Hi Shirley, Our professional option is as follows:

Keeping the shower over the bath doesn’t automatically mean living with mouldy seals and puddles on the floor. The cheaper framed folding screens are usually the worst offenders because they rely on multiple rubber seals, hinges, channels and overlapping sections where water and soap residue collect.

A well-designed frameless or semi-frameless screen dramatically reduces those issues

The main things that help:

Minimal seals

The fewer rubber strips and joints, the better. A single fixed panel or a high-quality hinged screen has far fewer places for mould to develop compared with bi-fold or concertina styles.

Proper glass-to-bath alignment

A lot of leaks happen because the screen isn’t sitting correctly on the bath edge or the bath itself flexes slightly. A good installation ensures the screen sits perfectly plumb with the correct fall back into the bath so water returns where it should.

Glass Coatings

Easy-clean coatings help reduce soap residue and limescale buildup, which often contribute to the grimy look around seals.

Better Design support

Older screens often use chunky horizontal support bars or badly sealed pivot points. Modern frameless systems can use cleaner wall fixings or discreet stabilising bars that minimise water traps.

Correct Silicone Work

Silicone should be neat and minimal. Over-siliconed installations tend to fail sooner because water gets trapped behind thick beads. Good installers seal strategically rather than trying to “waterproof by excess”.

If you want a lower maintenance option:

A fixed bath screen with a return panel is usually the sweet spot.

It gives:

• better splash protection than a single flap screen
• fewer moving parts
• fewer seals to go mouldy
• a cleaner modern look

A completely frameless hinged panel also works very well if the shower head position suits it.

However, no bath screen is completely immune to cleaning or maintenance. Bathrooms are humid little tropical ecosystems But with the right hardware and installation, you can massively reduce the usual frustrations people associate with bath screens.

We hope this helps. :)