Bishopscourt Blinds / Products / Motorisation
The blinds that shade the west glass before you get home
Quiet tubular motors on a wall switch, a handheld remote or your phone — plus timed scenes, sun and wind sensors, and no cords anywhere near a child’s room.
A motor in the tube, and a decision about how you want to talk to it
A motorised blind hides a slim tubular motor inside the roller tube or the venetian headrail. There is no visible mechanism, no box on the wall and no cord. What changes is the control: a wall switch that looks like a light switch, a handheld remote, or an app on your phone.
Most Bishopscourt houses end up with a mix. The bedrooms take a wall switch by the door because that is where your hand goes. The living-room wall of glass takes a remote or a phone. Anything concealed in a ceiling takes whatever you like, because there was never going to be a chain.
Battery, wired, and what each is actually for
Battery motors
Rechargeable, self-contained, and the right answer for a retrofit where chasing cable into a finished plastered wall would be the biggest part of the job. Charged periodically via a lead or a small solar panel on a sunny elevation.
Wired motors
Fed from a permanent supply, so nothing needs charging. Best specified while a house is being built or rewired, when the cable can be run to the head of the window before the ceiling and cornices close.
Control
A wall switch, a handheld remote, or your phone over the home network. All three can run the same blind — you are not locked into one, and the switch keeps working when a phone is flat.
Scenes and sensors
Timed scenes that lower the west-facing glass through the afternoon heat and lift the bedrooms at sunrise. Wind sensors on awnings that retract before a gust does the deciding for you.
Worth deciding before the quote
- Which windows genuinely need it — a high clerestory, a stairwell, a four-metre glass wall or a blind behind furniture, rather than every opening in the house
- Grouping, so a run of blinds along one wall moves as one while individual control stays available
- Switch positions marked at the measure and agreed on plan, because a switch in the wrong place is worse than no switch
- Motor noise level — the quieter classes matter in a bedroom and are worth the difference there and nowhere else
- Manual override or a battery back-up on anything that would be a genuine problem stuck down during a load-shedding slot
- Nurseries and children’s rooms: motorisation removes the hanging loop entirely, which is the strongest safety argument for it
- We do not name motor brands anywhere on this site — the consultant will talk you through the options and put the specification in writing on the quote
Big houses, long runs, and windows nobody was ever going to reach
The scale of Bishopscourt housing is what drives motorisation here. Plots run well over 4 000m², houses are large and often split over levels, and contemporary additions bring double-volume glazing with heads three or four metres up. A manual chain on those windows is either unreachable or ugly, and usually both.
The second driver is that so much of the suburb is shaded for part of the day and blazing for the rest. A timed scene handles that far better than a person does — the sunscreen on the western glass drops through the worst of the afternoon and lifts again for the evening light, whether or not anyone is home to think about it. Add a wind sensor on the awning and the two things most likely to be forgotten both look after themselves.
Motorisation across the southern suburbs
Long glass walls and awkward high windows aren’t unique to Bishopscourt. We fit and program motorised blinds and awnings across Constantia, Newlands, Claremont and Rondebosch too — wall switch, remote or phone.
Motorisation pricing, product by product
Motorised shading is priced by whatever the motor drives, so the honest answer is a range: R2,500 to R7,500 per square metre installed across everything we fit, as a guide. A motorised roller in blockout or sunscreen sits at R2,500 to R3,800. A motorised aluminium venetian is R2,500 to R3,600, a timber one R3,000 to R4,500. A motorised cellular blind is R3,000 to R4,800, a concealed or recessed system R3,200 to R5,000, and a motorised folding-arm awning R5,500 to R7,500 per square metre of projection.
Those bands include the motor, the handset or wall control and the setting-up on the day. Electrical work is excluded: a wired 220V motor needs a point at the head of the opening and that is the electrician's line, while a rechargeable battery motor skips the cabling and asks for a charging routine instead. Very small blinds attract a minimum. Nothing is committed until the free measure has happened and the itemised, per-window quotation is with you.
Worth knowing before the measure
Can existing blinds be motorised, or does everything have to be replaced?
It depends on the blind. Some tubes and headrails will take a motor; plenty will not, usually because the tube diameter or the bracket is wrong. The consultant will look at what you have and tell you honestly which of the two it is rather than quoting a conversion that will disappoint.
What happens during load shedding?
Battery motors are unaffected. Wired motors stop until power returns, so on anything where being stuck matters we specify a manual override or a battery back-up. It is worth raising at the measure so it is priced in from the start.
Is it noisy?
Modern tubular motors are quiet, and the quieter classes are quieter still. In a bedroom that difference is worth paying for; in a living room it generally is not. We will point out which is which rather than upselling the whole house.
Do we need special wiring or a smart-home system?
No. A remote or a wall switch needs no network at all. App control uses your existing home wi-fi through a small hub — useful if you want scenes and schedules, entirely optional if you do not.
Other things we fit in Bishopscourt
Concealed & Recessed
Motorisation and hidden hardware, designed together.
Explore →
Roller Blinds
The most commonly motorised product we fit.
Explore →
Folding-Arm Awnings
Motor plus wind sensor — the pairing we recommend here.
Explore →
Venetian Blinds
Motorised tilt and lift on high or awkward windows.
Explore →Motorise the windows that need it, not all of them
The consultant will walk the house with you and mark which openings genuinely justify a motor. That conversation usually saves more than it costs.
Tell us about your windows
Tell us which windows are awkward to reach and whether the house is finished or being built. One of our expert consultants will contact you shortly to arrange your free in-home measure.
- No obligation, no call-centre — a consultant calls you directly
- Fabric samples brought to the measure, not just a screen swatch
- Written, itemised quote before anything is ordered