Holt
Well-known member
Does anyone know why restroom partitions use security screws. Ive always wondered as I see no reason for them. Stupid questions but Ive wanted to know for so long.
Restroom stalls.and security screws
- Thread starter Holt
- Start date
The Slurpee King
Well-known member
Damn. You win Question of the Day. Now I want to know, too.Conductor562
Well-known member
Ironically, I was talking to a friend about that yesterday. I can almost understand the Security Torx, but I've seen several that were put in with 1 way screws. Why? Is there a lucrative black market for used ********* dividers? 
coljar
Well-known member
I was told one time it was to keep someone from taking them apart. Not trying to be a wise ***, but I guess people have time on their hands while their in there and take dimes or maybe a pocket knife out and try to unscrew them.
GShelton
Well-known member
So no one steals the partitions or vandalizes the stalls.
ken w.
Well-known member
Some people will unscrew the walls so they are so loose that the will fall down if bumped.It happens more than you would think.
Conductor562
Well-known member
^This^
Because easily removable ********* partitions give the terrorist a clear advantage
Burtonrider10022
Well-known member
^This^
Because easily removable ********* partitions give the terrorist a clear advantage
After having Taco Bell last week I'm pretty sure I made the Terrorist Watch List for what I did to the bathroom at the mall. Children were crying.
RVDan
Well-known member
This is the reason.
demographic
Well-known member
I've worked on fitting out pubs a few times and sometimes put the stalls in the toilets as well.
Its different from putting stalls in normal workplaces and so on because people are often pissed when they go in there and do all sorts of daft stuff.
We have to think of almost every stupid thing a person can do in there and minimise its effects on the day to day running. People have arguments with their girlfriends and hit things, take drugs, are just quietly disruptive and steal/emove fixings. All sorts of random ****.
The more places I work at the more I know how to avoid the damage.
Usually we install the toilet cisterns behind the back wall where its only accessible from a narrow corridor that the staff have a key to.
That makes it pretty much impossible for someone in the stall to damage the cistern, if the cistern gets broken there's water everywhere and that does even more damage so we want it out of the way.
other times we use access panels and put the cistern behind those to keep them safe.
I try to persuade the owners to let me clad any stud partition walls with plywood before it gets plasterboarded. That makes the wall fist proof as well as making it dead easy to fix things like hand driers, toilet paper holders, sinks and soap dispensers to as well.
Then I like the Torx with internal pin type of security fixings personally because so far I've not seen those on Leatherman/Gerber type tools and not had any problems with people removing them.
I really don't like the one way screws cos those things are a ******* to remove even for me.
Flat horizontal surfaces in the stalls, like window sills and so on : I try to make them angled so nobody can snort coke/speed off them.
I have heard of some staff spraying a little WD40 on those flat areas to discourage this but personally I've never spotted it myself, plus it wouldn't be hard to wipe it off with a bit of bog roll.
Blue light: I read in a magazine years ago that some toilets in Amsterdam has blue lights fitted instead of the more normal white/bright yellow most places have. This is because the veins in your arm show up as blue and if you are a heroin addict looking for a vein its much harder if your entire arm looks blue.
The one place I've seen this blue lights in a toilet was in a McDonalds in a market town called Kendal. Its the least likely place I could think of to have the need for it
Its different from putting stalls in normal workplaces and so on because people are often pissed when they go in there and do all sorts of daft stuff.
We have to think of almost every stupid thing a person can do in there and minimise its effects on the day to day running. People have arguments with their girlfriends and hit things, take drugs, are just quietly disruptive and steal/emove fixings. All sorts of random ****.
The more places I work at the more I know how to avoid the damage.
Usually we install the toilet cisterns behind the back wall where its only accessible from a narrow corridor that the staff have a key to.
That makes it pretty much impossible for someone in the stall to damage the cistern, if the cistern gets broken there's water everywhere and that does even more damage so we want it out of the way.
other times we use access panels and put the cistern behind those to keep them safe.
I try to persuade the owners to let me clad any stud partition walls with plywood before it gets plasterboarded. That makes the wall fist proof as well as making it dead easy to fix things like hand driers, toilet paper holders, sinks and soap dispensers to as well.
