Equipping the larger washroom
February 1st 2004

Busy washrooms have their own requirements and care needs to be taken in choosing the right loo roll, hand towel and soap systems. Brian Parkinson of SCA Hygiene Products looks at the larger washroom along with factors to consider such as product running out; avoiding queues for hand drying facilities and maintenance problems, and considers how to cope with them

As consumers we rarely have a problem when deciding how to equip our washrooms at home. We know we need a soap bar and a clean towel for hand drying. We also require a loo roll with perhaps a discreetly-placed spare in case the toilet tissue supply should run out on a guest. However, washrooms at home are used comparatively infrequently and the washroom manager thats us is always on hand to check on the facilities.

Larger washrooms in airports, institutions and motorway service stations are an entirely different matter. Typically attendants are responsible for several facilities combined with other duties which may mean that toilets are left unsupervised for long periods, during which visitors are free to steal the loo rolls, vandalise the dispensers or throw their used hand towels on the floor. More seriously they might also contaminate the dispensers and washroom fittings with soiled hands particularly if the handwashing and drying facilities have run out while no-one noticed. Therefore, managers of larger washrooms must take care to tackle these problems before they arise.

One of the key factors to consider is whether sufficient paper, hand towels and soaps have been provided. Equipping a large washroom with loo paper is a relatively simple matter each cubicle must be provided with a long-lasting toilet tissue system and frequent checks must be made to ensure that it does not run out.

But providing soap, basins and hand towels is trickier because it is hard to tell whether sufficient numbers have been provided. Obviously if soap and hand towels are constantly running out it is obvious that demand is outstripping supply. But how many people walk out of a washroom with soiled hands due to the inadequate number of basins or the lengthy queues for hand drying facilities? Washroom managers need to monitor throughput to ensure that adequate numbers of basins, dispensers and consumables are provided.

Some managers of high-throughput washrooms choose warm-air dryers over hand towels because there is no possibility of the product running out. Excluding power cuts and fuses, they are also low maintenance. However, in many cases the larger washroom is under-resourced by a token hand dryer because if you opt for these, you will require several more dryers than you would hand towel dispensers. Washroom users need to spend 50-60 seconds at a warm-air dryer in order to thoroughly dry both their hands and queues will form if an insufficient number of dryers have been provided. While most people are prepared to wait to use the loo if necessary, research suggests their patience may wear thin when queuing for hand-drying facilities. Having a plentiful number of warm air dryers will ease the situation, though some people will still become bored and walk away with damp hands which are an ideal breeding ground for bacteria.

Hand towels therefore have some major advantages over warm-air dryers in the larger washroom: they can thoroughly dry the hands in a few seconds and they prevent queues from forming since the customer can walk away as soon as he or she has taken a towel out of the dispenser.

Soap systems, too, should be long-lasting and efficient. Concentrated liquid soaps are ideal and push-button dispensers are best, since unlike pump-action dispensers these discourage users from taking out more than one shot of soap at a time.

Hand towel dispensers should also be plentiful, reliable and contain a sufficient supply of towels to cover the period between maintenance checks. Our own hand towel suggestion is Tork Matic because it is a long-lasting semi-automatic system offering 400 wipes to a roll. Another good option is a zigzag-fold towel such as Tork Classic Plus or Tork Classic Standard, both of which can be topped up at any time.

These towel systems tackle the problem of cross contamination, too, since they are dispensed in a way that ensures that each towel is touched only by the user. The dispensers are also lockable to prevent pilferage and are made of tough plastic to discourage vandalism.

Conventional toilet rolls are not really suitable for larger washrooms with a high throughput of users. More suitable is a lockable dispenser containing a high volume jumbo system such as T-Tork. However if regular maintenance checks are not made the loo rolls can eventually run out and to prevent this from happening the janitor may decide to replace the roll sooner than necessary which means that some of the tissue will be wasted. In this case, a twin roll system such as T-Tork Mini Twin is the answer. This is a high-capacity system consisting of two mini jumbo rolls stacked on top of one another. Only after the first roll has been completely used up will the second drop down to take its place which means the system can be routinely topped up at every maintenance check without incurring any waste.

The position of washroom facilities is very important in a busy washroom. Hand basins, soap dispensers and drying facilities should be adequately spaced out to reduce bottlenecks. If the dryer or hand towel dispenser is placed directly above the sink, people will stand in one spot to perform both tasks and queues will form. Instead there should be a natural flow of washroom users from the toilet facilities to the basin, on to the hand towels and finally the bin. All bins should be placed on the way to the exits because some washroom users will throw their used towels on the floor rather than retrace their steps.

This brings us to the next point how to reduce mess in the larger washroom. C-fold hand towel systems are notorious for creating a mess because they can be pulled out of the dispenser in clumps. The disused towels are then left to clutter up the sink units where they become soggy and unsightly. Zigzag-fold or interfolded towels are better because they can only be dispensed singly. Another requirement in a larger washroom is an effective air freshener system. A low maintenance system such as our Tork Air-Fresh product is ideal because the refill lasts for up to 90 days and the battery can last for up to 36 months.

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