Toilet Partition Parts: Names, Diagram, and What Each One Does

You are describing a broken stall part over the phone, reading a partition submittal, or ordering a replacement, and the same part has a different name on every manufacturer's sheet. This page names each part of a toilet partition the way the makers' own installation instructions and hardware catalogs do (Bobrick's 1080 DuraLineSeries and 1540 ClassicSeries instructions, Metpar's hardware listing, ASI Global's hardware pages, and the General Partitions, Jacknob, All American Metal, and Strybuc catalogs), says what it does, and lists what to measure before you order. The terms run in the order they are labeled on the diagram, from the headrail down to the door hardware.

The frame: headrail, pilasters, shoes, and anchors

Headrail

The headrail is the aluminum rail across the top of the pilasters on an overhead braced installation. Jacknob describes it as the overhead bracing for the stalls, made in clear anodized aluminum for several pilaster thicknesses, and ASI Global and All American Metal both call theirs an anti-grip headrail. Bobrick ships it in 84 in. sections and requires every seam to land over a stile. The headrail bracket ties the rail to the wall (Metpar lists a headrail wall bracket and a headrail pilaster bracket), a return headrail runs back to the wall on a corner or alcove layout, and an end cap or end plug closes an open end. General Partitions sells end caps by headrail width and separate wall blocks for its crown and rectangular profiles, so note the profile.

Pilaster

The pilaster is the vertical post that carries the door and the front edge of each panel. Bobrick calls it a stile throughout its instructions, and Metpar's standard sizes sheet heads the column "STILES (aka Pilasters)": the two words mean one part. Width identifies it; Bobrick's replacement shoe guide runs from 3 in. to 24 in., and Metpar's sheet from 2 in. (3 in. for phenolic) to 24 in. Thickness follows the material. Bobrick's 1080 sheet (compact grade laminate) has 3/4 in. stiles and doors with 1/2 in. panels, its 1540 sheet (high pressure laminate) has panels, stiles, and doors all 1 in. thick, and General Partitions sorts its shoes by a 1-1/4 in. round end for powder coated and stainless steel, a 3/4 in. square end for solid phenolic, and a 1 in. square end for HDPE or 1 in. phenolic. Whether the edge is round or square matters for every part that wraps it.

Pilaster shoe

The shoe is the stainless steel cover at the foot of the pilaster. Jacknob says pilaster shoes "are typically installed at the bottom of the bathroom stall pilaster post and cover up the hardware used to mount the post to the floor", that most are #4 satin finish stamped stainless steel, and that they come 3 in. and 4 in. high. Bobrick's shoe opens, slides onto the bottom of the stile, traps its bottom flange under a shoe retainer on the anchor bolt, and closes with one retaining screw, so it can be replaced without pulling the pilaster; the same shoe fits a 1 in. or a 3/4 in. stile depending on how it is oriented. Strybuc lists square-open and round-open shoes for 1-1/4 in. pilasters by width. None of these makers calls it a sleeve.

Pilaster anchor and leveling hardware

What holds the pilaster up depends on the mounting style, compared in the mounting styles guide. Bobrick's floor anchored and ceiling hung stiles stand on threaded anchors: its floor anchor packet is a wedge anchor with three hex nuts, three flat washers, a lock washer, and a flat shoe retainer, and the stile is leveled by running the nuts against a leveling bar built into it. Its overhead braced stiles use a floor L-bracket on plastic anchors and a leveling bolt threaded into the bottom of the stile; its ceiling hung stiles hang on threaded rod through the beam above the ceiling. Jacknob sells these as pilaster anchor packs, "used to secure the pilaster post to the floor", and General Partitions sells stainless and galvanized floor plates by pilaster width and thickness. ASI Global's floor anchored style is secured to the floor with concrete anchors; Bobrick offers wood floor anchors on request.

Panels and brackets

Panel

The panel is the divider between two compartments or between a compartment and the wall. It hangs between wall and pilaster on brackets; Bobrick's sheets set each panel on adjustable supports 12 in. above the floor while the brackets are fastened. Thickness is the first thing a bracket order needs, and it is not always the pilaster's: Bobrick's CGL panels are 1/2 in. against 3/4 in. stiles. The open space under the front and side partitions is a code item, covered on the ADA toilet stall dimensions page.

