Motorized Shade Installation in Vermont

Automated shades with no wiring to the window

People call us assuming their windows cannot be automated because there is no power at them. Almost always, they can. The motor sits inside the shade and charges from a cable or a solar strip, so we never open a wall. We install them from our base in Middlebury, out through Addison and Rutland counties and up to the ski houses around Killington, Warren and Stowe.

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Rated4.8

From 33 Google reviews

Which Motorized & Automated Shades Suit The Room

Most of this comes down to the room, the light and what the window has to do. Here is how we talk it through at the estimate.

Get A Price On Motorized & Automated Shades

We measure at your window and bring the samples to you. The estimate is free and there is no showroom to visit.

How Motorization Works Without An Electrician

A small lithium motor sits inside the headrail or the roller tube and runs the shade up and down. It charges from a cable that plugs into the shade, the same way a phone does, and on a window you move once or twice a day a charge lasts months. Nothing is cut into the wall and no circuit is run.

The solar option adds a thin strip along the top of the glass that trickle-charges the motor from daylight. On a south or west window with real sun, it can keep itself going indefinitely. Both options mean a house built in 1890 can have automated shades without anyone touching the wiring.

Motorized Or Manual

A manual shade on a window you can reach and rarely move is the right buy, and we say so at the estimate. The cord or the wand costs nothing, has nothing to charge, and does the job. Most windows in most houses are fine this way.

A motor pays for itself in three situations: when the glass is high or behind furniture and a manual shade stops getting moved, when one wall has six or eight windows and you do not want to walk the line twice a day, and when you want the shades down before the afternoon sun heats the room or up before you are awake. On those windows the motor is why the shade gets used at all.

How The Job Runs

We come to your house with samples and measure every window ourselves. There is no showroom and the estimate is free. The fabric choice is the same as for a manual shade: cellular, roller, solar or roman, in whatever opacity the room needs.

Motorized shades arrive in two to three weeks. The person who measured comes back to install them, pairs the remote, and sets up a schedule if you want one before leaving. Middlebury is home, and we cover Addison and Rutland counties, the lake towns around Charlotte and Shelburne, and the ski country from Killington to Stowe.

What Motorized Shades Cost, And What Moves The Number

We quote after measuring. A motorized shade costs more than the same shade with a cord, and the difference is the motor, not the labor. What moves the number:

• How many windows you are motorizing
• Rechargeable against solar-charged
• The size of the shade, since a wider or heavier shade needs a stronger motor
• Remote only, or app and schedule control as well
• The shade fabric itself, the same as on a manual shade
• Whether shades are grouped to move together or controlled one by one

Motorized Shades In A Vermont House

Two kinds of house send us most of this work. One is an older home that was never wired for anything at the windows, where the owner had assumed automation was off the table. Rechargeable and solar motors put it back on.

The other is a newer build or a ski house with tall glass, often twelve to eighteen feet up in a great room, where the only way to reach a shade is a ladder. Solar charging suits those windows because they face the sun all day. In winter, a schedule that closes cellular shades at dusk keeps the heat in without anyone remembering to do it.

The Questions We Get Most

• How much do motorized shades cost?

  More than the same shade with a cord, and the difference is the motor, since the install takes us the same day either way. We quote after measuring. The number moves with how many windows you are doing, the size of each shade, rechargeable against solar, and whether you want remote only or app and schedule control. The estimate is free and we bring the samples to you.

• Do motorized shades need an electrician?

  Not the ones we install most. Rechargeable motors charge from a cable that plugs into the shade every few months. Solar motors charge from a thin strip on the glass. Neither one needs a circuit run to the window, so nothing comes out of the wall and there is no electrician to book.

• How often do I have to charge them?

  On a shade you move once or twice a day, a rechargeable motor usually goes months between charges. Wide shades, heavy fabrics and windows you move several times a day shorten that. A solar strip on a sunny window generally keeps the motor charged without you doing anything.

• Can I run them from my phone?

  Yes, along with a remote or a wall switch. The app is handy when you are out of the room or away from the house. Most people settle on a schedule in the end, so the shades close before the afternoon sun is on the room and open before you are up.

• Is it worth motorizing one window?

  Sometimes. On a window you can reach and rarely move, probably not. On glass above a stairwell, over a kitchen sink, or on a tall pane in a great room, yes, because nobody closes a shade they have to fetch a ladder for.

• Motorized or manual, which should I choose?

  Manual for a window you can reach and move without thinking about it. Motorized for anything high, for a wall of six or more windows, and for rooms you want on a schedule. We go through it window by window at the estimate, and plenty of houses end up with both.

• How long does it take to get motorized shades installed?

  Two to three weeks on most products, counted from the day we measure, the same as manual shades. The motor does not add to the lead time. We install, pair the remote and set up any schedule you want on the same visit.

• Can my existing shades be motorized?

  Sometimes. Some shade lines take a retrofit motor and some do not, depending on the product, the headrail and how old the shade is. We look at what you have at the estimate and tell you whether it is worth doing or whether a new shade is the better buy.

• What happens if the battery runs down?

  The shade stays where it is until you charge it. Plug the charger into the shade, leave it an hour or two, and it picks up where it left off. No settings are lost.

What Customers Say

4.8 stars from 33 Google reviews