5 ways to protect your home from insects this summer
Ugly, industrial-looking insect screens are a thing of the past with Reliable Screen Supply’s range of elegant and practical insect screens.
There’s nothing quite like a New Zealand summer. Long, cloudless days spent beside the pool; backyard barbecues soundtracked by cicadas and sizzling sausages; the scent of sunscreen, citronella, and jasmine thick in the air: it’s heaven on earth. Of course, it wouldn’t be a New Zealand summer without the communal mozzie spray, the request to ‘please wave the flies off the food’ punctuating every outdoor meal, and the periodic ‘pssst’ heard from the automatic bug spray dispenser in the corner of the room.
The battle against bugs is one we fight every year — and it’s not always pretty. From the dramatic lightning bolt graphics on high-strength flyspray to the dystopian look of mesh insect screens, we seem to have forgotten aesthetics in the pursuit of functionality. Fortunately, businesses like Reliable Screen Supply are doing something about it.
“We are an innovative company that believes technology can be used to better our lives, and we’ve focused our research and development efforts to create better hideaway insect screens. Mosquitoes and flies are not only annoying, but in many parts of the world they pose significant health risks. Screens are one of the most effective ways to keep insects out, but we noticed that traditional insect screens are rigid and tend to interrupt our enjoyment of the scenery around our homes,” says Catherine Chen of Reliable Screen Supply.
Every home is different, which is why Reliable Screen Supply offers a variety of solutions to suit your needs — each custom built to fit your door and window specifications.
A simple solution, the Detachable Pleated Screen can be installed anywhere, in any situation, to keep insects out. Its elegant design fits seamlessly into any door or window — customised to match your existing joinery. With a specially developed 20 x 20 strands per inch mesh, the screen blocks all insects, including midges, while allowing fresh air to circulate. The mesh can also be detached for regular cleaning and re-meshing when needed.
The Cabriolet Roller Screens are flat mesh screens, designed to fit seamlessly into French doors without obstructing the view or air flow.
“Many products for sliding doors have very strong springs in their retracting systems, which often result in the handle smashing into the cassette and damaging the mechanism inside. We’ve mitigated this issue by designing the screen to stop at any position, and the handle can be placed anywhere on the track with no retracting force pulling it — achieved by the anti-lift and patented tension-adjust design,” Chen says.
Tripping over fly screen tracks is a thing of the past with the Barrier-Free Screen. Ideal for doors, especially those that require wheel access, the Barrier-Free Screen allows you stress-free human, pet, and vehicle flow while effectively blocking insects. It can also be made in multiple-slide panels for large entrance ways, with a discreet tracking system.
4. Simplicity Roller Screen
The latest addition to the Reliable Screen Supply range, the Simplicity Roller Screen is the most cost-effective screen for windows. With a built-in soft close, the handle will never smash into the cassette and damage the hardware inside. This intelligent design also protects and prolongs the lifetime of the screen. The cassette is designed to be detached from its tracks, making it easy to clean the screen, or swap the mesh for a shade fabric. Reliable Screen Supply offer a range of fabric types for the Simplicity shade screens; all suitable for wet environments, like bathrooms, thanks to their mould resistant qualities.
Available on most of the Reliable Screen Supply products, the Shade Pleated Screen can be used as a partition, blockout for the sun, or an alternative to curtains. Made from polyester, the fabric is UV proof and offers 75% black-out giving you the flexibility to control sunlight levels in your space.
Screen design and installation
All Reliable Screen Supply products are custom-made to the specifications of each individual door and window.
“Before a quote is made, we send a trained sales person or technician to do a site measure. Any special requirements or requests can be discussed on-site, with samples and colour swatches for reference. We can also powder coat with the Dulux powder coat colour range to match any existing aluminium joinery,” Chen explains.
“The screen frames and tracks are made from aluminium, which is resistant to rust. Our mesh is made from a combination of polypropylene and polyethylene, a mix we’ve found is best suited for New Zealand weather as it’s resistant to ultraviolet light up to 50+, which ensures long-lasting performance.”
All the screens are designed for interior and exterior installation, and depending on the situation and existing building materials, there are a few different installation methods the team can use.
“Every job is different, so there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. The main thing is to ensure that the homeowners have an excellent experience with the screen as they use it.
“We are dedicated to bettering ourselves and improving our user experience, so we’re currently looking for professional and quality local re-sellers around New Zealand to cater to installations nationwide,” Chen says, encouraging anyone who is interested to get in touch with her.
Learn more about Reliable Screen Supply.