Impey Supreme, Soho and Freeglide vs Coram Premier 8 and Column: Which Wetroom Screen Do You Need?

A wetroom screen is the simplest piece of glass in the bathroom: one fixed panel, no door, no track, nothing to seal. Water stays on the shower side of it because the floor falls to the drain, not because the glass is watertight. That simplicity is why walk-in showers are easy to clean, easy to get into and the first choice for level-access bathrooms.

The decision is not really which screen. It is how the screen is held up, whether it needs a frame, and whether a carer needs to reach past it. Once those three are answered, the product picks itself.

How the glass is supported

A 2000mm sheet of 8mm glass fixed only along one vertical edge will move. Every wetroom screen therefore has a second fixing, and there are two ways of doing it.

Wall bracing bar

A horizontal bar from the top corner of the glass back to the wall behind it. It is the standard method, it is strong, and it needs a solid wall within reach of the bar, usually 1200mm or less. Most screens ship with a straight bar; an angled or telescopic bar covers a wall that is not square to the screen.

The Impey Supreme in its wall-braced version and the Coram Premier 8 Glass Screen both work this way. The Premier 8 ships with its bar on the 1000mm, 1100mm and 1200mm sizes; the smaller sizes can be ordered with one. The Coram bracket fixes straight or at an angle.

Floor-to-ceiling pole

A vertical pole at the free edge of the glass, tensioned between floor and ceiling. It needs no wall at all, so it is the answer when the screen stands in the middle of a room, when the wall behind is stud or tiled over a window, or when you want the glass to read as a single clean sheet with nothing bolted to the wall.

The Supreme is available with a ceiling pole, and the Coram Column Screen is built around one: a telescopic column that adjusts from 2027mm to 2700mm and fixes with Coram's TigerFix fitting. Check the ceiling height before ordering a pole screen. Standard poles suit ceilings around 2.4m to 2.5m; anything higher needs the telescopic version or an extension.

Frameless or framed

Frameless screens (Supreme, Premier 8, Column) have a slim wall profile and a bare glass edge, and they disappear into the room. Framed screens have a border around the glass.

The Impey Soho is the framed option, in matt black, and it is the one to look at if the bathroom is going for the industrial or Crittall look. Soho is a family rather than a single screen: the walk-in panel in 900mm to 1400mm, a hinged door and a sliding door for alcoves and corners, and side panels to close a corner. A bracing bar comes with every panel and in-line door, in matching black. Soho is designed for wetroom floors only, not trays.

Full height or half height

A full-height screen keeps the water in. A half-height screen keeps the water in while leaving the top open, so a carer can stand outside the shower and help without getting soaked. That is the whole point of it.

The Impey Freeglide is a 750mm high freestanding carer screen with two or four panels that fold and slide, so it can be pushed out of the way completely when the shower is not in use or when someone needs wheeling in. It is made from PETG rather than glass, which makes it light and unbreakable, it needs no wall or ceiling fixing, and it carries a lifetime guarantee. It is the screen for a Disabled Facilities Grant bathroom or a care home where the shower is shared.

For a fixed half-height screen with a hinged door, see the half height screen collection.

Walk-in or walk-through

One screen makes a walk-in: you enter around the open end. Two screens facing each other make a walk-through, with the entry between them. A walk-through needs two bracing bars or two poles, and on the Premier 8 that means ordering the second bar separately on the sizes that only ship with one.

A return panel is a short fixed panel at 90 degrees to the end of the main screen. It turns the screen into an L and catches the spray that escapes around the open end. The Premier 8 has 200mm and 300mm return panels as an option on the product page.

Sizing

The screen should cover roughly two thirds of the shower's length, measured from the wall with the shower head on it. A 1600mm walk-in shower usually takes a 1000mm or 1100mm screen; the open third is the way in. Going wider than that makes the entry awkward without keeping noticeably more water in.

Every screen has a small adjustment range at the wall profile, typically 20mm. Measure from the wall to where you want the glass edge to finish and choose the size whose range includes it.

Height: the Supreme and Coram screens are 2000mm, the Soho panels 2000mm, the Freeglide 750mm. Check the ceiling height for a pole screen.

Quick guide

Which one?

• Solid wall behind the shower, want value: Coram Premier 8.
• No wall to brace to, or want a clean sheet of glass with nothing on the wall: Impey Supreme with pole or Coram Column.
• Black framed, industrial look, on a wetroom floor: Impey Soho.
• Assisted showering, carer access, or the screen has to move out of the way: Impey Freeglide.

Where to start

All of these are in Wet Room Shower Screens, alongside the rest of the Impey and Coram ranges. If you are building the floor as well, the level-access wet room guide covers formers, wastes and tanking.

Not sure whether your wall will take a bracing bar, or what height your ceiling needs for a pole? Send us a photo and the measurements and we will tell you which screen fits.