Older homes · Odd openings
Cut-to-Size Blinds, Shutters & Rescreening in East Bakersfield
Built to the opening, because nothing here is a stock size
East Bakersfield is the old part of town, and old houses do not have standard windows. A good share of the stock here predates the war or went up in the fifties and sixties, and almost none of it matches a size you can pull off a shelf at a big-box store.
That is the single most common reason people end up calling us from this side of town. They bought blinds that were close, cut them down, and now there is a finger-wide gap of afternoon sun down one side. Close is not a fit on a window that was framed by hand seventy years ago.
We measure every opening and build to it. Blinds are cut to size, shutters are templated to the shape including arches and out-of-square tops, and old aluminium screen frames get rescreened rather than replaced with something that does not match anything else on the house.
We take the measurements and hang them ourselves. The fit is our problem, not yours.
What matters on windows in East Bakersfield
Built to the opening
Every covering cut to the measurement we take, not trimmed down from the nearest stock width.
Out-of-square openings
Houses settle. We measure top, middle and bottom and build to the reality of it.
Old frames rescreened
Fifties and sixties aluminium frames re-meshed rather than thrown away.
Nothing off a shelf
No stock sizes, no cutting something down in a car park and hoping.
Why store-bought blinds do not fit these houses
Three things go wrong on older East Bakersfield windows. The opening is a non-standard width to begin with. The house has settled, so the opening is wider at the bottom than the top. And somewhere along the line a window was replaced or a wall was remodelled, leaving a depth that no stock headrail sits in properly.
A blind that is half an inch narrow lets a bar of light down one edge all afternoon, which is exactly the sun you were trying to stop. A blind that is half an inch wide does not sit in the brackets. Neither problem is fixable after the fact, which is why the measurement is the job and the product is almost the easy part.
The same applies to screens. Original aluminium frames on a mid-century house are often perfectly sound under torn mesh, and they are the right shape for the window in a way a modern replacement is not. We build to the opening and rescreen what is there, which is usually cheaper and always fits better.
Openings we deal with weekly
- ·Non-standard widths from hand-framed originals
- ·Openings that have gone out of square as the house settled
- ·Casement windows with cranks in the way
- ·Small over-sink and bathroom windows
- ·Original aluminium screen frames with torn mesh
What we fit most in East Bakersfield
Faux Wood Blinds
The default here. Wipes clean, and it will not cup or twist through a run of 100° afternoons.
See faux wood blinds →Real Wood Blinds
North American basswood, stained to match the existing trim in older houses.
See real wood blinds →Same-Day Screen Repair
Bug screens and patio doors rescreened in place. How this company started.
See same-day screen repair →Plantation Shutters
Fitted joinery built to the opening, arches and angles included.
See plantation shutters →East Bakersfield questions, answered straight
My windows are not a standard size. Is that a problem?
It is the normal case here, not a problem. Everything is cut to the measurements we take on site. The reason odd windows in older East Bakersfield houses end up with us is that we build to the opening rather than fitting a stock size to it.
Can you rescreen a 1950s aluminium frame?
Yes, and usually that is the better answer. If the frame is straight it gets new mesh and carries on. If it is bent or corroded through we build a new frame to the same size rather than making you change the window.
The opening is not square. Will the blind look crooked?
Not if it is measured properly. We take the width at the top, middle and bottom and work to the tightest one, then set it so the eye reads it as straight. On a badly out-of-square opening, shutters hide it better than blinds and we will say so.
Do you work on rental properties?
Regularly. Whole-house sets on rentals are common out here, and faux wood is usually the sensible call — it wipes clean between tenants and does not warp in a west-facing room over a hot summer.
Get the opening measured properly
Open 7 days, 7 AM–8 PM. The in-home estimate is free, and the fit is our problem rather than yours.