coat the legs of a new staple. weave the staple through the loop on the louver and guide its legs into the previous staple holes on the tilt rod. For extra shutter staples, call us at 276-685-5343.

Polywood shutters are some of the safest window treatments in Bluff City. The cord-free, durable design is perfect for children and pets. The non-toxic and hypoallergenic materials and paint will never peel or chip. And since Polywood is pest and moisture resistant, you will not have to check for bugs, mold, or wood rot.