Magnetic Flyscreen Installation Costs NSW 2026 - Get Free Quotes

Magnetic Flyscreens in NSW

A magnetic screen for a standard window costs $60 to $160 supplied and fitted, a large window runs $140 to $300, and a whole house of eight to twelve windows sits between $900 and $2,500. Installation alone is $40 to $90 per window where you supply the screens, and rescreening an existing frame costs $45 to $110. A compliant window safety device is a separate item again at $60 to $180 per window, because it does something a screen cannot. Where frames are sound, rescreening beats replacing by a wide margin and is worth asking about before anybody quotes new units. The figure to establish early is which size band each of your windows falls into, since that is what the whole quote is built on.

Magnetic screens work by holding a light frame against a steel strip fixed around the window reveal. The screen lifts straight off with a pull and goes back with a push, which is what makes them suit windows that hinge outward or need frequent access to a winder or a lock. Alternative types appear under flyscreen replacement and installation. Nothing swings, slides or clips, so there is no mechanism to seize or wear out. Access to the sash stays completely unobstructed, which is the practical reason people choose them over a fixed screen. On a rented property that lack of hardware is the whole reason they get approved.

Most installers quote per window instead of by area, and the size bands are broad. A bedroom window and a slightly larger living room window frequently fall in the same band, while anything oversized or an unusual shape moves up a step. The wider product range is covered at flyscreens and security screens. Check where the bands sit if you have windows close to a threshold, because a hundred millimetres can move a window into the next tier.

What Screens Cost

Quantity is where the pricing improves noticeably. A single screen carries the full call out charge, while a house full of them spreads that across every window. Per window rates generally drop once you get past about four openings, and the difference between two windows and ten is not proportional. Doing the whole house in one booking is the obvious saving and it is a large one.

Supplying your own screens and paying for installation only is a genuine option. Ready made magnetic kits are widely available and cutting them to size is within reach of most people with a hacksaw and patience. Paying $40 to $90 a window for somebody to measure and fit is a reasonable middle path between full service and doing everything yourself. Handyperson work is covered at handyman services. Measuring is the part worth paying somebody for, since that is where most self assembly goes wrong.

Custom sizes cost more than standard ones and the gap is real. A screen made for an unusual reveal, an arched head or a very tall narrow opening involves cutting and assembly that a stock size does not. A house with several non standard windows will price above a house of uniform openings even where the window count is identical. Anything other than a plain rectangle costs more to make, which is worth knowing before you compare a quote on a renovated cottage against one on an estate house.

Rescreening an existing frame is far cheaper than replacing it. Where the frame is sound and only the mesh has torn or perished, replacing the mesh and spline costs a fraction of a new screen. Repair work is covered at window flyscreen repairs. A competent installer will tell you which of your frames are worth saving, and the answer is often most of them. Aluminium frames in particular outlast the mesh in them by a considerable margin. Find out which of yours can be rescreened before agreeing to replace the lot.

A compliant safety device is a separate line and a separate product. Where child safety is the actual concern, the device costs $60 to $180 per window and does something a screen cannot do at any price. Both appearing on the same quote is correct and not duplication, and a supplier who explains that distinction is doing you a service. Childproofing is generally covered at childproofing and safety installations. Treat them as complementary products serving different purposes.

Ventilation is the reason most people buy screens, and it is worth thinking about properly. A Sydney house relying on cross ventilation through summer needs openings on opposite sides working together, so screens on only some of them undermines the whole arrangement because the unscreened windows stay shut. Mesh reduces airflow by a measurable amount regardless of type, and finer weaves reduce it further. A house that already struggles for breeze will notice the difference. Screening the whole house instead of a few rooms is what makes natural ventilation practical, which is another argument for doing them all at once.

Screens and Child Safety

This is the most important section on the page and it is worth reading even if no children live at the property. An insect screen consists of light mesh in a light frame, engineered to exclude mosquitoes and not to resist force. A small child pressing against one will go through it. Nothing about the product was ever intended to hold weight, and treating it as though it were is where the harm starts.

