How to Hang Folding Shutters to Block the Sun on a Porch

Excruciatingly hot sun streaming into the porch can rob you of the enjoyment you get from sitting outside. Provide yourself the option to shield the sun by installing folding shutters into the porch’s opening. Folding shutters slide open and closed along tracks in an accordion-like fashion, allowing you to easily block or reveal the sun. When used to block the sun, the shutters will also keep your house cooler in the summertime, helping to reduce the need for air conditioning. Folding shutters typically come with all necessary mounting hardware.

Hacksaw
Drill

Instructions

- 1
  Cut the track to fit the width of the porch opening, if necessary, with a hacksaw.
- 2
  Insert the shutter hanging and sliding hardware into the tracks. Position the stops at the centers of the tracks, followed by the wheel shutter carriers. Place the pivot sockets at the ends of the tracks.
- 3
  Screw the upper shutter track along the axis of the inner edge at the top of the porch opening, driving the screws through the pre-drilled holes. Screw the lower track along the axis of the inner edge at the bottom of the porch opening.
- 4
  Screw the hinges to the side edges of the shutters if the manufacturer has not attached them. Affix the hinges at the pre-drilled pilot holes. If there are no pilot holes, hold the bottom hinge 11 inches from the bottom and the top hinge 7 inches from the top. Mark the screw holes with pencil and drill your own pilot holes. The shutter panels may also need to be connected with hinges.
- 5
  Attach the plates with the pins that fit into the pivot brackets and hold the shutters in place to the top and the bottom outer corners of the shutters. Attach the hooks that fit into and slide along the upper track to the top, inner corners of the shutters. Attach the pins that fit into the lower track to the bottom, inner corners.
- 6
  Lift the shutters and set the bottom pins into the pivot sockets at the ends of the lower track. Press down and slip the top pins into the pivot sockets at the ends of the upper track. Slip the pins at the bottom, inner corners into the lower track.
- 7
  Connect the hooks at the top, inner corners of the shutters to the wheel carriers in the upper track.

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