How to Choose the Right Restroom Building for Your Park or Playground

Restrooms are essential to park infrastructure. They are one of the most requested (and most judged) features in any public space. They need to be clean and accessible from the user’s standpoint, and easy to maintain and reliable for park managers. With winter budgeting and planning in full swing, now is the time to focus on what restroom building is the best for your park or playground. This brings us to the question we’re tackling in today’s blog: How do you choose the right restroom for your needs and the needs of your community at large? We’re here to help narrow down your options and make suggestions on the best, most reliable restroom buildings. Our goal is for you to be confident with your choice come installation. So, let’s dive in!

Understanding Your Park’s Needs

Before you begin to explore options for restroom facilities, you first need to take an overview of your community and what needs you should accommodate. Take into consideration:

• Visitor volume: How many people, on average, are visiting your space? Different parks have different demands. A busy playground, trailhead, or sports complex requires a very different facility from a neighborhood pocket park.
• Type of users: What kind of people will need to use the restroom? The answer is probably all kinds of people! Including accessibility measures for small children, people with disabilities, and the elderly is key to providing a comfortable experience.
• Seasonal activities: Does your space provide a place to host events and activities? Or do you see high volumes of seasonal traffic? Waterfront locations are a great example of a place that may not see year-round traffic, but a high volume of visitors in the summertime that need to be accommodated for.

While taking into consideration your park’s specific needs, remember that ADA requirements and inclusive design are non-negotiables.

Material Choices That Hold Up Over Time

The next thing to consider when choosing your restroom facility is materials. When built with the right materials, structures boast long-term durability, cleanliness, and a lighter maintenance workload. Some common material choices include:

• Precast concrete: Concrete is immensely strong and extremely long-lasting. Fiber concrete, a material used in our restrooms of choice, has fibers such as steel mixed in to provide crack resistance, tensile strength, and overall durability.
• Steel framing: Steel remains a top choice for all park structures, not just restrooms. Steel is resistant to fire, pests, and harsh weather, making it an ideal choice.
• Wood alternatives: When it comes to natural wood, the concern lies with maintenance issues over time. That’s why we recommend glue laminated wood. This highly innovative material utilizes individual pieces of high-strength lumber formed under pressure, giving it extraordinary strength and fire resistance.

We’re proud to offer park restrooms that are resistant to vandalism, graffiti, corrosion, and heavy use through use of modern materials. Our facilities are prefabricated on a concrete pad with walls and floors made of fiber concrete. The structure is made of galvanized steel and insulated with rockwool. This provides a sleek, low-maintenance finish that reduces lifetime costs and keeps facilities looking welcoming.

Learn more about material options: The Best Materials for Durable and Low-Maintenance Park Structures

Layout and Interior Considerations

Depending on what manufacturer you choose for your restroom solution, there may be a wide array of layout choices. At MRC, we recommend considering smart restrooms for several reasons. Before we get into some of those reasons, we’ll discuss our different floorplan options and their features. We offer two sizes:

• Single unit: 9’ x 14’
• Double unit: 9’ x 22’

Adult or child changing tables can be added to both standard floorplans. We can also add showers, an office, or a larger mechanical room for equipment storage. Inside our restrooms, we provide the ultimate clean experience through touch-free soap dispensers and handwashing stations. Our layouts are simple, for a good reason. Visibility and predictability are key considerations for user safety and comfort. Our restrooms are designed to be used year-round and are equipped with three heating systems: underfloor heating for drying, an air exchanger to circulate air and heat in the restroom, and auxiliary heating for the mechanical room, offering a flexible solution for winter.

Learn all about our self-cleaning public restrooms in this webinar: Smart Self-Cleaning Public Restrooms with MRC & Urben Blu

Safety, Cleanliness and Aesthetic

Restrooms can truly make or break overall perception of parks and public spaces. As we’ve discussed, material options play a big part in this. Our restrooms are renowned for their robustness and resistance to vandalism. They’re covered in fiberglass, providing impact protection and making cleaning easy. Interior features like the waste bin and coat hook are stainless steel, and all other interior mechanisms are made to not move or slide to prevent breakage and minimize maintenance. To top it all off, we treat all exterior surfaces with an anti-graffiti coating, making it easy to wipe off vandalism. Thoughtful design choices like these make great improvements to daily operations. We can go above and beyond to provide a unique, welcoming aesthetic and customize your restroom. Our designers will work with you to blend your structure in with surrounding architecture or stand out with unique artwork.

Long-Term Community Value

We know that investing in a facility with self-cleaning features and high-quality materials can be expensive in the short-term. A restroom building, however, is a long-term investment. We argue that durability should be the top factor when considering budgets and making a purchase, which is why we choose to work with companies like Urben Blu. Not only are their material choices superb, but the self-cleaning functions greatly reduce operating costs in the long run, with up to $30,000 in savings per year. The resistance of the structure itself coupled with saving on maintenance provides an opportunity for a worthy investment. Consider lifetime costs rather than just the upfront expenses when investing in a public restroom facility.

Read more: Smart Restrooms vs. Traditional Restrooms in Parks and Playgrounds

Choosing the right restroom pays off in ways that may surprise you. From increased user satisfaction to reduced maintenance to better park experiences, a great public facility can transform a park or playground. Still have questions or need guidance? Don’t hesitate to reach out to us to explore options and get support for winter planning.