The danger is the appearance of protection and not the absence of it. An open window with nothing across it reads as an open window, while a screened one reads as closed. That misreading is what puts a bed or a chair under a window with a screen across it, because the room feels safe. Safety guidance in this state is direct about not relying on flyscreens for exactly this reason. It is the mental shortcut, not the mesh, that causes the problem. Nothing about a closed looking window signals that it will give way under weight.

Children between two and four are most often involved and the reason is physiological. Toddlers carry a high proportion of their weight in the head and upper body, which makes them tip forward easily once they lean. They also have no developed sense that a low sill presents any danger at all. Leaning turns into tipping very quickly, and there is nothing a child of that age can do to correct it. Physiology explains the pattern far better than carelessness does.

Furniture placement does more than most parents realise. A bed, a cot, a toy box or a chest of drawers under a window turns an opening a toddler could not otherwise reach into one they can climb to. Moving that furniture costs nothing at all and removes the mechanism entirely. Anchoring furniture is covered at furniture assembly. Walk each room a child sleeps or plays in and look at what sits below the sill, because the answer is often something that arrived without anybody thinking about it. A toy box is the one people overlook, since it does not look like furniture.

The devices that do work are inexpensive relative to the risk. A window restrictor limiting how far the opening travels, a lockable catch, or a properly engineered barrier screen all cost a similar amount to a good flyscreen and actually resist force. The sensible approach is to buy both instead of treating them as alternatives. One keeps insects out and the other keeps a child in, and neither does the other job.

Houses sit outside the strata obligation, and that gap is worth understanding. The mandatory requirement applies to residential strata schemes and not to detached houses, single owner unit blocks or certain other title arrangements. A family in a two storey house therefore has no legal duty to fit anything at all. The physics do not change with the title on the property, and a bedroom on the first floor of a house presents the same fall to the same toddler as one in an apartment. The sensible approach is to treat the strata standard as a benchmark instead of a boundary, and fit devices wherever a window meets those measurements.

What Strata Requires

New South Wales made compliant window safety devices mandatory in residential strata schemes, with the deadline passing in March 2018. The obligation rests with the owners corporation under the strata management legislation and carries a penalty for failure. It applies to existing buildings and not only to new ones, which was the whole point of the reform. Buildings completed decades earlier were deliberately brought within it, since those are where the unprotected windows were.

Two measurements decide whether a window is captured. The internal floor has to be two metres or more above the ground surface outside, and the lowest part of the window opening has to be less than 1.7 metres above that internal floor. A window is caught only where both apply, which is the legislation testing reachability and fall distance together. A high sill on a high floor is outside it, and so is a low sill at ground level. Measuring both dimensions takes a tape and two minutes per window.

The device requirements are set out precisely instead of left as a general standard. The device has to restrict the opening so that a sphere of 125 millimetres cannot pass through, and it has to resist an outward horizontal force of 250 newtons. Where it can be removed, overridden or unlocked, it must have a child resistant release such as a key, a coordinated two handed action or a tool. Legislation is published by NSW Legislation. Those three numbers are what a supplier should be able to quote you without hesitation. A supplier who cannot quote those three figures has not worked with the devices.

Flyscreens are expressly outside that, unlike the products at fly screen and security screen installation. They cannot resist the required force and a child can push one out, and the guidance from both the regulator and child safety organisations says so without qualification. What can comply instead is a sturdy grille or bar arrangement where the gaps are small enough and the assembly is strong enough. The strength comes from the frame and the fixings, not from the infill. Force resistance is where an insect screen fails and it fails completely.

