Outdoors, Right Through Dusk
ZipScreen is a track-guided outdoor blind: half a zip is bonded to each edge of the fabric and locks into a channel down both sides, so there is no gap at the edge and nothing to flap. It is made by Rollease Acmeda, designed and built in Australia, and we measure, make and fit it from Byron Bay to Brisbane.
Why Lusso, Brisbane & Gold Coast
Most patios don't need a bigger blind. They need a sealed edge.
A straight-drop café blind costs less, and on a sheltered courtyard it will do the job for years — it is one of the outdoor blinds and awnings we fit across the Gold Coast — I have specified plenty of them and I would again tomorrow. But the moment an opening catches wind off the water, or you want to sit out at dusk without being eaten alive, the open edge down each side is the whole problem. Closing that edge is the only reason to pay more for a zip track, and it is reason enough.
The range
Local conditions
It is rarely the sun. It is the midges.
Sun is the reason people ring us. Dusk is the reason they buy. On the canal estates through Paradise Point, Runaway Bay and Hope Island — and on any low block sitting near water — the biting midges lift in the hour either side of sunset, which is precisely the hour you built the patio for. A straight-drop blind leaves a finger-wide gap down each side, and a gap that size is not a compromise to a midge. It is a door.
The second-order problem is the one no guide mentions. Every care page tells you to wipe the fabric down. The fabric is generally fine. What fails on this coast is the side channel: salt arrives on the air off the Broadwater, grit blows in off the sand, and the two of them pack into the bottom of the track until the zip starts to snatch on the way up. Ten seconds with a hose down each channel every few months is the whole maintenance schedule, and almost nobody is ever told to do it.
Inland it is a different calculation again, which is why outdoor blinds in Brisbane get a different fabric spec from the same job at Palm Beach. On the coast we specify componentry for salt air as a matter of course, because out here the fabric outlives the hardware more often than not — and a seized track is a much more expensive conversation than a faded one.
The detail that matters
The zip is the product. The rest is a roller blind.
Three things decide whether a track-guided blind is still working in ten years, and only one of them is the fabric you chose off the sample board.
Half a standard 5mm zipper is bonded along each edge of the fabric and runs captive inside the side channel. Because the edge is held in the track rather than hanging free, tension carries across the full width of the blind instead of just top and bottom. That is what stops the billowing you get from a rope-and-pulley or a weighted straight drop, and it is the same thing that closes the gap insects come through.
The fabric sheds a passing shower and the channels stop most wind-driven spray, but a proper coastal storm will find a way past it, and any external blind belongs rolled up before serious wind arrives. Treat it as a screen that makes the space usable most of the year, not as an extra room you have annexed from the weather — if you want a genuine barrier on an opening, that is a job for glazing or Thermalite shutters, not fabric. Anyone selling you a storm-proof patio is selling you something.
A spring balance and a handle suits most openings, a detachable crank handles a long drop, and a motor is worth it on anything you would otherwise stop bothering to lower. The catch is that motorisation is specified when the blind is made — the motor and the tube are chosen together — so it is a decision for the quote, not something to add in two summers' time.
Gold Coast clients
Fourteen years, one repair
Externals are the honest test of a window furnishing business, because they are the ones the weather actually gets at. These are three of the 85 reviews on file.
Very happy with all my Lusso blinds. We have had them 14 years and not a problem at all. When we recently had to repair our outdoor blind, they were swift and very efficient in fixing and it is working perfectly again. Would highly recommend this company for all your window covering needs.
Leanne
We are very happy with our sun blinds, they are very effective in keeping sun and glare out. The installers were very professional and we would have no problems recommending Lusso blinds to anyone.
Lyell Crapper
So good! I love the blind, the way it looks and the amount it has minimised the sun and heat.
Dayana Winnall
Where they go
And where I would talk you out of one
The default case, and the one it was designed for. Enclose three sides and the space becomes usable at dusk and through the wet months instead of being a fine-weather room.
QuoteAbove the third floor the wind stops being occasional. A captive edge is close to mandatory up there — a straight drop will flog itself apart in a season.
QuoteWind off the water, chlorine in the air and constant reflected UV. This is where the componentry spec matters more than the fabric, and where cheap tracks show up first.
