Stainless Washroom Accessories: Hooks, Roll Holders, Shelves and Dispensers, Room by Room

A washroom fit-out is easiest to plan as four zones, each with its own fixed kit: the WC, the basin, the shower and the place where people dry off and hang clothes. From our stainless BH series that maps to the BH19 toilet roll holder (or the lockable BH25 jumbo roll dispenser in a public washroom) beside the WC; the BH24 paper towel dispenser and BH35 soap dispenser at the basin; the BH28 wire basket or the BH50 two-tier shelf in the shower; and the BH34 towel bar, BH33 towel shelf, BH05 or BH09 hook rail and BH13 robe hook in the drying and changing area.

Every one of those models is offered in satin (SSS) or polished (PSS) stainless steel, so a whole room can be ordered in one finish. What decides whether the fit-out works on site is not the model list but four things that tend to be left too late: what the wall behind each item is made of, how far each item projects into the room, which consumable each dispenser takes, and the stainless grade. This article goes zone by zone and ends with what to write on the order. Cubicle door hardware such as indicator bolts has its own article, and grab bars and shower seats are a separate subject; neither is repeated here.

The models at a glance

Start with who uses the room

The same zone needs different hardware depending on who uses the room and who services it. In a hotel en-suite or a private bathroom, one guest uses everything and housekeeping replaces rolls and towels by hand every day. Open fittings suit that room: a single-arm roll holder, towel bars and a towel shelf, because linen is the consumable and nobody needs to lock anything away. A public or staff washroom works the other way round. Many people use it, nobody owns it, and the cleaner comes on a round rather than after each user. Consumables then have to last between rounds and should not be easy to remove, which is the case for enclosed dispensers: the lockable BH25 for large rolls and the enclosed BH24 for paper towels. A hotel's lobby or conference washroom is a public washroom for this purpose, even though it sits in a hotel.

The WC zone: BH19 or BH25

BH19 is a single-arm holder with a round back plate; the roll slides on from the open end of the arm. The catalog photograph shows a small grub-screw hole in the side of the wall rose, which is the usual concealed fixing for this type of accessory: a base is screwed to the wall, the holder slides over it, and the grub screw locks it, so no screw heads show. Fit it with the grub screw facing down, where it is out of sight but still reachable with a key. The record gives a 1.0 mm thickness but no overall dimensions, so ask for the drawing if the arm length matters for your roll size.

Position matters more than the model. The roll should be reachable from the seat without twisting, which means in front of the user rather than behind. Where the US ADA Standards apply, section 604.7 places the dispenser centreline 7 to 9 in in front of the water closet and the outlet between 15 and 48 in above the floor. Other countries publish their own figures, so check the code for the project's location rather than copying a dimension from another job.

BH25 is the public-washroom answer: an enclosed, lockable dispenser of 250 × 260 × 120 mm. Our record does not publish the roll diameter or core size it accepts, and jumbo rolls are not one standard size, so send the roll your cleaning contractor actually buys and confirm the fit before ordering in quantity. Check also that the cubicle door, when it swings in, clears the dispenser body.

The basin zone: BH24 and BH35

BH24 is an enclosed paper towel dispenser of 280 × 215 × 100 mm. The catalog photographs show keyhole slots in the back panel for hanging it on screws, and a narrow slot in the front cover, which on dispensers of this type serves as a level window for the cleaner. The record does not say which towel fold or stack size it takes, so check it against your towel supplier's pack, as with the roll above.

Mount the towel dispenser beside the basin, not over it, close enough that wet hands do not drip across the floor on the way. Projection is the less obvious check. In the US ADA Standards, section 307.2 limits objects whose leading edge is between 27 and 80 in above the floor to a 4 in projection into a circulation path. The published depth of BH24 is 100 mm, which is right at that limit, so measure the delivered unit before relying on it in a corridor-like space. BH25, at 120 mm, should go where it is not in a circulation path. BH35 is a push-button liquid soap dispenser of 162 × 92 mm. Wall mounting keeps soap and its drips off the counter. Place it over the edge of the basin so a drip lands in the bowl, and on a row of basins allow one per basin or one between two. Our record does not publish its capacity.

The shower zone: BH28 or BH50

BH28 is an open wire basket 135 mm deep, in 300 or 400 mm lengths and 60 or 100 mm heights. Open wire lets water drain and is easy to clean; the 100 mm height keeps tall bottles upright, while 60 mm suits soap and smaller items. The catalog photograph shows it packed with screws, wall plugs and cover caps. Those plugs suit a solid wall; on board or a thin tile substrate, plan the anchor separately. Mount it on a wall out of the direct spray and within reach from standing.

BH50 is a two-tier shelf with slotted trays, published at 400 × 355 mm, for a shower where more than one person's products need space. Its product page shows a dimension drawing and a rendering, not a photograph, so ask for a sample or a photograph of the actual item before a quantity order. The corner versions in the same series (BH29 to BH31, BH52 and BH53) only work in an internal corner; check the corner is square and tiled on both faces before choosing one.

Drying and changing: towel bars, shelves and hooks

BH34 is a single towel bar on round wall roses in 300, 400, 500 or 600 mm. Choose the length by what hangs on it: a hand towel needs a short bar beside the basin, a bath towel a long one beside the shower or bath. BH33 combines a shelf with a hanging bar below it, in 450 or 600 mm lengths, 200 mm projection, 110 mm high and built from 12 mm tube. It is the familiar hotel arrangement: clean towels folded on top, the used one on the bar. At 200 mm deep it belongs over a bath or WC, not at head height beside a walkway.

For hooks, BH13 is a single peg on a 36 mm rose, 2.8 mm thick, suited to a robe beside the shower. Where several people change, a rail does the work of many single hooks and needs fewer holes in the tile: BH05 comes with 1 to 8 hooks on a plate 30 mm wide and 2.5 mm thick, and BH09 is a fixed four-hook rail, 200 mm long and 2.0 mm thick. The BH05 photograph shows the screws passing through the face plate, so the heads stay visible; specify stainless screws in the same finish. Where the ADA applies, coat hooks in accessible rooms must sit within the reach ranges of section 308.

The wall decides the fixing

Every item above is only as secure as the wall behind it, and the wall has to be decided before it is closed up. On masonry behind tile, drill on a level line with a tile bit, through masking tape so the bit does not wander, and use the plug the substrate calls for. On plasterboard, put the heavier items, such as dispensers and towel shelves, on studs or on timber backing added before boarding; a cavity anchor rated for the board thickness is the fallback. Mark every position on the drawings so the tiler and the fitter work to the same plan.

Grade and finish

Our BH records describe the material as stainless steel without naming a grade. In a wet room the grade matters: grade 201 replaces part of the nickel with manganese and corrodes more readily in damp, chloride-laden air than grade 304 does, and that difference shows first near pools, on the coast and where strong cleaning chemicals are used. Write the grade you need on the order and ask for it to be confirmed in writing. Satin (SSS) hides fingerprints and water marks better; polished (PSS) shows them but wipes back to a bright surface. Either is fine, but keep one finish per room, including the screws. For cleaning, mild detergent and water are enough. Bleach and acid descalers leave chlorides on the surface, which is what starts pitting on stainless steel.

What to write on the order

To save a round of questions later: our records do not publish the overall size of BH19, the thickness or towel format of BH24, the roll size BH25 accepts, the capacity of BH35, the stainless grade of any BH item, or a photograph of BH50. Where any of these matters to the project, ask for it before ordering rather than assuming a figure from a similar product.