Zip screens

The zip difference

An ordinary drop-down outdoor blind hangs loose at the sides. The first proper gust off Lion's Head finds that gap, and the fabric flaps, bells out, or tears free of its guides. A zip screen welds the fabric edge into a zipper that runs captive inside an aluminium channel down each side — no flapping, no gap, real wind resistance. It's the product that actually makes an exposed terrace usable rather than the one that looks good in the brochure and fails in month two.

Fabric choices

Sunscreen mesh, in a range of openness, keeps the view out to the water while cutting glare, UV and insects, with daytime privacy that reverses after dark once the lights go on inside. Clear PVC panels seal a terrace against wind and rain while keeping it fully glazed — the choice for a winter braai room that still wants the Atlantic in view. A blockout option exists too, for an outdoor cinema wall or a west-sun kill on a terrace that gets nothing else right.

Where it earns its keep

• Pool terraces and entertaining decks — enclosure without permanent building work, removable in an afternoon if plans change.
• Covered balconies on the upper floors — exactly where the south-easter is strongest and an ordinary blind fails first.
• Wide openings — motorisation is standard on anything over a few metres, with a wind sensor doing the retracting before the gust arrives.

The honest limitations

Zip screens are a wind-and-glare product, not a structural wall — they enclose an already-covered space rather than replacing a roof. Colour-matching the channel to the facade matters on the more architectural builds here, and we'll flag it at the measure rather than after installation. On multi-screen enclosures spanning a wide terrace, expect this to be one of the larger single line items on the quote — it's usually worth it for how much extra use of the space it buys you.