Discover the most common causes for damage to Venetian blinds in homes
Just like any other element inside your home, Venetian blinds can be subject to various perils. Whether you have small children visiting, start cleaning them carelessly, or your pet treats them as a toy, these are some of the situations that can make your shading technology inoperable. Learn the most common causes of damaged Venetian blinds and what to do to prevent this.
Indoor Venetian blinds are an accessory that is primarily intended to be functional. They protect the inside of your home from the sun, overheating, but also from the curious eyes from without. If everything is working perfectly, you might not even be aware of having Venetian blinds. Simply grab the pull cord, raise or lower the Venetian blinds and adjust them exactly as needed. The problem usually arises when something goes wrong, and this is very often caused by damage. To ensure that your Venetian blinds will function for many years, it’s useful to recognise the most common risks and know how to prevent them.
Bent slats on Venetian blinds
You may be familiar with the sorry old sight of bent and twisted slats on the Venetian blinds. Though they have long since ceased to perform their duties, they continue to gather dust and spoil the overall impression of the building. However, slats bend far less due to material degradation and more due to improper handling and cleaning.
Of course, this always depends on the material – aluminium slats are highly susceptible to bending, whereas bamboo Venetian blinds retain their flexibility for years. In practice, bamboo Venetian blinds can often handle less gentle handling thanks to their flexibility. If you’d still like to know how to always keep them “spotless”, read our recent article.
Torn ladder string and pull cord tassels
In a ranking of the most common ways of damaging indoor Venetian blinds, next on the list right after bent slats would be a torn ladder string. All it takes for a disaster to strike is single moment of carelessness when cleaning, or canine/feline intervention. Without the ladder string, your Venetian blinds will become virtually unusable. Fortunately, the ladder string is very inexpensive and replacing it is a breeze for any skilled handyman.
The place right behind the torn ladder string goes to pull cord tassels. Particularly if made of lower quality plastic, they tend to get frail with time and one gentle motion is all it takes to break off. This can be fixed quite easily with glue, but that’s certainly not a permanent or aesthetically pleasing solution.
Careful around pull cords
Pull cord controls for Venetian blinds are widespread and an equally common source of problems. Other than the fact that they can easily fall prey to careless handling during maintenance and cleaning, they’re also very attractive targets for small children and pets. They can be a real menace to the pull cords on your Venetian blinds. Children’s curiosity and abandon can be the culprit of multiple issues here. Snapping the pull cord makes it impossible to operate the Venetian blinds, yet the cord itself can also pose a hazard to your child.
In relation to the potential hazard of the pull cords on Venetian blinds, it’s necessary to mention the STN EN 13120 standard regulating children’s safety from strangulation by loops. Any expert on the installation of Venetian blinds acknowledges that the installation and any repairs to the controls must abide by this standard, i.e. the pull cord must not hang below ⅔ of the height of the Venetian blinds. In any case, it’s recommended to keep the pull cord out of the reach of children under 3–4 years of age. That’s not only protects the Venetian blinds controls, but more so any children in their immediate vicinity.
If damage has occurred even despite careful handling, remember that you should leave the repairs of your Venetian blinds to professionals, same as with installation. Doing that ensures that the repairs will be done properly and won’t just be a temporary fix to the problem.