Common Cellular Shade Mistakes Franklin Homeowners Should Skip

Franklin Window Treatments

Cellular shades cover an enormous price spread. You can buy one off a shelf for less than a tank of gas or spend many times that on a custom shade with two moving rails and a motor. Most of that spread is real, and a little of it is not. Here is where the money goes on a honeycomb shade, and the ongoing cost that rarely comes up before the sale in Franklin homes.

What the Cells Actually Do

Before you compare fabric samples for a Franklin home, understand what you are actually buying. A cellular shade is pleated fabric folded into rows of hollow tubes, and the trapped air inside those tubes is what slows heat moving through the glass in both directions. Ask whether you are looking at single cell or double cell, since that is the spec doing the real thermal work, not the color.

Ask to see the published R-value for the fabric you are considering, and treat it as real but general information rather than a guaranteed number for your specific Franklin home. It is a fair way to compare two fabrics against each other, not a prediction about next month's bill.

Confirm which windows in the house actually take direct sun, since that is what decides where the extra cost of a heavier cell structure is worth paying.

What Cellular Shades Cost

Stock cellular shades run roughly $60 to $600 a window nationally, and custom shades measured and installed in a Franklin home run roughly $250 to $2,600 a window based on national ranges. The gap between those numbers is fit and options, not fabric quality.

• Size: fabric and hardware scale with the opening, so a tall window costs several times what a small one does.
• Double cell: two rows of cells is more material and a thicker finished product than one row.
• Opacity: a room darkening liner is an added layer inside the cell.
• Operation: a cordless spring prices differently than a battery motor or a hardwired one, and top down bottom up adds its own hardware on top of whichever you pick.

IN issues no license for this trade, so a license number is not the thing to ask for. The Indiana Home Improvement Contract Act does apply to residential jobs over one hundred fifty dollars and requires a written contract naming the scope of work, plus firm dates and a total price. A cellular shade order should name the cell size, single or double, the opacity, the operation, and the mount type for each window before anyone signs.

Most of what goes wrong with a cellular shade order was avoidable before it shipped. Ask about the light gap, ask about batteries, ask what a fast delivery date usually means, and ask for the configuration in writing. Franklin Window Treatments answers those questions before your Franklin order goes in, and we are insured and bonded. Call (317) 999-5154 to talk it through.

Opacity and the Light Gap

Cell count controls heat. Fabric opacity controls light, and the two get confused constantly. Light filtering fabric glows and gives daytime privacy without darkness. Room darkening fabric has an opaque liner built into the cell, so very little light passes straight through the face of the shade. You can order a double cell in light filtering or a single cell in room darkening, since the two choices are independent of each other.

Here is the part worth hearing before you order. Room darkening fabric does not make a dark room by itself, because the light that wakes people up comes around the shade rather than through it. An inside mount sits the shade inside the window opening, and the factory leaves a small deduction off the measured width so the shade fits and runs without rubbing. That deduction becomes a bright line down each side.

Side channels, light blocking pockets the shade edges run inside, close that gap completely. So does an outside mount with two to three inches of overlap, or a drapery panel layered over the top for a softer look.

How the Shade Operates

People assume a shade that starts creeping down on its own is broken. Usually it is not. A cordless shade uses a spring in the headrail to hold the fabric's weight, and that spring relaxes gradually over years of use. The fix is a tension adjustment inside the headrail, not a new shade.

The racking mistake happens constantly and gets blamed on the hardware. Lifting a cordless shade by one corner instead of the center throws it out of level, and it will run crooked until someone pulls it even again. That is user error, not a defect.

The motorization mistake is choosing battery power because it costs less up front, roughly $100 to $300 a window less than hardwired based on national figures, without asking about the batteries themselves. A wand commonly needs fresh batteries something like once a year, which turns into a real annual chore on a house full of motorized shades, especially the ones up high that need a ladder.

Single Cell or Double Cell

Bedrooms and living rooms in most Franklin homes do fine with a 9/16 inch single cell, the size that looks right in almost any room without calling attention to itself. Save double cell for the rooms working against real heat: a west facing wall, a bonus room sitting over a garage, a stretch of glass that makes the room uncomfortable by three in the afternoon, or any window that just runs hot no matter the season.

Watch stack height on short, wide windows over a built in or a low sill. A double cell in a 3/4 inch size stacks noticeably taller than a single cell in 3/8 inch once the shade is raised, and on a tall window nobody notices, but on a short one that stack eats real view.

A tall stairwell window wants a larger cell so you are not looking at dozens of tight pleats running the full height of the wall. A small bathroom window wants the opposite, since a large cell on a short opening looks coarse and out of proportion.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do cellular shades help in summer or only in winter?

Both, and that matters in this climate, since there's a real cooling load in summer and a real heating load in winter here. In summer, the trapped air inside the cells slows heat radiating off hot glass into the room. In winter, it slows warm room air from giving up its heat to cold glass. Manufacturers publish an R-value for cellular fabric, similar to what's used for wall insulation, and it rises when you move from single cell to double cell. Treat that number as a fair way to compare two shades against each other, not a guaranteed number on your utility bill.

How do you clean honeycomb shades?

Gently and regularly. The cells trap dust, so the routine job is a vacuum with a brush attachment on the lowest suction, run along the pleats rather than across them. Spot clean marks with a barely damp cloth and let the shade dry fully open. Don't soak a cellular shade or run it through anything, since water breaks down the bonds holding the cells together, and a collapsed cell doesn't come back. Kitchen shades need this more often than the rest of the house.

Do I need a different cell size for a small window versus a large one?

It helps to scale it. A 3/4 inch cell on a small bathroom window can look coarse and out of proportion, like a piece of hardware rather than a fitted shade. A 3/8 inch cell on a tall stairwell window turns into dozens of tight pleats that read busy from across the room. The 9/16 inch size is the workhorse that looks right on almost anything in between, which is why it shows up on so many orders. If you're doing several windows in the same room, matching the cell size keeps them looking related rather than random.