Out of sheer disgust one day I put signs on the walls above the urinals "STAND CLOSER, GUYS. IT'S NOT AS LONG AS YOU THINK."
Someone in our building, and I'm pretty sure who, apparently just guesses at direction and flow. The restroom outside his area is always a urine-covered mess, both urinal and toilet.
At the gun shop I worked for back in 2011-12 they had a sign above the toilet. It was a standard target with a decent grouping sporting the words, "If you can group under an inch at 100 yards, you can hit an 18" toilet at two feet. Accuracy counts." It was still a mess by the end of day. Along with a steady stream of prostate-challenged old geezers and people who were just plain nasty, we apparently had some regulars with bowel issues, too. Thankfully, the restrooms had floor drains. I installed a hose bibb on the hot water line so I could shower the whole room in sanitizer and simply rinse away any remaining detritus.
The university has been on a water conservation kick for years, beginning with restrooms (And rightfully so. Water is a precious commodity in the semi-arid plains). Unfortunately the genius in charge had the bright idea to just swap out valves on existing fixtures. A low-flow valve on a toilet designed for pre-conservation era water volumes is... bad. The result was a rash of clogged lines which necessitated tearing out walls and jackhammering up foundations to fix. The estimate was that the repairs, emergency service calls, and general increases in day-to-day upkeep totaled three or four times what simply swapping fixtures would have cost. It also resulted in about 50 percent more actual water usage than before because people were flushing four or five times to get things flowing versus a single flush before. Their response? Installing waterless urinals, but without the equipment, supplies, or custodial training necessary to keep the units properly serviced because it was "too expensive". The clogs were no longer a problem but the smell was horrific. Round three was pint-per-flush urinals. Now we
finally have functional urinals that can be cleaned and serviced in a traditional manner. All it took was eight years and about six times the money that swapping to low-volume units would have cost in the first place. The low-flow valves on old toilets was never resolved and is an ongoing, and still very expensive, issue.
Brad
