"Lost" the bottom string on my pleated day / night blind?

[joebedford]

I have a large 6'+ wide day / night pleated blind in my living room slide.

I thought that one of the strings had broken but on closer examination I see that the plastic doo-hickey that attached the string to the wall at the bottom broke and allowed the string to disappear into the bottom horizontal frame.

I know I'll have to take the blind down and fold it up at least partially to get the stress off the strings. But then what? How do I get that string out of the bottom frame? Does it come apart somehow?

Appreciate your suggestions.

[tenbear]

Glad you have the blind fixed. Thanks for the feedback.

[joebedford]

Thanks to everyone who offered advice. We removed the blind from the wall (biggest job was removing / replacing the zillion cleats the RV manufacturer used) then pulled the end pieces off the bottom finger hold. That allowed us to slide off the finger hold and retrieve the string that went up inside. Reversed the process and it's as good as new.

As I said, the biggest job was removing all the valences. At least next time they'll have removable screws which will make the job a lot easier.

I'll file the advice on restringing - I'm sure I'll need it someday.

[Alan_Hepburn]

joebedford wrote:

Alan_Hepburn wrote:
It is incredibly expensive, compared to buying new string. I got a 200yd roll of string for about $5 at a big box store.

I agree with the expensive part - I've been quoted over $400 to replace the 4-string big blind in my big window.

From which big box store did you buy the string? I've looked in Lowes and Home Depot and couldn't get it.

I've heard that some people buy 50-lb test fishing line - for my restringing I just went to Harbor Freight if I recall and bought a spool of polyester cord the same diameter as the original cord. I know it's not going to last forever, but for the price if I have to restring them every 5 years or so I don't mind! Home Depot and Lowes should carry the same, or similar, cord. Look in the area where they have rope, twine, etc - rather than in the blind area.

[tenbear]

I have restrung several of my day-night shades. I bought the materials at Fix My Blinds.

You will find everything you need there and lots of instructions.

You will probably have more blinds fail, so its probably smart to buy enough string to repair several blinds. It gets a lot easier after the first blind.

[joebedford]

Alan_Hepburn wrote:
It is incredibly expensive, compared to buying new string. I got a 200yd roll of string for about $5 at a big box store.

I agree with the expensive part - I've been quoted over $400 to replace the 4-string big blind in my big window.

From which big box store did you buy the string? I've looked in Lowes and Home Depot and couldn't get it.

[Pipeman]

So far we've re stringed three of our day/night shades. Once we had done the first one, we find it's not very hard to do the others. I was able to buy a large package of string to do a few shades. The assembly comes apart at each section of the blinds. Take the end caps off and slide the long hard section out and you will see where the string goes. There is a difference between a two string blind and a 4 string blind so note where and what you have. My wife has a long narrow sewing needle and we use it to get the string through the blind. You may have to play with the top section to get it to slide because the holes for the screws make an indentation into the plastic. Just pry a bit. Good luck, have fun and I'm sure the air will get a tinge of blue around you.

[Alan_Hepburn]

chevyman2 wrote:
Not incredibly expensive to buy a new day/night shade. Not terribly difficult to install.

It is incredibly expensive, compared to buying new string. I got a 200yd roll of string for about $5 at a big box store. Restringing is pretty painless - the hardest part was putting the shade back up: it's hard to find the existing hole in the cabinetry for the screws that hold the thing up without being able to see what you're doing! There's plenty of instructions available on-line for the actual restringing.

[bamcote]

The Dirty Blind Man has a lot of good info.

Clicky

[Joe417]

I've had several of the wall buttons break, the screw pull out, but never a string break. And like someone else said they are a pain.

If I remember it correctly, I pushed the shade to the top, removed the other string from the other wall button, and pulled the plugs out of the ends of the pull bar. Pulled the loose string out the other side and tied an "extension" string onto it.

Ran a piece of wire through, tied the string onto the wire and pulled it back through.

I didn't tie the string back to the buttons, I put a loop on the end of the strings and slipped them around the whole button.

They are pretty tight but it wasn't too hard.

[chevyman2]

Not incredibly expensive to buy a new day/night shade. Not terribly difficult to install.

[CloudDriver]

BFL13 wrote:
The string would have been knotted on the do-hickey and that knot should have stopped it going into the hole in the end cap. So the string may have broken and now be too short. You can buy that kind of string and restring if needed. Huge PITA, but do-able.

X2 that the string is likely too short to be able to get it back on the tension spool.

Not all that hard to restring these shades. See these instructions.

[BFL13]

The string would have been knotted on the do-hickey and that knot should have stopped it going into the hole in the end cap. So the string may have broken and now be too short. You can buy that kind of string and restring if needed. Huge PITA, but do-able.

[dbbls]

Pull the end caps off the bottom metal piece and slide it off. You will probably see the string. pull some slack and run it through the hole in the end cap. Reassemble the pieces and you should be fixed.

[CA_Traveler]

Check for end caps on the frame.