COVID-19 safety is still an important concern for owners of commercial properties with shared washrooms. Reducing the spread of this virus will take effort from both property owners and the customers that frequent these locations.
Customers can improve their safety by following preventative measures such as regular hand washing and avoiding direct contact with surfaces. Property owners, on the other hand, can make their toilets more COVID-secure with the aid of social distancing screens and commercial vanity unit screens in addition to other safety fittings.
Let’s take a closer look at some ways to make your toilets more COVID-secure.
1. Hand Sanitiser Dispensers
Washrooms that are used by a large number of people throughout the day have to be disinfected frequently to get rid of dangerous bacteria. However, it may be impractical for building staff to sanitise these areas multiple times a day, depending on how many staff they have and the size of the location. One alternative is for owners to set up hand sanitiser dispensers inside the bathroom stall itself. Or even outside, to ensure protection without having to touch any further surfaces.
This allows users to disinfect their hands after touching any surface within the stall.
2. Social Distancing
It might be worth installing physical barriers where urinals and handwashing facilities do not enable social distancing in the toilet. Cubicles normally provide adequate barriers, but there may be other areas where you want to look into getting perspex or glass screens to protect those within the area.
In addition to this, you could add in-floor markings and signage to encourage social distancing further.
When queuing, it might be useful to have markings and signs such as ‘one in, one out’ in order to limit the number of people within the toilet.
3. ‘Touch-free’ areas
In order to decrease the opportunity to touch surfaces, you might want to review your washroom. Taps, for example, can be adjusted so that they have sensors to turn on, and automatically switch off.
You might also want to remove any reusable items, such as towels, or baby changing mats and replace with disposable versions. Automatic hand dryers, if not already installed, are a good way to introduce a ‘touch-free’ area.
In addition to this, you could also look at having open or foot-operated bins, as implementing door holders to keep doors open. This also helps with ventilation, along with keeping any windows open where possible.
4. Additional cleaning
When planning a cleaning schedule, it’s important to remember all the additional touchpoints such as the toilet seat, flush, toilet roll holders and door handles and locks. All of these will require regular cleaning along with the normal toilet cleaning routine.
Handwashing areas such as soap dispensers, hand dryers and towel rolls will also need to be regularly cleaned.
Putting in place new cleaning routines are key to ensuring your toilets are safe. It’s a good idea to provide extra cleaning materials within the toilet itself so surfaces can be wiped down. Staff should also be provided with any necessary PPE and training.
5. Installing Surfaces for Easy Disinfection
Germs and bacteria often accumulate on exposed pipes and joints in washrooms. These components can be difficult to clean due to their hard-to-reach locations and complex shapes. Building owners can make toilet areas easier to wipe down and sanitise by integrating them into the wall.
An IPS panel toilet is designed to conceal pipes and joints behind a solid panel. This panel is made from a resilient material that is easier to clean than a complex network of pipes.
Adding an IPS panel toilet to your building’s washrooms reduces the surface area that needs to be cleaned, which could make washroom maintenance much easier.
Another fitting that serves a similar purpose is commercial washroom vanity units. In addition to concealing components that are difficult to clean, building owners can select vanity units with large continuous surfaces that can be wiped down easily.
If you are interested in finding stylish and functional commercial washroom vanity units for your building, get in touch with Spectrum Cubicles.