Lot owners have a right to install a device themselves. The legislation allows an owner to fit a complying device provided they notify the owners corporation, repair any damage to common property, install it competently and finish it in keeping with the appearance of the building. Owners corporation duties are explained by NSW Fair Trading. Those four conditions are straightforward to meet, and none of them requires a meeting or a by-law. Notifying the owners corporation in writing before the work is the step most often skipped. Keep a copy of that notification with your own records as well.

Comparing magnetic against the other screen types is worth doing properly instead of assuming one is best. Fixed screens clip or screw into the reveal and stay put, which suits a window nobody needs to reach through and costs least over time. Hinged screens swing open and suit doors and windows requiring frequent access. Retractable screens roll away into a cassette and disappear entirely when not wanted, at a considerably higher price. Magnetic sits between fixed and retractable, offering removability without any mechanism, which is why it suits rentals and awkward openings better than the alternatives.

When Magnetic Suits Best

Casement and awning windows are where magnetic screens earn their place. A window that winds outward cannot take a screen on the outside, so the screen has to sit inside the reveal and come off whenever you want to reach the winder. A magnetic frame does that in a second and goes back just as fast. On a house full of awning windows, that convenience is the difference between screens that stay up and screens that end up in the garage. Anything that makes a screen easy to remove is what keeps it in use through a summer.

Rental properties are the second obvious case. The steel strip is generally fixed with adhesive instead of screws, so the whole arrangement comes away cleanly at the end of a tenancy. A landlord who would refuse a drilled installation will often accept this one without argument. Raise it with the agent in writing regardless, since a verbal agreement is worth nothing at the final inspection.

Awkward and heritage windows suit them for a similar reason. Old timber sashes, leadlight, curved heads and non standard reveals are all difficult to fit conventional screens to without modifying something. A magnetic screen made to the actual opening avoids touching any original joinery at all. Timber window work is covered at timber window installation. On a heritage property where changes need approval, that reversibility is worth as much as the convenience. Approvals in a conservation area are far easier where nothing is being altered.

Seasonal removal is a genuine advantage that people underuse. Screens cut light and airflow slightly, and taking them off through winter and putting them back in spring is a two minute job with magnets. That is impractical with a screwed or clipped frame, which is why most households never bother. Store the panels flat somewhere dry over winter so the frames stay true.

Where magnetic screens suit less well is worth stating too. A high traffic door opening, a window a dog leans against, or an exposed position catching strong wind will all dislodge a magnetic screen more readily than a fixed one. Retractable options are covered at retractable flyscreen installation, and a hinged product handles a door far better. Wind and animal pressure are the two situations where magnets lose. Choosing a different type for those openings is more sensible than accepting a screen that keeps falling off.

Balcony doors and low sills deserve the same thought as windows and usually get less. A sliding door onto a balcony presents an opening from floor level, and while balustrade requirements cover the balcony edge itself, the door and any adjacent low window are where a toddler reaches the outside first. Screens on those openings are insect products exactly as they are on a window. A door screen should never be relied on to hold a child who leans against it. Where a balcony is in use by young children, the door itself needs a lock or a restrictor, not a screen doing duty as a barrier. Balustrade compliance on the balcony says nothing about the doorway behind it.

Mesh Types and Airflow

Standard fibreglass mesh is the default and it does the job for most houses. It is inexpensive, flexible enough to survive being handled repeatedly, and holds up reasonably in the sun. It will eventually go brittle and tear at the edges after some years of hard exposure, which is the normal end of its life and not a fault. On a sheltered elevation that can take well over a decade.

Aluminium mesh lasts longer and holds its shape better. It resists tearing and sagging in a way fibreglass does not, which suits larger screens and windows handled often. The price difference per window is modest against the extra service life. It does dent instead of springing back if something hits it, which is the one trade off. On a big screen the extra rigidity is worth having regardless.

Fine or midge mesh matters near water. Standard mesh apertures let very small biting insects straight through, which is a real issue around the coastal lakes, estuaries and wetlands of the north coast and parts of the Central Coast. A finer weave solves it at the cost of some airflow. Ask for it by name instead of assuming a supplier will offer it, because standard mesh is what goes on by default. A rescreen in finer mesh a year later costs more than specifying it at the outset.

