Handyman Service in Pimlico

Most blinds that hang badly in SW1V were doomed at the measuring stage. The windows in stucco terraces and mansion blocks here are tall, set in deep reveals, and frequently flanked by a boxed case left over from shutters that have long since gone, which means the width that matters is rarely the width anyone thinks to record.

Inside the reveal or across the face of it

These are two different products with two different measurements, and the decision comes first. A blind fitted inside the reveal sits neatly and leaves a sliver of light down each side. One fitted across the face of the opening covers the gaps and the architrave, needs a wider fabric, and has to clear the handle of a window that opens inwards. In a room with a radiator under the window, a face-fixed blind that drops behind it traps heat against the glass, so the drop is set to finish above the shelf or sill instead.

The reveal is not square, and it never was

A tall opening in a building that has settled for a century and a half is wider at one height than another. The width is taken at the head, the middle and the sill, and the narrowest of the three is the one used, with the deduction the maker requires taken off that. The same applies to the drop at both sides. Working from a single measurement in the middle produces a blind that jams at the top or leaves a wedge of daylight at the bottom, and neither can be corrected afterwards.

What the brackets are going into

The material at the head of a reveal in these buildings is anyone's guess until it is tested: plaster on brick, a timber lintel, lath and plaster, or the hollow case of a redundant shutter box. Each takes a different fixing, and a heavy blind hung from plasterboard plugs in lath and plaster will pull out within the year. A detector sweep and a careful pilot hole settle it, and where a shutter case is found, the brackets are located onto the case's own framing rather than its facing.

Motors, and where the power comes from

A motorised roller for a window nobody can reach is a sensible answer, and the practical question is how it is fed. Rechargeable tube motors avoid new wiring, but the charging lead has to reach a socket somewhere sensible and the tube has to be brought down or reached for charging, which defeats the purpose at the top of a tall sash. Where a permanent supply is the better answer, the position of the outlet is decided before the blind is ordered, not afterwards when a cable has to be trailed across the reveal.

Chains, cords and the fitting that is often left in the bag

Every corded or chain-operated blind is supplied with a tensioning device intended to be fixed to the wall or the frame so the loop cannot hang free. It is the part most often found still in the packaging. It takes a minute to fit, it is not optional in a household with small children, and it also stops the chain sawing at the plaster over the years.

Blackout, and the light that comes round the edges

In a flat on a lit street, the fabric is rarely the problem: the light arrives down the sides and over the top of the roller. A blind fitted across the face with a generous overlap, or a pelmet closing the gap at the head, does more than a heavier fabric. A blind pulled tight against cold glass in a north-facing room stops air moving over the pane, and spotting then appears on the reveal and the back of the fabric. Where that has taken hold over a winter or two, treating the surface properly is work for affordable mould removal services in Pimlico. Outside the same windows, ledges and parapets attract roosting birds whose mess is visible through any blind that is raised, and deterring them is specialist work belonging with vetted pest control services in Pimlico.

What the fitting visit covers

A visit normally means checking measurements against the blinds delivered, testing the head of the reveal, fitting brackets, hanging and levelling, fixing the safety device and adjusting the limits on anything motorised. Time on site is the basis for charging, so several windows in one appointment work out better than one at a time. In a flat just out of refurbishment, blinds go up last, once the dust has been dealt with by after builders cleaning specialists in Knightsbridge. Neighbouring blocks are covered on handyman services in Victoria, and items delivered flat-packed on the same day come under furniture assembly.