Battens

Easy reading

Battens are supplied as an extra and are used to space the window shutters away from any window handles.

The battens are fitted around the inside of the window reveal or recess, to create a wooden sub-frame you can screw the shutter frame directly onto.  This in turn spaces the louvres away from any large handles, plastic trim or obstacles when they are tilted.

If you fit the battens towards the front of the recess, it can also allow you to fit the shutter frame away from the window and towards the front of the recess, allowing the shutter doors to wrap around the wall.

You may require extra battens if you have….

•  UPVC double glazed windows
•  Extra large handles  
•  Require the doors to wrap around the wall
•  Tiles / Angled reveals
•  Bay windows

Custom battens

You can order 'custom' made battens by entering the following code into the special option code box on the order form.  The batten code is "cb"

Frame build outs

You can make the outer frame larger by ordering a ‘build out’ to increase the clearance required behind the louvres.  i.e. You can add a 10mm build out to a 50mm frame increasing the depth from 50mm to 60mm.

Technical stuff

Generally a UPVC double glazed window handle protrudes 35mm. The small (40mm) batten will leave you 5mm clearance between the handle and frame.

Battens will be ordered the same length as the width and height of your window sizes and are supplied in the same finish as your window shutters.

Standard sizes are as follows

•   Small (25 x 40mm) x width/height of your window
•   Medium (25 x 50mm) x width/height of your window
•   Large (25 x 60mm) x width/height of your window

Battens are not cut to length, as window width and heights can vary from left to right.

Allowing for the shadow gap the 25mm wide battens will give you 20mm to fix to.

Angled battens are used when connecting frames together in a bay window.

Batten cut outs or rebates can be ordered if you have tiles or trim you need to batten around, add a note at the bottom of the order form with the size of the cut out or rebate you require.

Sams tips

Fix into the window frame

Where possible, always screw the battens into the window frame. This hides the screw heads and saves drilling into the brick side walls. Screw at a slight angle

When drilling your pilot holes to fix the battens to the window, angle the hole so the screws are pointing away from the glass.  It also stops the chuck of the drill rubbing the side of the wall.Filler

Always use flexible filler (painter’s mate/decorators caulk) around the battens to ensure a neat finish and to stop the light filtering around the edges of the battens.

Flaky walls

If you have flaky side walls and not much window frame, use panel adhesive (Grip fill) to glue the battens into place, then complete your fitting the following day when the adhesive has gone off.

UPVC windows
 
Double glazed windows generally have lots of white mastic around the corners, you can plane the back edge of the corner to allow the battens to fit neatly against the wall to create a neater finish.

UPVC plastic trim
 
If you have plastic trim fitted around the reveal, you can either remove it, or measure in front of it and use a batten to fix the window shutters frame to.