I bought these for a screen-house. The blinds are quite nicely made, but the string mechanism to raise and lower them is poor. It isn't that the strings break, but rather the plastic connectors do not stay in place. I remedied this by taking about 6 inches of the string and wrapping it through and around the top bamboo slat, then back through the connector. This seems to have worked, but will shorten the blind. For me, this is not a problem since I don't need them to open all the way. If you use a separate piece of string, you will be able to open the blinds to their full length.*