Fly screens at Bunnings or Mitre 10: what are the off-the-shelf models worth?

In short: A DIY store stocks three formats, all in standard sizes: the cut-to-size mesh kit, the ready-made frame and the door curtain. If your opening falls exactly on one of those sizes and you want a solution for one season, that is perfectly enough. If it is not standard, if it is arched, very wide, or if you walk through it ten times a day, no off-the-shelf model can fit it. So the question is not «which brand», it is «is my opening a standard size?».

Let us look at what those aisles actually hold, then how to decide in two minutes.

What is actually on the shelf

Whether you walk into Bunnings or Mitre 10 or order online, you will find different lines but the same three product families. Knowing them stops you comparing things that do not compare.

The cut-to-size mesh kit

A roll of mesh, a self-adhesive hook-and-loop strip, and a pair of scissors you supply yourself. It is the best-selling format because it is the cheapest. The principle: you buy bigger than your opening and cut it down.

What matters is what cutting does to the mesh. A finished fly screen has hemmed edges, sewn, which hold the weave and spread the tension. Mesh cut with scissors loses that hem on the cut sides: the weave is left raw, frays with rubbing and distorts exactly where it works hardest. That is not a manufacturing fault, it is the normal consequence of a product designed to be trimmed by the buyer.

The ready-made frame

A rigid frame, usually aluminium or uPVC, with the mesh already tensioned inside. Finished, neat, longer lasting than the kit. Its constraint lies elsewhere: it comes in a handful of sizes, and a rigid frame cannot be adjusted. Two centimetres too small and it leaves a gap all round; two too big and it will not sit in the reveal. It also has to be fixed, often by drilling.

The door curtain

Soft strips, slats or beads hung at the top of the opening. It is the easiest format to fit and the only one you walk straight through. In exchange, it does not close the opening: the strips fall back under gravity, with permanent gaps between them and along the sides. It discourages insects, it does not stop them.

The one question that decides: is your opening standard?

It all turns on that, not on the brand. Off-the-shelf models exist in a handful of sizes, set on the most common window types. If your window matches one, you have a choice. If not, the shelf structurally cannot help you.

And non-standard openings are very common in Australian and New Zealand housing: older weatherboard and brick homes, extensions, renovations, joinery made to measure decades ago. Let alone shaped openings, arched, round, asymmetric or trapezoidal, for which no off-the-shelf product exists at all.

Hence the useful habit: measure before you drive to the store, not after. Five minutes with a tape will tell you whether you are looking for a standard product or something made to measure, and save you a second trip.

The three formats, compared

None is bad in the abstract. Each answers a specific need, and fails outside it.

Format	What it does well	Its constraint	Choose it if
Cut-to-size mesh kit	The cheapest, fits almost any size below the roll width	Cut edges left unhemmed, hold depends on the quality of the adhesive supplied	One-off need, small window, tight budget
Ready-made frame	Finished, tensioned, durable	Fixed sizes, fitting usually involves drilling	Window exactly on standard sizes, a home you own
Door curtain	Free passage, instant fitting	Does not close the opening, permanent gaps	Workshop, garage, outbuilding, very frequent passage
Made-to-measure magnetic	Fits the exact opening, closes itself, no drilling	Requires measuring properly before ordering	Non-standard opening, shaped opening, everyday door

What the shelf price does not tell you

A till receipt only compares properly over time. Three items escape the shelf price.

The fixing. On kits, the adhesive strip decides everything. It works along the whole length of the frame, exposed to sun and temperature swings. A mid-quality strip lets go at the corners after a few weeks, and it is usually the strip that gets replaced, not the mesh.

The trimming. On cut mesh, the loss is not only cosmetic: the cut zone is the first to slacken, and slack mesh gapes at the bottom. A two-centimetre gap at floor level is enough to cancel the whole thing.

The replacement. This is the real comparator. A stopgap screen rebought every spring costs more over five years than a model built to last. Conversely, if you are fitting out a holiday let you occupy three weeks a year, the sums clearly point the other way.

For orders of magnitude on the made-to-measure side, the breakdown by type of opening is in our price guide.

When the DIY store is perfectly enough

Let us be clear: there are cases where going to the store is the right call, and where ordering made-to-measure would be paying for nothing.

• Your opening falls exactly on a standard size and you own the property: a ready-made frame will do the job for years.
• The need is temporary: a guest room used for two weeks in summer, a flat you are leaving in September.
• It is a small, lightly used window you only open to air the room: a kit holds without difficulty.
• You are fitting out a utility space, a garage or a workshop: the door curtain is made for that, and is even the most suitable format.

When no off-the-shelf model can work

Conversely, some situations fall outside what the standard can do. It is not a question of price bracket, it is a question of geometry.

• The size is not standard. The most common case, and the easiest to settle: a rigid frame cannot be adjusted, and a two-centimetre gap lets through exactly what you meant to block.
• The opening has a shape. Arched, round, asymmetric, trapezoidal under a roof pitch: no off-the-shelf reference exists for those geometries.
• It is a wide opening. Beyond roughly 180 cm, a single span of mesh ripples and acts like a sail. It has to be divided, which standard formats do not allow for. We cover this in the guide to the fly screen for sliding patio doors.
• It is an everyday door. A system you have to push aside then close by hand is abandoned within three days. You need a central closure that shuts itself after every passage, as on the magnetic door fly screen.
• You rent. Drilling into joinery counts as altering the property. Fitting without drilling is then the only workable route.

See our made-to-measure fly screens

Measure before you buy, in five minutes

This step alone will tell you which category you are in. All it takes is a tape measure.

1. Measure the width at three heights: top, middle, bottom. More than five millimetres between the three means a frame that is no longer square, and rules out the rigid frame straight away.
2. Measure the height at three points, left, centre, right, for the same reason.
3. Keep the smallest value from each set: that is the one that governs the fit.
4. Identify the mounting perimeter, that is, the flat surface the fixing will sit on. A protruding handle, a hinge or a proud seal changes which solution applies.
5. Compare with what the store offers. If your figures fall on none of the sizes stocked, you already know it is made-to-measure.

Our measuring guide covers each case, including openings that are not rectangular.

The difference is in the mesh and the edges

Beyond format, two things separate a fly screen that lasts one season from one that lasts ten: the mesh, and the way it is held.

Our mesh is coated E-glass fibreglass, woven at 18 × 16 threads per inch. It does not rust, does not distort in the sun and stays supple. The edges are hemmed and sewn on all four sides, never cut: it is that hem which spreads the tension and stops the mesh gaping at the bottom. It is flame retardant (M2 rating), UV treated and rated for 8 to 20 years. The detail is on our technical specifications page.

Frequently asked questions

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