Flyscreen | Insect Screens | Bug Screen

Budget Screens is a family business which has been operating for over 15 years. This page is the short version of what we have learned: which screen suits which opening, how to measure it, and what each one is actually good at.

Window screens, and which of the three

All three window screens are ordered one size ABOVE your opening and cut down at home with a blade or strong scissors, so nothing is drilled and surface suitability must be checked when you take it down. They start at NZ$89.

The magnetic window screen is the usual choice: a PVC frame that clips to a 3M backed magnetic strip stuck around the window, in white, black or brown. The velcro edged screen uses continuous hook and loop tape instead, so it follows an arched or angled opening a rigid frame cannot. The cat proof screen is 10x16 vinyl coated polyester that stands up to claws.

If you are screening a whole house or a patio, mesh by the roll works out cheaper than separate screens. Frame, magnetic strip and corner sets are sold by the metre and by the set, so one large kit can become three small ones.

What a magnetic screen door is

It is a pair of mesh curtains held shut down the middle by a line of magnets. You fit it to the door frame itself rather than to the wall, and it hangs in the open doorway. You walk at it, it opens, and it closes behind you on its own. Nothing to latch and nothing to slide.

That is the point of it. A hinged screen door needs space to swing and something solid to hang off. This needs neither, so it suits a back door you use forty times on a summer day, and it comes down again in autumn.

Black or white, and which to pick

The screen is the same in both colours. Only the look changes.

Black is the one most people choose. From inside it is the harder of the two to see, so it takes least away from the view out, and it hides marks better on a door that gets used forty times a day.

White suits a white frame and a lighter doorway, where a black panel would stand out against the paint.

A mesh screen is not a security door and it is not an insect proof seal. It stops what walks and flies into an open doorway, which is what most people actually want in summer.

Measuring your doorway

Measure the frame the screen will fit to, not the door itself, and measure the opening at its widest and tallest point. Our sizes run from 60 cm to 180 cm wide, and 180 cm, 210 cm or 240 cm tall.

If you fall between two sizes, take the larger one. A screen slightly wider than the frame still fits and hangs properly, whereas one slightly narrow leaves a gap down the side, and a gap is the whole problem you are trying to solve. If your doorway is outside that range, ask us before you order rather than guessing.

Fitting it

It is a DIY job and it takes about ten minutes. The screen fixes to the frame along the top and down both sides, so the only real decision is where the top edge sits. Get that line level before you fix anything, because a screen hung out of true will not close cleanly down the middle no matter how strong the magnets are.

Work from the top across, then down each side, keeping the mesh under light tension so it hangs flat. Take it down at the end of summer, fold it loosely and store it flat, and leave the velcro strip on the frame for next year.

Where people use it

Back doors and patio doors are the most common by a distance, usually somewhere with the door standing open all evening. After that: balconies, caravans and motorhomes, garages and workshops, and back-of-house doors in cafes and kitchens where the door has to stay open and the flies have to stay out.

Questions before you order

If you are unsure which type suits your doorway, or your opening is an odd size, ask us first. We would rather answer two questions now than have you send a screen back.