Hi guys. I am about to start a small house project. For this I intend to make the house functional and as efficient as possible. Although intend to use traditional building materials like blocks. I do intend to have the house have functionality over aesthetics as much as possible.

One area which has bothered me is the inability to find *quality* louvers window frames. Without a doubt. Louvers are the best window frames for a tropical climate like Nigeria. It allows for 100% ventilation allowing you to use the total window space for ventilation. When it rains you can still enjoy ventilation by adjusting the tilt of the windows so that air can come in but the rain stays out. This is something which can't be achieved by either a casement or sliding window which is the fancy now a days.

Lastly louvers provide the best privacy for the home sliding windows which has to be left close or have your windows covered by curtains. To prevent visibility from outside. Louvers allows u to fit the lower side of the windows with translucent non see through glass which can be tilted to prevent anyone from seeing inside while at the same time allowing air to come in.

With all these advantages of louvers. One would think that it's the default windows in Nigerian homes. Alas reverse is the case. Louvers has virtually disappeared from the market. Only place u find them are old houses or very poor neighborhoods. In the market due to lack of demand from up scaled buyers. The only type of louvers in the market are of extreme poor quality.

I wonder why such a useful functional low cost technology got replaced by an inefficient expensive and frankly IMHO less elegant solution.

If anyone sells quality louvers windows frame kindly leave a message here. I need them badly.

You can as well use mud in the building and thatch for the roofing... There are cooler than conventional blocks and Zinc/Aluminium...
You would think this should be the most used materials in building Nigerian houses due to the hot tropical climate... But no this is not the case.
So please if you know where fine baked mud and thatch are sold in large quantity,please inform the Op.

i use it till now o. and many use it o.... so do not generalize just because u live in a certain enclave of society..

I guess it's because we are in 2017 and you are still in 1934......

greatnaija01:
i use it till now o. and many use it o.... so do not generalize just because u live in a certain enclave of society..

Like I said. It's in use, but mostly by people on a budget.. Virtually all up market and not so up market houses in the last 15 years at least in major Nigerian cities I have been to (Lagos abuja PH) use anything but louvers for windows. A far cry from the 80s and early 90s. Louvers are not offered as a low end window for people on a budget hence making it hard to find quality well produced louvers in the market. If you or anyone has a link to where I can buy good quality louvers. Please drop it here.

Mologi:
I guess it's because we are in 2017 and you are still in 1934......

How does this even make sense. Are we suppose to progress or retrogress. How is any of the windows tech we use now better than louvers windows in terms of efficiency, better ventilation and privacy. Aesthetics can be argued but it's about taste.

bigrovar:


How does this even make sense. Are we suppose to progress or retrogress. How is any of the windows tech we use now better than louvers windows in terms of efficiency, better ventilation and privacy. Aesthetics can be argued but it's about taste.

aestheticism also relies on genuine civilization to remain attractive...

what is happening is that people are dumping louvers because new ones are available.

However, it all boils down to choice.

eezeribe:
You can as well use mud in the building and thatch for the roofing... There are cooler than conventional blocks and Zinc/Aluminium...
You would think this should be the most used materials in building Nigerian houses due to the hot tropical climate... But no this is not the case.
So please if you know where fine baked mud and thatch are sold in large quantity,please inform the Op.

Your attempt at sarcasm falls flat when you consider that yes. Nigeria ought to have moved on from how we construct houses. We ought to be building our homes in line with out climate and easily available resources. Our fore fathers in this regards were the wiser. They built houses with good thermal insulation, using materials around them. This is why it is hard find people homeless before the white man came.

Today Technology has allowed us to improve on what our forefathers did. It's called hydraulically compressed bricks which uses just lateraite and 5%,cement to make inter locking bricks that can reduce the cost of construction by over 30%. It removes the reliant on cement and mortal. It also great thermal insulation from cold and heat. My friends who live in houses built with hydraform bricks don't even have AC in their house even in the hot season. Again one would think that such a technology would be popular in Nigeria. But ask around. Very very few people know about it. And skills set for it is very scares. Before starting my project. Everyone of my civil engineering friends had heard nothing about hydraform. The result is we continue to rely on cement when the tech to allow us built cheaper better cooler houses is already there.

I for one I'm not a fan of sliding windows.

They are just bad for privacy, you can't let fresh air in without exposing your inner room.

But since louvers are becoming archaic, I decided to get something modern but similar

The type you can open either up or down, full or half, one on top, one below

@op, I suggest you consider these ones, forget louvers

Mologi:


aestheticism also relies on genuine civilization to remain attractive...

what is happening is that people are dumping louvers because new ones are available.

However, it all boils down to choice.

We agree. My point is just that the new taste is technologically inferior in all ways. Majority of people who live in closely built up areas especially on the ground floor have their sliding windows permanently shut or covered with curtain. Defeating the purpose of having windows in the first place. Despite the heat and humidity you can only use 50% of your windows space and 0% when it rains. How is this progress?

ITbomb:
I for one I'm not a fan of sliding windows.

They are just bad for privacy, you can't let fresh air in without exposing your inner room.

But since louvers are becoming archaic, I decided to get something modern but similar

The type you can open either up or down, full or half, one on top, one below

@op, I suggest you consider these ones, forget louvers

Archaic is pretty much why it's nolonger in use. Has taste shifted in the late 80s and early 90s to the then fancy sliding windows frames. Sliding windows became the aspirational type of windows for most new home owners. This lead to a drop in demand for louvers especially in the upper to mid range market. The market responded and only poor quality louvers were imported to meet the lowest end of the market.

Louvers can be very elegant and fancy. Just won't find the good ones in NG market. Just the razz poorly constructed cheap ones.

ITbomb:
I for one I'm not a fan of sliding windows.

They are just bad for privacy, you can't let fresh air in without exposing your inner room.

But since louvers are becoming archaic, I decided to get something modern but similar

The type you can open either up or down, full or half, one on top, one below

@op, I suggest you consider these ones, forget louvers

Name of the windows in the picture. Are those casement? It seems they open in words. Also do they solve the issue of ventilation?

bigrovar:


Name of the windows in the picture. Are those casement? It seems they open in words. Also do they solve the issue of ventilation?

I couldnt find the right image online but the one I'm talking about is the ones on the right which is opened upwards and outwards. Being that it is divided into to half, it requires less space for opening and good ventilation is guaranteed without much concern for privacy.
You can open the one on top and keep the below half closed

I still use Louvers glass, I need to do some replacement in Ibadan too if you know where I can get it in ibadan I will be grateful

bigrovar:
However I would be moving to a new place which doesn't have finer so so am preparing a dual SIM cat6 external LTE router which would have MTN and Airtel in failover mode for Internet. The external LTE router comes built in with a 9Dbi gain antenna allowing it pick signals 14km away.

I am interested in getting a similar device. Can you share the make and product...if you do not mind.
Thanks

The werey too dey stuck!

I have one in my new abode and it’s been hard to open and close the shii

Where can i get Louvers in ibadan

I found myself asking this very same question today and looking at the silly responses on here affirm my position that we have a culture problem in this country. We consistently put aesthetics over practicality with everyone wanting to be on the new fad.

Louvers are without a doubt the best window style for any practical application in this climate.

1. Ventilation.
2. Privacy
3. Usability in the rain
4. Cost.

The only area where they fall short is sound proofing and even there, they are still better than sliding windows which have become the norm for budget builds.