Bird netting is the most complete way to keep birds out of a space. Where spikes stop birds landing on a ledge, netting closes the whole opening, so a roof void, a canopy, a light well or a loading bay simply stops being available. Done properly it is a permanent answer rather than a seasonal one.
JG surveys the building, specifies the right mesh and fixings, clears what the birds have already left behind, and installs the system.
When netting is the right answer
Openings, not ledges
Netting closes a void, canopy, light well or plant area. For a narrow ledge where birds only perch, spikes are usually cheaper and less intrusive.
Heavy, established pressure
Where birds are nesting rather than passing through, exclusion works where deterrence does not.
Where fouling is the cost
Guano on stock, walkways, signage or plant, and the cleaning bill that comes with it.
Where you need it to last
A correctly tensioned system is a long-term structural fix, not something reapplied each spring.
Mesh size is chosen by species
This is the detail that decides whether a system works. Netting sized for pigeons will not keep sparrows out, and a bird small enough to get through is a bird that will nest inside a space you have just made harder to reach.
19mm - sparrows
The smallest common specification, used where house sparrows are the problem.
28mm - starlings
Excludes starlings and anything larger.
50mm - pigeons
The most common commercial specification, and the usual answer to feral pigeons.
75mm - gulls
Used where gulls are the target species and smaller birds are not an issue.
If more than one species is using the building, the netting is specified for the smallest of them. We work that out at survey rather than assuming.
Flame retardant netting, and when it is specified
Standard bird netting is polyethylene, and polyethylene burns. On most roofs that is nobody’s concern. Where a building’s fire strategy governs what can be added to it, it is often one of the first things a fire officer or a specifier asks about.
Flame retardant netting is the same exclusion system in a treated twine. The net we install is PestFix No Flame knotted bird netting, which passes NFPA 701 Method 2, the fire test standard for flame propagation of textiles and films. That pass is recorded on the product specification sheet, which we can send with the quotation.
We fit it wherever a fire strategy, principal contractor or insurer asks for flame retardant netting.
What the net is
| Product | PestFix No Flame knotted bird netting |
| Fire test | Pass, NFPA 701 Method 2 |
| Mesh sizes | 50mm for pigeons and larger birds, 19mm for sparrows and larger |
| Material | 100% virgin HDPE, UV stabilised |
| Twine | 600 denier, 12/6 ply, about 1mm thick, knotted at every mesh |
| Break strength | 245N |
| Colour | Black with a red fleck |
| Expected life | 8 to 10 years when installed correctly, per the manufacturer |
How to tell it has actually been used
No Flame netting is black with a red fleck through the twine, as its specification sheet states. From the ground, a tensioned net high on a building is hard to inspect in any detail, but up close the red fleck is there to see. If you are paying for flame retardant netting, you should be able to check it against the specification.
Other specifications on request
No Flame is the net we fit as standard where flame retardancy is required. Fire strategies differ, and so do the people writing them, so if yours names a different test or classification, tell us what your fire strategy, principal contractor or insurer requires and we will source and install to it.
That matters most on the jobs where nobody has decided yet. If the specification is still open, we will say what we would put up and why, in writing, rather than quoting the cheapest net that clears the question.
Everything else is unchanged: surveyed first, tensioned on a wire rope frame fixed to sound structure and hog-ringed to the wire, and the guano is cleared and the void disinfected before the net closes it. Ask, and we will confirm the product and its specification in writing.
Why installation quality is the whole job
Bird netting is sold as a product and delivered as a system, and the difference between the two is where most failures come from.
Tension
A slack net sags, pools water and eventually tears. Correct tension on wire rope is what gives a system its working life.
Perimeter fixings
Every edge has to be closed to the structure. Birds find the one corner that was not, and they find it quickly.
No entrapment
A net has to exclude birds without trapping any inside. That means checking the space is clear before it is closed.
Access afterwards
Plant, gutters and roof lights still need reaching. Zips and access panels are designed in, not cut in later.
Guano clearance comes first
Netting a space that is already fouled seals the problem in. Bird droppings carry a genuine health risk and the residue keeps attracting birds to the outside of the net, so clearance and disinfection come before installation, not after. Our decontamination work covers that side.
Where we install it
Food production and warehousing
Roof voids and loading bays, where a bird inside the building is an audit failure.
Retail and shopping centres
Canopies, service yards and signage, where fouling is in front of customers.
Car parks and transport
Multi-storey decks, station canopies and undercrofts.
Industrial and manufacturing
Steel-framed roof voids and external plant areas.
Residential blocks
Balconies, light wells and communal roof spaces.
Listed and sensitive buildings
Where fixings and appearance need care, and a reversible system matters.
The law, briefly
All wild birds are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and a nest is protected while it is being built or in use. That has a direct practical consequence for netting: a space cannot be closed while there is an active nest inside it, and the work has to be timed around that.
Netting must also be installed so that no bird can become trapped behind it. That is both a legal and a welfare matter, and it is the single most common thing done badly by installers working to a price.
What JG does
Survey
Which species, where they are getting in, what the structure allows, and what access the work needs.
Clear and disinfect
Guano removal and disinfection before anything is closed in.
Install
Mesh specified to the species, tensioned on wire rope, perimeter fully closed, access designed in.
Maintain
Buildings move and fixings weather. Periodic checks are what keep a system working for years.
Too big to net? Disperse instead
Two systems that clear birds off ground far too large to proof. We survey, install, commission and service both.
Arranging a survey
Netting is always quoted from a survey. The species, the size of the opening, the structure available to fix to and the access required all change the specification and the cost of the work, and none of them can be judged over the phone.
Get in touch or send us the building details and a member of the team will come back to you. The other options are on our bird control page.
Trade and materials supply across the group is handled by our bird specialists at birdcontrol.uk.com. Installation, survey and maintenance stay with us.