On visits to the USA I am intrigued to find the following differences in the public toilets (Mens Room / Restrooms)
How has this happened?
and no bidets in bathrooms either!
By using smaller doors in a taller opening?
Some clarification might be a good idea....gaps are left under doors so that the floor can be mopped, although I don't spend much time in public toilets meself, given that our native moppists don't bother too much and we are usually wading through two inches of piss.
One of the strangest contraptions I found in a US toilet was an electrically powered "plastic sleeve" on the bog seat - complete with infra-red sensor so you didn`t have to touch anything to get it to wind itself on to a "clean" bit of clear plastic bag.
I have to admit, seeing the puddle of urine underneath it that you couldn`t wipe if you wanted to was more disconcterting than a normal "wet" bog seat.
I've never been in a US public one (nor in the UK for many years). But in US offices, urinals seem to be same as here except they are individual flush (sometimes manual, sometimes automatic). WC cubicles aren't very private, with 12" or more gap under the door, and 1/2" gaps all round the rest of the door and between all the rest of the panels making up the cubicle. You can see which ones are occupied when you are looking for a free one. When seated, there's very little distance between you and the water line, indeed I assume Americans must have shorter dangly bits than Brits, as most of us have managed to dunk ourselves in the water (this discussion came up in the office on a couple of occasions...). US WC's always seem to be provided with a disposable seat cover (and I've seen the motorised ones mentioned by another poster), but seat covers are much rarer in the UK. WC flush is often direct from the water supply on a very short timer, rather than using a cistern. It can be either manual or automatic.
Not in my experience.
Tops or bottoms of doors?
Yes.
Quite a lot of psychology goes into designing loos, and usually one of the aims is to prevent you spending more time in there than is absolutely necessary. This happens on both sides of the pond.
I can't comment on mens toilets for obvious reasons :-) Except to say that in France they sometimes have the urinals on view as you walk into the ladies! Not often these days though.
They have one of those in one of our local restaurants. It's always immaculately clean though. It;s also a real magnet for small boys! They just can't resist going to the loo and pressing the button even if they don't need to. Bit embarrassing cos it's noisy and I'm sure the kitchen staff can hear them doing it. My friend got in trouble with it too. She was desperate for a pee, pressed the button and nothing happened instantly so she pressed it again. Then she couldn't sit down until it stopped going round :-)
-- Holly, in France Gite to let in Dordogne, now with pool.
One can also remark that in many cases, the mens room in a US company is larger than a typical UK office.
That corrects itself when the water's cold.
I've always wondered about this. It must mean that they believe you can catch STDs from seats.
Both.
Perhaps it's to prevent cottage industries......
Certainly if one suggests a visit to a tea room to an American colleague, it raises a smirk.
My Aunt Nora was a matron in a children's home, which I visited as a child more than 50 years ago. The toilets were long boards made of planking with multiple holes in each board. The kids sat in rows, pooping. I don't know if the main idea of the design was economy/supervisory, or if it was intended that, so arranged, they would spur each other on to greater productivity. A sort of indoctrinal life-lesson. Alternatively it might 've been so that they could share the same piece of bog roll, in which case, by the time it got to the end of the row, it must 've been folded pretty small.
Fifty years ago? .... They had 'bog roll' ? .... luxury!
Realist!
You might even add that some of the men there are larger too! I think the "equality" stuff means big guys don't accept the pint-sized loos often seen in UK buildings.
...
Prob psychological -- I think the bad bugs die within 4 mins?
A related question: is it just my eyesight, or are the man and woman signs merging into some sort of PC unisex symbol? I seem to have some difficulty telling them apart these days, but I'm sure I never used to.
Chris
Quite. Got a very funny look from the emerged occupant of the next door cubicle (a lady) while washing our hands in the John Radcliffe (Oxford) A&E department the other day. (She was right, I was wrong). The lady in the sign no longer has a skirt which flares - that's the problem.
The cultural evolution of the bog roll is also of some concern. In the UK we used to get big sheets 20 years ago (139x110mm) and the Yanks had diddy little ones like postage stamps (124x110). This is the reverse of the norm, as their stuff is usually bigger. Now, for some reason, we also mostly get the postage stamp sheets in the UK, unless you get the "Luxury Velvet" rolls. I think somebody worked out they can boost profits and inconvenience consumers at the same time by making them smaller.
john
But with a larger diameter cardboard centre, to make the whole roll appear bigger.
Chris
Just read the product information on the pack, which tells you the average number of and size of sheets, number of plies, total area, length of roll, and weight. Then look at how much it costs. Then decide whether or not to buy the product. "Read the labels".
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.