Miami's Frequently Asked Questions About Shutters

For more than 47 years, we’ve received every question about shutters thinkable from our customers in Miami. And we’ve put together 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 hesitate to contact Sunburst Shutters Miami directly. We’re here to aid you and happy to do so.

That depends 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 perfect 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 recognized for being energy efficient. And to get maximum 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. Cheaper store-bought blinds are susceptible to deteriorating over time, with its strings snapping and the loops that hold the slats in place falling apart. And they are difficult 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 whole window is exposed and you can see out onto your Miami neighborhood.

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

If you want a window treatment that lasts over 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 lovely and energy efficient. As a matter of fact, Polywood shutters insulate up to 70% better than a similar wood shutter. That's energy savings you can't get with any other window treatment.

No other window treatment gives you control over privacy and light as plantation shutters do. And with their large louvers, Polywood plantation shutters give your space a clean modern feel whether they’re closed or open.

A poorly installed window treatment can be a hassle to open and can get damaged easily. We have an expert installation crew that comes to your home and installs your window treatment just right, making sure that each one functions smoothly – and doesn’t get damaged when opened and closed.

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

Your plantation shutter slats – or louvers – can be moved simply by tilting them up or down. Generally, a tilt rod mounted on the front of the shutters lets you adjust the louvers. To move the louvers with your hand, we recommend buying shutters with hidden tilt-rods or rear-mounted tilt rods. This gives your shutters a clean, contemporary appearance.

Our Polywood shutters last over 50 years – more than any other shutter in the industry. That’s why these plantation shutters are a permanent fixture that boosts your home’s resale value. Learn more about the durability of our shutters.

Plantation shutters are a breeze 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 moist cloth.

Plantation shutters are custom built to fit your windows exactly. They become a permanent fixture of your home, boosting its resale value. It’s not possible to move these shutters from one house to another.

Plantation shutters are an investment that allows temperature control, energy efficiency, and privacy. They are custom manufactured and installed on your windows to become permanent fixtures. Not only are they beautiful and energy saving, but plantation shutters also boost the value of your house. We’ve seen it first hand in Miami!

A half shutter gives 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 appropriate look for a plantation shutter?

Cafe Shutters Cafe Style Shutters With Divider

In the end, 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 fully finished look – and allowing you 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. This also comes in handy during the day when the sun is stopping you from watching TV. And don’t worry about losing any of your view. A 3.5" or 4.5" louver will almost disappear when opened flat and gives you more than enough of a view to look through.

Easy! Call us at 305-520-7515 or fill out the form below to schedule your free in-home consultation, and we’ll handle it from there. We come out to your home to measure the windows you want to shutter and bring samples of all of our shutter products and their available options. This way we can provide you with the appropriate shutter price for your project. Schedule your in-home consultation today!

Yes! There’s seldom a need to take out or alter your current window trim when you buy new plantation shutters. Natural Ovation wood shutters and premier Polywood shutters can be customized with an array of frame styles to fit seamlessly into your existing window trim. If your windows have no trim, we offer frame styles to install right onto the wall around your window to fix your gorgeous new shutters to your window opening.

Your Sunburst Shutters installer will measure each of your individual windows during your free design consultation to make sure that your new shutters will fit seamlessly with your window trim.

Sunburst Shutters Miami is proud to offer a range of window treatments made right here in America. Not only are Polywood plantation shutters America’s #1-selling shutter, but they’re 100% made in America. Not only does that result in saving you money on unnecessary shipping and handling costs, it also gives you the bonus of knowing you’ve chosen an all-American window treatment for your Miami house.

And Polywood isn’t alone in hailing from the U.S. Our historic Reclaimed Wood shutters are constructed with lumber repurposed from places across the country, from homespun Southern barn doors to beautiful New England fences and more.

The primary difference between painted and stained shutters is the way the color interacts with the shutter material. Paint sits atop the material it’s coloring, covering the surface. Stains conversely, permeate the shutter, bonding to the natural wood or Polywood material.

The two color options have their own unique benefits. There are usually a larger number of color choices for paints. With stained shutters, the color doesn’t lie over the natural wood grain, so you’re able to see the natural grooves and bumps of the material without a layer of paint hiding it.

When it comes time for your in-home shutter consultation, our team will bring paint and stain samples straight to you so you can easily match and complement colors with your current design.

The complete plantation shutter process, from your in-home consultation to finishing your shutter installation, will take approximately four to six weeks on average. The process takes this long because we want to build the perfect shutters for your windows. Doing that requires us to take precise measurements, utilize sophisticated software to design them, assemble your brand-new shutters manually, and ship them to you prior to installation. Shutters made from real wood tend to take longer than faux wood due to the added steps of staining and finishing the wood.

