Eyewash station count: 3 placement tests for bids

Key takeaways

• Mark hazard locations before counting stations.
• Measure walkable routes rather than straight lines through walls.
• Check whether one person can use the eyewash and shower together.
• Record obstructions, supply questions and bid assumptions on the count sheet.

A missed station becomes a change order after award. An extra station with no reason behind it makes your bid look padded and gives the owner a reason to push back. The fix is not a bigger spreadsheet. It is a short set of placement tests that you run on every hazard location before you write a number down.

This post walks through three tests, in the order you would run them. The first measures how far a person has to travel after an exposure. The second checks whether an eyewash and a shower that are needed together can be used together. The third checks that the station is clear, working, and not hidden behind something that will be built later. Where a published rule gives a number or a requirement, I link the source. Where no source gives one, the test is a habit of reading plans, and I say so.

Before you start, get the chemical list or hazard schedule from the owner if one exists. Plans show rooms. Hazard lists show what is in them, and a room that looks like a plain storage closet can hold the material that triggers the count.

One caution up front. The rules quoted here come from specific places. The California numbers belong to California. Washington and Canada have their own text, and the Canadian source quoted below is a safety guide, not a building code. Your project's governing code and the authority having jurisdiction decide what applies to your job. Use these tests to find the locations and questions that need checking, then confirm the requirement that governs the building before the bid goes out. For a related review, use these source checks before pricing a rule.

1. Measure the travel route from every hazard location

Start with the hazard, not the sink. Walk the plan and mark each place where a person could be splashed by a corrosive, a caustic, an acid, or any other material that needs immediate flushing. In a lab that usually means sink runs, fume hood areas, chemical storage, and any bench where liquids get poured or transferred. In a plant it means tank areas, filling and drain stations, pump areas, and loading points. In a remodel, look at the janitor's closet with the chemical cart, the darkroom if there is one, and the dish area of a commercial kitchen.

Once the hazard marks are on the plan, draw a route from each one to the nearest station along the walkable path. Do not draw a straight line through walls. Doors, turns, furniture, and stairs all add distance. A station on the far side of a partition may be four feet away as the crow flies and forty feet by the route a person would actually take. Check the drawing scale before you measure anything, then use a colored marker or a PDF markup tool so the routes are easy to see at a glance. Review takeoff scale setup and stated limits before measuring routes.

One station can serve more than one hazard, but only if the route from each hazard passes the test. This is where many counts go wrong. An estimator sees a single unit in the middle of a long room, draws a circle around the whole room, and marks every bench as covered. Draw the route from the far end of the room, not from the middle. If the far bench fails, the room needs a second point of coverage, even though the unit on the plan looks central. Repeat the check for each hazard in the room, and count each station only once.

The travel limit is where the number comes in. California's regulation sets the standard as time, not distance: "Emergency eyewash facilities and deluge showers shall be in accessible locations that require no more than 10 seconds for the injured person to reach." ( California Code of Regulations, Title 8, Section 5162). The quote does not give a walking speed, though, so you cannot turn it into a fixed plan distance from the text alone. For a bid, the practical move is to measure each route, flag any route that looks long, and ask the design team or the authority having jurisdiction how they convert the time limit into a distance the inspector will accept.

Why the time matters is worth explaining to the owner, because it is what justifies a station the owner may want to cut. The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety puts it plainly: "The first 10 to 15 seconds after exposure to a hazardous product, especially a corrosive product, are critical." ( CCOHS: Emergency Showers and Eyewash Stations). That is a safety guide describing why speed matters, not a rule that sets your count. Use it to explain the reason, and use your governing code for the requirement.

Record the result for each hazard as one of three outcomes. The route is short and clear. The route is long but can be fixed by moving or adding a station. Or the route passes through something that blocks access, such as a locked door or a card-access corridor, which you will need to resolve with the design team. Each outcome goes on your count sheet with the route length or a short note.

When a route fails, the fix is usually one more station in the marked room or a relocation of the one you have. Price the fix as a line item with the reason written next to it. An estimator who can say that the route from the acid room is too long for the travel limit in the governing source, so a second unit is included, wins the argument that a station is needed. An estimator who just adds a number invites a fight.

Illustrative example: compare the routes

Suppose a teaching lab has a bench of sinks along the north wall, a chemical storage closet at the east end, and a single emergency shower in the northwest corner. Mark the bench and the closet as hazard points. For illustration, the bench route is 10 feet and the closet route is 20 feet. The route from the closet, though, runs through a door that the plan shows as card access, then across the full length of the room to the shower. Flag that access question rather than treating either distance as proof of compliance. The count may need one added station near the closet, or a relocation of the shower, and the line item names the closet and the route as the reason.

2. Check whether an eyewash and a shower must work at the same time

Many rooms need a shower as well as an eyewash. A person who gets a corrosive on their clothes may need to get it off the skin and out of the eyes, sometimes at once. Plans often show a single symbol labeled "emergency eyewash/shower" and count it as one unit. That hides a question you have to answer before you can count the room correctly.

California's regulation addresses the layout directly: "If both an eyewash and shower are needed, they shall be located so that both can be used at the same time by one person." ( California Code of Regulations, Title 8, Section 5162). Read that carefully. The test is not whether the room has both. Check the position where the equipment will be used, rather than assuming both must be within reach of the original hazard. A shower in one corner and an eyewash at the far end of the room, with a sink and a cabinet between them, may fail this test even though the room has both.

To run the test on the plan, locate the operating position for the eyewash and shower. Check the layout and product data for simultaneous use by one person. A reach circle drawn around the hazard does not establish that. If the arrangement is unclear, ask the designer before adding or relocating equipment.

