16.2 Water Supply, Restrooms, Floors, Walls, and Ceilings

The 35 Facility Standards items are not only “do you have a license.” A large share ask whether the physical plant matches Division 10. This section teaches the currently effective text of four rules: OAR 817-010-0014 (water), 817-010-0021 (restrooms and water disposal), 817-010-0106 (floors), and 817-010-0110 (walls and ceilings). Do not invent a gallons-per-minute number, a minimum number of sinks per chair, a required water temperature in degrees, or a ceiling-height measurement. Those numbers are not in these rules.

Water: hot and cold, on the premises, not the restroom sink

OAR 817-010-0014 is titled Water Supply Requirements and Standards. Subsection (1) is a two-part “and,” not an “or.” An adequate and immediate supply of both hot and cold running water and wash basins must be available:

(a) on the facility premises; and

(b) in any work area where hazardous materials are in use that may have a harmful effect on or be absorbed through the skin if the contamination is not removed.

Hot and cold. Running water. Wash basins. Immediate, not “we heat a kettle.” On the premises, and also at a hazardous-material work area. A color station, a chemical-relaxer area in a mixed shop, or any other work area using materials that can harm or absorb through skin needs that water in that work area, not only at a sink across the building.

Subsection (2) is the restroom-sink trap: sinks located in a restroom do not qualify as a water source for the facility. A barber who points the inspector to the employee toilet and says “there is hot and cold in there” has not met 817-010-0014. The restroom sink is a restroom sink.

Subsection (3) is the only exception written into this rule: notwithstanding subsection (2), if only natural hair care services are provided within the facility, a sink located in the restroom does qualify as a water source. “Only” is the word that does the work. A barbering facility is not a natural-hair-care-only facility. A shop that offers barbering plus braiding does not get the restroom-sink exception. A residential facility has an even stricter water sentence in OAR 817-007-0075, covered in the next section — do not import subsection (3) into a home barber shop.

Subsections (4) through (7) finish the washing station:

• Washing accommodations must be maintained in a clean and sanitary condition.
• Hand soap or similar cleansing agents must be available.
• Individual towels of cloth or paper must be available. Air blowers for drying the hands may be substituted for towels.
• Use of bar soap or a common towel or cloth is prohibited.

Individual means one person, not a roller towel or a shared hand cloth on a hook. An air blower can replace towels. Bar soap cannot replace liquid or other allowed cleansing agents. The rule does not authorize a community bar in a dish by the faucet.

Restrooms, toilets, and where the water goes

OAR 817-010-0021 is titled Restroom/Toilets and Water Disposal. Three numbered subsections, currently in force:

(1) Restrooms must be available for employees. The restroom must be on the facility premises or in an adjoining premise which is reasonably accessible from any work area. The rule does not require a restroom inside every booth. It does require employee access on the premises or next door in a way that is reasonably accessible from any work area. A locked neighboring business that is not adjoining, or a park restroom a block away, is not the text.

(2) All restrooms on facility premises must be kept clean, sanitary and in proper working order at all times. A facility restroom that is on the premises cannot be a storage closet with a broken toilet during hours of operation.

(3) All liquid waste from toilets and sinks must be discharged directly into a public sewer or, in the absence of a public sewer, by a method meeting the requirements of ORS Chapter 454 (sewage treatment and disposal systems). Rural shops without a public sewer are not excused from disposal rules; they must meet Chapter 454. Dumping mop water or shampoo waste on the parking strip is not Chapter 454.

Note what 817-010-0021 does not say. It does not require a restroom for clients as a separate sentence from employees. It does not set a fixture count. It does not say the restroom sink is the facility water source — 817-010-0014 already closed that door for barbering shops.

Floors in the working area

OAR 817-010-0106 is titled Floor Surface. Three numbered subsections:

(1) Floor surfaces in the working area of a facility must be made of a cleanable, non-porous material and must be kept clean, orderly, and in good repair. The working area is the scored zone. Carpet under the clipper chairs fails “cleanable, non-porous.” A cracked vinyl sheet that collects water fails “good repair.”

(2) Wooden floors which have a durable water-proof non-porous finish may be acceptable in working areas of the facility. Bare wood is not the sentence. The finish must be durable, waterproof, and non-porous. “May be acceptable” is permission for finished wood, not a requirement to install wood.

(3) Hair clippings must not be allowed to accumulate and must be disposed of in a covered container. A pile around the chair at closing, an open cardboard box of hair, or sweeping into an uncovered bin is the violation. Covered container. Do not let clippings accumulate.

The rule does not name a brand of tile. It does not ban wood. It does name cleanable, non-porous, good repair, and covered disposal of hair.

Walls and ceilings — one sentence, four defects

OAR 817-010-0110 is a single sentence: Walls and ceilings must be clean and free of condensation, mildew and excessive spots, or peeling paint.

Teach the defects as written. Condensation. Mildew. Excessive spots. Peeling paint. A stained, dripping, mildewed, or peeling ceiling over a shampoo bowl is not “free of” those conditions. The rule does not require a particular paint sheen or a drop-ceiling brand. It requires clean walls and ceilings without those listed problems.

A Salem working area that met the four rules

Jordan’s Salem barber facility has a shampoo bowl and a utility sink with immediate hot and cold running water on the premises, plus the same at the chemical-prep counter where products that can absorb through skin are mixed. The employee restroom is on the premises; Jordan does not count that restroom sink as the facility water source, because this is not a natural-hair-care-only shop. Liquid soap and individual paper towels sit at the wash basin; an air blower is the backup. There is no bar soap and no shared cloth. The restroom stays in working order. Waste from toilets and sinks goes to the public sewer.

The working-area floor is sheet vinyl — cleanable, non-porous, in good repair. Hair goes into a covered container instead of accumulating around the chairs. The walls and ceiling over the bowls are clean, without condensation, mildew, excessive spots, or peeling paint. That is the current Division 10 physical-plant text, not a schoolhouse list of extra measurements.