[Closed] Spec my work showers

Id prefer gym style wetroom showers but with the shower on a hose so you can sluice the mud away rather than cubicles which end up with muddy footpints everywhere.

And a mop and bucket. Ours has a big passive aggressive sign asking people to leave it how they would like to find it, but no way of doing anything about it.

Our work have 6 individual shower rooms in the basement. Literally each one has just enough room for a 760x760mm shower cubicle, a sink (which I’d say they’ve specced too big), a toilet and a tall heated towel rail. The showers are electric Mira Azoras which are reasonable. True flooring is that stuff that is put down in one sheet and curves up the wall a couple of inches.

I’ve been pretty impressed with them generally - and they’re unisex as they all have their own lockable door.

What they don’t have is very effective extraction facilities - they can get a bit hot so I’d say they could have tried harder with that. They’ve been recently refurbished and had dyson hand driers put in which seems a bit extravegent/u necessary - better extractors would have been far more useful.

Proper extraction is a must, the ones at work have a pathetic fan which does nothing. Changing rooms quickly turn into a steam room.

One of the cycle industry companies had a tour. Pretty much went garage, changing area, drying room.

Somewhere to sit when getting changed, trying to balance on one foot whilst putting socks on aint fun. And somehwere proper for drying wet/sweaty kit.

Can you guess what 2 things our single work shower (in the toilets) doesn't have? 🙁 This is a company with 1600 employees total, 500+ in our office.

Our showers were refurbed and they have done a very good job but my complaint is that the person who planned it obviously never uses them.
Nothing to sit on (now corrected after I flagged it), I have to hang my jacket on the arm of the door closer and my backpack has to hang on the door pull.
They did all the floors but same issues in all of them.

I spec'd some showers for cyclists a few years ago. I'd say it's important to have a dry area within each individual shower with hanging space and a seat/bench. That's where you leave your clothes while you shower and dry off (in a shower cubicle with a proper door, none of your curtain rubbish) and where you undress/dress.
You can buy clothing lockers with built-in heaters to dry clothes. Expensive though, so they're the first things to go when the budget gets challenged.
And a hair-dryer (which can be in the communal area).

We have a hairdryer in the lobby outside each set of 3 shower rooms at work. Lots of people seem to use them but sometimes hog the room they’ve just left leaving stuff in it whilst they dry their hair.

Our drying room is completely separate from the showers in the underground car park - just one room with 7 or 8 tall towel rails in it with clothes rails : pegs running all round the room. Smells a bit tasty at times but it does the job.

Hooks, lots of hooks, a bench to sit on.

The shower should have a shelf or something to put shampoo and that on.

Gonna need a hose head for anyone cycling in poor conditions.

Encourage the company to sign up to https://cyclingscore.com/ That way they can use it as part of their ESG or GRESB submissions.

Drying room, or boot warmers would be a good addition.

We have two setups on our site.

Individual shower & changing area in their own cubicles, within a toilet/bathroom. These can have some of the disadvantages as listed above if not properly thought out: not enough hooks to hang cycling kit plus work clothes, tiny seat to perch on. You can end up sweating whilst getting dressed as you never really cool down if the extraction is poor and it stays steamy.
If you have more than a few commuters you may also end up queuing as the shower is locked out for an entire undress, shower and dress routine.

We also have individual shower only cubicles within a communal changing space, which are the ones I use out of preference. Benches, lockers, and plenty of hooks above radiators, more like a small gym changing room. Plenty of room for changing, hanging clothes, drying towels etc. Less queue time as you can still undress/dress whilst the showers are occupied. A bit less secure for personal property if it's open but ours is on card access.

Usually think about how a few simple design steps would make for a great shower when struggling in a campsite on one foot,trying to dry myself in a muddy pool of water. Best one's I've seen so far are 3-cliffs in pembrokeshire, but basically :

Wet room style - no soggy horrid curtains
Big enough to have a dry area for changing
If not a wooden slatted "floor" above the wet
Sloping floor to a drain that can easily cope with full flow
2nd Shower head on hose or just separate cleaning hose
squeegee for post shower cleaning
Underfloor heating or if "outdoors" open vents at windy/lee side of building to have constant drying airflow
Seat if possible
Lots of hooks in dry area for clothes / towel
Good shelf for shower gel so you don't have to constantly reach to floor

I may have overthought this :->

At work we have a communal area with the lockers and a sink, then three wetroom style rooms each with a bench which is sheltered from the shower by a screen (the floor by the bench still sometimes gets wet if the drains are playing up so it pays to use it...). Two standard with overhead shower and hose, one disabled. That's unisex and the provision for the building, although admittedly it's not a huge building.

The showers/benches themselves are good, but the communal area leaves a bit to be desired - nowhere to dry stuff other than putting it in your locker, so it doesn't dry too well. When they first opened the building the only way to dry your hair was to bring your own hairdryer and plug it in to a plug socket on the other side of the area to the mirror, meaning that anyone coming in from outside had to step over the hairdryer cable. They have now fitted some permanent hardwired hairdryers/straighteners but still not as well located for the mirror as they could be. No loo either - if you get to work and need the loo you need to go into the main bit of the building (different entrance) and up the stairs to the office area as there's nothing down by the showers.

Other slight gripe is that now they've put the straighteners in there are lots of people who wander in on their way into work to touch up their hair, which can make the communal area quite crowded!

over the years, I have had the 'pleasure' of trialling several different approaches.

individual (unisex) lockable, changing room with shower works ok, but the time the room is 'occupied' (strip, shower, dry, dress) can make thing tricky

there is always a requirement to store/dry whatever you commuted in, that might need to be a personal heated/vented locker, or just limited access to a drying area.

management of access, lockers, cleaning, periodic removal of long term storage is pretty important

heating/ventilation

near to the bike sheds, optional outside hose to rinse legs/bikes

currently have a communal shower area which is fine, but they omitted anywhere to hang a towel while you actually shower, there are only 'changing hooks' to a) store wet commuting clothes and b) store a suit bag and there are regular poster reminders about only storing clothes while you exercise!

The best one I’ve had was:
Dedicated site entrance
Dedicated building entrance next to the bike racks
Separate shower and changing areas
Under bench wire lockers
Drying racks
Coffee stand on the way to desk

The women’s one was crap though, and the rest of the building was shyte to work in really

A bit less secure for personal property if it’s open but ours is on card access.

Quoting myself, for as luck would have it, some tea leaf removed my Castelli Estremo gloves from the locker room yesterday. I accidentally left them on the radiator instead of putting them in my locker. Cue a cold fingered ride home. ****.
So secure drying facilities is my final suggestion!

Ventilated lockers are the biggest win I've never actually seen fitted - exist for ski rooms in resorts so the kit can be bought. Sweaty or wet clothes, and wet towels just don't dry otherwise.

Perforated locker bases and door fronts, with a few loops of un lagged warm copper pipe running below them to warm contents of the lockers.

Steam/exhaust Ventilation,

if single showers door locks,door 6 inches off the floor to stop it soaking up water and easily mopped out.

non slip floor,

hangers or hooks, shelf for soap and shampoo in shower,

heating,

tiles or wipe clean surfaces,

a cleaner,

proper drainage,and maintance,

toilets near by, no weeing in showers,