Then I like the Torx with internal pin type of security fixings personally because so far I've not seen those on Leatherman/Gerber type tools and not had any problems with people removing them.
I really don't like the one way screws cos those things are a ******* to remove even for me.
Flat horizontal surfaces in the stalls, like window sills and so on : I try to make them angled so nobody can snort coke/speed off them.
I have heard of some staff spraying a little WD40 on those flat areas to discourage this but personally I've never spotted it myself, plus it wouldn't be hard to wipe it off with a bit of bog roll.
Blue light: I read in a magazine years ago that some toilets in Amsterdam has blue lights fitted instead of the more normal white/bright yellow most places have. This is because the veins in your arm show up as blue and if you are a heroin addict looking for a vein its much harder if your entire arm looks blue.
The one place I've seen this blue lights in a toilet was in a McDonalds in a market town called Kendal. Its the least likely place I could think of to have the need for it
AZ Pete
Well-known member
I managed public recreation areas for about 30 years.
People will steal anything, deface it, take it apart for grins, or just set it on fire. You wouldn't believe.
They will steal light bulbs, toilet paper, valve handles, plumbing fixtures, entire portable corrals, steel gates, aluminum seats and tops from picnic tables (to make loading ramps?), they will saw steel mounting posts off of cooking grills and haul them away. They have even unbolted and stolen steel cable mooring systems from the public boat docks. We even had security screws holding the windows in (thick, frosted lexan) so that they wouldn't be removed. We had to use air craft cable to tie 350 pound, steel pic nic tables down (hardened chain was too easily cut). They would break into the electronic control boxes of solar light systems and destroy the circuit boards. They will steal the solar collectors, if they can get to them. I began to believe that there is someone out there that will steal or destroy anything they come across, or at least carve their logo, spray paint graffiti, or shoot it full of holes. Kind of scary when you find a new toilet building with the steel door perforated with large caliber bullet holes in it and the windows and sky lights shot out. Makes you wonder if the shooter knew that no one was in there when they started their "target practice". We had to design gates with features that would protect the locking devices from bolt cutters, and build the gates strong enough to withstand being pulled out of the ground or apart with tow chains....we built one gate, in a particular vandal prone area, out of 6" well casing with about 3 cubic yards of concrete in each post footing to finally secure an access road, after having standard gates jerked out of their foundations by avid 4x4 drivers, several times. I calculated that we spent over $60,000 each year just patching cut barbed wire fences.
Those are just a few things that come to mind....I have been retired for nearly 10 years and try not to think of some of the problems we had. And 99% of the folks we worked with were just as nice as you and me....but that 1% costs us all a lot of grief, and money. It is much more expensive to build things that are vandal resistant, I say resistant, because anything can be destroyed or damaged by the determined vandal.
People will steal anything, deface it, take it apart for grins, or just set it on fire. You wouldn't believe.
They will steal light bulbs, toilet paper, valve handles, plumbing fixtures, entire portable corrals, steel gates, aluminum seats and tops from picnic tables (to make loading ramps?), they will saw steel mounting posts off of cooking grills and haul them away. They have even unbolted and stolen steel cable mooring systems from the public boat docks. We even had security screws holding the windows in (thick, frosted lexan) so that they wouldn't be removed. We had to use air craft cable to tie 350 pound, steel pic nic tables down (hardened chain was too easily cut). They would break into the electronic control boxes of solar light systems and destroy the circuit boards. They will steal the solar collectors, if they can get to them. I began to believe that there is someone out there that will steal or destroy anything they come across, or at least carve their logo, spray paint graffiti, or shoot it full of holes. Kind of scary when you find a new toilet building with the steel door perforated with large caliber bullet holes in it and the windows and sky lights shot out. Makes you wonder if the shooter knew that no one was in there when they started their "target practice". We had to design gates with features that would protect the locking devices from bolt cutters, and build the gates strong enough to withstand being pulled out of the ground or apart with tow chains....we built one gate, in a particular vandal prone area, out of 6" well casing with about 3 cubic yards of concrete in each post footing to finally secure an access road, after having standard gates jerked out of their foundations by avid 4x4 drivers, several times. I calculated that we spent over $60,000 each year just patching cut barbed wire fences.
