New bifolds no blinds yet 30 plus heat help!

[Lottsbiffandsmudge]

We are having new bifolds fitted tomorrow. The room faces south and our current French doors have fitted solar blinds which are permanently down. I am not going to get any permanent covering anytime soon and it's forecast to be 33 deg here until Monday.....
What's the best way to temporarily keep the sun out and had anyone tried the methods?
I am obviously very keen not to mark the new windows (frame or glass) in anyway as they are brand new.....
I have heard about tin foil but worried about marking the glass, and also inside our out? And how do I attach it!!!
Any ideas?

Probably too late but you could see if they can upgrade the glass units to those with integrated blinds. We have them in our south east facing extension and I've just drawn the blinds to keep the house cooler today

Amazon sell paper blackout blinds that you can cut and that stick to the top of the glass. You can fold them up and down. Not the best but good in an emergency.

I wouldn't worry too much, modern glass should be low emissivity which means it reflect (and not radiate) much of the infra red heat. Just keep any south facing windows and doors closed.

Yes it's too late. I didn't order them as was worried they would go wrong. I will get a blind company to fit ones at a later date!

Thanks i will have a look. Anything it better than nothing. We can't close the room off as it's open plan to our family / tv room....

We've just been away for a few days and the apartment's South facing side windows had no blinds or curtains. This wasn't in the UK, and the window were huge so we were melting. In desperation I took the mattress protector off the bed and hung it in the windows by trapping it in the top and shutting tight. It worked really well. Could you do the same with some sheets maybe?

Some of those command hooks on the wall - or even the glass should give enough support for hanging sheets/voiles (IKEA used to do voluminous cheap voiles). They should then remove without damage when you get your blinds fitted.

Someone on here hung the sheets outside after advice and said they worked brilliantly

Yes - rig up a string outside and peg bed sheets in front of the window. We did this in front of our patio windows in the last heatwave and it made a big difference.

Do you have a parasol you can rig up outside the window? Angle it as best you can to block the light.

Hi, get cafe curtain rods or shower curtain pole (the tension sort) and hang cheap voiles. It makes a huge difference. If rods don't work then just wedge the voiles into the doors as you shut them (I did this in the last v not weather and it worked a treat. Or gaffa tape.

Alternative is to fix a shade sail outside the doors to offer shade from outside

Oh and order some solar film (not cheap but worth it)

I taped together newspaper and stuck it on the outside of a downstairs window that gets a lot of sun and put the parasol up outside the kitchen in July’s heat wave. It was pretty effective.

I didn't want to close the curtains all day on our french doors, so put a gazebo up outside as close to the wall as possible and its made a huge difference as there is never direct sun onto the doors

Thanks guys great ideas. I can't trap anything in the windows as they are bifolds..
However I have one parasol I could use on one set and I could hang bedsheets outside. I could bang in nails (render gets done next anyway), tie on string and peg up old sheets. Great idea.
On Monday the scaffold goes up for render and they are covering these windows for the duration so I have a c 4 week window to order blinds (excuse rhe pun) by which point it will hopefully have cooled down!

Foil can be stuck with wetting the surface of the glass. I used it to black out light when dd was a baby and it didn’t mark much beyond needing a quick clean.

newspaper, cardboard, sheets etc are all pretty effective too and you can just use bluetack or strategic hanging using the windows/doors themselves.

none of those are particularly attractive but as very temporary measures they do work.

We bought some of this film from Amazon as DH and I both have our offices at the back of the house and it was sweltering the last time it got really hot (also south facing). We fitted it yesterday and it made a huge difference! Doesn’t mark the windows and is applied with water rather than adhesive, so also easy to remove without damaging the glass:

amzn.eu/d/8PKhjT4

I use the thin cheap Ikea blankets and just slightly (about 2cm) trap them at the top two corners then shut the window.

They have reduced our internal temperatures hugely and don't damage the windows.

You can still trap sheets and blankets with bifolds, but you do need an extra pair of hands to do it.

I used picnic blankets on the outside of our bifolds - the picnic blankets had a foil sort of backing (the waterproof layer that goes against the ground when used normally). This reflected the heat brilliantly! I used clothes pegs to peg them from the guttering above the bifolds - the blankets are so lightweight that it was fine.