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Mesh zip screen tensioned in its aluminium side channels across a Sandown balcony at blue-hour, festoon lights glowing above a bistro table

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Zip screens

Vertical exterior screens running in zipped side channels — mesh or PVC fabric locked tight on both edges, sealing a balcony against sun, wind and insects. The product that turned a Sandown balcony into an outdoor room.

The zip difference

The fabric edge is welded into a zipper that runs captive in aluminium side channels — no flapping, no gaps, real wind resistance. An ordinary drop screen flaps and escapes its guides the moment the wind funnels between two towers; a zipped screen holds tension properly, which is exactly the argument that matters several floors up on a Sandown balcony.

Fabric choices

  • Sunscreen mesh (various openness) — keeps the view out, cuts glare and UV, keeps insects out, and gives daytime privacy.
  • Clear PVC / crystal panels — a wind-and-rain-proof enclosure that still keeps the view, useful for a balcony you want to use through a highveld winter.
  • Blockout options — for an outdoor screen setup or simply killing a punishing west sun on an exposed terrace.
Local reality

Balconies several floors up catch funnel-wind between neighbouring blocks — stronger and more unpredictable than the same wind at ground level. A wind sensor that retracts the screen automatically before a highveld storm hits isn't a luxury up here, it's what keeps the fabric and the fixings intact.

Where they earn their keep

Balcony and terrace enclosures, wind suppression on exposed high-rise positions, and any Sandown or Sandton-fringe unit wanting genuine outdoor-room use without permanent building work. Spans run wide — 4m-class per screen is common — and motorisation is close to standard on anything beyond a narrow opening, both for convenience and because a wide screen is heavy to wind by hand every day.

Practical notes

Channels are colour-matched to your building's frames or balustrade for a finish that looks specified, not bolted on — a detail that matters in schemes with strict rules on what's visible from outside a unit.

We fit them wherever there's a balcony or patio worth sealing — high-rise balconies in Illovo, poolside decks in Morningside, rooftop terraces in Rivonia, and new outdoor entertaining areas opened up by a Hurlingham renovation.

Motorised roller blind partly lowered over a bedroom window with a skyline view

Motorised & automation

Wind sensors and app control for exterior screens.

 Blockout roller blind fully drawn over a small nursery window

Roller blinds

The indoor half of the same sun-control story.

 Day/night zebra blind partly drawn in a compact guest bedroom

Day/night blinds

Filtered light for the room behind the balcony door.

What a balcony zip screen costs in Sandown

A screen is priced by the area it closes in. Installed, a crank-operated zip screen runs about R2,800 to R4,500 per square metre, and a motorised one R4,000 to R6,000 per square metre, including the control and a wind sensor where the exposure calls for one. Clear panels, broader spans and the heavier channel profiles all belong at the upper end.

Anything fitted on a balcony is a scheme matter as well as a wind matter, so the approval step is flagged at quoting rather than after. Read them as a planning guide; they are not a quotation. A floor price applies to the small ones, since brackets, tube and fitting time hardly shift with the size of the pane. Every window in the flat is costed on its own at the measure and put in writing.