Those are just a few things that come to mind....I have been retired for nearly 10 years and try not to think of some of the problems we had. And 99% of the folks we worked with were just as nice as you and me....but that 1% costs us all a lot of grief, and money. It is much more expensive to build things that are vandal resistant, I say resistant, because anything can be destroyed or damaged by the determined vandal.
bams50
Well-known member
Same reason it's an ongoing challenge to find graffiti-proof stall surfaces- the world is full of human garbage. As has been said, people will take them apart if they can. I understand why you asked, it's hard to understand for decent people.
I'll never understand what motivates people to do **** like this. We could fill a thread with things we've read in bathroom stalls. Some have made me chuckle, but most just make me frown. If I never see another crude drawing of an open mouth with a ***** pointed at it with little dashes in between, it will still be too many. I mean, what's that about??
Here I sit in this stinky vapor
Some fool stole the toilet paper
Got a date, cannot linger
Lookout a-hole, here comes finger!
I mean, really??
I'll never understand what motivates people to do **** like this. We could fill a thread with things we've read in bathroom stalls. Some have made me chuckle, but most just make me frown. If I never see another crude drawing of an open mouth with a ***** pointed at it with little dashes in between, it will still be too many. I mean, what's that about??
Here I sit in this stinky vapor
Some fool stole the toilet paper
Got a date, cannot linger
Lookout a-hole, here comes finger!
I mean, really??
Buckgnarly
Well-known member
Maybe they should install Ipads linked to GJ so people have something to do?
Doug B
Well-known member
I changed the MAF sensor on my car last week.I needed a torx with the pin in the center to do this,so I went and bought a screw driver with about 20 different tips,including the secutity type.I hadn't thought about those much,but now I'm thinking I'll put security screws on the toilet paper holder in my bathroom.Every time my brother in law comes over,it comes up missing...
countryroad82
Well-known member
This. I work in the school maintenance department for the local school board and let me tell you, the little pr#$s will tear up just about anything. Not all of them mind you but there is that 10% knotheads that will tear up an anvil just to see if they can do it. If you pay attention most partition bars also have a pointed top, that is to help keep someone from wanting to swing on the top rail like monkey bars. It's just a fact of life that there are those out there just to make work that much more aggravating or they just do not care. I wouldn't have a custodians job, they have to clean up after some of these idiots.
JimVonBaden
Well-known member
I just about spit my coffee reading that.
Burtonrider10022
Well-known member
Being 23 and just going back to college after saving up, I cannot even imagine how ****** kids make your job. Even at my community college kids 18-21 ish years old behave with absolutely no regard to the value of other peoples property. It's a ******** college campus in a relatively affluent (Palos Park, near Orland Park, IL) far southwest suburb of Chicago, and these kids can't clean up their lunch garbage or piss in the toilet. God forbid you flush after you take a ****... Our future is fucked.
My apologies.bazzateer
Well-known member
No-one's mentioned certain 'behaviour' from certain types of 'gentlemen' in public lavatories............ They have been known to remove partitions to make their 'activities' less obvious to the casual lavatory user.
bczygan
Well-known member
Sometimes you just get bored sitting there, and want to disassemble stuff...
........and this thread is giving me lots more ideas on how to keep occupied. I always keep a nickel and a dime and a marker handy.
........and this thread is giving me lots more ideas on how to keep occupied. I always keep a nickel and a dime and a marker handy.
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This is some funny stuff. I have sat there looking at those screws myself and wondered, "Wtf, Why would anyone try to mess with those?" You guys have answered it. Yes it would be funny if the wall fell down while someone else was in there (hoping it doesn't hurt anyone). Yes you have some free time on your hands why not remove screws. Anyways not to ramble but now I feel almost challenged to try and remove one of those screws. 
dirtmister16
Banned
to be honest i always wish i had the driver to tighten the loose screws i found in stalls. idk why just i like things to be right i guess.