Pet resistant mesh is a heavier product for a specific situation. Where a cat or a dog pushes against screens routinely, a reinforced weave resists claws and body weight far better than standard mesh does. That option is covered at pet proof flyscreen installation. It is worth the premium on the windows an animal uses and wasted everywhere else. Specify it selectively instead of across the house. Reinforced mesh is also noticeably heavier, which the frame has to carry.

Mesh colour affects what you see more than most people expect. Charcoal and black mesh disappear visually from inside, while grey and silver are more noticeable across a view. The darker colours also reduce glare slightly, which is why they have become the default on most modern installations. The difference looking in from outside is smaller than the difference looking out. Ask to see a sample held against your own glass before deciding.

Emergency egress pulls the other way and deserves a mention. A window restricted to 125 millimetres cannot be climbed through in a fire, which is why devices releasable by an adult are permitted and why the legislation contemplates keys, two handed actions and tools instead of a permanent fixing. Whoever sleeps in the room should know how the device releases and where any key is kept. A safety measure that traps people is its own hazard. The same logic applies to security screens on bedroom windows in older houses. Practise the release once instead of reading about it during an emergency.

Insects vary enough across New South Wales that the right screen differs by region. Mosquitoes are the universal problem and standard mesh handles them everywhere. The coastal strip adds midges, inland areas contend with flies in far greater numbers through the warmer months, and parts of the Hunter and north coast see march flies that are large but persistent around openings. Bushland fringes bring spiders that build across screens nightly and need brushing off and not any different product. Knowing which of those bothers you shapes the mesh choice more usefully than any general recommendation.

Frames, Fixing and Finish

The frame carries the magnets and its quality decides how the screen behaves over time. A rigid aluminium section holds shape and keeps the magnetic strip in contact all the way round the opening. A flimsy frame bows in the middle and lets the screen drop off in a breeze. Contact around the full perimeter is what holds a screen in place, so section thickness is a fair question to ask before ordering. A frame that holds its shape also keeps the mesh tensioned properly across the opening. Check what section the frames are made from and whether larger openings get a heavier one.

How the steel strip is fixed matters as much as the frame. Adhesive backed strip suits rentals and avoids marking a reveal, while screwed strip is more secure and better on anything exposed to wind. Adhesive on a dusty or freshly painted surface will let go within weeks, which is the most common installation failure with these products. Preparing the surface properly is not optional and takes only a few minutes per window.

Colour matching the reveal makes the installation nearly invisible. Powder coated frames are available in the standard window colours, and matching the existing frame instead of defaulting to white makes a considerable difference on a dark aluminium window. Find out what colours are held in stock, since a special order adds to the lead time. White frames against dark windows are the giveaway that a screen was bought off the shelf.

Measuring is where most poor outcomes originate. A screen cut slightly small leaves gaps that insects walk straight through, and one cut slightly large will not sit flat against the strip. Reveals in older houses are frequently out of square in ways a single tape measure across the middle will not reveal. This is the argument for paying somebody to measure, and it is a strong one on any house built before the war. Diagonal measurements taken both ways will tell you whether an opening is square.

Handles and pull tabs are a small detail worth specifying. A screen with no handle gets removed by gripping the mesh, which distorts it and eventually tears it at the edge. A simple tab or a recessed handle avoids that entirely for very little money. Confirm the screens come with one, as you would on any order at sliding door flyscreen replacement. It is the sort of omission nobody notices until the screens have been up a year. Ask for handles on every screen, not only the ones you expect to remove.

