Blinds & Zip Screens in Big Bay

What's different about Big Bay

Big Bay is the newest of the four — high-density apartments and townhouses built out over the last two decades immediately north of Bloubergstrand, most with a balcony or small patio that's meant to be lived on, not just looked at. The same south-easter that draws kitesurfers to the beach below makes those balconies genuinely unusable on a windy afternoon without something guiding the air, not just blocking a view.

Three things we specify for differently here compared with an older, more established stand:

• Balconies and small patios that need a wind-guided screen rather than open exterior blinds that flap and strain their brackets.
• Body corporate or sectional-title rules that are often stricter and more uniform than an individual house's HOA guide — we check yours before quoting anything visible from outside.
• Compact interiors where a slim, cordless interior blind matters as much as the exterior product — less wall space, more reason for a clean stack when raised.

The everyday answer

A zip-track screen — mesh or PVC guided in a side channel rather than left to blow loose — is the practical fix for enclosing a Big Bay balcony against the wind without losing the ocean view entirely. Indoors, sunscreen rollers do the same glare-management job the rest of the coast needs.