1. A hinge screw has seated loose
The most common fault in the whole trade. Panels swing daily; the top hinge carries the most load; eventually one screw backs off a millimetre and the panel drops just enough to rub the frame at a bottom corner. Fix: open the panel, snug every hinge screw, frame side and panel side, and test. If a screw only spins, it's stripped: swap it for one a size longer, or tighten around a matchstick's worth of filler in the hole, both time-honoured, both fine.
2. Louvres droop or won't hold their tilt
Louvres are designed to hold any angle you leave them at. When they slump, the tension system wants attention. Fix: on most panels there's a tension screw in the stile (the vertical side), often behind a small cap, a quarter to half turn clockwise restores the hold. Panels without a visible screw use nylon tension pins inside the louvre ends; those are a parts job, which is a call rather than a DIY afternoon.
3. Seasonal swelling (the timber-in-humidity chapter)
Timber moves with moisture. In a humid Newcastle February a basswood panel in a bathroom-adjacent hallway can tighten against its frame, then free itself in August. Fix, honestly ordered: first confirm it isn't fault #1 (a dropped hinge feels identical); then live with a mild seasonal rub if it comes and goes, it isn't damage; only if the rub is year-round should anyone plane a panel edge, and that's the installer's call, because material off is material you can't put back. And if the swelling panel lives in an actual wet room, the long-term answer is the material guide's: that room wanted PVC.
4. The salt-air special
Near the coast, hinges and tilt hardware collect an invisible salt film that first stiffens movement, then, on the wrong metal, corrodes it. Fix: wipe hardware with a damp cloth a few times a year (more on directly exposed openings), and a whisper of dry PTFE lubricant on hinge pins, dry, because oily sprays hold the next salt film on. Stiffness that's already gritty or shows rust bloom on fittings is the sign the hardware wasn't coastal-spec, worth a professional look before panels are affected. The prevention logic is on the coast page.
5. Paint where paint shouldn't be
Renovation aftermath: a repaint has bridged the gap between panel edge and frame, or gummed a hinge knuckle. Fix: score the painted seam with a sharp blade so it breaks clean instead of tearing, work the panel gently, and accept the touch-up. Prevention is cheaper: shutters open or off during painting.
When to stop unscrewing and call
- A cracked stile, rail or louvre, structural, needs the maker's parts
- Hidden-tilt louvres out of sync with each other, internal linkage job
- Any panel on a track (bi-fold or bypass) that jumps or grinds, alignment is precise and worth professional hands
- Corroded coastal hardware, replacement with the right metal beats repeated cleaning
None of those are big jobs for the right person, and if your shutters predate us entirely, the enquiry form still works: describe the fault, and we'll point the measure visit at it.
Ten minutes with a screwdriver fixes most of it, and knowing which faults it won't fix is the other half of this guide
Describe the fault in an enquiry