On the wide, high glass most new-estate homes are built around, motorisation isn't a luxury add-on — it's often the only practical way to operate the blind at all.
Rechargeable battery motors need no wiring and suit a retrofit — charge every few months via a USB-style charger. Wired 220V motors suit new builds and major renovations: permanent, no charging, best for big or heavy systems and anything mounted outside. If you're still mid-build in Ruimsig, wiring in at this stage is worth raising with your electrician before the ceilings close up.
02A handset remote covers one blind or every blind in the house on one channel. App control means checking whether the west-facing blinds are still up from the office. Schedules drop bedroom blinds at sunrise and living-area blinds at 3pm in summer without anyone touching a switch. Sun sensors do the same job automatically on hot elevations, and — critical on exterior products — wind sensors retract awnings and zip screens before a Highveld thunderstorm gust gets to them.
03Spans too wide or heavy for a hand chain; blinds above stair voids or double-volume glazing; concealed ceiling-recess systems; anything exterior — external venetians, awnings, zip screens. A wall of stacking doors with six separate blinds becomes "one button, six blinds" the moment it's motorised and linked.
Motorisation is never priced on its own, because the motor always belongs to a product. Whatever the product, an automated one installs at somewhere between R2,500 and R7,500 for each square metre. An indoor roller with a motor in the tube is the least of it; an outdoor system engineered to stay out in the weather is the most.
Sensors, keypads and hubs are quoted on their own lines rather than folded into a square-metre rate, so you can weigh each window separately. Small openings carry a minimum charge. Every number here is orientation only — the binding figure waits on the measure, at which point we know the number of motors, what they drive and where their power comes from.
Battery motors need that periodic recharge — we say so plainly at quote stage, not after installation. It's a small trade-off for not opening a wall to run wiring.
Wide stacking-door glass and hard-to-reach openings turn up on almost every street in this area — here's where we plan motorisation in most often.
Motorised control for wide fairway-facing stacking doors.
Read moreLinked, cordless control for busy family households.
Read moreMotors for high or hard-to-reach ridge-top windows.
Read moreRetrofitted motors on established homes' wider openings.
Read moreFree in-home measure, written per-window quote, no pressure.