QuoteStopping heat outside the glass beats fighting it inside. A zip track on the western elevation does more for an afternoon than internal roller blinds can, because the energy never reaches the window.
QuoteLonger spans, harder use and someone operating it who does not own it. Motorise it, or it will be left down in weather it should not be down in.
QuoteHow it works
Three steps, quote in 48 hours
We come to you anywhere from Byron Bay to Brisbane. Detailed quote within 24 to 48 hours, valid for 30 days — no deposit to get a price.
We need the dimensions and the aspect of the opening before we can quote. On externals the aspect decides the fabric.
Itemised component by component, and valid for 30 days. The lead time for your job is on the quote.
Nothing starts until you are comfortable with the selections. Workmanship is warranted for 12 months from installation.
Where we work
We come to the opening
From Byron Bay to Brisbane, across the whole Gold Coast and inland to the hinterland. If you're anywhere on that stretch, we'll come to you.
Before you ask
No — and I would be careful with anyone who tells you otherwise. The fabric sheds a passing shower and the sealed side channels stop most wind-driven spray, which is enough to keep the space usable in weather that would otherwise send you inside. A sustained coastal downpour will still get water past it. If you need genuinely dry, you need a roof and glass, not a blind.
More so than any other outdoor blind format, because the fabric edge is captive in the track rather than hanging free — there is nothing to flog and nothing for a gust to get behind. That is not the same as storm-proof. Every external blind should be rolled up before serious wind arrives.
For context, the Bureau of Meteorology puts the mean 3pm wind at 23.3 km/h at the Gold Coast Seaway, and that figure barely moves across the year. A zip track handles that comfortably with the blind down. It is the storm fronts you plan around, not the everyday breeze.
This is the reason most of our coastal clients actually buy them, and it is the thing almost nobody writes about. Because the zip is captive down both sides there is no side gap, and that gap is the difference between a patio you use at dusk and one you hand over to the midges at about five o'clock. Pair it with a mesh-weave fabric and you keep the breeze and the view and lose the insects. It is not a sealed fly screen, but it is as close as an outdoor blind gets.
Wider than most domestic openings need — but the honest answer for your opening comes off the measure, not off a spec sheet. Span, drop, aspect and exposure all interact, and a wide opening on a sheltered courtyard is a different job from the same width on a fourth-floor balcony. At the measure we will tell you whether one blind covers it or whether two, with a centre post, is the better build.
Not a number I will give you before measuring, and I would be wary of anyone who does it over the phone. The price of an external is driven by span, drive type and fabric, in roughly that order, and a guess made without those three is a number designed to get someone through your door.
What I can tell you is the shape of it: a zip track costs more than a straight-drop café blind of the same size, because you are paying for the side channels and the componentry running in them. Quotes are free, itemised component by component and valid for 30 days, and there is no deposit to get a price — the 50% is on order, not on the quote.
We fit ZipScreen, so read this as an interested opinion rather than a neutral one. Both are Australian track-guided systems and both solve the open-edge problem. The mechanical difference is how the fabric is held: ZipScreen bonds half a 5mm zip to the fabric edge and runs it captive in the channel, while Ziptrak uses a Kedar tape in a track.
We do not stock or fit Ziptrak, and we would rather say that plainly than pretend to be impartial about it. Every other page you will read on this comparison is written by a dealer with a horse in the race, ours included.
Yes, and it is usually worth it on anything large, high or awkward to reach. The part that catches people out is timing: motorisation is chosen when the blind is made, because the motor and the tube are specified together. It belongs on the original quote. We can rarely add a motor to an existing blind that was not built with one in mind, and more often than not we would tell you it is not worth the money.
Hose the side channels out every few months. That is the part that matters and the part nobody gets told — salt and grit settle into the bottom of the track, and that is what makes a zip start to snatch on the way up.
Wash the fabric with warm water and a soft brush when it needs it. Never use a solvent or a household cleaner: it will strip the coating off outdoor fabric considerably faster than the sun will.
Get in touch
Free measure & quote, Gold Coast wide
Tell us which rooms and we'll come to you with the fabric range, measure properly, and tell you honestly which windows need side tracks and which don't.
