Weather Protection That Rolls Away
A zip screen is an outdoor roller blind whose fabric carries a welded bead along both vertical edges. That bead runs inside a side channel fixed to the wall, column or railing, so the fabric is held on three sides instead of hanging free. It does not billow when the wind hits it, and water running down the face is guided into the channel rather than blowing in around the edges.
WhiteShed Solutions LLP designs, fabricates and installs these screens for balconies, terraces, restaurant and café seating, poolside areas and office breakout spaces across Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane and the wider region. Every screen is specified for the opening it has to close — the fabric, the channel fixing and the method of operation all follow from the site, not from a catalogue.
- Waterproof, translucent or sunscreen-mesh fabric, chosen for what the space has to do
- Aluminium side channels and headbox, detailed for your wall, column or railing
- Manual or motorised operation, depending on the width and how often it will be used
- Site measurement before fabrication, and installation by our own team
If you are still comparing options, our guide to balcony rain protection — zip screens, PVC curtains and glass compared sets out where each one works and where it fails.
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Who this is for
A zip screen is not a single product with a single buyer. The same system is specified by people solving quite different problems, and the right fabric and operation differ in each case.
- Flat owners and housing societies with balconies that become unusable from June to September, or that take hard afternoon sun on a west face.
- Interior designers working on indoor–outdoor transitions, where the screen has to disappear when it is up and match the rest of the design language when it is down.
- Restaurants, cafés and banquet venues that lose outdoor covers every monsoon and want those seats back without building a permanent enclosure.
- Hotels and resorts covering poolside and terrace seating, where guest comfort and the look of the property matter equally.
- Offices, showrooms and clinics with large glazed faces, where glare and heat gain are the problem rather than rain.
- Builders and contractors handing over projects where balconies and terraces need a weather answer before possession.
The problem a zip screen is built for
Outdoor covers in this region fail for a small number of repeated reasons, and almost all of them come back to the edges of the fabric.
Rain does not arrive vertically. On an exposed face it comes in at an angle, crosses the railing and soaks the floor and the wall behind. A cover that is open at the sides does not stop that, however good the fabric is.
Wind rises with height. A blind with a free bottom edge swings and twists, chafes against the railing, and tears at its fixing points. This is the single most common reason people replace an outdoor blind within a season or two — and no fabric upgrade fixes it, because the fixing method is what has to change.
Sun and glare are a separate problem from rain. A waterproof fabric keeps the space dry but closes the view. A sunscreen mesh keeps the view and the breeze while cutting glare. Many balconies and terraces end up with one of each on different faces.
Birds and insects come up in the same conversation. A mesh screen keeps birds out while it is down. Insect exclusion needs a finer mesh opening again, which is a different fabric — so it is worth saying at the start which of the two matters to you.
How the system is put together
There are five parts to a zip screen, and the quality of a screen is decided by how each one is detailed.
- Headbox. An aluminium enclosure at the top that houses the roller tube and keeps the fabric out of the sun and dust when the screen is up.
- Fabric and bead. The screen fabric with a continuous bead welded along both vertical edges. The bead is what allows the fabric to be held in the channel under tension.
- Side channels. Aluminium extrusions fixed either side of the opening. They retain the bead, resist the wind load, and carry water down and away from the opening.
- Bottom bar. A weighted bar that keeps the fabric taut and seals against the floor or sill when the screen is fully down.
- Operation. A spring or crank mechanism for manual screens, or a tubular motor with a wall switch or remote for motorised ones.
The parts are standard. What is not standard is the fixing: what the channels are screwed into, whether that substrate can take the load, and whether the fixing breaks any waterproofing or tiling. That is decided on site, which is why we measure before we fabricate.
What it gives you
- A balcony or terrace you can use through the monsoon instead of one that becomes a store room by July.
- Stability in wind, because the fabric is captured on three sides rather than hanging loose.
- Light and view retained, if you choose a mesh or translucent fabric, so the space does not turn into a dark box.
- Full reversibility. The fabric rolls into the headbox, so the opening reads as open for the eight months you want it open.
- Glare and heat control on west and south faces, which also takes load off the air conditioning behind the glazing.
- No change to the building elevation, when the screen sits inside the balcony line — usually easier to get past a society committee than a full glass enclosure.
- Extra covered seating for a restaurant, café or hotel terrace, which is the part that pays for itself.
Where we install them
- Residential balconies in high-rise flats, including exposed upper floors
- Terraces, sit-outs and rooftop entertaining areas
- Restaurant, café and rooftop-bar seating
- Hotel and resort poolside areas and banquet lawns
- Office breakout terraces and cafeteria extensions
- Clubhouse and society common areas
- Showroom and clinic frontages where glare is the issue
- Pergolas and open structures that need weather protection on the sides
Where a screen handles the sides but the space still has no cover overhead, it is usually paired with a retractable roof, a glass retractable roof system or a fixed tensile membrane structure, depending on the span and how permanent the cover needs to be.
How we work
- Requirement discussion. What the space is used for, what goes wrong now, and whether the priority is rain, sun, birds or privacy.
- Site measurement. Opening sizes, the floor level, the exposure, and what the channels can be fixed into.
- Fabric and finish selection. Samples held against daylight, so you choose the fabric on what you can see rather than on a description.
