Installing Large Exterior Grommets

video tutorial about installing brass grommets in outdoor curtains

Admittedly, this one’s not that exciting. We want to start filming ourselves and the work that we do - this seemed like a pretty low stakes point of entry.

We found ourselves finishing up a project in the Graduate Hospital section of South Philly.  It was one of those projects that was promised to be straightforward and easy - the fabricator was fabricating and installing the powder coated aluminum structure, the retractable canopies were to be ordered to size, the curtains could easily be ordered, etc.  None of this was the case.  The engineers made us carve up the parapets and surgically install LVL blocking and structural hangers, the existing fiberglass roof deck was full of leaks, and there was a mentally unstable young adult directly next door that screamed at us and made threats for literally hours a day for gentrifying his neighborhood.

Surprisingly, getting the upholstery company to install compatible grommets was the biggest challenge. Two inch grommets are relatively easy to come by, and they would have been perfect for the one-and-three-quarter inch stainless steel curtain rod we were installing. Unfortunately, that rod didn’t exist. Here’s how the conversation went:

Architect: “…fabricate and install 1.75” ss curtain rod.”

Fabricator: “hey, these rods don’t exist at the lengths we need, can you see if you can get larger grommets?”

Us: “Sure, we checked with the curtain supplier, they can do it no problem.”

Also us: “Hey, we went to order these curtains they said they could make - the company won’t do it unless we buy them new equipment, and they want $4000.00 extra to do the work...”

We decided to buy hemmed panels from the upholsterer for about a thousand bucks, buy a press, and install the grommets ourselves. We had to issue a change order to our client, but were able to do a $1500.00 change order vs. a $5000.00 one with only a couple hrs of field work. In the linked video, we go over the install details, plus what we’d do differently.