It will take some time, but it’s an investment that’s well worth it.

We offer a complete in-home shopping experience. We typically send one of our reps to you to take precise measurements of your windows, walk you through your options, and provide an accurate quote. The in-home consultation is totally free. That’s the simplest way to start your shutter project. If you’re just looking for a simple estimate, you can send us your window measurements either by phone or through our contact form.

Whether or not to remove the trim depends on your personal taste. If you want to keep your existing trim, we’re able to build custom shutters to match your current trim. If you like our shutter frames better, then removing trim is fine—but it’s not a necessity. If you want to go without trim or replace your trim, we’ll help you choose the best shutter to fit what you have in mind for your space.

If you’re a seasoned handyman, you might be familiar with what goes into a shutter installation. However, installing shutters yourself might be a little complicated for most Miami residents. Our suggestion is to leave the installation to our certified and insured professionals, that way you won’t be at risk of damaging your shutters, your windows, or injuring yourself.

By far our most in-demand shutter products are our classic white Polywood® faux wood plantation shutters, and Ovation® hardwood shutters.

As far as shutter options, the most popular shutter configuration we sell is a 3.5” louver, non-textured finish, with an interior-mount Z-frame. If none of that makes any sense, that’s ok. We’d be happy to show you what all those things mean in person. Schedule your complimentary home consultation and we’ll help you figure out what will work best in your house.

Smooth finish shutters have a more modern look, whereas textured finish shutters look a bit more historic. However the perks to both types of plantation shutter finish are a little deeper, and ultimately it comes down to your own personal preference.

Benefits of shutters with a smooth finish – A smooth finish to your shutters give you a solid, chic, fashion-forward look. If you don’t have many other wood accessories like hardwood floors or furniture, you may not want a smooth finish. A smooth finish makes dust easier to see, compared to a textured finish. We typically recommend a smooth finish for faux wood shutters like Polywood.

Benefits of a textured finish for shutters – Shutters with a textured finish add a more natural look to your windows. That’s ideal if you’re trying to bring the look of nature indoors, especially if you want to match the look of your hardwood flooring. A wood grain on your shutter louvers will also make it more difficult to see dust, which means you can wait a little longer between regular cleanings. A textured finish looks especially great on real wood shutters in Miami.

For the most part, the bigger your window is, the more shutter panels you’ll want on it. Our recommendation 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 aren’t as user-friendly as two separate panels. Often, wide panel shutters won’t fit flush against the wall due to their size. Two smaller panels fix that.

For those windows that you might open or shut regularly, you’ll be better off with multiple panels, since they’re easier to open and get more support from the frame when you do open and shut them.

With Sunburst Shutters Miami, all of your measurements for shutters 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 shutter pros can get you an exact measurement so that your shutters will fit your windows seamlessly.

At your complimentary in-home consultation, your Sunburst Shutters rep will help you choose from our extensive variety of Miami plantation shutters, including choices for louver size, stains, and custom mounts and frames.

So schedule your in-home consultation now by calling 305-520-7515 today.

Sunburst can help you pick the best shutter for your home, no matter how narrow your frame. We will work with an outside mount installation that affixes to the trim or wall outside the window pane . Your window treatments will still have identical functionality and energy efficiency, and will tie in seamlessly with other window treatments.

If the louver is detached and jutting from the frame, you could have a broken louver pin. To mend this you will want to remove the pin from both the louver and the stile with a pair of needle-nose pliers or a utility knife. Once everything is withdrawn, put the new pin base into the same hole in the shutter stile, then guide the louver onto the pin. To receive replacement louver pins at no cost, just call us at 305-520-7515.

The cost of plantation shutters depends on the desired product line and window measurements. While we can offer you an estimate over the phone, exact quotes are computed after our complimentary in-person consultation. Call 305-520-7515 to schedule an appointment today.

To start, clear away the damaged staple from the louver with a pair of needle-nose pliers. Then use some adhesive (like wood glue or epoxy) to cover the legs of a replacement staple. Thread the staple into the loop on the louver and slide its legs into the same staple holes on the tilt rod. For extra shutter staples, call us at 305-520-7515.

Polywood shutters are seen as some of the safest window treatments in Miami. The cordless, durable design is great for kids and pets. The non-toxic and hypoallergenic paint and materials will never chip, splinter, or peel. And because Polywood is pest and water resistant, you won’t have to worry about mold, termites, or wood rot.