Workplace bathrooms are important places of business — a different kind of business than the fundamental office duties.
Its part of the reason why selecting the right bathroom stall material can be challenging. Many offices opt for the durable, easy-to-match, anti-corrosive steel partitions and stalls that are so common in commercial restrooms. Yet two kinds of steel fit this exact description: powder-coated and stainless.
What’s the difference between stainless steel and powder-coated steel? How does each affect the look and feel of an office’s restroom design? We have some answers to these steely questions.
Designing office bathrooms means balancing form and function. A successful layout for your office restroom (and your employees) will consider the following five factors.
Bathroom configurations at the workplace must first and foremost create a sense of privacy. Both men’s and women’s rooms should be laid out in ways that support and are indicative of their functions. In simpler terms, people want (and need) their privacy when using the toilet.
Bathroom stalls and partitions play an essential function here, as do individual and group stall layouts, restroom half-walls, countertops, sinks and urinal partitions. The best office bathroom partition materials maintain an air of cleanliness while securing the privacy commercial restrooms need.
Let’s face it: A shared bathroom is likely to have some smells.
However, you can mitigate this unpleasant reality with strategic bathroom design — both in terms of materials used, structural inclusions and its overall layout. Just consider a few of the layout factors that’ll help or hinder the state of odors in your office restrooms:
How many employees do you have working in your office? Where are they located? Based on overall building configurations and department sizes, do some bathrooms see more traffic than others? These are essential questions to consider when building or redoing workplace restrooms.
In addition to internal staff, bathroom design should also consider traffic from outside guests. Some businesses receive visitors more frequently than others. Think restaurants, malls, sports venues, theaters and similar companies that experience continual streams of traffic. Their bathrooms must be able to handle visitors’ restroom needs with proper amounts of stalls, sinks and urinals positioned in intuitive, traffic-supporting configurations.
The Americans with Disabilities Act provides regulations to assure those with disabilities have reasonable and accommodating access to restroom facilities. ADA guidelines affect many elements of office bathroom stalls and design, including:
Last but certainly not least, you’ll need to consider the overall look of your office bathrooms. Many businesses use restrooms as extensions of brand aesthetics, matching and even enhancing the look of the entire building. Think wall and stall partitions representing a business’s color scheme, on-brand artwork or photography hung on walls, company logos turned into murals and much more.
Stainless steel is a fabricated alloy that combines iron, nickel and chromium. The combination of these three base metals produces the ultra-durable, rust and tarnish-resistant substance found in commercial, industrial and residential office bathroom stalls — among many other applications. Because of its strength, environmental flexibility and long lifespan, stainless steel is one of the best bathroom partition materials on the market.
Outfitting your office restrooms with stainless steel partitions and stalls has several advantages. Some of these benefits include:
Powder-coated steel is a treatment process in which galvanized steel sheets are covered in a dry powder spray, which acts like an ultra-protective metal laminate against scratches, dings, fading and discoloration.
Powder coats are made up of fine resin particles applied directly onto the steel base. Unline paint or other finishers, it is a solvent-free application, making powder-coating more environmentally conscious and handler safe. Like paints and finishers, though, powder coating can be done in a wide range of colors and hues, adding an artistic signature onto their steel forms. Powder-coated steel partitions are also more affordable than many other pure or alloy metal bathroom stalls.
Powder-coated steel provides many of the same advantages as stainless steel partitions, yet at a fraction of the price. However, there are a few key differences to consider when determining which office bathroom stalls to place in your facilities:
There are a handful of factors to weigh when selecting between stainless steel and powder-coated steel bathroom stalls. What may seem as straightforward as color selection or the lowest price tag may distract from which partitions will provide the most bang for your buck — and build the branded bathroom environment to fit your entire office. Here are five factors to keep in mind.
Topping the list of how to choose the right bathroom partitions is usage — i.e., the practical, day-to-day traffic amounts your office restrooms receive.
Depending on the size of your office and the number of employees in-house, bathroom stalls could see frequent usage. Or, bathrooms could go in the opposite direction, with usage rates of only a few visitors throughout the entire day. The former requires highly durable and highly sanitizable partition materials that can stand up to constant contact, while offices in the latter situation can opt for slightly more customized, aesthetic stalls without sacrificing privacy or strength.
Consider the actual room environment of your bathrooms. Environmental factors will include things like humidity levels, ventilation and windows — and whether those windows can open or not and how much sunlight they allow in. You should also consider if sunlight will directly shine on office bathroom partitions day in and day out.
On top of room environments, you must also have a proper sense of your bathroom layouts. How many stalls and partitions can you install based on your restroom’s dimensions? What sort of stall configurations do those dimensions support? Will stainless steel or powder-coated steel look better given a certain stall layout or in that bathroom’s normal temperature and humidity? Answering these questions ensures the picking of your business’s best bathroom partition material.
Some businesses will look to mute down their bathrooms, adhering to function over any decorative form. Other offices will see bathrooms as an extension of their workplace and therefore imbue it with the same decor and brand identity they do in meeting rooms, across departments and within lobbies.
Powder-coated steel partitions provide more customization and branding detail than stainless steel bathroom stalls. Given their paint-replicating applications, your office will have more choices into the colors or patterns you want on stall walls and doors, compared to the silver, satin-brushed finish of stainless steel.
Both stainless steel and powder-coated partitions can be made to work across office budgets. From the initial blueprints of a business’ restrooms to renovations or refurbishments, both material types are cost-competitive after factoring in maintenance and care needs across each of their lifetimes:
The size of your restroom facility will be another major consideration when selecting between stainless steel or powder-coated steel. Dimensionally, nearly all bathroom stalls are sized according to ADA regulations and other industry standards. This policy ensures both comfort as well as consistency are available for bathroom users and won’t impede those with physical or mobility impairments.
Depending on the overall look you’re aiming to achieve in your given space, powder-coating or stainless steel may be more pertinent. Think about your:
Bathroom stall design isn’t exactly everyone’s forte — and that’s okay! With a full-service partition provider, you receive the help and attention you need to design, source and install ADA-compliant, ultra-durable steel partitions in powder-coating or stainless steel materials — all while staying within budget.
Chat with a One Point Partition representative today with questions on your office bathroom design or remodel, or to get a free order quote.
Brandon has been in the toilet and bathroom partitions business since 2006 and has been with the company since 2007. He is a graduate of Middle Tennessee University where he was a standout football player. He spends much of his free time with his family who all are active in sports.