Villas, baches and ranchsliders all share one problem: the sandflies and mozzies think they are invited. The NZ magnetic screen suppliers, ranked.
⟳ Updated August 2026New Zealand houses are built for indoor-outdoor summer living, and the insects have noticed. Magnetic insect screens snap onto window frames without a single screw, suiting everything from Edwardian villas to new aluminium joinery and the bach that gets screened once a year. This guide ranks the suppliers serving New Zealand.
The New Zealand flagship: custom magnetic screens made to measure for NZ joinery, from villa sashes to aluminium sliders. The standard choice for the windows you open daily.
The NZ value tier: simple kits, quick fitting and pricing that makes screening several rooms easy. A natural match for standard aluminium joinery.
The budget tier, ideal for the bach or for screening the whole house at the lowest cost per window, in the same magnetic no-drill format.
The door specialist for New Zealand: walk-through screening for ranchsliders, French doors and the entries every summer barbecue flows through.
The sister store with a fine-mesh focus, the one to know if your summer includes sandfly country. Same magnetic format, mesh graded for the smallest biters.
New Zealand's home improvement co-operative stocks basic screen kits and mesh in stores nationwide. The same-day baseline for standard sizes and patch jobs.
Only with fine mesh. Standard mesh handles mozzies and flies, but sandflies in the wrong parts of the country slip through ordinary weave. If the bach is anywhere near West Coast or Fiordland sandfly territory, order the fine grade and enjoy the difference.
Yes, and gracefully. The screen sits on the flat frame face while the sashes slide behind it, so a century-old villa keeps its ventilation habits. Measure each window individually, because villa joinery is charmingly inconsistent.
Doors need walk-through screening rather than fixed panels, which is exactly what the door specialist supplies. The screen parts as you walk through with the barbecue tongs and reseals behind you, keeping the indoor-outdoor flow NZ homes are built around.
A sealed screen blocks crawling visitors as well as flying ones, wetas included, as long as the magnetic edge is seated all the way around. Most creature surprises get in through gaps, and gaps are what the format eliminates.
Yes, if you measure on a previous visit and arrive with the screens cut. Fitting is minutes per window: wipe the frame, apply the strip, snap the screen on. A weekend visit leaves time for fishing.
New builds are the easiest installations in the country. Modern NZ aluminium joinery offers clean flat faces the receptor strip loves, and standard sizes make measuring quick. If your house is under a decade old, this is a very short project.
Measure width and height at more than one point and use the smallest figures, then note anything unusual when ordering. The magnetic format is forgiving of small irregularities because the strip follows the frame rather than needing a perfect rectangle.
Rarely. The screen sits on the frame face while stays and latches operate behind it. Check that any protruding hardware clears the mesh plane when the window is open, and mention fittings that stick out when you order.
Bedrooms first, because sleep is where insects do their worst work, then the kitchen and living areas, then the rest. Staging by room keeps each order small, though a whole-house order usually wins on delivery and price per window.
The receptor strip removes cleanly from sound paint and leaves no mark on aluminium. On old or flaking paint, tidy the surface first, since any tape-like product can lift loose paint on removal. Done properly, end-of-summer removal leaves no trace.
The New Zealand summer plan is simple: ranchslider open to the deck, windows open to the breeze, dinner drifting outdoors. The sandflies and mozzies endorse this plan completely. Screening is what lets the Kiwi summer survive its own guest list, and the magnetic format makes it a weekend job rather than a joinery quote.
Here is the New Zealand-specific playbook.
New Zealand's biters are regional. Mozzies patrol most of the country on summer evenings; sandflies rule the west and south with genuine menace; flies gather wherever farms and barbecues meet. Standard mesh handles the mozzie-and-fly belt, but sandfly country demands fine mesh, no exceptions. The grade cannot be upgraded after the bite, so order for the worst insect your summer will meet, especially for the bach. The fine-mesh sister store exists precisely because half the country eventually holidays in sandfly territory.
Kiwi streets mix villa sashes, mid-century timber, and modern aluminium, often on the same block. Magnetic screens fit all of it, but the measuring discipline differs: villas need each opening measured individually because no two are quite alike, while new aluminium joinery is quick and standard. Measure the flat frame face in millimetres, note the odd ones, and send the numbers as they are. The strip follows the frame, so honest measurements beat optimistic ones every time.
The ranchslider is the soul of NZ indoor-outdoor living and the biggest hole in any screening plan. Fixed mesh cannot survive the traffic of a Kiwi summer evening; walk-through door screening can, parting for people and plates and closing behind them. A screened house with an open slider is only a suggestion to the insects. Put the door system in the same order as the window screens, and the whole house seals in one delivery.
Regional mesh, honest measuring, and the slider done properly. That is the whole Kiwi formula, and the suppliers above cover every piece of it. The breeze is waiting.