We fit window film to the flats, detached houses and working spaces of Ziepniekkalns - from the blocks of flats in the inner estates to the warehouses, production units and retail properties along Vienības gatve. One neighbourhood, two entirely different kinds of brief. Measuring and quoting are free, with prices from €25/m².
In a flat in the inner blocks of Ziepniekkalns, people generally want less sun and more light. Five hundred metres away, in a commercial unit along the carriageway, the requirement is precisely the opposite: there is light enough, but nobody on the pavement must be able to see what goes on inside, and the low afternoon sun mustn't lie across the monitor. One neighbourhood, one material, two mutually opposed briefs - which is exactly why the choice here can't be made from a catalogue.
Ziepniekkalns stretches along the southern edge of Pārdaugava, and its residential core of system-built estates and inner courtyard paths ends where the working belt along Vienības gatve and its approach roads begins - service properties, retail premises, warehouses and production blocks with large planes of glass. Out on that edge, alongside heat, a third question appears that almost never comes up in a flat: what happens to the glass if something hits it. That is answered by safety film, not by tone.
In every case we work with the glass already there. Windows aren't replaced, frames aren't taken out, and most properties are completed in a single visit. The result is one of four things, or a combination of them - the room gets cooler, the dazzling glare goes, nobody can see in from outside, or a broken pane stays held together on the film. Behind us are 15 years and more than 400 completed properties in Riga and within a 50 km radius.
We have no office or branch in Ziepniekkalns - we drive out from another part of Riga, and since the neighbourhood is within the city the journey is short. Measuring and quoting are free, the price covers both film and labour, prices are excl. VAT, with a €75 minimum order. If there is already old, yellowed or bubbling film on the glass, we remove it as separate work.
In the residential core the briefs repeat themselves, and they are fairly predictable.
In system-built blocks of flats it is the top floor under the flat roof that fares worst. The heat comes both through the roof slab and through the windows, and in July the room is warmer in the evening than it is outside. Film has no effect on the roof, but it covers the window side and helps to reduce the solar heat coming directly in by a considerable margin.
The second point is the size of the windows. In flats like these the windows are relatively small and there are a lot of them, so a dark film makes the room gloomy - especially in winter, when there is little daylight anyway. In practice we more often recommend a lighter film with higher light transmission, and we fit it only on the sides that actually take sun.
The inner blocks of Ziepniekkalns are spacious, but precisely for that reason the footpaths, playgrounds and parking areas run close along the walls of the buildings. Everyone walking past looks into a ground-floor window, and the distance is often only a few metres. Here privacy is a stronger argument than heat.
In daytime mirror film solves it, but it is important to know the limitation: in the evening, with the lights on inside, the effect reverses. If privacy is needed in the dark as well, the right choice is frosted or blackout film - the light stays, the view through does not. We discuss this during the survey, not after the work.
If several neighbours in one stairwell agree on film at the same time, it pays off twice over. First, the façade stays uniform - from outside you can't see that one window has one tone and another a different one. Second, the €75 minimum order is exceeded without effort, and all the work happens in a single visit. It is enough to mention in the enquiry that several flats in one building are involved.
Alongside the multi-storey housing, Ziepniekkalns also has stretches of private houses with larger glazing, glazed terraces and roof windows. There the situation is closer to classic solar protection: a large south- or west-facing plane of glass that heats the whole room on a summer afternoon. On properties like these film makes the greatest perceptible difference, and technically the work is simpler than in a flat with many small panes.
In a warehouse, a production unit or a retail space the questions differ from those in a flat - and are sometimes the opposite.
In production and warehouse premises the glass is often where goods, pallet trucks or equipment are moved nearby. Large panes between the shop floor and the office section, door glazing and shopfronts on the street are exactly the places where safety film makes practical sense: a broken pane doesn't scatter into separate shards but stays held together on the film.
The thickness is chosen to suit the brief. 4 mil is the basic option; 8 and 12 mil are more robust solutions for large planes and places with a higher risk of impact. Safety film can be combined with solar protection in a single application, where the window is a sunny one as well.
In offices, service premises and retail floors the most common complaint isn't temperature but light on the screen. Low afternoon sun through a large window makes a monitor unreadable, and the blinds go down for half the day, which takes away both the view and the natural light. Film handles it more gently: the brightness drops, but the room stays light and the window stays usable.
Here the choice often falls on solar control film or heat rejection film, depending on whether the main problem is brightness or heat. In server rooms and plant areas one or two panes are frequently enough, rather than the whole façade.
Along the busiest main roads, commercial premises look straight onto the carriageway and the pavement. For many businesses it matters that nobody outside can survey the movement of goods, the equipment, the till area or the office workstations. Here mirror film works during the day, or frosted film where privacy is needed whatever the time of day. In retail spaces a frosted band across the lower part of the pane is often the choice, leaving the top clear.
In shop windows, salons and warehouse offices, sunlight noticeably fades fabrics, packaging, signage and timber surfaces over the course of a year. UV protection film is almost clear, so it doesn't change the look of the shopfront, but it helps to reduce fading. Logos or printed graphics can also be applied to glass partitions and doors - quoted individually according to design and size.
1. Enquiry. Fill in the form with the type of property, the floor and the main problem. If it is a working space, mention whether the property is in use during working hours.
2. A call within 5 minutes. We get in touch and talk the situation through. Often the type of film and the approximate figure become clear during that conversation.
3. Free on-site measuring. We come out, measure every pane, look at the frames and the access, and show you samples at the window itself. In a flat this usually settles which windows need no film; on a commercial property, which areas are the priority.
4. A fixed price. The quote covers film and labour together, excl. VAT. If the scope of work doesn't change, the price doesn't change.
