Home > Issue by Date > April 2007

Hygienic Restroom Maintenance

Facility managers planning new or renovated rest rooms have many more choices than they have in years past.

By Don Totten

Office Workers want a clean restroom Office Workers want a clean restroom more than any other area, even though money is typically spent on lobbies and other spaces deemed less important by those who inhabit the buildings. PHOTO: KIMBERLY-CLARK PROFESSIONAL

A satisfactory level of restroom cleanliness can be difficult for facility managers to achieve on a regular basis. The more traffic a facility receives, the more expensive it is to maintain and the more difficult it can be to provide service throughout the day. Eventually, this can lead to depletion of supplies.

Other common issues with restrooms can be the quality of the products installed, odors, a lack of ventilation, and appearance, which sometimes deteriorates because of paper towels left on the floor or clogged, leaking soap dispensers at the sink. Another area of growing concern among users of public restrooms is cleanliness and sanitation. Individuals who are sick and contagious can potentially spread their germs by touching such things as faucets, sinks, paper towels, and soap dispensers.

Facility managers have always spent a great deal of effort on restroom maintenance. But now, because of these concerns, many are beginning to focus on these areas as more and more people become concerned about the spread of serious disease. From lobby and waiting areas, to corridors and offices, there are numerous opportunities for employees and visitors to pick up or pass along germs.

In this day and age of virulent flu strains, SARS, and the threat of other infectious disease outbreaks, it should be no surprise that the public is concerned about cleanliness and hygiene. In fact, people go to such great lengths to avoid germs that they perform like contortionists in public restrooms—flushing toilets with their feet, pushing doors open with their shoulders, dispensing towels with their elbows, and doing anything to avoid germ laden surfaces.

Fortunately, many manufacturers and suppliers in this area are responding with new restroom product solutions and cleaning technologies. These can help make the task of using and managing the restroom easier, more efficient, and more cost-effective, while providing improved hygiene and sanitation features.

Touch Free Technology

Office Workers want a clean restroom Potential employees and visitors often guage a company or organization by its restroom cleanliness, particularly in hospitality or retail facilities. PHOTO: KIMBERLY-CLARK PROFESSIONAL

One way facility managers can help to reduce the spread of germs is through the installation of touch less products and systems in the restroom. By minimizing the user’s need for direct skin to surface contact, touch free dispensers can help reduce the transmission of illnesses and germs. In restrooms with these systems, users do not have to touch handles, levers, or buttons in order to flush toilets, turn on water, or dispense washroom products.

Some public restrooms even continue the no touch philosophy by installing door less entryways. This automated initiative prevents the need for freshly washed hands to grab dirty door handles as the user leaves the restroom.

Some no touch systems are relatively simple to use. There is a toilet paper system, for example, that holds individual, inter-leaved sheets of paper. With this system, users can easily reach inside for the sheets they need without being forced to search around a potentially dirty dispenser. This may provide a cleaner and more hygienic delivery system than conventional toilet paper dispensers.

Other no touch systems employ more high-tech methods like sensor activated devices that control water faucets and lights. No touch technology can also be helpful when incorporated into hand towel dispensers, since hand towels are typically used once hands are already cleaned.

Mechanical Options

Touch less systems don’t have to be electronic. Simple, no touch hand towel dispensing systems are also available.

For instance, a low cost hygienic option dispenses the towels one-at-a-time, and users only have to touch the towel they need. There are also mechanical dispensers without levers to pull or battery power to replenish. These devices can provide the same hygienic benefits as sensor activated dispensers.

Another way to minimize the items touched in the restroom is to install automatic toilet flushing mechanisms. There are two primary types of systems: one flushes the unit after each use, and another operates at regular intervals to keep fresh water in the bowl at all times. In either case, the addition of automatic dispensing of a disinfectant with each flush can help minimize bacteria formation in the bowl and reduce odors.

With these devices, hand contact and germ transmission is reduced, and maintenance teams have an easier time cleaning flush valves and handles. Both users and facility managers can benefit from this approach.

Touch Less Cleaning

As restroom product manufacturers have moved to touch less restroom products, so have manufacturers of cleaning systems. Touch less cleaning products are designed to allow housekeeping professionals to clean without touching any surface in the restroom with their hands.

These cleaning systems are also easy to operate, since they consist primarily of electrical pressure mops and buckets. As a result, they can provide better ergonomics versus bending over a bucket.

Since the system is self-contained, touch free cleaning equipment may release fewer odors. Highly pressurized devices can help deliver deeper cleaning ability as well. Touch less systems also help ensure that the cleaning chemical or fluid in the bucket is not dirtier than the surface being cleaned, which can sometimes be the case with bucket water.

High Capacity Restroom Systems

Office Workers want a clean restroom In terms of conservation and environmental sensitivity, one of the omst wasteful aspects of a public restroom is reaching for a single hand towel and unintentionally receiving several because of poor dispensing. Controlled dispensers like the one pictured above can help prevent this problem. PHOTO:SCOTT SCOTFOLD FROM KIMBERLY-CLARK PROFESSIONAL

Maintaining an adequate supply of personal care products in the restroom is another important aspect of creating and maintaining a sanitary restroom environment. Nothing says “unhygienic” more than the absence of toilet paper, hand soap, or hand towels in a restroom.

One way to help ensure an adequate supply of product in the restroom is to select high capacity systems. High capacity systems reduce product depletion by lasting longer and offering less frequent product change outs.

These systems also reduce usage through controlled dispensing. Hands free towel dispensers and those that control usage by dispensing one towel at a time help ensure that towels will be there when people need them and that people will touch only what they take.

When selecting toilet paper, one high capacity option is a coreless jumbo roll tissue system. Because this system contains no hole in the center and no cardboard core, it provides the equivalent in length of nearly six standard rolls of bath tissue.

Wall mounted soap dispensers Wall mounted soap dispensers should measure hundreds of hand washes per unit. PHOTO: KIMBERLY-CLARK PROFESSIONAL

To make sure soap is there when people need it, facility managers can consider a wall mounted replaceable system that provides a new, clean dispenser with each refill. Counter mounted systems with disposable cartridges are also desirable. Both will last longer and help eliminate drips, leaks, and clogs.

Restocking, cleaning, picking up trash, and repairing broken or malfunctioning dispensers and fixtures all cost money. High capacity dispensers may reduce costs, because they don’t have to be checked, repaired, and restocked as often.

With the continued interest in preventing the spread of germs, enthusiasm for no touch and high capacity systems for restrooms will probably increase. These systems may present a cleaner restroom and deliver the best overall possible impression of the facility.

Totten is commercial real estate marketing manager for Kimberly-Clark Professional, based in Roswell, GA. For more information, visit www.kcprofessional.com.

Is the restroom an area in your facility that’s high on the complaint list? Share your experiences by e-mailing schwartz@groupc.com.

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