Hi,
The project I am working on has a bathroom set for women, a bathroom set for men (includes urinals), and two unisex bathrooms without urinals.
Initially, I had defined just one Fixture Usage Group for the entire office since in theory all occupants will have access to all bathroom facilities. However, I received a LEED Review stating that I need to adjust the Total Daily Uses because the current scenario assumes that 100% of male occupants will use restroom that contain urinals, and the unisex bathrooms do not.
What would you suggest doing?
1. Should I define an additional Fixture Usage Group for the unisex bathrooms? These are mostly for visitors, so I could justify that these bathrooms are for visitors and the rest for staff.
2. Should I assign a certain percentage of FTEs to the unisex bathrooms? If so, how can I decide on what percentage would be most appropriate?
Thanks!
Michelle Rosenberger
PartnerArchEcology
519 thumbs up
April 18, 2013 - 6:46 pm
Hi Alejandro,
We have had this happen several times. Yes, you need to define an additional fixture usage group for the unisex rooms because the male usage will be increased to 3x per day in those rooms. And yes you need to assign some bodies to that new usage group.
How you do so depends on your situation and the case you can make. It could be just visitors would work if the design and proximity of the rooms suggests that staff would not use them. I would be inclinded to assume that including a few FTEs would be a good idea. Is there a percentage that is specific to reception perhaps who like visitors just might use these?