- Drawing and estimate. A layout of each screen with the fabric, hardware, operation and finish named, and an itemised estimate with exclusions stated.
- Approval and order. Dimensions and finishes confirmed in writing before anything is cut.
- Fabrication. Fabric welded and beaded, aluminium cut and finished in our workshop.
- Installation. Channels set plumb and sealed, headbox fitted, screen tensioned and tested through its full travel.
- Demonstration and handover. Operation shown to you or your staff, with what to do in heavy wind and how to clean the fabric.
The same discipline runs through everything we build. You can see the range in our completed projects.
Technical points worth settling early
Fabric grade. Ask for the grade, coating and weight in writing rather than “imported fabric”. The reasoning is the same as for any architectural fabric — our guide to PVC, PVDF and PTFE fabrics and what GSM means explains what the numbers describe and what they do not.
Wind. How a screen behaves in wind depends on the width of the opening, the fabric and how the channels are anchored. It is a calculation for your opening, not a figure from a brochure. Treat any vendor who quotes a wind rating without seeing the site with caution.
Width. Beyond a certain width a single screen becomes unwieldy to operate and harder to hold flat, so a wide opening is usually divided into two or more screens with an intermediate post or channel. Where that division falls is a design decision and should appear on the drawing.
Drainage. Water running off the fabric and down the channels has to go somewhere. Where it collects and where it leaves should be settled before installation, not discovered in the first heavy shower.
Operation and power. If the screen is motorised, confirm where the power comes from, where the switch sits, and whether there is a manual override for a power cut.
Finish. Channels and headbox can be powder coated or anodised to suit the window frames and railings already on the building, so the screen reads as part of the elevation rather than an addition to it.
Maintenance. Outdoor fabric and moving parts need occasional attention. Agree who services the screen and how soon they come, and keep that in the quotation rather than in conversation.
Society permission. Anything that changes the look of the elevation usually needs the committee’s agreement. Screens that sit inside the balcony line are generally easier to get approved than full enclosures, but confirm it in writing before placing an order.
Why work with WhiteShed Solutions
- We fabricate what we sell. Aluminium and steel work is done in our own workshop — see aluminium fabrication and structural fabrication — so a non-standard channel detail or a support frame is a drawing change, not a reason to say no.
- We design before we quote. The screen layout, the fixing and the drainage are worked out for your site, which is why the estimate arrives itemised rather than as a rate per square foot.
- One team from measurement to handover. Design, fabrication and installation sit with us, so there is no gap between who measured and who fits.
- We will tell you when a screen is the wrong answer. If the space needs a roof, glazing or a tensile structure instead, we would rather say so at the enquiry stage.
- Quotations you can compare. Fabric, hardware, channels, motor, installation and exclusions as separate lines — the approach set out in our 12-point checklist for comparing quotations.
More about the team and how we work is on who we are, and the full range is listed under our services.
Related reading
If a balcony is only part of the problem, our guide to covering a terrace from rain and heat compares the five realistic options for the space above, and retractable roof vs fixed roof sets out the trade-off when you want cover only some of the time.
Still deciding?
Our company profile sets out what we design, fabricate and install, and the kind of projects we take on. It is a useful starting point if you are putting together a vendor list or presenting options to a committee or client.
Frequently asked questions
The edges. An ordinary blind hangs free, so wind gets behind it and rain comes past the sides. A zip screen has a bead welded along both vertical edges that runs inside a side channel, so the fabric is held under tension on three sides. That one difference is what makes it stable in wind and effective against driven rain.
With a waterproof fabric and properly detailed channels it keeps the space usable in heavy rain. It is a screen, not a sealed wall, so in extreme driven rain some spray can still reach the floor near the bottom edge. If you need a fully sealed room, you are looking at glazing rather than a screen.
That depends entirely on the fabric. Sunscreen mesh keeps a clear outward view and cuts glare. Translucent fabric passes light but not detail. Solid fabric blocks both. We bring samples to site so you can hold them against daylight before deciding.
Manual is usually fine for a single balcony screen that gets operated a few times a week. Motorised makes sense on wide openings, on screens that are hard to reach, and in restaurants or hotels where staff operate them daily. If you go motorised, confirm the power point and the manual override before ordering.
Wide openings are normally divided into two or more screens rather than run as one, because a very wide screen is harder to hold flat and heavier to operate. Where the division falls depends on your opening and should be shown on the drawing before fabrication, so you can see it rather than discover it at installation.
Screens that sit inside the balcony line and roll away when not in use are generally easier to get agreed than a permanent enclosure, because the elevation is unchanged when the screen is up. Rules differ from building to building, so take the committee’s approval in writing before placing an order.
Periodic cleaning of the fabric, keeping the channels free of grit, and a check of the mechanism. We will show you what to do at handover and what to leave to us. Service terms are stated in the quotation rather than left to conversation.
We work across Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane and the wider region. Tell us where the site is when you enquire and we will confirm what we can do for that location.
PLANNING A BALCONY OR TERRACE SCREEN?
Send us the width and height of the opening, the floor it is on and a photograph taken from inside the space. That is enough for us to come back with the fabric and operation we would recommend, and an itemised estimate.
Share your balcony or terrace details with our team, or use the form above. We will look at the exposure and how you want to use the space before recommending anything — the same balcony on the third floor and the twenty-third floor needs two different answers.