Guide
Velcro vs Sliding vs Pleated: Which Screen Suits Which Opening
The opening decides, not the budget.
Almost every customer arrives knowing they want mosquito screening and not knowing which kind. Here is the plain comparison, including where the cheapest option is genuinely the right one.
Velcro panels
Mesh with hook-and-loop tape around the border. The tape goes on the frame, the panel presses on and lifts off for washing.
Right for: fixed windows, grill windows, ventilators, rented flats where nothing may be altered. Wrong for: anything you walk through, and very wide single spans where the panel will sag. Cost: lowest in the range. Time: usually 2–3 days.
Framed sliding panels
A rigid framed mesh panel running on a track fitted alongside the window or door.
Right for: aluminium sliding windows, doors in daily use, wide living-room openings. Wrong for: openings with no room alongside for the panel to park, and small windows where a Velcro panel does the same job for less. Cost: middle. Time: usually 7–8 days.
Pleated systems
Mesh carried in concertina folds that gather into a slim cassette at one side.
Right for: balcony doors, French doors, wide openings where the view matters. Wrong for: small fixed windows, where the cost is not justified. Cost: highest. Time: usually 7–8 days.
The ten-year question
People compare these on the quotation. The better comparison is what you will have spent in ten years. On a fixed bedroom window, a Velcro panel wins comfortably — you wash it twice a year and replace the mesh perhaps once. On a balcony door used every day, a fabric panel gets damaged and replaced repeatedly, and the pleated system that looked expensive turns out to be the cheaper decision.
Most homes need more than one
Nearly every job we do is mixed: Velcro on the bedroom grills, a pleated system on the balcony door, perhaps a framed panel on the kitchen slider. That is simply what happens when you measure room by room instead of quoting a flat rate for the flat.
Read more on Velcro nets, sliding mesh and pleated systems, or see all systems compared.
Next step
Tell us what you need protected.
Five windows or more and we will come to you with samples and measure everything. Fewer than five, WhatsApp is faster — send measurements and photographs and we will quote from those.