For a plating room with a shower on the back wall and an eyewash on the side wall, check whether a person using the shower can also use the eyewash. A utility sink between them is a layout question to resolve. Keep the travel route from the tank separate from this simultaneous-use check. If a combined unit or relocation is proposed, name the tank and the layout question in the line item.

Once the layout passes, check the shower specification, because a shower on the plan is only a symbol until you know what it delivers. The CCOHS guide gives the coverage target for a shower: "The emergency shower should deliver a pattern of water with a diameter of at least 50.8 cm (20 inches) at 152.4 cm (60 inches)." ( CCOHS: Emergency Showers and Eyewash Stations). That line tells you what to look for in the product data or the mechanical specification. If the spec sheet is silent on the spray pattern, that is an open question for the designer, not a point to assume.

The same guide gives a height recommendation that is worth checking against the drawing. It reports: "ANSI also recommends the shower head be between 208.3 and 243.8 cm (82-96 inches) from the floor." ( CCOHS: Emergency Showers and Eyewash Stations). This is a recommendation reported by a Canadian agency, not a requirement from your building code. If a section drawing shows a shower head well outside that band, flag it. Do not change the price on your own reading of the recommendation. Ask the designer which standard the project follows.

Finally, decide how your count treats a combined unit that gives both eyewash and shower in one body. Some projects count it as one station, and some count the eyewash and the shower separately. Your job is to choose the approach the governing code and the design team support, then write that choice into your bid clarifications so the owner can see it. A count that states its assumption is easier to defend than one that happens to be right.

3. Confirm the station is clear, usable, and not blocked by anything later

A station that is on the plan is not yet a station that works. The third test asks whether the spot will be kept clear, whether the unit will work when someone reaches it, and whether something else in the design undercuts it.

Clearance comes first. California's regulation says: "The area of the eyewash and shower equipment shall be maintained free of items which obstruct their use." ( California Code of Regulations, Title 8, Section 5162). On a plan, this is a walk-around. Look at what is drawn next to each station. Cabinets, shelves, rolling carts, trash bins, and benches placed in front of the unit all count as obstructions in practice. So does a door that swings across the station when it opens. Mark each door's swing arc on the plan, and check whether a person at the station can reach the unit with the door in any position. If a door swings into the station, note it on the count, and the designer may need to move the door or the unit.

The door schedule and the room finish sheets help here. A door can look clear on the architectural plan and still be shown with a different swing or a different hardware type on the schedule. Pull the schedule for every room with a station, and compare each door's swing direction against the plan. A mismatch is a question for the design team, and it belongs on the open list before the bid, not discovered at the walk-through after award.

Next, check that the station is functional. Washington's rule puts the requirement in simple terms: "Make sure emergency washing facilities are functional and readily accessible." ( WAC 296-800-15030). For an estimator, "functional" means the drawings must show what makes the unit work. These details often sit on the mechanical or plumbing sheets, not the architectural plan where the unit is drawn. Cross-check each station against the plumbing schedule. A plumbed unit with no water line shown anywhere will be priced as an open item, and the owner should hear that from you before award.

The type of unit also matters here. Some projects use a plumbed unit that connects to a water line and a drain. Unit selection affects costs, and the bid should say which type it assumes. Write the assumption next to each station on the count sheet, and if the specification allows either type, price the more demanding one and note the alternative. That keeps the number honest when the designer changes the product late in the job.

Then check the room for other rules. Some hazards bring their own requirements, and the eyewash count can be only one piece of what the room needs. In practice, if the plan shows a battery charging room or an anhydrous ammonia system, flag that room and read the cross-referenced section before you finalize the count. Do not assume the eyewash rule alone covers the hazard. California's regulation points to section 5185 for storage battery changing and charging, and article 6 for anhydrous ammonia ( California Code of Regulations, Title 8, Section 5162).

Put the three tests together on a simple count sheet. For each station, record these items:

• The station ID and the room it serves.
• The hazard location it protects, and the route length or travel note from Test 1.
• Whether an eyewash and a shower are needed together, and whether one person can use both at the same time, from Test 2.
• The spray pattern and height check from Test 2, with the spec or drawing where you found it.
• Clearance and door swing notes from Test 3.
• The water supply and drain source sheet for plumbed units from Test 3.
• Any hazard flagged for a cross-referenced section.
• Status: counted, counted with an open question, or added for a route fix.

Keep the sheet next to your takeoff, and send the open questions to the design team as a request for information before the bid is due. A short list of specific questions, each tied to a room and a sheet number, gets answered faster than a general request to confirm the eyewash count.

Anything that does not pass goes on the open list with its reason. That way the number you bid is one you can explain line by line. When the owner asks why a station is in the price, you can point to the room, the route, and the rule that governs it.

For the open items, use a clear allowance rather than a guess. Price the likely fix, such as one added unit with its water connection, and label it as an allowance tied to a named open question. Then the owner can see what is included, what is pending, and what would change the number. When the design team answers the questions, update the count sheet and reissue only the lines that moved. A count sheet that changes this way stays useful through the whole bid process, and it gives you a record to check against the as-built drawings later.

Today, mark the hazards in one room, trace each route and record the first unresolved access or layout question on your count sheet.

Questions before the bid

Can a central station cover a whole room?

Only if every hazard location has an acceptable route to it. Check the farthest bench rather than assuming central placement covers everything.

Does a symbol settle the equipment count?

No, the symbol still needs layout and specification checks. Record how the bid counts combined units so the owner can follow the total.