In March 2012 I went to the CCCA Carolinas/Virginias section at beautiful Ft. Caswell, North Carolina.

Daniel Gustafson, Information Systems Director, Look Up Lodge, did a great workshop “We’ve Upped Our Standards…” I asked if I could share some of his work, and without hesitation, he said “Of course! – whatever I can do to help others.” Below are his suggestions:

• Determine the best toilet for your situation. Focus on what is best for the future. Purchasing something cheap today may have more maintenance down the road. Balance rating, lower water consumption, budget, and style-choosing a style to blend with your facility. Dan’s team brainstormed a list of toilet criteria, including a large trap diameter.
• Choosing a toilet with a high rating from an independent source. He used: Maximum Performance (MaP) Testing of Popular Toilet Models, 15th Edition, October 2009 (latest version). A Cooperative Canadian and American Project by Veritec Consulting Inc. and Koeller and Company. 93 pages.
• Standardize toilet purchases. Standardization helps in many ways: 1) keep the parts inventory under control, 2) decrease staff and volunteer training time, as maintenance staff only need to be knowledgeable about ONE toilet, and 3) save money by waiting for sales on their specific model.
• Toilet replacement schedule. Every time Look Up Lodge needs to pull one of their older/non-standard toilets (for whatever reason), they automatically replace it with a new toilet. They have replaced about half of their toilets.
• Standardize toilet paper. Look Up Lodge has also standardized toilet paper, and will purchase only one kind. (Yes, you read that right. Small things matter.) They studied the disintegration rate of different kinds of toilet paper. Their premise: if the paper can disintegrate faster, their service calls would also be reduced.

As a result, already their “clogged toilet calls” are reduced approximately one-half to two-thirds. A dramatic and noticeable reduction.

Think about standardization, talk with your team, and build it into your budget. You could save precious staff and volunteer time, and equally, if not more important, campers and guests can have a better experience, rather than reporting and waiting on a clogged toilet.

After all, a toilet flushing is music to everyone’s ears (sound clip, toilet-flushing)

Look Up Lodge is a Lodgepole Property System client.