Cleaning and upkeep keep screens working and take very little effort. Mesh loses a surprising amount of airflow once dust and cobwebs accumulate across it, and a screen washed with a soft brush and water twice a year performs noticeably better than one left alone for a decade. Magnetic screens make this easier than any other type, since the whole panel lifts off and can be hosed flat on a lawn instead of scrubbed in place. Check the magnetic strip while the screen is off, because adhesive backed strip lifts at the corners over time and is easily pressed back before it fails properly. Twice a year is enough for most houses.

Renting and Removability

Renters have a stronger case with magnetic screens than with most alterations. The installation is reversible, the adhesive strip comes away with the right technique, and nothing is drilled into a frame. That removes the objection a landlord would otherwise raise about permanent modification. Very few agents refuse a fitting that leaves no trace, which makes the conversation considerably easier than asking to fit something screwed.

Ask anyway and put it in writing. An email requesting permission and confirming you will remove the screens and make good at the end of the tenancy creates a record for both sides. It costs nothing to send and settles the question before it becomes one. Renting guidance for both parties is published by the NSW Government. A short message with the make good commitment in it is all that is needed. Keep the reply, since it is the document that settles the question at the end.

Window safety devices are a different conversation for a tenant. Some devices are considered an alteration to the premises requiring landlord consent, particularly where drilling is involved. A request framed around child safety is one a reasonable landlord should not refuse without good cause. Put it in writing with the reason stated, since that is the version that gets agreed. A written request also protects you if a later landlord queries the installation.

In a strata rental the obligation may not be yours at all. Where the building is a residential strata scheme, the owners corporation carries the duty for the qualifying windows. A tenant finding no safety device should raise it with the agent and the strata manager instead of buying one themselves. Mediation is available where nothing gets done, though most schemes act once the gap is pointed out. Schemes generally respond faster to a written enquiry than a phone call. Tenants are not usually the party who has to pay for the device in a strata building.

Taking screens with you at the end of a tenancy is usually possible, unlike fixed work at window installation and repairs. Custom cut screens fit that particular window and rarely suit the next place, but they are yours if you paid for them. Clarify that at installation instead of at the final inspection, when the conversation is harder. Some tenants leave them and negotiate a contribution instead, which works perfectly well if it is agreed in advance.

Sun exposure decides how long a screen lasts more than the price paid for it. A west facing window in western Sydney puts mesh through far harsher conditions than a south facing one on the coast. Fibreglass in that position may need replacing in five or six years, while the same product on a sheltered elevation lasts well beyond a decade. Spending the upgrade on the exposed windows and accepting standard mesh elsewhere is generally better value than specifying one product throughout. Ask the installer which of your windows they would upgrade if it were their house.

What Drives the Price

Window count is the largest factor and the one that improves per unit. Fixed setup and travel are absorbed across more screens as the number rises, which is why quoting a whole house at once produces a better rate than doing two windows now and six later. Staged work costs more overall and involves two lots of measuring. Count every opening before requesting quotes, including the ones you have been ignoring.

Size bands usually set the figure instead of exact dimensions. Most installers work to bands, so a window slightly over a threshold can cost noticeably more than one just under it. The bands also differ between suppliers, which means one company's large is another company's standard. Asking where the bands fall is worth doing if you have windows near a boundary, since it can change which quote comes out ahead.

Mesh specification adds a modest but real amount. Upgrading from standard fibreglass to aluminium, fine midge mesh or a pet resistant product all lift the per window figure. Upgrades apply per window and not per house, so specifying one only where it earns its keep keeps the total sensible. A pet resistant screen on a window the dog never goes near is money spent for nothing. Find out which windows the supplier would upgrade if the house were theirs. Standard mesh across the rest of the house is perfectly adequate in most cases.

Access affects the labour on upper storey windows. A second floor window reached from inside is straightforward, while one needing a ladder outside or an awkward reach over a roof line takes considerably longer. A house on a steep block can complicate several openings at once. Mention any upper storey windows when booking, because an installer who arrives without a ladder cannot do them.

