Security door rules and fire egress in Wollongong.
Most homeowners ask about council approval, which is the easy part. The part worth your attention is fire egress, because a security screen is a barrier that works in both directions, and getting it wrong on a bedroom is the one mistake in this trade that is not just expensive.
Do you need approval to fit a security door?
For a normal house, no. Under the State Environmental Planning Policy (Exempt and Complying Development Codes) 2008, fitting security screens and screen doors to an existing dwelling is exempt development across the Wollongong City Council area, so there is no development application and no fee. The exceptions worth knowing are heritage items and properties in a heritage conservation area, where you should check with council first, and strata units, where the owners corporation rather than the council is who you need.
The heritage exception catches more Illawarra homes than people expect. Wollongong City Council maintains heritage conservation areas that take in pockets of older housing, and the older cottages around the northern villages and the city fringe are exactly the stock that tends to want a screen door added. A phone call to council’s duty planner settles it in a few minutes and costs nothing. We would rather you make that call before we cut a custom door than after.
Fire egress on doors.
A security door can be locked with a key from the inside, and on a bedroom or sole-exit door it should not be. There is no single NSW law that bans a keyed internal deadlock on a house, but Fire and Rescue NSW advice is consistent and blunt: in a fire nobody finds the key. We fit a key-free internal release, usually a snib or a turn-knob, on any door serving as an exit from a habitable room, and we do not treat it as an optional upgrade. If an installer offers it as a paid extra, that tells you something about the installer.
Be clear about what a security screen door is. It is a certified barrier designed to stop a determined person getting through an opening. It does not know which side of the opening you are on. Every property that a good door has when someone is trying to get in, it also has when you are trying to get out at three in the morning in smoke with no visibility. That is not an argument against security doors, it is an argument for the release hardware, and it is the reason we will decline a job specified with keyed-both-sides locks on a sole exit.
In practice it costs almost nothing. The hardware difference between a compliant arrangement and a dangerous one on a typical Wollongong front door is a matter of dollars, not hundreds. The pricing page shows a triple-lock upgrade at $60 to $140 and that includes appropriate egress release; there is no line item on our quotes called “fire safety” because it is not something you should be able to decline.
Bedroom windows: two rules that pull in opposite directions.
Two separate things apply to security screens on bedroom windows and people mix them up. First, NCC 2022 Volume Two requires fall protection on openable windows in bedrooms where the drop outside is more than 2 metres, restricting the opening to 125mm or fitting a screen able to resist a 250 newton load. Second, that same window may be someone’s escape route, so a fixed screen on it is a problem. The answer is a screen that is both a barrier and quick-releasable from inside, which is why we quote hinged egress screens at $280 to $480 rather than fixed at $180 to $380 for bedrooms.
A worked example.
A two-storey home in Fairy Meadow with three upstairs bedrooms. The correct spec is three hinged quick-release egress screens in 316 stainless, because the home is well within the coastal salt zone, at about $420 each, so $1,260. Downstairs, four ground-floor window screens have no fall-height issue and no egress duty because there is a door in every room, so they go in fixed at $290 each, $1,160. Front hinged 316 security door with triple-lock and egress release, $1,180. Total $3,600 supplied and installed. A cheaper quote on the same house would have put fixed screens upstairs and saved about $390. It would also have sealed three bedrooms shut.
The mesh choice on this house is driven by AS 4312 corrosivity, not by the rules above, and it is set out on the stainless vs aluminium page. Inland homes at Unanderra or Dapto get the same egress hardware in a lower-cost mesh.
Strata approval in the Illawarra.
You almost always need owners corporation approval for a security door on a unit. The door frame fixes into common property and the door changes the external appearance of the building, both of which are the owners corporation’s business under the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015. Many Illawarra schemes have a by-law nominating an approved colour and style so the block stays consistent. Get written approval before ordering, because a custom door made to your opening in a non-approved colour is not returnable.
This matters more every year around Corrimal, Fairy Meadow and North Wollongong, where the unit and townhouse stock near the stations keeps growing. The typical scheme wants a specific powder-coat colour, a sliding rather than hinged door onto balconies, and the frame fixed without penetrating anything structural. All of that is workable. It is just far easier to work through before the door is fabricated than after. We are happy to write the spec sheet your strata manager needs.
AS 5039, AS 5040, AS 5041 and the rest.
AS 5039 is the product standard, setting out how a security screen door or window grille must be constructed and what it must survive. AS 5041 is the test method behind it, covering the dynamic impact, knife shear, jemmy, pull and probe tests. AS 5040 is the installation standard, covering how the product is fixed to your building so the tested performance actually transfers to the opening. A door can only claim compliance as an installed assembly, which is why AS 5040 is the one homeowners should ask about.
- AS 5039 · construction and performance of security screen doors and window grilles.
- AS 5040 · installation. The one that decides whether your certified door is still certified once it is on your wall.
- AS 5041 · the test methods: dynamic impact, knife shear, jemmy, pull and probe.
- AS 3715 · thermoset powder coatings for architectural applications, which is the marine-grade coating spec we use on coastal Wollongong frames.
- AS 4312 · atmospheric corrosivity zones. Puts the Wollongong coastal strip in category C4 to C5 and drives the mesh decision.
- NCC 2022 Volume Two · openable window fall protection in bedrooms above a 2 metre drop.
None of this is exotic and none of it is expensive to do right. It is simply the difference between a door and a certified barrier. If a quote you have received does not mention AS 5039 anywhere, ask why, and read the how to choose page before you sign. If you are fitting it yourself, the DIY page covers where AS 5040 usually goes wrong. Product detail is on security screen doors, and suburb-level notes are collected on service areas and Figtree.
Where we install.
Want it done to the standard, egress included?
AS 5039 product, AS 5040 installation, key-free egress on every habitable-room exit as standard. Free measure and quote.