How long do faux wood blinds last?

How long do faux wood blinds last? This depends on a few variables ranging from the quality of the blinds to how well they’re treated. Blinds that get a lot of attention from toddlers or the heavy-handed will usually enjoy a rather shorter lifespan than those that live a generally quiet life and are handled with care; or not even really with care per se, just not with undue levels of aggression.

However, putting the variables to one side for a moment, faux wood blinds are certainly one of the more robust and hardwearing types of blinds, as long as you start with good quality blinds at the outset, and these are invariable made-to-measure as you rarely (ok, never) get the same sort of quality from mass-produced readymade blinds.

In this blog post I’m going to provide a bit more information on the factors that dictate how long faux wood blinds last, and why.

A couple of peripheral questions I field reasonably often are “why do faux wood blinds warp” and “do faux wood blinds break easily,” so if you’re looking for info on those points specifically, check out the sister-content to this one.

Oh, and if you had never even heard the idea that faux wood blinds could warp until I just mentioned it but are now concerned that if you buy a faux wood blind it might warp, go ahead and read the correlating piece anyway to find out why that’s actually vanishingly unlikely to happen, and how to prevent a situation arising in which it does.

Contents:

• 1. Why whether you buy readymade or made-to-measure affects the lifespan of faux wood blinds.
• 2. How long do readymade faux wood blinds last?
• 3. How long do made-to-measure faux-wood blinds last?
• 4. The other variables that dictate faux wood blind lifespans.
• 5. How long do faux wood blinds last if you buy them from us specifically?

1. “How long do faux wood blinds last” is a question of readymade versus made-to-measure

Why is there a difference between how long faux wood blinds last depending on whether they’re readymade or made-to-measure? The simplest answer to this is that you get what you pay for. Readymade blinds (of any type) will always be cheaper than made-to-measure – although often, the price difference isn’t extreme, but the quality difference invariably will be.

When it comes to buying blinds, one of the first options you as a buyer need to consider are readymade/off the shelf, versus made-to-measure. The most obvious difference here from the customer’s point of view is that the former is readymade in a set size and if it fits your window, well and good – but if it doesn’t, you’ll either have to compromise on fit or try to trim it down at home. Made-to-measure, on the other hand, fits perfectly because it is bespoke-made just for you.

However, this is not all there is to it, and there’s another really important distinction between readymade and made-to-measure blinds too, which not everyone realises, or doesn’t realise until it is too late.

This is that readymade or cut-to-size blinds will never compare in terms of quality to made-to-measure. Like, ever. The materials, parts, and workmanship of readymade blinds are always inferior to made-to-measure; only the degree to which this applies varies.

Mass-produced goods will never compare to made-to-measure on quality, and there are a few reasons for this. The first is that the craftsmanship just isn’t there. The second is that readymade and mass-produced goods are built down to a price, not up to a standard.

The third is perhaps the most interesting and least obvious reason of all. This is that in order for a blind to be made with the theoretical intention of the buyer needing to trim/alter it at home, it cannot be made of like, kryptonite or something else that the average Joe with a hacksaw and ambitions to DIY cannot beat into submission.

This means that a readymade faux-wood PVC blind actually has to be rather flimsier in construction than a made-to-measure one that doesn’t need to be produced with the intention of someone needing to mess with it down the line.

Even things that are integral to the longevity and stability of a good quality blind, like headrail reinforcement (to prevent it from bowing) may well be absent from a readymade blind, as were it present, it could not be doctored and cut down at home.

2. How long do readymade faux wood blinds last?

As a broad guide, if you take great care over how you look after and operate readymade faux-wood blinds and particularly, if they’re left in situ a lot of the time (and are not adjusted regularly) then readymade faux wood blinds might last as long as four or five years before they start showing signs of wear and tear, or developing problems in operation.

3. How long do made-to-measure faux wood blinds last?

On the flipside then, made-to-measure faux wood blinds will easily last a minimum of seven to eight years before showing their first signs of wear and tear. This is based on the proviso again that they are well looked after and operated without undue violence (although you should not need to handle them with kid gloves either).

