Window Shades and Screens on Lake Dunmore, VT

Fifteen Minutes From Our Door

Lake Dunmore is fifteen minutes from our door, and one of us is the fire chief in Salisbury, so we know the shore road and most of the camps on it. The lake houses here have the two problems every lake house has, glare off the water and glass that goes up two stories. Dunmore adds a third: a lot of these houses are summer camps being converted to year-round homes with the old single-pane windows still in.

Two Stories Of Glass Over The Water

The house in these photos is on the east shore. The great room is a wall of glass facing the lake, and the afternoon sun comes off the water and straight through it. Solar shades at three percent openness cut the glare and the heat and leave the view exactly where it was. On glass that tall they are motorized, because no one is reaching the top of them.

The bedrooms are a different job. A roller shade in a light-filtering fabric in the piano room, a sheer shade beside a shutter in the guest room, and blackout in the rooms where people are trying to sleep with the sun up at five.

Camps Becoming Year-Round Homes

A lot of Dunmore is summer camps that have been winterized, and the windows are usually the last thing to get replaced. A double cell cellular shade is the cheapest thing that measurably helps a single-pane window through a Vermont winter, because the honeycomb holds a layer of still air against the glass. It is the first thing we suggest on a converted camp.

Screens That Roll Away In October

Blackfly season on the lake lasts about six weeks, and a fixed screen grays the view for the rest of the year to solve it. A retractable screen on the porch or the French doors rolls into its housing when the bugs have gone, and there is nothing in the view until May.

• Solar shades for glare off the water, three to five percent openness
• Motorized on the tall glass in the great room
• Double cell cellular on converted camps
• Retractable screens on porches and French doors

Questions From Lake Dunmore

• Do you work on camps that are only open in summer?

  Yes. We schedule the measure and the install around when you are there, and a retractable screen or a solar shade is usually what a summer camp wants. If the camp is being winterized, cellular shades are the first thing to look at for the old windows.

• What stops the glare off the lake?

  A solar shade. The open weave cuts the glare and the heat while you can still see through it, and the openness percentage decides how much of each. Three percent for a west-facing wall of glass, five where the view matters more than the last bit of glare.

• Can you do the tall windows in a great room?

  Yes, and we have done exactly that on Dunmore. Anything you cannot reach is motorized, and a solar strip keeps the motor charged on glass that faces the sun all afternoon.

• How far is Lake Dunmore from you?

  About fifteen minutes from Middlebury. It is one of the closest areas we cover, and one of us lives in Salisbury.

Get A Price In Lake Dunmore

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