Plantation Shutters Installation Melbourne
A shutter is only as good as the opening it is fitted to. The panels themselves are the easy part: they are made to a number. What decides whether the job looks right in five years is what happened at the measure, and who fitted them.
We measure, manufacture and install with our own team across Melbourne. No part of it is subcontracted, because the measure and the fit are the same job.
- 300+ 5-Star Reviews
- 10-Year Structural Warranty
- Australian Made
- Free In-Home Measure & Quote
- 1000+ Shutters Installed
How a Plantation Shutter Installation Actually Runs
In-home measure and quote
We come to the house and measure at the openings. Reveal depth, square, and anything that sticks into the opening gets recorded per window. You get a written quote that breaks out materials and installation, with no separate fitting charge appearing later.
Specification per window
Frame type, panel layout and blade size are set window by window rather than once for the house. Bedrooms and bathrooms in the same house regularly end up different, and that is correct rather than inconsistent.
Manufacture
Panels are made in our own Melbourne factory to the recorded numbers. Because it is our factory, an odd shape is a manufacturing instruction rather than a reason to say no, and a remake is weeks rather than a season.
Installation
Our own installers fit the panels, check that every set of blades runs cleanly through its full travel, and adjust before they leave.
Final Check
Operation, alignment and finish, walked through with you. Anything that is not right gets dealt with then rather than in a phone call a week later.
Why Measuring a Window Is Harder Than It Looks
This is the part people underestimate, and it is the single biggest reason DIY and flat-pack shutter jobs go wrong. A window is not a rectangle. It is a rectangle that has been built by hand, rendered over, painted several times and then allowed to move for forty years.
Four things have to be measured, not one.
Width in three places
Top, middle and bottom. If those differ by more than a few millimetres the opening is out of square and the frame has to account for it. An opening 8mm wider at the top than the bottom is completely normal in an older Melbourne house.
Height on both sides
Same reason, and floors settle unevenly.
Reveal depth to the nearest obstruction, not to the glass
The glass is almost never the closest thing. A handle, a winder, a lock or a flyscreen track will sit proud of it, and it is that measurement which decides whether a panel can sit inside the opening at all.
What the wall is made of
A face-fixed frame goes into brick, render over brick, or plasterboard with or without a noggin behind it. Those are three different fixings and getting it wrong is an installation failure rather than a product one.
The margin is small. A shutter panel is made to a fixed size and does not stretch. Measure a few millimetres over and it will not go in. Measure a few millimetres under and you get a light gap down one side that you will look at every day. There is no adjustment at the end that fixes a number recorded wrongly at the start.
That is the real argument for a measured and installed job over a flat-packed one. The online price looks lower because it is not carrying the risk of the measurement. You are.
Sliding Windows vs Awning Windows: How Each One Changes the Fit
Both are common in Melbourne housing and both affect a shutter install, in different ways. This comes up at nearly every measure, so it is worth setting out properly.
The sash slides sideways in a track, and the handle sits on the sash, inside the opening. Two consequences. First, the handle sits proud of the glass and eats reveal depth, so it is usually the handle rather than the depth itself that decides the frame. Second, a sliding window is normally operated by reaching in, so the shutter panel in front of it has to open far enough to give you a hand’s clearance at the handle. We set panel splits so the opening panel lines up with the sash you actually use rather than centring it for symmetry.
The sash is hinged at the top and winds outward, usually with a winder handle at the sill. This is the harder of the two. The winder projects further into the room than a slider handle does, and it has to stay usable with the shutter closed or you have a window that cannot be opened without folding the panels back every time.
The usual answer on an awning window is a face-mounted frame, which sits the panel off the wall and clears the winder entirely. Where the reveal is deep enough, a recess mount with the panel set forward can also work. Either way it gets checked at the measure against your actual winder, not against a standard allowance.
The rule we work to. Whatever the window does, you should be able to operate it with the shutters closed. If a proposed layout means you have to fold panels back to open a window you open every day, the layout is wrong and we change it.
One more case worth naming. Where a flyscreen is fitted and you want to keep it operable, the measurement is taken to the screen track rather than to the glass. That is often the tightest dimension in the whole opening.
Fixing, Packing and Finish
Two details separate a clean install from an acceptable one.
Packing. Where an opening is out of square, the frame is packed so the panel runs true rather than following the wall. Done properly you do not see it. Done badly you get a shutter that binds at one end of its travel.
The fixing itself. Into brick, into render over brick, or into plasterboard with a noggin located behind it. Our installers carry the fixings for all three because you do not always know which one you have until the architrave comes off.
Mount position, the recess mount versus face mount question, is set out in full on our recess vs face mount guide. That page covers which frame suits which window. This page is about how the fit happens once that is decided.
Every Room and Every Opening
We install plantation shutters across Melbourne homes in living rooms, bedrooms, kitchens, bathrooms, bay windows, stairwell and void windows, raked and arched heads, sliding and stacker doors, and outdoor entertaining areas. PVC, timber and aluminium, with the material chosen against the room rather than across the house.
Plantation Shutters Installation FAQs
Most houses are done in a day. A large job, a multi-panel wide opening or a first-floor window with difficult access can run longer, and if that is the case you are told at the quote rather than on the day.
No. We measure, manufacture and install as one job, because the install depends on measurements we recorded ourselves. Fitting a panel someone else sized means inheriting a number we cannot stand behind.
Yes. The quote you get after the in-home measure covers materials and installation together, broken out so you can see both. There is no separate fitting charge appearing later.
You can, and it is the most common reason a flat-packed order does not fit. A panel is made to a fixed size and does not stretch, so a few millimetres either way is the difference between a clean fit and a light gap you look at every day. The measure is free, so there is nothing to save by doing it yourself.
We take down existing coverings on the day as part of the fit and take the hardware with us. Let us know at the quote if there is something you want kept.
The frame is packed so the panel runs true rather than following the wall, and where an opening is well out, a face-mounted frame covers the edge so the shutter reads square. It is decided at the measure, not improvised on installation day.
Yes, and that is the test we design to. The winder has to stay usable with the panels closed, which usually means a face-mounted frame that clears it. If a layout means folding panels back every time you open the window, the layout is wrong.
The final check is walked through with you before the installers leave, so most things get dealt with on the spot. The panel carries a ten-year structural warranty, and because the panels are made in our own Melbourne factory a replacement is weeks rather than a season.
Book a Consultation
Contact AAA Plantation Shutters today to arrange a consultation and professional plantation shutters installation service in Melbourne.
