Faux or Haux?

Many "faux wood" shutters are made from a material called MDF. It is wrapped in a thin, glued-on, plastic laminate that is printed to look like wood.

MDF is made of trash wood that is ground up, pulverized, mixed with glue and moulded to a shape. It is highly susceptible to humidity and moisture, which causes the MDF to swell, forcing the laminate to come loose. With a number of manufacturers, this is not covered in the "lifetime" warranty. Beyond this, many imported MDF shutters emit toxic VOCs.

Another issue is that faux wood shutters use a plastic pin inserted into a hole that is drilled into the end of the louver. Because of this, the louvers must be thicker. As MDF has little tensile strength, all it takes to wreck a louver is a bump of the elbow and the pin can break right through.

O'Hair shutters are built from solid American hardwood that is bookmatched for superior strength and stability – no plywood or foam cores. Rather than using pins, our louvers have monolithic tenons that are milled from the louver itself. No only is this stronger, but it provides superior strength in a slim louver profile.

Continuous Tilt Rod Linkage

It is an astonishing fact that many shutter manufacturers tell their customers that the tilt rods on their shutters are only for synchronizing the angle of the louvers and should not be used as a handle to adjust the louvers. They tell their customers to adjust the angle by moving the louver, not the tilt rod. This is like a cabinet maker telling a home owner that drawer handles are only for decoration and should not be used for opening the drawer.

The reason for this is that they attach their tilt rods to the louver with a wire staple in the tilt rod. As the tilt rod is not very thick, the staples must to be extremely short. The long staples in the louvers themselves may be reasonably strong, but the short staples in the tilt rod can easily pull out. In fact, this is the most common failure seen in wooden shutters from other manufacturers.

This can never happen with an O'Hair shutter because we use a continuous metal linkage that is embedded into a slot in the back of the tilt rod.

Complete Privacy With a Sweeping View

O'Hair Horizons™ feature twin side-mounted tilt rods that provide an unobstructed view, yet offer total privacy.

The tilt rods are attached to the edges of the louvers and feature a channel that interlocks with the shutter frame, totally blocking all direct light. The metal reinforced continuous linkage tilt rods, as with the entire shutter, are warranted for the life of your home. (see warranty for details)