Fly screens: a simple guide to mesh, frames and getting them fitted

What the job involves

Window screens are made-to-measure aluminium frames with mesh stretched and splined in, clipped or sprung into your window openings. Screen doors — hinged or sliding — are the heavier-duty end, with frames, hinges, closers and handles that need proper fitting to close cleanly and last. An installer measures every opening, fabricates to size, and fits colour-matched frames so the screens disappear into the house.

If your existing frames are square and sound, re-meshing is the budget path: the old spline comes out, new mesh goes in, roughly half the price of new screens or less. It's worth asking specifically, because not every quoter will volunteer the cheaper option.

Where this category ends: security screen doors — the tested, rated kind — are their own product with their own standards, and heavily damaged window frames are a glazier's territory.

What screens tend to cost

Pricing is per opening. Re-meshing a handful of existing screens sits in the low hundreds; new made-to-measure screens for several windows lands in the middle hundreds; screening a whole house including a couple of doors runs into the low thousands. Doors cost two to three times a window screen because of the hardware. Indicative — the calculator here adjusts for your counts and mesh.

Mesh choice moves the price and the lifespan. Standard fibreglass is cheapest and fine for most windows; pet-resistant mesh costs more and survives claws; aluminium and stainless step up in durability again. If you have a dog and a screen door, pet mesh isn't an upgrade, it's a requirement — standard mesh loses that fight in weeks.

Getting good quotes

This is unlicensed, low-risk work, so the practical checks are about accuracy and product. Count and measure every opening before you ask for prices — quotes based on your real numbers are comparable, quotes based on 'about ten windows' are not. Ask what mesh brand and frame material each quote uses, and whether fitting is included or the screens arrive as a flat-pack of your problem.

For made-to-measure work, the installer measuring on site is the professional norm and puts sizing risk on them, where it belongs. Supply-only is cheaper but any measuring error is yours.

Mistakes to avoid

The stakes are low, but so is the effort of avoiding this category's handful of classic missteps.

• Replacing screens whose frames are fine — re-meshing costs roughly half as much
• Standard mesh on a door with pets — get pet-resistant mesh or replace it again in a month
• Comparing quotes without confirming both include measuring and fitting
• Guessing opening counts and sizes instead of walking the house with a tape measure
• Ignoring frame colour — mismatched frames are visible from the street forever
• Confusing fly screen doors with rated security doors — they're different products at different prices