Sector guide · Window furnishings & interiors
The terms buyers use, defined
A custom interiors business is the broader category that also covers made to measure wardrobes, joinery, benchtops and fitted storage, where the product is manufactured or procured to a measurement taken on site.
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A window furnishings business is a business that measures, supplies and installs blinds, shutters, curtains, awnings or related interior products, usually made to order for each opening rather than sold off the shelf.
A custom interiors business is the broader category that also covers made to measure wardrobes, joinery, benchtops and fitted storage, where the product is manufactured or procured to a measurement taken on site.
Supply and install means the business is responsible for both the product and the fitting, which is what separates it from a retailer. It is the reason installation capacity, not stock, is normally the ceiling on revenue.
The remake rate is the percentage of jobs that have to be remade at the business’s own cost because a measurement, a specification or an order was wrong. It is the single clearest measure of operational quality in this trade and buyers ask for it early.
A measure and quote pipeline is the count of booked in home appointments waiting to be quoted, and the proportion of them that convert. A buyer treats it as forward revenue, which is why it is worth tracking before you go to market.
The two warning labels, quoted in full
Under the 2010 goods standard, a supplier of corded internal window coverings must attach a warning label to the retail packaging, attach a warning label or swing tag to the cord, and provide installation instructions. The wording is prescribed. Paraphrasing it, translating it, or shortening it to fit a smaller tag does not comply.
Retail packaging label, exact text: “WARNING: CURTAIN AND BLIND CORDS HAVE CAUSED THE DEATH OF YOUNG CHILDREN AND MUST BE INSTALLED SO THAT THEY ARE NOT A STRANGULATION HAZARD. FOLLOW THE INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS.”
Cord label or swing tag, exact text: “WARNING: Young children have died by wrapping loose curtain and blind cords or chains around their necks. Secure cords or chains with cord guides or keep them out of reach by winding them around a cleat. Move cots and furniture away from window covering cords or chains. Do not remove this label.”
Check your stock against those two paragraphs word for word before you go to market. Where you import finished product or buy from an overseas supplier, the labels are your responsibility as the supplier into the Australian market, not the factory’s. Where you buy from an Australian distributor, check the labels anyway, because you are still supplying the goods.
The installer name and contact details label, and why there is no certificate
The 2014 installation standard adds a third label that a lot of installers do not know about. A label containing the name and contact details of the installer must be attached to the corded window covering. It is a requirement of the standard, it applies to every corded internal window covering installed in a domestic dwelling, and it is the first thing a competent buyer checks on a site visit.
The reason it is checked first is that it is verifiable in thirty seconds and it cannot be created retrospectively. A buyer who visits three recent installations and finds no installer label has learned something about the whole business, not about three jobs.
There is no installation certificate regime for corded internal window coverings. Neither the Competition and Consumer (Corded Internal Window Coverings) Safety Standard 2014 nor the ACCC installation guide imposes a record-keeping obligation or a certificate obligation on the installer. Buyers and their lawyers frequently assume one exists, usually by analogy with electrical or plumbing compliance certificates. It does not.
The only documentary obligations on you as the installer are the name and contact details label affixed to the installed product, and leaving the manufacturer warning labels and swing tags in place. When a buyer’s solicitor asks for certificates, answer with that position in writing rather than apologising for a file you were never required to keep.
Keeping job records anyway remains the better commercial decision. A file that records the fixing substrate, the control type and side, the cleat height and a photograph of the finished installation is not required by any instrument. It is simply the cheapest way to answer a warranty claim raised two years after settlement, when the person who did the work no longer works for the business.
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