How to Stop Vandalism & Increase Safety in Your Washrooms

The typical toilet area provides an enticing array of opportunities for the wayward student, youth or member of the public to kick cubicle doors, hang on fixtures, cover walls with graffiti, overflow the sinks, squirt the soap, chuck towels and toilet paper and many other things that invade privacy and make other users feel unsafe and uncomfortable using the facilities.

There are several different ways in which to tackle vandalism and increase the safety in your washrooms.

Regular Maintenace and Refurbishment - Keep the washrooms clean, tidy and well looked after, with adequate toilet paper, hand towels and soap. We can guarantee the students will look after them much better as they take responsibility for their facilities.

Involve the Students - Involve them in the design process, and they’re likely to take pride in it and not so keen to trash the place. Get them to invest emotionally in keeping the toilet area clean.

Water - Schools encourage their students to wash their hands, but students sometimes forget to turn the tap off. Taps with infrared controls can turn off automatically, and non-concussive taps will shut off water flow after a 7 seconds, saving significant sums of money.

Hand Dryers - Here schools can avoid the potential trouble that comes from students wasting paper towels or using them as missiles. A common debate, when considering you need to bear in mind cost comparison, hygiene, environmental impact, noise, and practicality. For example, installing hand dryers has proven to lower costs, be more hygienic (paper towels can run out and users are left with wet hands, increasing bacteria), and have a lower environmental impact. It’s good to bear in mind, however, the noise levels could be disturbing for children who suffer with autism or similar, although some argue that the noise is a comfort as far as a background noise! Being practical is sensible - the hassle of paper towels for the caretaker/cleaners - really a job they could do without!

Graffiti - Although artistic, from a school perspective, it’s vandalism. Graffiti removal quickly becomes tiresome, a task never finished. The best way to prevent graffiti is to present an alternative. A blank white wall invites trouble. Building a decorating scheme that either makes room for public interaction or simply has enough of its own style to deter improvisation. Get users to invest emotionally in keeping the toilet area clean for their community.

Open-plan - To prevent damage from occurring behind closed doors, some schools have installed separate, full length, unisex cubicles, with central hand washing facilities. This allows the actual restroom area to be visible from the corridor, so staff can see in and keep an eye on things, reducing vandalism and bullying. These designs can often be cheaper to install and easier for maintenance.

Are you thinking of a washroom project? Unsure how to go about it with so many options?

Sit down with one of our team and we’ll guide you throught the whole process!!

Get in touch today - we’d love to hear from you!