Buyer's guide
How to Find a Good Blind Fitter
Eleven questions that separate a competent fitter from an expensive lesson, and an honest account of where we sit against them. We fit blinds ourselves, so read this as informed rather than neutral.
A word on who wrote this. We are a blind company in Rainham and we would like your business. We have written the checklist below as the questions we would want asked of us, and we have said plainly where we stand on each one. If you use it to choose someone else, it has still done its job.
The eleven questions
- Who measures: you or them? If they ask you to supply sizes, the risk of a mismeasure sits with you, and a blind built correctly to a wrong number is not a warranty claim. A fitter who measures accepts that risk. We measure, free, and remake at our cost if our measurement was wrong.
- Is the measuring visit free, and is it obligation-free? A charged survey is not unreasonable in itself, but you should know before they arrive. Ours is free with nothing to sign.
- Is the quote itemised per window? A single figure for a house hides everything. Itemised, you can drop a room, change a fabric or compare like with like. We quote per window.
- Is fitting included or extra? Ask directly. Prices that look sharp sometimes exclude installation. Ours includes fitting, brackets and child safety devices.
- How is a bay priced? A bay is three or five blinds, not one. Anyone quoting a bay as a single blind either misunderstands the product or is about to re-quote you later. We price per pane and explain why on our bay window page.
- What happens if a blind is faulty? Who collects it, who refits it, and how long. Get the answer before you order, not after. If the fault is ours, we remake and refit it.
- Will they fit the child safety device? BS EN 13120 requires it on any blind with a looped chain or cord. A fitter who leaves it in the bag for you to sort out is telling you something. We fit it, at the correct height.
- Can you see fabric in your own home? Colour behaves differently in a north-facing room at four in the afternoon than it does under showroom lighting. We bring samples and leave them with you, or post them beforehand.
- Can they show you flame-retardant certification? For any commercial premises this is not optional: you will need the BS 5867-2 certificate for your fire risk assessment. We supply it with the order.
- How far away are they? A blind that needs re-levelling in six months is a short trip for a local firm and a negotiation for a distant one. We are in Rainham and cover London, Essex and North Kent.
- Will they tell you not to buy something? The most useful answer a fitter gives is sometimes that you do not need the upgrade. We say so on our own product pages:thermal blinds will not fix single glazing, and conservatory blinds are a summer solution far more than a winter one.
Three things that should give you pause
A price before a measure
Nobody can price a made-to-measure blind accurately without seeing the window. A firm number over the phone is either padded or about to change.
Pressure to decide on the day
A discount that expires when the fitter leaves your house is a sales technique, not a price. Made-to-measure blinds are not a perishable good.
Vagueness about the fabric
"Blackout" and "dimout" are different products. An openness factor is a number, not an adjective. If they cannot name the specification, they may not know it.
If you have already bought the blinds
Plenty of people arrive here having ordered online and then discovered that fitting is a separate problem. Two honest routes.
Fit them yourself
For a standard window on masonry it is a twenty-minute job for the first blind and ten for each after. Our fitting guide covers brackets, levelling, roll direction and the safety device, and it applies whoever supplied the blind. We would not attempt it ourselves over a stairwell, on a conservatory roof, or into an unknown wall build-up.
Ask us
Get in touch and tell us what you have and where you are. We can often help. What we cannot do is take responsibility for how a blind we did not make has been sized, if it arrived too narrow, no fitter can fix that.
Useful before you commit
What roller blinds cost
Real ranges, so you can judge a quote.
Price estimator
A budget figure before anyone visits.
How to measure
So you can check what a fitter does.
Made to measure vs ready made
Whether you need a fitter at all.
Child safety
What BS EN 13120 actually requires.
All guides
The full library.
Frequently asked questions
No. We fit our own blinds, so a directory of competitors is not something we can keep honestly or keep current. What we can give you is the checklist above, which works on any firm including us.
Often, yes, tell us what you have and where you are. We cannot warrant the sizing of a blind we did not make, so if it has arrived the wrong size, fitting will not rescue it.
It varies by firm and by access. The more useful question is whether fitting is included in the blind price, because comparing a supply-only price against a supplied-and-fitted one is how quotes get misread. Ours includes fitting.
We are hardly impartial, so weigh it yourself. Nationals have scale and longer warranties on paper. Local firms are quicker to come back for an adjustment and you deal with the person who measured. Both can be good; ask the eleven questions of either.
Usually not. Ready made blinds are designed to be trimmed and fitted at home, and our fitting guide covers it. The difficult part is cutting the fabric square, not mounting the brackets.
London, Essex and North Kent from our base in Rainham: the towns are listed below. If you are just outside, ask anyway.
Other areas we cover
Book a free measure in your area
Tell us which rooms and we will come out, measure, show you fabrics and quote, with no obligation.
HD Blinds, Rainham, Essex. Measuring and fitting across London, Essex and North Kent.