This is a lower-end estimate too; while readymade faux wood blinds might live for up to four or five years at the outside, made-to-measure will last at least seven or eight years and possibly far more.

As you can probably tell, this makes the average lifespan of a made-to-measure in the ballpark of double that of a readymade, and I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you that this means a made-to-measure faux wood blind is apt to be cheaper in the long term.

Even a top quality made-to-measure faux wood blind is highly unlikely to cost twice as a much as a mediocre readymade in terms of initial purchase price; and it will actually just fit and look good from the get-go, without any work or swearing involved on your side!

4. Factoring in the variables

While I/we at English Blinds are in a fairly good position to know how long the average blind might last, there are always a number of variables to consider too, which are worth a mention as well in the interests of being thorough.

I’ve covered things like the quality (and why this will invariably be lower with readymade faux wood blinds), how heavy-handed you are with them, if you maintain them well and so on; and you also need to think about things like how often you adjust them.

• A blind that’s left in a certain position for days or even weeks on end will be subject to far less wear and tear than one that you open in the morning and close at night every day without fail.
• If you also adjust or fine-tune the blind at various points throughout the day most days too, this also needs to be factored in.
• Oh, plot twist though; if you do leave your blind in one position for weeks or even months on end without adjusting it, there’s also the possibility the mechanism will become stiff or furred up with dust and even in some environments, grease from cooking and so on. However, a quick dust off and potentially spraying a little lubricant into the mechanism will soon bring it back to life, so don’t worry too much on that count.
• Another commonly overlooked aspect to consider when answering how long do faux wood blinds last is whether or not they’re hung in a south-facing window, i.e., one that gets bright, direct sunlight every day.
  This can result in fading (on coloured and darker blinds) and discolouring/yellowing on white or light-coloured blinds over time too, which will happen at a much slower rate if at all in less well-lit rooms.
• However, UV treatments are used in the paints and finishes of good quality made-to-measure faux wood blinds these days, and so discolouring, fading, or yellowing is only really likely to be a problem in older faux wooden blinds, and those at the lower end of the market; yes, I am once more letting off shots at ready-mades.
• Simply getting sick of the sight of the same old blind every day is something else worth mentioning; often, or in the case of made-to-measure faux wood blinds, it is the urge to redecorate that heralds the end of a good quality faux wood blind’s lifespan, rather than wear and tear causing it to play up or look excessively shabby.

5. How long do faux wood blinds last if you buy them from us specifically?

Now, full disclosure: we make and sell excellent quality made-to-measure faux wood blinds, which means we/I do have some inherent bias in respect of ours being more awsomer than most, and most certainly far more awesomer than any readymade faux wood blind you will ever meet.

That said, there’s a bloody good reason why we make and sell good quality faux wood blinds to order, rather than using far cheaper mass-produced blinds and almost certainly making more sales and higher profit margins if we did.

This reason (on my part at least given that I’m in a semi-customer-facing role) is that getting shouted at by unhappy and disillusioned customers on the regular isn’t something I want to spend a lot of my workday experiencing, and fortunately The Powers That Be are singing from the same hymn sheet in that respect.

BTW, we’ve been in business since the late 1980s (I wasn’t here personally back then, being as I was still in primary school at that point and frankly, probably not fit to be trusted to operate a blind unsupervised, far less work in the creation and marketing of them) but what I’m saying is that we collectively as a company must be doing something right, being that we’re still here.

We’d rather charge a bit more (and commonly it really is only a bit) to ensure we can invest in quality materials, parts, and workmanship, and know that when our blinds leave the shelter of our shop floor and go off to their new forever homes, they’re not going to be boomeranging right back in short order because they bit someone or did not score well in the showring.

Anyway, now I’ve got the “buy our blinds, OURS specifically” thing out of the way; How long do faux wood blinds last from English Blinds? Based on customer feedback and the experiences of our longstanding workforce (who invariably tend to end up with a home full of our own blinds once they’ve been here a couple of years) we’ve yet to learn of one of our faux wood blinds lasting less than 8-10 years in normal use. A couple of the team actually have faux wood blinds older than a decade that are still in good cosmetic and functional order.