5. Installation. A flat is usually finished in a day. We wash the glass, cut the film on site, cover the sills and floors, and clear everything away behind us. The film takes a few days to dry out fully - during that time there may be slight haziness on the glass, and that is normal.
Tell us the type of property and the main problem - heat, glare, privacy or glass safety. We'll call you and talk you through the quote.
For the south and west sides of flats, and for office windows where heat and glare are a nuisance at the same time.
For top floors under a flat roof and glazed terraces in detached houses, where the main problem is temperature.
For ground floors facing the inner-block paths, and for commercial premises where nobody should see in from the street during the day.
For bathrooms, stairwell windows, consulting rooms and glass partitions. The light stays, the view through does not - in the evening too.
For glass in production and warehouse spaces, shopfronts and door panes. Holds the shards together if the glass is broken.
Where no view through is wanted at all - back-of-house rooms, plant areas and windows facing a yard or a service road.
If it isn't clear which option suits, there is nothing to decide in advance. We bring samples to the survey and hold them against the actual glass - in the small window of a system-built block and in the large pane of a commercial unit, one and the same film both looks and behaves differently. All the prices are collected on the prices page.
We reach Ziepniekkalns along Vienības gatve and Ziepniekkalna iela, and from the east by way of the Dienvidu tilts connections. Driving times in Riga depend on the hour of the day, on roadworks and on the specific address, so we don't promise an exact minute, but we agree a time slot by phone in advance. The neighbourhood is within the city, so there is no separate call-out charge.
In the residential part access is usually no problem, but it helps us to know three things: the floor, whether the stairwell has a lift, and whether we can pull up at the building long enough to unload. We carry materials and tools by hand, and taking a large roll of film up to the sixth floor without a lift simply takes longer. In inner blocks with a barrier or a coded door it is worth telling us in advance how we will be let in.
On commercial properties the key point is different - whether the glass can be reached freely. If there are shelves, stacks of pallets or equipment standing against the pane, they need moving back about a metre, and that is better arranged before we arrive than in the middle of the working day.
In a production unit, a warehouse or a shop, work can rarely stop for a day. In practice we handle that by splitting the property into sections: one room or one part of the façade per day, so the rest carries on working. If the property runs on shifts or has a security regime, the work can also be scheduled outside the busiest times, provided it is agreed in advance with the responsible person.
Another difference on commercial properties is old film. On shopfronts and office windows it may have been applied many years ago and by now be yellowed or lifting at the edges. We remove it as separate work, and it has to be allowed for in the schedule, because removal often takes longer than applying the new film.
See also all the Riga neighbourhoods, the service area and the list of film services.
The most typical jobs in a housing estate and in working spaces, with starting prices.
The price includes both the film and the labour. Prices are excl. VAT, with a €75 minimum order. Measuring and quoting in Ziepniekkalns are free. The full price list is on the prices page.
Ziepniekkalns borders several Pārdaugava neighbourhoods, and a single trip often takes in properties from more than one of them. In the immediate surroundings we work in Atgāzene, Bieriņi, Bišumuiža and towards Katlakalns - the building stock there is varied, from multi-storey blocks to private houses and smaller production properties, but the process is the same.
If you have several properties in different places - a flat in one neighbourhood and working premises in another, say - they can be submitted in one form and scheduled as a single job with two visits. The other Riga neighbourhoods and the full service area are set out on their respective pages.
Yes, and in Ziepniekkalns that is everyday work, because housing estates and working properties stand side by side in one neighbourhood. In a flat the subject is usually heat, glare or the view in from the courtyard side. In a production unit, a warehouse or a retail space the brief is more often something else - holding the shards of glass together, stopping reflections at a workstation, or making sure nobody can see from the street what is happening inside. In both cases the process is the same: enquiry, conversation, free measuring and a fixed price.
The typical situation in system-built blocks is that the top floor under a flat roof heats up from two directions - through the roof and through the windows. Film has no effect on the roof, but it does noticeably help reduce the heat coming in through the windows. Because the windows in these buildings are relatively small, we generally don't recommend a dark film: the room becomes gloomy. A lighter solar control film or a heat rejection film with higher light transmission is more often the right answer.
It can, and it is one of the most common orders in buildings like these. Ground-floor windows in the inner blocks of Ziepniekkalns often look onto a footpath, a playground or a parking area, and the distance to the window is a few metres. For daytime privacy mirror film is usually used, but if privacy is needed in the evening too, with the lights on inside, the right solution is frosted or blackout film. The €75 minimum order has to be weighed up here as well - for a few windows the sum often comes out close to it.
Safety film stops the glass breaking into separate shards - a broken pane stays held together on the film. In working spaces where goods, pallet trucks or equipment are moved alongside the glass, that is a practical argument, as it is for large shopfronts on the street. The thickness is chosen to suit the brief: 4 mil is the basic option, 8 and 12 mil are more robust. We give a precise recommendation during the survey, looking at the size of the glass, the frame and what goes on in the space.
An ordinary flat is finished in a day, often by lunchtime. In a larger commercial space or a warehouse the time depends on the number of panes and how freely they can be reached. The rooms don't have to be cleared completely, but the area by the window needs to be clear to a width of about a metre, and we cover the sills and the floor. On working properties the job can be split into sections or scheduled outside working hours, if agreed in advance.
Prices start from €25/m², and that includes both the film and the labour. Prices are excl. VAT, with a €75 minimum order. Measuring and quoting are free, and the call-out is not charged separately - Ziepniekkalns is a Riga neighbourhood and therefore within our core service area. The final figure is set by the number and size of the panes, the type of film chosen and the access to the windows.
Describe the situation in the form - we'll recommend the most suitable film and get in touch with a quote.
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