In the Academy Award-winning movie “Forrest Gump,” the titular character has been immortalized by his comment, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.” As true as this statement is about life, I find it even more accurate when entering public restrooms. I usually just pause for a second, hold my breath and hope for the best. Will it be clean or should I be wearing a hazmat suit?
Besides the tendency for these facilities to look unclean and terrorized by previous users, perhaps the more concerning issue is the smell. In the cases where your sense of smell is abused, often the problem can be attributed to what I might call “user misuse,” but in many cases the offending odor is the result of a lack of a trap seal in the floor drain. If we are honest, we all know that public facilities are not always maintained properly, but with proper maintenance and the use of trap primers, these and other floor drains do not have to be the culprit for unsanitary and unpleasant conditions.