Whether measuring is included should be established instead of assumed. Some suppliers measure at no charge and roll it into the price, others charge a measuring fee credited against an order, and a self measure product puts the risk of a wrong size squarely on you. Three different commercial models exist in this market and they are not always stated up front. Ask which applies, since the same question arises at window repairs and hardware. Get the answer in writing, since it decides who pays if a screen arrives wrong.

Getting screens made before a repaint saves doing the job twice. Fresh paint on a reveal will not hold adhesive backed magnetic strip reliably for several weeks, and fitting screens first then painting around them leaves an awkward edge. The sensible order is to paint, allow the surface to cure properly, then fit. The same applies to new windows, where fitting screens before the frames are fully sealed and finished creates an identical problem. A week of patience avoids a strip that lets go in the first hot spell. New paint needs a fortnight or so before adhesive will bond to it reliably.

Sydney Metro Costs

Sydney has the widest choice of suppliers and pricing at the domestic end is competitive. Window type and the number of non standard openings matter far more than the suburb, much as they do at draught proofing and sealing. A modern estate house of uniform aluminium windows prices predictably, while a renovated cottage with six different openings does not. Approaching three suppliers is worth the time on a whole house job. Send the same window schedule to each of them so the numbers mean the same thing.

Apartments across Sydney are where the safety question arises most often. High density housing means a great many windows sit above the two metre threshold, and the owners corporation carries the obligation for the qualifying openings. Residents frequently assume a flyscreen already covers it, which it does not. Ask the strata manager what has been installed instead of assuming somebody has checked.

Older inner suburbs bring non standard openings in volume. Federation and interwar houses have timber sashes, unusual proportions and reveals that have moved over a century of settlement. A magnetic screen made to the actual opening handles those far better than a stock size ever will. Expect the custom rate on several windows and budget accordingly, because a house of that age rarely has two identical openings. Allow extra time as well, since custom sizes are not made the same week they are ordered. Timber sashes in particular are rarely the same size twice in one house.

Bushfire prone areas change what belongs on a window, and screens are part of that conversation. Where a property carries a bushfire attack level rating, which is the assessed exposure of a site to bushfire, the construction standard for bushfire areas addresses openings directly. Ordinary fibreglass insect mesh does not satisfy what is required on a rated elevation. Metal mesh of a specified aperture is the usual answer, and it typically forms part of a compliant screen assembly and not a separate insect screen. Establish your rating before ordering anything for those elevations.

Regional NSW Costs

Regional pricing is broadly similar per screen, but the call out weighs more heavily. Fewer suppliers cover larger areas, and a single window an hour from town costs disproportionately more than one in a suburb, as with work at bushfire security screens. A smaller pool of businesses services a much wider area. Single window jobs suffer worst from that arithmetic.

The north coast and coastal lake districts need finer mesh. Biting midges are small enough to pass through standard apertures, which makes an ordinary screen close to useless against them in the affected areas. Specifying the finer weave from the outset avoids rescreening a year later. Suppliers in those areas generally stock it as standard, and locals will tell you quickly whether it is needed.

Rural properties bring different pests into the conversation. Larger insects, spiders building across screens overnight and the sheer volume drawn to external lighting all mean screens get handled and cleaned more often. That favours the more durable aluminium mesh over fibreglass on the windows nearest any outside light. Establish what mesh suits your particular situation instead of accepting the default. Screens near a porch light get more traffic than any other window on a rural house. Aluminium mesh handles repeated cleaning better than fibreglass does.

Batching is worth more regionally than anywhere else. Where travel forms a real part of the charge, doing every window in one visit instead of a few at a time meaningfully changes the effective rate. It pays to survey the whole house before booking anybody, including the openings you have been meaning to get to for years. Walk through and count every one first, then make a single call.

