Public bathrooms are notorious for being gappy and not providing enough shelter from the public eye, but have you ever wondered why?
There are numerous ways in which public stalls leave you susceptible to a rogue hand on the lookout for loo roll, such as the gap left between the door of each stall and the ground. But why are they designed that way?
Like the reason for the WC sign, apparently, there’s always a logical forethought.
A TikToker by the username of MattypStories decided to create a video and share his knowledge about why toilet stalls aren’t all the way down to the floor, and apparently, it’s all down to the basics of practicality, hygiene and cost.
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He said: "Here’s why public bathroom doors don’t touch the floor.”
"You’ve probably wondered at one point or another why bathroom doors don’t go all the way to the ground. But there are actually many logical reasons why they do this, like being cleaner.
"First off, if there’s ever an emergency, it’d be pretty easy to see what happened and get the person some help.
"Secondly, it makes it way easier to clean. Public bathrooms are used quite often, meaning that they need to be cleaned many times throughout the day, and having the space under the door makes it a lot easier.
"And finally, it’s a lot cheaper to buy a door that has part of it cut off than the full door itself."
To be honest, when it’s broken down like that it does seem quite sensible to have a gap under the toilet door, no matter how annoying it is.
To further this reasoning, WC Portables, an Essex-based portable toilet hire company, also describes shorter doors being ‘ideal in cases of emergency’, ‘easier’ to clean and overall much ‘cheaper’.
So, it checks out.
But that’s not the only benefits according to the company, as they also state on their website that shorter doors create a ‘faster escape of bad odour’.
The website adds: “Toilet is a natural environment for the release of bad odour.”
“The gap between the door and the floor provides a quick escape of the foul smell that was generated by previous users.
“It helps your toilet experience to become bearable. Without the gap, the odour is sustained in a stall and becomes unbearable to subsequent users.”
There’s also the case of you being able to know if someone is in there, where you can ‘determine availability' to which WC Portables states: “Nothing beats the eyes test of glancing through the gap for any sign of occupancy.”
But there’s also another sneaky reason.
If you think you’re being heard, you’re not going to dawdle.
“Toilets with doors of this nature could negatively impact people’s privacy,” the portable toilet hire firm explained.
“When individuals sense others can listen to their business that easily, they are prone to wrap up quickly.”
Who would have thought all of the pre planning went into a toilet door, eh?
Britt Jones