Sun exposure varies wildly lot to lot
In a subdivision, every house on a street has roughly the same sun problem. In Black Forest, two neighbouring properties can be completely different: one under mature ponderosa cover with dappled light all day, the next on a cleared lot taking full unfiltered sun from sunrise to sunset.
That means the standard specification does not apply, and we measure sun exposure per window rather than assuming from the address. A room shaded by 60-foot pines may need nothing more than a light-filtering shade for privacy. The same room on the neighbouring cleared lot may need a 3% solar screen and UV-stable fabric to avoid fading the floor.
Properties that had trees removed for defensible space after 2013 are a specific case. Many of these homes were designed and treated for a shaded condition and now take direct sun they were never specified for. If your treatments date from before the mitigation work, they are probably wrong for the current exposure, and the fading usually shows it.
Custom homes, non-standard windows
Black Forest has very little tract construction. Most of what we work on is custom or owner-built, spanning from 1970s A-frames and passive-solar experiments through to recent architect-designed homes.
The practical consequence is that windows here are frequently non-standard: oversized fixed glass, trapezoids following a roof pitch, clerestory bands, walls of south-facing glazing on passive-solar designs, and openings built without a conventional frame to mount into.
We template rather than measure on anything that is not a straightforward rectangle, and we check mounting substrate before quoting. A window opening wrapped in drywall with no casing needs a different approach from one with a proper jamb, and finding that out at installation is nobody's idea of a good day.
Insulation matters more out here
Black Forest sits high (much of it above 7,000 feet) and properties are exposed. Homes are often larger than city equivalents, frequently with vaulted ceilings and substantial glazing, and many are on propane rather than natural gas, which makes heating cost a more visible line item.
That combination makes cellular honeycomb shades unusually worthwhile here. On passive-solar homes with large south-facing glass, the ideal configuration is a shade that can be fully open during winter daylight to collect heat and fully closed at night to hold it, which is exactly what a top-down bottom-up cellular shade on a schedule does well.
For homes with big south glazing, we often end up specifying insulating shades on a timed schedule rather than relying on anyone remembering to operate them twice a day through a Colorado winter.
Where we work in Black Forest
Neighborhoods
Black Forest · Cathedral Pines · Walden · Shiloh Pines · High Forest Ranch · Woodmen Hills
ZIP codes served
80106 · 80908 · 80831
What we install in Black Forest
Black Forest questions
- Do you charge extra to come out to Black Forest?
- No. Black Forest is inside our regular service area, and the in-home consultation is free with no travel charge. We schedule Black Forest appointments in blocks so we can offer you a tighter arrival window rather than a half-day range.
- How long does an installation in Black Forest take?
- Most whole-home installations are done in a single day. A few large windows or specialty shutters can run into a second visit, and we tell you which applies before you order rather than on the day.
- What is the lead time from measurement to installation?
- Typically two to four weeks for blinds and shades, and four to six weeks for custom shutters. Specialty shapes and stained hardwood run longer. You get a real date at the point of order.
- Can you treat very large or unusually shaped windows?
- Yes. It is a large part of what we do in Black Forest. Trapezoids, clerestory bands, oversized fixed glass and angled rake tops are all workable. We template non-rectangular openings on site rather than working from stated dimensions, because a half-degree of error on an angled top is visible from across the room.