Half-Height Shower Doors, Made to Measure — A Guide

What a half-height door is.

A door that stops around waist height instead of running to the ceiling — the single most useful thing you can put on an accessible shower that someone else helps with.

A full shower enclosure seals the whole opening. That is fine if the person showering is doing it alone. It is a problem the moment somebody has to help: a carer either gets soaked leaning through the doorway, or the door has to stay open and the water goes on the floor.

A half-height door solves both. The panels are tall enough to hold the spray inside the shower area, and low enough that a carer can stand outside, dry, and reach over the top to wash, steady or pass something. There is no threshold and no tray lip to step over, so it works on a level-access wet room floor exactly as it does on a shower tray.

It suits:

Anyone who is washed or steadied by a carer or family member
Wheelchair and shower-chair users on a level-access floor
People who find a full enclosure closed-in or hard to open
Bathrooms where a curtain alone is not containing the water

A domestic bathroom with waist-high white shower doors enclosing a level-access shower area, a fold-down seat and grab rail inside, and a curtain above the doors — Half-height doors on a level-access floor, with a curtain above for the upper half of the opening.

Which range you are getting.

We supply two. It matters, because they are made by different manufacturers, ordered by different references, and one of them is far more forgiving if your measurement turns out to be wrong.

PROCare is what we fit for most customers. They are a British manufacturer who make their half-height doors themselves, to measure, in the UK — which is exactly why they can be flexible about sizing in a way an off-the-shelf range cannot. Their doors are ordered by MOD number (MOD 1 to MOD 14), with left or right-hand entry and a white or silver finish.

We also supply Impey's Elevate and Freeglide ranges. These are ordered by a different system — option letters, A to X — and carry their own published certification. If you have been given an option letter by an occupational therapist or a specifier, it is almost certainly one of these.

You do not need to work out which range suits you. Tell us the room and who is using it, and we will put the right one in front of you.

The practical difference

PROCare — ordering reference: MOD 1–14, plus handing and finish. Product codes are real and public — see the table below.
PROCare — if the size is wrong: They can resize and modify to suit, including after a survey. This is the reason most of our customers end up with PROCare.
PROCare — guarantee: Lifetime guarantee, and a full range of spares — hinges, latches, seals and handles.
Impey Elevate / Freeglide — reference: Option letters A–X.
Impey — if the size is wrong: ±10mm per wall channel, and no more. Outside that, the door cannot be re-sized once made.

How to measure.

Made to measure means the door is manufactured to the size you give us. Getting that number right matters — so take your time over this bit, or let us do it with you on the phone.

If you get it wrong on a PROCare door, it is usually fixable. Because they manufacture in the UK, PROCare can resize and modify a door to suit — including after a survey, if the room turns out different to the drawing. That is not licence to guess, but it does mean a mistake is a phone call rather than a write-off.

On an Impey Elevate or Freeglide door, it is not. Those adjust ±10mm per wall channel and no further, and cannot be re-sized outside that once made — so on those, the nominal size you order is the customer's responsibility. A 700mm door adjusts between 690mm and 710mm. A measurement outside that window is a different door. If you are not certain, ring us on 01642 250 511 before you order.

Everything below applies to both ranges. It is how you arrive at a number you can order against, whoever makes the door.

Getting the number

When you choose a door size you are identifying the correct nominal width. Three things decide it:

The finished tile-to-tile width of the opening
Where you intend the wall channels to sit
Any allowance for shower tray rebating or wall coverings

Measure the opening at three points — top, middle and bottom — and use the smallest. Then check that the door size you have picked can adjust down to it. Almost no bathroom wall is parallel to the one opposite; the smallest reading is the one the door actually has to fit.

Measure finished walls. Tiles, panels and any other wall covering all eat into the opening, so a measurement taken before they go on will be too generous. And if the doors are going into a corner, that is two measurements, not one — take each side separately, wall to wall, and give us both.

Plan-view diagram of a corner installation contrasting two measuring points: the incorrect one stops at a floor compensator on full extension, the correct one runs the full width to the wall — **Measure to the wall, not to the compensator.** The floor compensator extends to take up the fall of a wet room floor. Measuring to it at full extension gives a short reading — and a door that does not fit.

