Planning Tips for Restroom Renovations

Part 1: New Restroom Products Shape Renovation Options

Part 3: Minimizing Restroom Maintenance

Part 4: Budgeting for a Restroom Renovation

New Restroom Products Shape Renovation Options

By James Piper, P.E.
February 2009

Commercial and institutional restrooms are high visibility, high maintenance areas. While most are designed to function effectively for 15 to 25 years without major upgrades or renovations, normal use and abuse do take their toll. Over the years, fixture surfaces dull, creating the appearance of unsanitary conditions. Fixtures and their controls wear, increasing both water use and maintenance requirements. Breakdowns and vandalism can force facility executives to replace components well before they have reached their rated service lives. As conditions deteriorate, the number of complaints about restroom conditions will increase. Eventually, facility executives will have to implement a major renovation program.

While restroom renovations are costly and disruptive, they are an opportunity to improve appearance and functionality while reducing operating and maintenance costs. But before committing to a restroom renovation, facility executives should learn about the new generation of restroom products. Chances are that much has changed in features, functions and performance since the typical existing restroom was designed. Touchless controls and components are now standard, replacing manual valves and other devices and resulting in reduced water use and maintenance requirements. High-tech finishes resist vandalism and make surfaces and components easier to clean while reducing cleaning interval.

Facility executives should also develop an understanding of the needs of the restroom users. For example, restrooms in high-demand areas require designs that speed the flow of traffic. Fixtures and materials used in high-demand areas should be selected based on how easily they can be maintained and cleaned. Nothing disrupts high-demand areas more than having to shut down facilities for maintenance or cleaning.

In restrooms subject to high abuse, fixtures and materials should be durable and resistant to abuse and vandalism.

And don’t forget that the final design of the restroom will have a big influence on the image the building presents to both occupants and the general public. Successful designs require planning and attention to detail that go well beyond picking fixtures and finishes. Designs must match the needs of the facility.

Comments

KlausReichardt wrote re: New Restroom Products Shape Renovation Options
on 6/21/2009 8:56:03 AM

Over the next several years, there will of course be style changes in the way restrooms look, but if you look a little closer the changes may be much greater, Greener, and more sustainable than many people imagine.

A good example of how far things may go is the Chicago Center for Green Technology (CCGT). This totally renovated building is now LEED certified. Although the restrooms do not look that much different from other restrooms, they have these unique features:

• Instead of metal partitions between stalls, the partitions are made of recycled egg cartons, milk containers, and cardboard.

• The restrooms’ wall and floor tiles are made from recycled glass, tile, porcelain, and ceramic materials.

• Paper and electric hand dryers are installed; managers hope the electric systems will gradually catch on.

But it may be what you cannot see that is most telling. For instance, the toilets are dual-flush, high-efficiency toilets that use .8 and 1.25 gallons of water for liquid and solid waste respectively, compared to 1.6 to several gallons per flush depending on their age and the urinals are totally waterless, using no water at all.

Installing water-conserving fixtures will definitely be the shape of things to come and it may even be healthier too.

According to the Microbiology Department of the University of Arizona, flush-type urinals are far more likely to be colonized by bacteria because of the greater presence of moisture [serving] as reservoirs of disease-causing microorganisms.

And, as to fixtures that conserve water, when you realize that more than 1 billion people, or nearly one-fifth of the world's population, live in areas of water scarcity with another 500 million people approaching this situation, it becomes very clear why water conservation is not only necessary but really should be mandatory.

Klaus Reichardt
Waterless No-Flush Urinal
www.waterless.com