Fly screen for a sliding door: measure before you buy
Updated: October 2026
The patio is open because the room is warm, and the insects come in with the air. A fly screen for a sliding door has to cover that hole, and the Amazon title often quotes the cloth, which is larger than the opening. Measure the clear opening, apply one listing’s overlap rule, then decide whether a curtain can do the job. The nine listings are on the [fly screen sliding door comparison](/hub/door-and-window-security/fly-screen-sliding-door). Peter F. updated this on 20 October 2026 from those listings and UK measuring guides. No lab test. A qualifying purchase can earn us a commission at no extra cost to you.
The patio is open because the room is warm, and the insects come in with the air. A fly screen for a sliding door has to cover that hole, and the Amazon title often quotes the cloth, which is larger than the opening.
The patio is open because the room is warm, and the insects come in with the air. A fly screen for a sliding door has to cover that hole, and the Amazon title often quotes the cloth, which is larger than the opening. Measure the clear opening, apply one listing’s overlap rule, then decide whether a curtain can do the job. The nine listings are on the fly screen sliding door comparison. Peter F. updated this on 20 October 2026 from those listings and UK measuring guides. No lab test. A qualifying purchase can earn us a commission at no extra cost to you.
Our top picks
| Badge | Product | Opening class | Closure | Weighted hem | Note | Price | Offer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best overall |  DIKER Diker magnetic 120 cm | 120 × 200 cm cloth | Magnetic strip | Not stated | 9.2 | about £19.98 | View offer |
 HOFUDON Hofudon full-length magnets | Max opening 86 × 208 cm | Full-length magnetic strips | Yes | 8.8 | about £22.99 | View offer | |
| Best value |  SMALUCK Smaluck magnetic 90 cm | 90 × 210 cm cloth | Centre magnets | Yes | 8.5 | about £9.99 | View offer |
On this page
Measure the clear opening
Measure the hole three times across and three times up, and keep the smallest figure each way. On a uPVC patio that hole is the clear opening: inside edge to inside edge, and threshold to head. The glass is smaller. The outer frame is larger. Either of those sends you to the wrong cloth. Flyscreen Queen starts from that inside-to-inside measurement and treats 150–320 cm as a normal patio range. A single back door is often 70–90 cm clear. A frame that is 78 cm at the threshold and 81 cm under the head is a 78 cm opening, because the cloth has to pass the narrow point. Hook-and-loop needs a flat, clean path. A proud handle also stops a tracked panel later. Streme asks for track width, track-to-track height, and screen width before a sliding kit. A magnetic curtain skips those three figures and still needs a flat tape path. A bevelled or greasy face will leave a gap the overlap rule cannot close.
Cloth size is not the opening
Each listing uses its own overlap, and the rules do not match. Smaluck’s 90 × 210 cm curtain should sit about 2 inches, roughly 5 cm, larger than the opening, so a doorway that is already 90 cm wide is too wide for that cloth. Hofudon states the limit the other way: the cloth is 90 × 210 cm, and the maximum opening is 86 × 208 cm. Diker’s cloth is 120 × 200 cm, and the listing asks for a screen about 8 cm wider and 6 cm longer than the inner door. Applied to that cloth, the opening is about 112 cm wide and 194 cm high. That sum follows Diker’s suggestion. It is a different rule from Smaluck’s 5 cm, so keep them on separate lines of the notebook. TheFitLife’s two 158 × 206 cm cloths both say they fit an opening up to 152 × 203 cm, the widest fits-up-to figure in this set. TTMLED is a 140 × 200 cm cloth at about £17.99, for an opening past Diker’s overlap and still inside that 152 cm ceiling. Pick one listing and follow that listing’s sentence. A 120 cm title on a French door whose clear width is 140 cm leaves a strip down the lock side, and the magnets never meet.
When the patio is too wide
Nothing in this Amazon set covers a 2 m bifold. TheFitLife’s 152 cm figure is the ceiling. A patio in the 150–320 cm band needs a panel or a pleated screen. Streme lists a DIY sliding kit from £196, made-to-measure sliding from £286, and a pleated single from £395. Those are specialist prices, not amazon.co.uk prices. Checkatrade’s August 2026 guide puts magnetic kits at the bottom of the spend and a fitted patio screen at several hundred pounds. The curtains we kept run from about £9.99 to about £28.99: Smaluck and TTMLED at the low end, Diker, Hofudon, Urbzue, and TheFitLife from about £19.98. The CESOF accordion at about £79.99 does not stand in for a 2 m pleated screen. Over 152 cm, read the versus page before you pay. Inside one cloth’s rule, the named shortlist is on the best fly screen for a patio door page.
Mesh, midges, and words that are not certificates
None of the nine listings states a mesh count or an aperture in millimetres. Streme publishes a midge mesh as a 30 × 20 weave with an aperture around 0.86 × 0.45 mm, and that figure belongs to that maker’s cloth. You cannot copy it onto a polyester curtain whose bullet says fine mesh and then stops. Highland midges need a tighter hole than a typical mosquito net. If the listing does not give the aperture, you do not have evidence that this curtain will stop them. Fireproof and fire-retardant on these titles are adjectives. No listing attaches a UK certificate, a British Standard number, or a test report. Nothing in our sources says a householder must meet a British Standard before hanging a magnetic curtain. The practical question on a UK back door is whether you can see through the cloth. Urbzue is the only privacy mesh, at 90 × 210 cm with a stated tolerance of ±5 mm. A privacy weave hides the room and also cuts the daylight, so it is the wrong cloth when that door is the main window. You are buying a stated size and a stated overlap, and you are guessing at the weave.
Common questions
Do I measure the glass, the clear opening, or the outer frame?
Measure the clear opening: inside edge to inside edge, and threshold to head. Take three widths and three heights and keep the smallest of each. The glass is smaller than the hole the insects use, and the outer frame is larger than the cloth can cover. For a magnetic curtain, that clear opening plus a flat tape path is the pair of facts that matter. A sliding kit needs separate track measurements later, because handles and proud panes get in the way of a panel.
Is a 90 × 210 cm curtain for a 90 cm door?
It is for a smaller opening. Smaluck’s rule puts the cloth about 5 cm larger than the hole. Hofudon’s 90 × 210 cm cloth states a maximum opening of 86 × 208 cm. If your narrowest width is already 90 cm, both cloths are short of the frame and the centre magnets will not meet. Use the listing’s own maximum, and step up to a wider cloth when the clear opening is past that figure.
Will any of these cloths cover a 2 m patio or a bifold?
No cloth here states a fit past 152 cm. TheFitLife’s fits-up-to 152 × 203 cm is the ceiling among the nine listings. A 2 m bifold, or a patio in the 150–320 cm range UK specialists quote, needs a made-to-measure panel or a pleated screen. A DIY sliding kit at Streme starts around £196. Stretching a magnetic curtain across that width leaves an open strip down one side.
What does Diker’s 8 cm and 6 cm rule mean?
Diker’s cloth is 120 × 200 cm, and the listing wants the screen about 8 cm wider and 6 cm longer than the inner door. Taken off that cloth, the opening is about 112 cm wide and 194 cm high. That is Diker’s suggestion applied to Diker’s size. It is not a universal overlap for Smaluck, Hofudon, or TheFitLife. If your measured opening is 120 cm wide, this cloth does not have the 8 cm spare the listing asks for.
Will a standard polyester curtain stop Highland midges?
You cannot tell from these listings. None of them publishes a mesh count or an aperture. A specialist midge mesh can be specified down to a fraction of a millimetre. A curtain described only as polyester mesh might stop larger flies and still let midges through. If midges are the reason you are buying, ask the seller for the aperture before you order, or buy a screen whose maker publishes that number.
What if I measured badly, or the magnets were never sewn in?
Those are different problems. The Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 22, gives a short-term right to reject faulty goods, generally within 30 days. A curtain that arrives with magnets missing is a fault. A curtain that is the size you ordered, and too small because you measured the outer frame, is a measuring mistake. Check the cloth against the listing’s overlap rule before you peel any tape.
Related pages
Sources
Public UK sources used for this comparison. Listings checked 19 October 2026.
- Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 9 (retrieved 19 October 2026)
- Regulation (EC) No 852/2004, Annex II (retrieved 19 October 2026)
- West Lothian Council FH03: insect-proof screening for doors and windows (retrieved 19 October 2026)
- Building Regulations 2010, Schedule 1 (retrieved 19 October 2026)
- Streme: fly screens for doors (retrieved 19 October 2026)
- Streme: how to measure a patio sliding screen kit (retrieved 19 October 2026)
- Streme: which mesh and fixings for a patio sliding screen (retrieved 19 October 2026)
- Flyscreen Queen: fly screens for patio doors (retrieved 19 October 2026)