Where the wall channels sit

The set-back of the wall channel from the edge of the tray or dec is not a detail you can leave to the day — it differs by door type, and getting it wrong stops the doors closing against each other.

The figures below are from Impey's fitting data for the Elevate and Freeglide ranges. PROCare doors ship with their own fitting instructions — ask us and we will send them with the quote rather than have anyone work off the wrong numbers.

Wall channel positions for bi-fold doors (left) and sliding doors (right).

Bi-fold doors

Both wall channels must be parallel with each other, and each is set back 15mm from the edge of the tray or dec.

Sliding doors

The channels are deliberately not parallel. The long door wall channel is set back 15mm; the short magnetic closing profile wall channel is set back 40mm.

Isometric line drawing of a half-height door run along a single straight wall, with arrows marking the six fixing points on the two wall channels — A straight run against one wall — fixings marked.

Isometric line drawing of a half-height door set turning a corner across two walls, with arrows marking the fixing points on both wall channels — A corner set across two walls — fixings marked.

Not confident with the tape measure? You are not the only one. Send us a photograph of the room and the numbers you have, or come into the showroom and we will go through it with you.

Send us your measurements → Call 01642 250 511

Which layout do you need?

Half-height doors are built up from fixed panels and opening doors, arranged to suit the room. Two reference systems, because we supply two ranges — PROCare first, since that is what most of our customers get.

You do not have to pick the right one on your own. Tell us the shape of the room, which side you want to walk in from, and roughly what the opening measures. We will confirm the configuration against the room before anything is made. Every layout comes in white or silver, and most in left or right-hand entry.

PROCare — MOD 1 to MOD 14

PROCare's own product codes, so you or your OT can quote one back to us exactly. Handing is named from the entry side. XPP adds an extra fixed panel; Full Height is the same layout taken to full height rather than waist height. There is no MOD 13.

PROCare half-height shower door configurations and product codes
Config	Variant	White	Silver
MOD 1	Not handed	253-00001	253-00103
MOD 2	Left-hand entry	253-00004	253-00104
MOD 2	Right-hand entry	253-00065	253-00105
MOD 2	Full height, left-hand entry	253-00005	253-00149
MOD 2	Full height, right-hand entry	253-00006	253-00150
MOD 3	Left-hand entry	253-00007	253-00091
MOD 3	Right-hand entry	253-00066	253-00092
MOD 3	XPP, left-hand entry	253-00008	253-00093
MOD 3	XPP, right-hand entry	253-00067	253-00094
MOD 4	Left-hand entry	253-00009	253-00107
MOD 4	Right-hand entry	253-00071	253-00108
MOD 4	XPP, left-hand entry	253-00126	253-00109
MOD 4	XPP, right-hand entry	253-00010	253-00110
MOD 5	Left-hand entry	253-00011	253-00111
MOD 5	Right-hand entry	253-00073	253-00112
MOD 6	Left-hand entry	253-00012	253-00113
MOD 6	Right-hand entry	253-00076	253-00114
MOD 7	Left-hand entry	253-00013	253-00115
MOD 7	Right-hand entry	253-00079	253-00116
MOD 8	Left-hand entry	253-00014	253-00117
MOD 8	Right-hand entry	253-00171	253-00172
MOD 9	Not handed	253-00015	253-00018
MOD 10	Left-hand entry	253-00002	253-00099
MOD 10	Right-hand entry	253-00058	253-00100
MOD 11	Left-hand entry	253-00003	253-00101
MOD 11	Right-hand entry	253-00061	ask us
MOD 12	Left-hand entry	253-00063	253-00137
MOD 12	Right-hand entry	253-00062	253-00138
MOD 14	Not handed	253-00139	253-00140

Isometric drawing of a PROCare MOD 1 half-height door set: a fixed panel and a hinged door enclosing two sides of a shower tray — **MOD 1, the not-handed configuration.** The only PROCare layout drawing published on their public site — we hold the rest and will send whichever ones you need with your quote.

Impey Elevate — options A to X

The other system, for the Impey ranges. If a specifier or an occupational therapist has written an option letter on a form, this is the set they were looking at. Find the one that resembles your bathroom and quote us the letter.