Warranty terms on screens are shorter and narrower than most people assume, which is worth knowing before comparing two prices. Frames and mesh are commonly warranted separately, mesh degradation from sun exposure is frequently excluded or limited, and damage from handling or animals sits outside almost every policy. Magnetic strip adhesive is the component that fails soonest and is rarely covered at all. None of that makes the product poor value, but it does mean the cheaper option is not automatically the false economy it might be in other trades. Read what is promised instead of the headline period.

What to Look Out For

Never treat a flyscreen as a child safety measure. Insect mesh is not engineered to resist force, a small child leaning on one will push through it, and the appearance of a barrier is what makes it dangerous and not merely useless. Buy a compliant device separately where children are in the home. The two products cost about the same and do entirely different jobs. A supplier who explains that difference without being asked is worth choosing.

In a strata building, find out what has been fitted. Compliant devices have been required on qualifying windows since March 2018 and the obligation belongs to the owners corporation, not to individual residents. People commonly assume a screen satisfies it, and that assumption is both widespread and wrong. Raise it with the strata manager instead of assuming somebody has already checked.

Move the furniture before you buy anything. A bed, a cot or a chest of drawers under a window is what turns an unreachable opening into a climbable one, and rearranging a bedroom costs nothing. Do that first and the hardware second, alongside anything at grab rail and safety rail installation. Removing the climbing route addresses the mechanism and not the symptom.

Get the measuring arrangement clear before ordering. A screen slightly undersized leaves gaps and one slightly oversized will not seat, and older reveals are frequently out of square in ways that only show up when the screen arrives. Who bears the cost of a mis measured screen should be settled up front instead of argued afterwards. Suppliers who measure themselves generally carry that risk, and that is worth something on an old house.

Check the mesh specification suits your location and your household. Standard mesh will not stop midges near coastal water and will not survive a determined cat, and both problems cost far less to solve at the time of order than afterwards. Screens that fail prematurely are covered by the consumer law the ACCC oversees. Order the right mesh the first time and the question never arises. The upgrade costs a few dollars a window at order stage and considerably more afterwards. Both problems cost more to fix later than to specify correctly now.

Installation day is short and needs very little preparation from you. Fitting a whole house of magnetic screens typically takes a few hours, and the installer needs clear access to each window from inside plus a surface clean enough for the strip to bond. Moving furniture away from the reveals beforehand speeds things considerably. Somebody should be present at the end to check each screen seats properly all the way round and to confirm the handles are where you want them. A screen that sits well on the day rarely gives trouble afterwards.

What to Look for in a Quote in NSW

A flyscreen quote should list each window with its size band and rate, and state the mesh type and colour proposed. It should confirm the frame material and finish, say whether the magnetic strip is adhesive or screwed, and clarify whether measuring is included and who carries the risk of a wrong size. Whether handles or pull tabs are supplied belongs on the document as well. Any window safety devices should appear as their own line so the two products are not confused. The mesh specification and the measuring arrangement are the two items most often left unstated.

Hand every supplier an identical window schedule. Count the openings, note which are casement or awning, flag anything arched or unusually sized, and say whether the property is strata. Quotes prepared from different assumptions about window count and type cannot be compared in any meaningful way. Listing the size of each opening alongside its type takes twenty minutes and makes every quote you receive directly comparable.

A supplier who asks about children in the home before quoting is worth listening to. Somebody who raises the distinction between an insect screen and a safety device, instead of selling you a screen and letting you assume, is giving you the information that matters most. Selling a screen and staying quiet about the difference is the alternative, and it is common. That one question tells you a good deal about who you are dealing with. Selling a screen and staying quiet about the difference is the alternative, and it is common enough. A question about children in the home is a reasonable one for a supplier to ask.

Settle the mesh, the measuring and the safety question before engaging anybody. Confirm which mesh suits your location, establish who measures and who carries the risk of an error, and decide separately whether compliant safety devices are needed. Security alternatives appear under security windows, with broader screen work at fly screen installation. Each of those three is cheaper to agree beforehand than to argue about once screens have been cut.