How To Remove Old Shutters From a House

How To Remove Old Shutters From a House

Whether you’re a house flipper starting up a new project or a homeowner simply looking to update your home, you’re going to need to remove your shutters. While today’s shutters are long-lasting, older models are more susceptible to weathering, fading, and even developing rot that can severely hinder their effectiveness. For this reason, shutters are something you may need to replace if you’re working to fix up a home’s exterior. This is how to remove old shutters from a house and prepare this space for more functional, attractive, and efficient models.

Determine the Type of Mounting System Your Shutters Have

Before you do anything else, take some time to identify what type of mounting system the previous owner used to install your current shutters. For traditional fixed models, this could be either a network of pins or a series of shutter loks designed to keep them rooted in place. Shutter pins are typically small, peg-like screws that sit flush with the material, while shutter loks are larger and have a smooth button-like head. Knowing which one you’re working with ahead of time allows you to acquire the proper tools and finish the job in the most efficient way.

Remove the Shutter Pins or Shutter Loks

Once you’re familiar with which system you have, you can focus on the actual process of removing them. The important thing to remember is that you’ll need to unscrew pins with a powered drill, while you can remove loks manually. When working with loks, in particular, snip off the heads of each bit with a sharp edge—there should be about six depending on the size of the shutter.

Lift Shutters Away From Their Mountings

From here, the shutters are officially removable. With pins, the bits will stay neatly in the shutter holes when you pull them off the house. With loks, however, the rest of the screw will remain in the home’s siding. Because of this, you might have an additional step to do if you’re working with a lok system. Either way, though, remove the shutters carefully as it’s very common for bees and other harmful insects to make nests behind them.

Expose the Shutter Mounting Holes

The last essential step to removing old shutters from a house is to ensure that the mounting holes are clear for re-installation. If your shutters used pins, this process is already complete. However, if you had shutter loks, you’ll need to pull out the rest of the pegs or push them back into the home if you can’t reach them. This process ensures that you can use the holes again for a new set of shutters.

Shutters are what we do at Millwork Traders. As such, we’re confident in not just our knowledge about installing and uninstalling these home features but the quality of our products as well. From our durable Bahama shutters to our beautiful fixed shutters, we guarantee that they’ll look great and last a lifetime.