What glass should you use for a shower screen?

Type “what glass for shower screen” into Google and you get a wall of product listings, not an answer. The question is a sensible one, because shower glass is not all the same. Some differences are about safety, some about how the glass looks, and some about how easy it is to keep clean.

This guide walks through each choice in the order you will meet it: the type of glass, the thickness, the look, the finish and the markings that tell you what you are actually buying.

Does shower screen glass have to be toughened?

Yes. In practice every shower screen sold in the UK should be made from toughened safety glass, sometimes called tempered glass. Toughening heats the glass to a high temperature and then cools the surfaces very quickly, which makes it several times stronger than ordinary glass of the same thickness.

More importantly, it changes how the glass breaks. Ordinary annealed glass breaks into long, sharp shards. Toughened glass breaks into lots of small, blunt pieces. In a room where people are wet, barefoot and sometimes off balance, that difference is the whole point. Our guide on why shower screens shatter covers what happens when it does break and how to reduce the risk.

Look for the BS EN 12150 mark, usually etched discreetly in one corner of each panel. That is the European standard for thermally toughened safety glass. If a screen has no mark and the seller cannot tell you the glass is toughened, walk away.

What about laminated glass?

Laminated glass is the other kind of safety glass. It is two sheets bonded together with a plastic interlayer, so if it cracks, the pieces stay stuck to the interlayer instead of falling out. You see it in car windscreens, balustrades and overhead glazing.

It is rarely used for shower screens. It is heavier for the same strength, the exposed edge of the interlayer does not like being permanently wet, and its main benefit, holding together after a break, matters less when toughened glass already breaks safely. For an ordinary bathroom, toughened glass is the standard answer.

How thick should shower screen glass be?

Thickness is the second decision and it follows from the type of screen:

• 4mm to 6mm suits framed and sliding enclosures, where an aluminium frame carries the weight and keeps the panel stiff.
• 8mm is the common choice for walk-in panels and semi-frameless doors.
• 10mm is the usual standard for frameless hinged doors and large fixed panels, because the glass has to be stiff enough to stand on its own with only hinges and clamps.

Thicker glass feels more solid and flexes less, but it is heavier, needs sound walls to fix into and costs more. Our shower glass thickness guide goes through each size in detail, including the hardware each one needs.

As an example of what a made-to-measure supplier typically works in, Lumelle Glass makes its frameless screens in 10mm clear toughened glass with flat polished edges, with 8mm available for fixed panels that are held by clamps rather than hinges.

Clear or low iron glass?

Once the safety and thickness questions are settled, the rest is about how the screen looks.

Clear glass is standard float glass. It looks clear when you look straight through it, but it has a faint green tint that becomes obvious at the polished edges and in thicker panels. On a 10mm frameless screen next to white tiles, the green edge is noticeable once you know to look for it.

Low iron glass (sold under names such as extra clear or optically clear) is made with less iron oxide, so that green cast almost disappears. The edges look nearly colourless and white or pale tiles look truer through the glass. It usually costs a little more than clear glass and is worth considering if:

• the screen is 10mm thick, where the tint is strongest,
• the bathroom is white, grey or marble effect, where a green cast shows,
• the glass edges are on show, as they are on most frameless screens.

If the tiles are dark or colourful, or the screen is a framed enclosure where the edges are hidden, standard clear glass is perfectly good and saves money.

Frosted, fluted, patterned or tinted?

Not every shower needs to be fully see-through. The main alternatives are:

• Frosted or satin glass has one surface acid etched or sandblasted so it diffuses light. It gives full privacy, hides water marks well, and suits a bathroom shared by a family or a shower that faces a window. Keep the etched face on the outside of the shower, where it stays drier, as the textured surface holds soap and limescale more than smooth glass does.
• Fluted or reeded glass has vertical ribs that blur the view without blocking the light. It has become popular in recent years for walk-in panels and screens that double as a room divider. The grooves need a little more attention when cleaning.
• Patterned glass covers everything from a light frosted band at body height to full printed designs. A band is a practical middle ground: privacy where it matters, clear glass above and below.
• Tinted or smoked glass in grey or bronze gives a darker, more dramatic look and partly hides what is behind it. It also makes the shower feel smaller and reduces light, so it works best in larger or well lit bathrooms.

All of these are still toughened safety glass; the pattern or tint is in the glass or on its surface before it is toughened. The same thickness rules apply.

Should you pay for an easy clean coating?

Shower glass gets limescale and soap scum because water sits on the surface and dries. Easy clean treatments make the surface more water repellent, so water beads and runs off and less residue is left behind. They do not make the glass self cleaning, and a squeegee after each shower still does more than any coating. Our cleaning guide explains the routine.

There are two approaches:

1. A factory applied coating bonded to the glass before delivery. Convenient, but it wears over time and cannot be reapplied in the same way once it has gone.
2. A protection product you apply yourself and top up when water stops beading. This takes a few minutes every so often but keeps working for the life of the screen.

Suppliers differ on which they include. Lumelle Glass, for example, sends a free bottle of surface protection with every screen so the customer can reapply it whenever they like, rather than relying on a one-off factory coating. Whichever route you take, treat it as a maintenance aid, not a replacement for wiping the glass down.

What edge finish should shower glass have?

On a frameless screen the glass edges are exposed, so they should be flat polished: ground smooth and polished so they are safe to touch and look finished. On framed enclosures the edges sit inside the frame, so a plain arrissed edge, with the sharpness just taken off, is normal and perfectly fine.

Check that holes for hinges and handles have clean, smooth edges too. Chipped holes or rough edges are a weak point and one of the common causes of later breakage.

How do you check what you are buying?

A short checklist to run through with any supplier, whether it is a boxed enclosure or made-to-measure glass:

That last point catches people out. Toughened glass cannot be cut, drilled or trimmed once it is made. With an off-the-shelf enclosure you work around that with adjustable frames and wall profiles. With made-to-measure frameless glass, the sizes are fixed when you order, so measuring carefully matters. Our guide on how long a frameless shower screen should be covers measuring in detail.

So what glass should you use?

For almost every UK bathroom the answer is toughened safety glass, marked to BS EN 12150, in 6mm for a framed enclosure or 8mm to 10mm for frameless. Choose low iron if the edges are on show against pale tiles, pick frosted or fluted glass where you want privacy, and decide early whether you want a factory coating or a protection product you reapply yourself.

Get those decisions right before you order and the glass will be the easiest part of the bathroom to live with. If cost is the next question, our cost guide sets out what each option adds to the price.