Option 1Corner · doors on both walls · curtain above
Option 2Straight run · panel + door · end post
Option 3Straight run · two-panel door · curtain above
Option 4Straight run · panel + two-panel door
Option 5Straight run · folding doors · end post
Option 6Corner · panel + folding door
Option CSingle fixed panel · curtain above
Option DFixed panel + separate single door
Option EFixed panel + folding door pair
Option FCorner · two fixed panels
Option GFixed panel + single wide door
Option HFixed panel + door · open gap
Option JPanel + door + second door
Option KTwo doors meeting · curtain behind
Option MPanel + door + corner return
Option NFixed panel + three-panel folding door
Option PCorner · a door on each wall
Option RCorner · panel + folding door pair
Option SCorner return · side panel + front panel
Option TFixed panel + overlapping sliding door
Option VPanel + folding door + second door
Option WFixed panel + single outward door
Option XCorner · panel + two-panel door set

Level wet room floor, or a step-in tray?

The same doors go on both. What changes underneath them is worth understanding before you decide which you are having.

Labelled cutaway of half-height doors fitted in a level-access wet room: PRODoors above a slip-resistant floor laid on plywood over floorboards, with the shower area draining through the floor itself — **Level-access wet room.** No tray and no lip — the shower area is the floor, laid over plywood and finished in slip-resistant sheet. Nothing to step over at all, so it suits a wheelchair or a shower chair. See our guide to level-access floors for what goes on below.

Step-in tray. A low-profile tray sits inside the doors. A much smaller job than tanking a floor, and often the right answer where the user can still manage a shallow step — or where the floor cannot be dug into.

Doors fit low-level, level-access and step-in trays alike, and floor compensators take up the fall or the curvature of a wet room floor so the doors still seal at the bottom. If you are not sure which route the room can take, that is exactly the conversation to have with us before anybody commits to anything.

What they are made of, and what they are tested to.

The panels are not glass, and that is deliberate.

Half-height door panels are strong opaque PET, not glass, set in an aluminium frame. In a bathroom used by someone unsteady on their feet, a panel that cannot break into pieces is worth more than a clear view. The opaque finish also gives privacy without needing a curtain — which matters when somebody else is in the room helping.

Common to both ranges we supply:

360° hinges — doors fold in or out, for the widest possible opening
Rise-and-fall hinges — so the door clears the floor as it swings
Compensators for wet room floors, with attachments for floor curvature
Easy-grip handles and latches, sized for a weak or arthritic hand
Spurs and drop latches to seal the doors and limit water escape
White or silver finishes

PROCare doors carry a lifetime guarantee, and a full range of spares — replacement hinges, latches, seals and handles — so a worn part after ten years is a part, not a new door. That is the single biggest reason we lead with them for housing associations and council work.

Certification — Impey ranges

Elevate and Freeglide half-height shower doors are manufactured by Impey Showers Ltd and carry a Declaration of Performance against the EU Construction Products Regulation. These figures cover the Impey ranges only — ask us for PROCare's own documentation and we will send it.

Standard: BS EN 14428:2015 — Shower enclosures: functional requirements and test methods
Cleanability: Clause 4.2 — Pass
Impact resistance & shatter properties: Clause 4.3 — Pass
Durability: Clause 4.4 — Pass

We hold the Declarations of Performance for both Impey ranges. Ask and we will send you a copy — occupational therapists and council contract teams usually want one on file.

You may not pay VAT on this at all.

Adapting a bathroom in your own home — including fitting a level-access shower and the doors that go with it — is eligible for VAT relief at 0% if you are chronically sick or disabled, and at 5% if you are 60 or over and we supply and fit the item. It is not a refund or a discount: where it applies, the VAT simply is not charged.

All you have to do is sign a short written declaration. You do not need a doctor's note.

Read the full VAT relief guide →

Send us the room, we'll do the rest.

Give us the opening size, the side you want to walk in from, and a MOD number or option letter if you have one. We'll confirm the specification before anything is made. Or bring the numbers into the showroom and we'll check them with you.

Get in touch → 01642 250 511

Half-height shower doors,
made to measure.

What a half-height door is.