Why is it that door hardware suppliers give detailed instructions but washroom hardware – at several times the cost – gives virtually nothing? Went to install washroom partitions today. This was a different brand from what I’m used to and it took me half a day to figure what went where and get the first one done. I know the general procedure from having done other partition systems, so I only had to figure out the specifics, but a detailed diagram would have sped things up a lot. Heaven help the guy who happened to land this brand for his first attempt at partitions!

My second beef is that many of the screws and plugs supplied were inadequate or inappropriate for the task. Small blue drywall plugs were enclosed for fastening the headrail to the wall but failed to hold.  The large white threaded ones are far superior for this, so I used some I had left over from another job. Why wasn’t the right thing supplied in the first place? I also ended up using quite a few of my own screws because ones supplied were not gripping in the plug due to being too small.

This seems to be a general malaise with commercial washroom hardware – inappropriate or non-existent fasteners. I installed all the paper towel dispenser/waste receptacle units last week, and none of them included any screws at all. Pretty cheesy when these things cost $150-200 a pop. Ditto for the napkin dispensers and TP holders.  For that kind of money you’d think they could at least source and supply 4 screws per. So if you come across Bobrick commercial  bathroom hardware in your travels, make sure you have a good assortment of miscellaneous screws along for the install.