# Desk Screens: Heights, Acoustics and Fixings > Desk screens explained: which height blocks sightlines without blocking light, what acoustic classes mean, and clamp, bench and floor standing fixings. A buying guide from the Deskwell Gazette,… - URL: https://deskwell.co.uk/desk-screens-privacy-focus-and-a-bit-of-peace - Type: Blog post - Last updated: 2026-09-01 ## About this post - Written by Ben - Published 2026-10-09 - Part of the series “Buyer's Guides” - Tagged Buying Guides, Office Accessories ## Article Desk screens are the cheapest change you can make to an open plan office and the one people argue about most. Half the room wants to see everyone. The other half wants to get something finished. A screen is 40cm of fabric that settles the argument, and the trick is picking the height, the type and the fixing so it does its job without turning the floor into a maze. I spend most of my week looking at numbers, so here are the ones that matter. ## Heights, and the sightline maths A desk top sits at roughly 72cm to 75cm. Seated eye level for most adults is somewhere between 110cm and 120cm from the floor. So a 30cm screen on a 75cm desk tops out at 105cm, which hides the monitor, the mug and the sandwich, and nothing else. A 40cm screen reaches 115cm, which is the point where two people sitting opposite each other stop making accidental eye contact. A 45cm screen reaches 120cm and covers most people most of the time. That is why 40cm is the default. It blocks the sightline that breaks concentration and it stops there. Stand up and you can still see the room, so the floor does not turn into cubicles, and the light from the windows carries over the top. Screen the heads-down desks heavily and the collaborative ones lightly. ## Desktop screens The [Impulse Plus desktop desk screens](https://deskwell.co.uk/impulse-plus-oblong-wave-and-angle-desktop-desk-screens) come in five shapes: oblong, oblong with rounded corners, wave, wave with rounded corners and angle. Widths run from 60cm to 180cm in eight steps, heights are 30cm, 40cm or 45cm, and there are nine colours. That is a lot of combinations, which is why the listing asks you to choose shape, colour, width and height before it shows a price. Four choices is what it takes to show you a real price. The wave is the shape I would point most offices at. It slopes down across its width, so it screens the working zone and leaves one end open for talking to the person next to you. The oblong gives full privacy along the whole desk. Mixed across a floor, the shapes let you screen the quiet desks heavily and the collaborative ones lightly, which is a better answer than one screen everywhere. Match the screen width to the desk width. A 140cm screen on a 160cm desk leaves a 20cm gap that everyone looks through. If the desks are still on the list, the [180cm office desks](https://deskwell.co.uk/180cm-office-desks) page shows the widest ones we sell, and the screen listings cover the same widths. ## Acoustic ratings, honestly A desktop screen is about sightlines, not silence. It will not stop the sales team. What the felt ones do is absorb some of the sound that would otherwise bounce off the desk and the wall and come back, which takes the edge off a hard room. Sound absorption is graded in classes from A down to E, and Class A absorbs the most. Read the class on the listing, and treat any screen that promises to block noise with a raised eyebrow. Absorbing and blocking are different verbs. Floor standing, 24mm felt, and it moves when the layout does. ## Floor standing screens Where a desktop screen is not enough, a floor screen does the job without a wall. The [Sch! acoustic floor standing divider](https://deskwell.co.uk/sch-acoustic-floor-standing-office-divider-screen) is 120cm wide, 120cm to 180cm tall, and made of 24mm PET felt in black or charcoal. It stands on its own feet, so it goes where the problem is and moves when the problem moves. It carries a five year guarantee, like every screen on this page. ## Fixing types This is where orders go wrong, so here is the short version. 1. Clamp brackets grip the back edge of the desk top and hold a screen against it. The [free standing desk screen clamp brackets](https://deskwell.co.uk/free-standing-desk-screen-clamp-brackets-set-of-2) come as a set of two in white, silver or black and fit a standard 25mm top. This is the answer for a single desk, or for adding screens to desks you already own. 2. Bench desk screens bolt to the frame between back-to-back desks and sit in the gap. They only fit their own desk range, so check the name on the listing matches the name on the desk. 3. Floor screens need nothing. They stand up. That is the whole appeal. The full [desk screens and office dividers](https://deskwell.co.uk/shop/categories/desk-screens-office-dividers) range has the width, height, thickness and fixing on every listing, so you can check a screen against a desk without asking anyone. If you are still unsure which bracket fits which desk, send us the desk model and we will tell you. It is a shorter email than returning the wrong one.