Simple steps for planning your washroom
February 1st 2005

Iiro Mattila, product group manager,Away From Home at European tissue manufacturer Metsä Tissue comments on the role of design in the modern washroom

Careful planning during the design of a washroom and sourcing the right products for your application can make a real difference to its appearance, cleanliness and can save money by reducing labour hours. When planning a washroom, areas to consider include, its existing design, size, level of traffic and the type of application where it is located. High traffic or large washrooms found in concert or theatre halls, towns or city centres will have different requirements to smaller washrooms located in offices or shops.

In a high traffic washroom for example, installing a staggered door system helps to smooth the flow of people entering and leaving, while reducing the potential for cross contamination as users avoid having to touch door handles.

Simple ideas can improve hygiene in the washroom, such as placing a bin outside to keep the facility cleaner. In addition, encouraging people to use paper towels to wipe their hands not only reduces infection but can also minimise cross contamination, as an individual paper towel can be used as a barrier between the user and the door handle when leaving the washroom.

Choosing the right products for the application also makes a huge difference. For example, in a high traffic washroom dispenser units need to be robust, highly functional and easy to keep clean and refill.

A paper towel dispenser should be self-presenting, so that the user can withdraw the towel without touching (and contaminating) the next. In addition, it is also important to ensure the user does not need to touch the dispenser with wet hands, creating further scope for cross-contamination.

A soap dispenser should also prevent direct contact with the liquid soap reservoir and should be designed to give out the right amount of soap for effective washing while preventing unnecessary waste.

Using the correct dispenser for an application also saves time, particularly in high traffic washrooms with multiple units. For example, roll dispenser units can enable significant time-savings as a new hand towel roll can be rapidly placed into position in one movement.

The Katrin Ultimatic range of washroom equipment is specifically designed for high traffic locations. Its Automatic dispenser units are constructed with ABS plastic surfaces, incorporating rounded edges that are easier to clean. It also features transparent ‘eyes’ that make it easy to check when refills are needed, ensuring users are never left without a towel and saving cleaning time.

Labour efficiency is very important, especially considering that it accounts for nearly 90% of the total cleaning budget.Any products that enable time-savings also allow cleaners to be more efficient elsewhere and can ultimately save money.

The large-capacity Katrin Ultimatic Towel roll dispenser is not only simple to refill but also allows a new roll to be loaded when the old one still has 100 sheets left. It also automatically feeds through the new roll at the end of the old one.This ability to refill before the last roll is empty is an elegant solution to the perennial problem of when to change large rolls in high-volume applications.

The Katrin Ultimatic soap dispenser also offers a comparable solution to the problem of when to refill, this time by means of a 100 millilitre spare reservoir; ensuring soap remains available even if the cartridge is empty.

With the same philosophy in mind the Katrin Ultimatic toilet paper dispensers hold two or three rolls and dispense paper automatically.

When the previous roll has run out, it is automatically replaced by a new one, thus ensuring the availability of paper and keeping down maintenance intervals, even in heavily used facilities.

Wherever your washroom is located taking time to assess your needs correctly can make a real difference in the long run.Metsä Tissue’s Katrin range of products is designed and manufactured for a wide range of different applications and can minimise working hours, consumption, environmental impact, and hygienic risks while increasing profitability.A concept summarised in the words “Less is more”.

More articles from Metsa Tissue Ltd: