How Many Hand Dryers Does a Building Need

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Planning bathrooms and hand dryer requirements for buildings

Regulation 20 of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) regulations 1992 specify the number of washrooms and toilets are required in a building based on the number of people who will be accommodated. This is supplemented by the 2010 Equality act.

The number of hand dryers you need to specify in a building is not defined in the same acts but should follow on from the number of bathrooms.

How Many Bathrooms does a building require

Government regulations set out the number of sanitary facilities required based on the number of people present. These minimum numbers for a mixed workforce are as follows:

One toilet and one washbasin for 1-5 people
Two toilets and two washbasins for between 6-25 people
Three toilets and three washbasins for 26-50 people
Four toilets and four washbasins for 51-75 people
Five toilets and five washbasins for 76-100 people

In most workplaces, separate bathrooms are provided for male and female users and in multi-floor buildings, this means at least three bathrooms per floor including disabled facilities.

Choosing the right number of hand dryers

A good rule of thumb for a building is to match the number of basins with the number of hand dryers to ensure that all users can be accommodated.

If we take as an example a 5-storey office building with 75 people accommodated per floor, this will mean that each floor would have:

2x 3 basin washrooms
1x 1 basin disabled washroom

This gives a total of 7 hand dryers per floor spread across three bathrooms, so in terms of specifying hand dryers, you would need a total of 35 for the building as a whole.

Find Out More

To speak to a member of our team about specifying hand dryers for your upcoming project and to book a demonstration, please contact us today.

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