Roll-Down Hurricane ShuttersTopsail Island, NC
$52/sq ft manual, installed. A pulldown pole adds $400 per opening and a motor adds $700. On a piling house the upper floor is the whole argument, and this is the only rated system that reaches it from indoors.
Topsail Island, Pender & Onslow
What roll-downs cost on Topsail Island, and the openings that earn them
Roll-down hurricane shutters on Topsail Island are $52/sq ft installed for the manual crank version. A pulldown pole instead of a crank adds $400 per opening. An electric motor adds $700 per opening. The rate covers the curtain, the head box, the side tracks, stainless anchors, the permit and a per-opening design pressure calculation.
Almost everything on this island stands on pilings, which puts the main living floor a story up and the bedrooms a story above that. That is the problem this product solves. Somebody has to cover that upper glass with a storm coming, usually the owner, usually alone, and usually on a ladder in wind that is already building. A roll-down is the only rated system that closes second-story windows from inside the room.
We do not quote whole houses in roll-downs here and we will say so at the measure. Accordions at $38/sq ft carry the identical ASTM E1886/E1996 rating, and on the ground-level openings under the house they are the sensible answer. What a Topsail quote usually looks like is roll-downs upstairs and something cheaper below.
The second case is the sound-facing and ocean-facing glass these houses were designed around. An accordion covering a wide span meets in the middle of the view. A roll-down comes down as one curtain, so the opening you bought the house for is still one opening when the shutters are up.
Then there is the rental calendar. A great many of these houses are empty most of the year and occupied by somebody who is not the owner for the rest of it. A motorized roll-down closes from a switch, a remote or a phone, which is the whole argument for the $700. We do not fit battery backup, because the units are temperamental and tend to be flat on the day they matter, and every motorized system we install carries a manual override crank instead.
Evacuation timing is the part people underestimate. There is one way off this island and it is busy long before the wind arrives. A house that closes from a phone is a house you are not driving back to.
| Product | Roll-down shutter, double-walled extruded aluminum slats |
| Installed price | $52 per square foot, manual crank |
| Pulldown pole | $400 per opening |
| Electric motor | $700 per opening |
| Location | Topsail Island, NC |
| Operation | From indoors; motorized units from a switch, remote or phone |
| Power cut | Manual override crank, mechanical, works with the power out |
| Rating | ASTM E1886/E1996, qualifies for wind mitigation credit |
When a roll-down is the wrong choice on Topsail Island
It is the most expensive rigid system we fit, and on a lot of these openings something cheaper carries the same rating.
Questions we get in Topsail Island
Why Topsail Island homeowners call AHS
Founded in 2006 by Michael Burns. We fabricate and install ourselves — no subcontractors on your house.
Related Resources
Roll-Down Shutters for YourTopsail Island Home
Tell us which openings are upstairs and which you can reach standing up. That split is most of the quote.