Buckgnarly
Well-known member
Always remember, half of the population has below average intelligence......
kywildcat
Well-known member
Well the strange ones who can't get the walls down...........drill holes through them!!!
AZ Pete
Well-known member
I changed the MAF sensor on my car last week.I needed a torx with the pin in the center to do this,so I went and bought a screw driver with about 20 different tips,including the secutity type.I hadn't thought about those much,but now I'm thinking I'll put security screws on the toilet paper holder in my bathroom.Every time my brother in law comes over,it comes up missing...
You don't need a security type driver, just use a small screw driver, or punch, and snap the center pin off, they are very fragile.
HIRISC
Well-known member
Falcon67
Well-known member
>People will steal anything, deface it, take it apart for grins, or just set it on fire. You wouldn't believe.
Yes, I would. The general admission side of our drag strip closed down 3 years ago. $5 a head, $1000 damage to the men's room got old real quick for the owner. That includes an attempted fire in the ceiling that might have destroyed the restroom/snack bar building. The ceiling tiles didn't catch, I imagine those are fire resistant per code anyway. Idiots. :/
Yes, I would. The general admission side of our drag strip closed down 3 years ago. $5 a head, $1000 damage to the men's room got old real quick for the owner. That includes an attempted fire in the ceiling that might have destroyed the restroom/snack bar building. The ceiling tiles didn't catch, I imagine those are fire resistant per code anyway. Idiots. :/
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Modifieddriver
Well-known member
I'm with you. I always wondered if the installers gave the special drivers to the building maintenance folks to tighten that stuff up.
AND......I'm convinced the same folks that write on sh!t house walls are the same ones that pee on the toilet seat and do other damage.
Having been on latrine duty in the ARMY, I sympathize with those that have to clean rest rooms.
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Modifieddriver
Well-known member
I believe you lead a sheltered life. Better go out and mix with the masses. That's the reason for Darwin Awards.
Unfortunately rules and regulations by government has allowed this portion of the worlds gene pool to populate. ie.: Coffee is hot, can cause burns. Putting fingers in to spinning blades may cause harm, etc.
Only problem with bureaucrats that require these labels is they assume the folks that would attempt such CAN READ, wrong!!
Remember, they walk among us. Be careful.
No sheltered life here just wanted a answer to the question. I didn't know if its a code thing or preferred. Honestly i though it was so people don't steall the aluminum brackets for scrap. You would thing electrical outlet covers would use security screws to protect the masses.
Kevin54
MEMBER EMERITUS
I knew the answer without reading any more replies. People with too much time on their hands sitting in the ******* with a dime or nickel in their pocket.
Hence the name "security screws" or "Tamper Proof" screws
Hence the name "security screws" or "Tamper Proof" screws
mmack66
Well-known member
I'm pretty sure that someone would notice if the wall dividing two stall were missing. I know I would.
mmack66
Well-known member
What does any of that have to do with tamper-proof screws? They aren't mandated by the government, nor are they there to protect people from themselves, and there certainly isn't any survival of the fittest situation going on.
They are there to keep people from loosening them, in order to save maintenance time. If a janitor had to worry about tightening up the screws in bathroom stalls all the time, they would have little time for anything else.
machine_punk
Well-known member
The interesting thing about vandals is that they will do WHATEVER IS EFFECTIVE. I've read studies about vandalism to bus stop shelters. If you make it 'paint proof,' (super shiny paint which doesn't let new paint stick) or clear plastic and they scratch their name in it. Make it out of stainless steel and they kick it in. Make it out of concrete and they paint it. These people are GOING TO disrespect other people's property...they don't care how, they only care that they are going to.
Kev
Kev
About 7 years I go worked with a guy who had all sorts of stories. One was how he loosened up all the screws in the partitions just enough so when someone hit it, the whole thing fell over. He said the next week it was all redone with security screws.
I didnt really believe it but once I got to know him better I knew it was 100% true. That guy was great.
I didnt really believe it but once I got to know him better I knew it was 100% true. That guy was great.
jlckmj
Well-known member
Personally, I think they are trying to steal the ART WORK left on the partitions from all the aspiring artists and poets.
Jim
Jim
