Sneeze Guards and Plexiglass Shields to Stay Safe at Work

As businesses large and small begin reopening from the coronavirus shutdown, demand for polycarbonate sneeze guards, acrylic barriers, and plexiglass partitions is increasing — and not just in the U.S. As employers and workers think about how to protect themselves and customers from COVID-19, manufacturers and retailers are rushing to meet demand. Unlike most consumer goods, sneeze guards are for the most part a generic product that even a dedicated DIYer could make (though most people would find the homemade route far more trouble than it's worth). Cheapism has rounded up a handful of shields and sneeze guards you can buy online (and maybe brag to coworkers about how you built it with your own hands).

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Price: $65 and up from Amazon
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This sneeze guard is available in sizes ranging from 18 inches square to 24 by 60 inches and designed for desk or countertop use. The legs allow for a 1-inch passthrough.

Price: $70 and up from Etsy
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Give your portable sneeze guard a personal touch with a laser-engraved company logo or your name. This Arizona-made acrylic panel comes in sizes from 16 inches square to 24 by 36 inches, and a choice of legs in widths ranging from 10 to 14 inches.

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Price: $87 and up from Etsy
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A three-sided sneeze guard offers protection for desktops, service counters, lecterns, and the like. Panels range from 18 by 24 inches to 30 by 36 inches with an optional 6-by-12-inch passthrough, and the sides mount at a 120-degree angle so you have plenty of space to work.

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Price: $100 and up from Amazon
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Leave it to a Wisconsin-based picture frame manufacturer to come up with a framed plexiglass sneeze guard you can hang from the ceiling. This one is available in only two sizes (24 by 36 inches or 32 by 40 inches), but you've got six frame color options to choose from, including black, white, and blonde.

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Price: $116 from Walmart
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This three-sided sneeze guard comes in just one size, with 12-by-24-inch panels. Those dimensions are a bit snug for most work setups, but if you need a narrow, protected space (especially for food service), the Pennzoni is an option.

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Price: $125 and up from Etsy
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If you need a big desktop sneeze guard, Brothers Shield makes one of the largest we could find: 36 inches by 72 inches. Other widths are available, too, down to just 12 inches, and all are framed in wood in a choice of four colors with a 9-inch clearance.

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Price: $130 and up from Amazon
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Slamming a desk drawer or an accidental bump can send other standing sneeze guards tumbling to the floor. Not this one: The broad feet have suction cups to hold fast to a flat surface. The panels are a quarter-inch thick — twice that of most sneeze guards — and available ranging from 18 to 40 inches wide, all of which are 24 inches tall.

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Price: $166 from Walmart
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At first blush, this hanging plexiglass panel may seem a bit pricey — until you realize you get two sneeze shields in the package. With their link-chain mounts, these unframed 18-by-24-inch panels aren't fancy, just functional.

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You can find plexiglass sheets of various sizes and thicknesses at Home Depot, Lowes, and other hardware stores. Look for sheets that are an eighth-inch thick; that's the thickness of most of the sneeze guards in this roundup. Like most DIY projects, buying the raw materials is definitely cheaper — about half the price of a premade portable sneeze guard. But as this tutorial from Home Depot points out, cutting acrylic sheets requires hardware, such as a table saw or circular saw, (and patience) that you may lack.

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Price: $53 from Home Depot
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An acrylic panel that measures at least 24 inches by 48 inches (with a thickness of 1/8 inch) is large enough to provide some measure of protection as a barrier and a common dimension used by the manufacturers highlighted in this roundup. 

Price: $20 from Home Depot
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Experts say a fine-tooth saw blade is best for cutting plastics and plexiglass with a circular saw. Look for a 60-tooth blade with crosscut teeth for the finest cut possible and run the saw at a slow speed.

Price: $20 from Home Depot
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A good fine-tooth saw blade will cut plexiglass with no problem, but the edge will be rough. You could sand the edge by hand, but a detail sander like this one will make the job a lot easier (and come in handy for future projects).

Price: $10 from Home Depot
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The trick to drilling through plexiglass without cracking it is to use a sharp drill bit that's rated for cutting plastic and PVC, and to drill slowly. You can buy individual drill bits, but an inexpensive drill bit set gives you additional bits that can come in handy for other home-improvement tasks.

Price: $8.50 from Home Depot
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To smooth the panel's edges begin by wet sanding with a medium-coarseness sandpaper (Home Depot recommends 120-grit sandpaper), then following with finer sandpapers of 240- to 600-grint to gradually hone the edges to silky smoothness.