Coffee Break RECAP: Shutters

COFFEE BREAK RECAP – This month’s “coffee break” video recap focuses on identifying shutters by style and age, as well as how to strip louvered shutters for repairing and repainting. Watch below.

 

VIDEO SUMMARY:

• Focus: Shutters, including stripping paint from louvered shutters, differences between original, modern, and regional shutters, and Danielle’s pet peeves with fake shutters 
• Question: How do you restore louvered shutters – specifically, how do you strip the paint to prepare them for restoration?
• Solutions: Danielle and Jonathan discussed answers to the question and provided other relevant shutter information:
   
  1. RESTORATION – follow the 80/20 rule of restoration
          – Consider doing (some of) the work yourself. 80% of restoration requires only semi-skilled labor, and the other 20% requires skilled labor. Following this rule saves you a lot of money in the long run. Start by stripping paint yourself. But remember: stripping paint – especially from louvered shutters – is time-consuming and labor-intensive. It can take approximately 16 hours per shutter.
          – Use Bahco scrapers made from carbide – they come in various sizes so you can pick the right ones to fit between louvres. They can also be sharpened with a diamond sharpener, lengthening their life.
          – Find a local craftsperson to repair the shutters.
          – Paint the repaired shutters yourself.
          – If it can’t be restored or saved, find a local craftsperson to custom build new “old” shutters – strong, sturdy woods such as white oak, mahogany, or sapele are best
  2. STYLES of shutters
          – Historic, classical shutters include various styles. Board-and-batten shutters, solid raised panel shutters, and louvered shutters are common in historic homes. 
          – Post-WWII shutters are usually mass-produced and less functional, and in many cases, only decorative. Dupes of traditional louvered shutters are identifiable by “tells” including glue or biscuits in place of mortise and tenon joints, easy rot, shutters that are not comparable in size or shape to the window they adjoin, or shutters that are affixed directly to the wall behind them.
  3. PROBLEMS with modern shutters – pet peeves and DON’TS that make you shudder!
          – Visually unappealing – especially when they don’t match size or shape of adjoining window
          – Glue or biscuit-attached louvers are more likely to break apart and rot
          – No copper caps on top of shutters lead to more rot
          – 2nd growth wood – poor quality and leads to rot
          – Affixed directly to the wall behind them – increases propensity to rot or create negative chemical reactions

POORLY DESIGNED MODERN SHUTTERS COST MORE MONEY IN THE LONG RUN
than restoring sound historical shutters!

 

Further resources:

• History of shutters, here.