The premium upsell that earns its keep
Quiet motors, sensible control
A tubular motor sits inside the blind roll and takes control by remote, wall switch, phone app, schedule or sensor. It's an upsell on any single blind, but over glass you can't comfortably reach — a stairwell void like the one in the photo above, or a lounge with a wall of glazing — it stops being a luxury and starts being the only practical option: one button for six blinds, instead of six sets of chains.
Two power options cover almost every job. Rechargeable battery motors need no wiring and are the retrofit-friendly default — genuinely useful here, since load-shedding means the mains aren't always on, and a battery motor charges separately and keeps working through a scheduled outage. Wired 220V motors suit new builds and renovations where an electrician is already on site, and are the better call for big, heavy systems and exterior products like awnings and roller shutters. On those, a wind sensor is the responsible spec: it retracts the awning or screen automatically before a Highveld thunderstorm gust gets to it — see the folding-arm awnings page.
What motorising actually costs
Motorised shading is priced by the thing being driven, so the honest answer is a band rather than a figure: R2,500 to R7,500 per square metre installed across the range, as a guide. A motorised blockout or sunscreen roller lands at R2,500 to R3,800. A motorised day & night blind sits at R2,800 to R4,000. A motorised folding-arm awning, priced on projection rather than glass area, runs R5,500 to R7,500.
Those bands already include the motor, the handset or wall control and the commissioning. What sits outside them is anything electrical: a wired 220V motor needs a point at the head of the window, and that is an electrician’s line item, not ours. A minimum applies to very small blinds. Nothing is fixed until the free measure has been done and the written quote issued.