TradeBase Buying Guide

Choose the right security door mesh in 60 seconds

Three sheet types, eight stocked sizes, black powder coated. 1.8 mm perforated aluminium, 2.0 mm DVA one-way privacy mesh, and 316 marine grade stainless for BAL-40 and BAL-FZ. Mesh only, ready for your own frame. Tiered pricing on every sheet.

Start the 60-second guide

Security mesh is not flyscreen mesh. A flyscreen keeps insects out; security mesh is structural sheet designed to stay in the frame when someone tries to get through it. There are three sheets in the TradeBase range and they are chosen for three different reasons: perforated aluminium for general security screening at the lowest cost per square metre, DVA where daytime privacy matters as much as security, and 316 marine grade stainless where salt air or the bushfire attack level rules aluminium out. All three are supplied as flat sheet, black powder coated, mesh only — no frame. This guide runs the decisions in the right order.

The 60-second decision

1. Is the site coastal, or in a bushfire zone above BAL-29? If yes, it has to be 316 stainless. Aluminium is not permitted above BAL-29 under AS 3959.
2. Do you need daytime privacy? Ground floor bedroom, bathroom, street-facing room overlooked by a footpath — that is DVA.
3. Otherwise: 1.8 mm perforated aluminium, the volume sheet for security doors, window screens, privacy screens and infill.
4. What sheet size? 750, 900 or 1200 mm wide × 2000 or 2400 mm long. Perforated aluminium also runs 900 and 1220 mm × 3000 mm.
5. Which beading? 1.8 mm sheet and 2.0 mm sheet take different beading. Order the matching one, plus screws or rivets.

The three sheets

Click any card title to view that mesh in the shop.

What it gets called — the same product, different names

Half the difficulty in buying security mesh is that every part of the trade uses a different word for the same thing. If you learned on one system and are buying against another, this is the translation:

One word that does not belong on this list is spline. Spline is the soft foam cord used to hold flyscreen mesh into a channel. Security sheet is never splined — it is held by rigid aluminium beading that is mechanically fixed. If a supplier is offering you spline for a security screen, they are selling you a flyscreen.

DVA — what one-way vision actually means

DVA stands for Diminished Vision Aluminium. It is also sold as restricted vision or RV sheet, privacy mesh, privacy screen mesh, daytime privacy mesh and one-way vision mesh — all the same product. The openings are punched through the sheet at 45 degrees rather than straight through. From outside you are looking at the solid face of the metal and the interior stays hidden. From inside you look straight out through the angled openings with a clear view and full airflow.

Specify it for ground floor bedrooms and bathrooms, homes close to a footpath or a neighbouring window, street-facing rooms, and any opening overlooked by a road or public area. The effect is strongest in daylight, when the outside is brighter than the room behind. At night, with the lights on inside and the outside dark, the effect reverses — as it does with every one-way product, including tinted glass and privacy film. At 2.0 mm it is also the most rigid sheet in the range, which is worth having on large openings regardless of the privacy.

Bushfire — which sheet for which BAL

Sheet sizes and SKUs

All three sheets share the same core size grid — 750, 900 and 1200 mm wide in 2000 and 2400 mm lengths. Perforated aluminium adds two 3 metre sheets on top. Every perforated size has a pickup SKU for single sheets and a “D” SKU for the wrapped pack. Measure the frame channel, not the opening, and allow for the retention beading.

How each sheet is packed and shipped

This is the part that catches people out. Aluminium sheet cannot be rolled, so it travels flat in its original wrapped pack — that wrap is what protects the faces and the edges in transit. Stainless is woven and ships rolled. Prices shown on every sheet listing are per sheet, not per pack.

Pickup is from our Sunshine West VIC warehouse with 24 hours notice.

Beading — order the right one, and order fixings

Security mesh is not splined like a flyscreen. Flyscreen spline is a soft foam cord rolled into the channel with no fixings at all. Security sheet is held by a rigid aluminium beading — also called a security mesh wedge, mesh bead or retaining wedge depending on who taught you — which seats in the channel behind the sheet and is then screwed or riveted into place.

The beading is not a press fit. It has to be mechanically fixed — screws or rivets — and that fixing is what holds the sheet under load. A wedge pushed in and left unfixed is not a security fixing. Budget the fasteners into the job.

Both beadings suit a standard 70 mm door frame and come in 3 metre lengths. They are matched to the sheet thickness and are not interchangeable. Allow the full perimeter of each panel plus a spare length — a 900 × 2000 mm screen is 5.8 metres of perimeter, so two lengths cover one panel with little to spare once corners are cut. If your frame is not a standard 70 mm section, measure the channel and send us the dimension before ordering.

Common scenarios

Standards — what the mesh does and does not certify

All three sheets are manufactured to the mesh specification used in security screen systems tested to AS 5039. Compliance with AS 5039 applies to the complete framed assembly — mesh, frame, fixings and retention method — and must be verified for the finished system. The same is true of any bushfire rating under AS 3959. TradeBase supplies mesh only; buying the right sheet is necessary but not sufficient, and the fabricated door or screen is what gets certified.

If you are building the door as well as the screen, the lock has its own AS 5039 considerations — see the Security Door Lock Buying Guide. For insect mesh rather than security mesh, see the Flyscreen Mesh Buying Guide. Every TradeBase guide is listed on the Buying Guides hub.

Still not sure?

Send the opening dimensions, the frame channel width and the BAL rating if there is one to sales@tradebaseaustralia.com.au, and we will come back with the sheet, the size, the quantity and the matching beading in one reply. Most replies inside an hour during Australian business hours.

Or browse the full security door mesh range, plus security door locks and security door hardware and accessories.

Security door mesh FAQ