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Security Screens

Security Screens / Guide 6

Two kinds of screen

Insect screens or security screens

An insect screen is there to stop mosquitoes getting in; the security screen standard is concerned primarily with resisting forced entry. The official sources ask different things of each, from a child at a window to an ember at the door.

General information, not advice. Each row below names its official source; check the one that applies to your home.

Side by side

What each source asks of each screen

Two infills in two frames Two square frames side by side. The left holds a very fine, light mesh. The right holds a heavier frame with a coarser, thicker woven infill.

INSECT SCREENSECURITY SCREEN

Drawing, illustrative only: it shows the idea of a light infill and a heavy one, not any product or the standard’s requirements.
Only what the linked official pages say. Where a source says nothing about one kind of screen, the cell says so.
QuestionInsect screenSecurity screen
What is it for? To stop mosquitoes getting inside the house. Healthdirect The standard’s Part 1 is “concerned primarily with resistance to forced entry”. Standards Australia listing
How is it judged? Make sure it does not have tears or holes. Healthdirect The listing’s contents name impact, jemmy, pull, probe and knife shear tests, corrosion resistance and locks.
Instead of a window safety lock, in a NSW strata scheme Allowed only if it can resist very strong outward pressure, to stop a child falling through. Allowed if any gaps are less than 12.5 cm.
Against bushfire embers The CFA says door fly screens should have a metal frame and corrosion-resistant bronze or steel mesh, maximum aperture 2 mm. The CFA suggests metal screen doors over timber doors; its advice is about metal and aperture rather than security.
In a fire at home Not addressed by the fire service pages used for this guide. Fire Rescue Victoria says to leave the key in any door or security screen you have locked, whenever you are inside.
In a rental In NSW, inserting fly screens on windows is listed as a minor change a landlord cannot unreasonably refuse. It does not apply to every property: heritage properties are among the exceptions, and some restrictions and exclusions apply in a strata scheme, a residential land lease community or social housing (Locks in a rental names another exception). In Queensland, a security screen or grilles do not replace the functioning lock or latch the minimum housing standards require.
Reading the table

Same frame, different question

Close view of a fine woven metal mesh, its wires passing over and under each other in a tight grey basket weave
Woven metal mesh, close up. A photograph cannot tell you what a mesh is rated for. Photo by PublicDomainPictures on Pixabay

Both kinds of screen sit in the same opening, and from across a room they can look alike. The sources ask different things of them. Healthdirect asks an insect screen to be whole, with no tears or holes. The security screen standard’s listing is about resisting forced entry, and its contents name the tests that probe that.

The NSW strata rule shows the difference most plainly. A security screen can stand in for a window safety lock if its gaps are under 12.5 cm; a flyscreen can only stand in if it resists very strong outward pressure. The question there is not what keeps insects out but what holds a child in.

Bushfire asks a third question again. The CFA cares about the material and the size of the holes: metal rather than aluminium for window screens, bronze or steel for fly screen mesh, 2 mm at most for door fly screens. A screen can answer one of these questions well and another not at all.

Locks and keys

A security screen is also a door you may need to open fast

The fire services’ advice on keys names security screens directly. In a Victorian rental, a screen door in the same frame as an external door that already has its own deadlatch does not need a deadlatch of its own. Both points are about the screen as a door, not as a mesh. Read the fire services’ advice in full, or the rental rules by state.

Mosquitoes

If there is no insect screen

Healthdirect suggests using mosquito nets to cover where you sleep if you don’t have insect screens, and lists making sure rainwater tanks are sealed, with inlet and outlet pipes screened, among ways to lower the number of mosquitoes around your home.