Wall brackets and panel-to-pilaster brackets

Bracket names describe the shape. A U bracket cups the panel edge and is sized to it: General Partitions sells 1/2, 3/4, 1, and 1-1/4 in. U brackets in chrome plated zamac, cast stainless, or stamped stainless. An F bracket is Bobrick's name for its panel-to-wall and stile-to-wall bracket; the same part is a one ear or two ear bracket at Metpar, a single ear or double ear bracket at All American Metal, and a double ear wall bracket at Strybuc. Bobrick's 1080 sheet adds a Y bracket, an L bracket, and an alcove bracket for a panel in line with a stile, which Metpar and General Partitions call an alcove clip. Stirrup bracket is ASI Global's and All American Metal's name; All American Metal lists single ear and double ear aluminum stirrup brackets for its solid plastic partitions. Continuous or full height brackets run the height of the panel: Bobrick's institutional hardware uses a continuous U-channel bracket and a Z bracket, ASI Global offers continuous U, H, and pilaster-to-wall brackets, and General Partitions lists 54 in. aluminum continuous L, U, and T brackets.

The door and its hardware

Door

The door is the panel that swings. Four facts identify it: material and thickness (3/4 in. or 1 in. on Bobrick's two sheets), width, hand, and swing. Hand and swing travel together: Bobrick's full height hinge #1002921 is marked "Right-Hand Inswing or Left-Hand Outswing" and #1002920 the reverse. Bobrick notes that its doors are not pre-drilled for clothes hooks. On the accessible compartment the 2010 ADA Standards say "The door shall be self-closing." Its location and clear width are on the stall dimensions page, and the ambulatory stall page covers the second accessible compartment.

Hinges

Jacknob's hinge types are surface mounted, wrap around gravity pivot, piano, and integral. A gravity or cam pivot hinge is the standard on metal and laminate stalls: a pin in the top bracket, a cam in the bottom bracket, and the cam sets where the door rests. Bobrick's commercial set is a top hinge with a hinge cam and a bottom hinge without one; lifting the door about 1/2 in. frees the cam so it can be turned to hold the door closed, open 15 degrees, or beyond closed. General Partitions sells the cams, top hinge pins, and bushings separately and dates each one, because its steel partition pin changed from 3/8 in. to 1/4 in. in 1987. A wraparound hinge wraps the pilaster edge: Strybuc's chrome plated zamac wrap around hinges mount on a 1-1/4 in. round edge or square edge pilaster with holes 1-1/2 in. on center, and ASI Global and All American Metal put an 8 in. aluminum wrap-around hinge on solid plastic. A continuous or piano hinge runs the door height: General Partitions lists a 54 in. stainless piano hinge without a spring and 16 gauge spring loaded versions, and Bobrick's institutional option is a full height hinge on six screws. Surface mounted barrel hinges (ASI Global, Scranton) fasten to the face of the door and pilaster rather than the edge.

Latch

The latch is the part most people call the lock. Jacknob's types are concealed, indicator, and surface mounted. A surface mounted slide latch is a bar that slides in a track on the inside face of the door; Bobrick's latch packet is a stainless steel latch in a latch track held by a setscrew, and on its inswing doors the track projects past the door edge to act as the door stop. A concealed latch sits in the door edge with only a knob or lever showing; Metpar publishes separate installation and removal sheets for its concealed latch, Strybuc calls the bolt inside it the slide bolt and the outside plate the latch cover. An indicator latch adds the occupied window: Bobrick's occupancy indicator latch, ASI Global's indicator slide latch, General Partitions' slide latch indicator for 3/4 in. or 1 in. doors. Match the latch to the door: General Partitions' aluminum slide latch is for HDPE, FRP, or SPC doors and will not work on steel or plastic laminate, and its baked enamel latch is used only with steel or stainless steel partitions.

Keeper or strike

The keeper, also called the strike, is the plate on the pilaster that the latch slides into. Metpar and All American Metal list a strike & keeper, Jacknob strike & keepers, and ASI Global's solid plastic version is a 6 in. aluminum wrap-around strike. It is handed for an inswing or outswing door (Bobrick's inswing keeper #1040-35 and outswing keeper #1040-36 are different parts) and shaped to the pilaster: flat back for a flat face, rounded for a rounded pilaster, double high, or perpendicular where the door meets a pilaster in an alcove. General Partitions sells keepers with and without emergency access, so say which you have. Bobrick's 1080 sheet sets a 1/4 in. overlap between keeper and latch on a standard 3/16 in. gap and leaves the keeper undrilled so the stile can be leveled first. Many keepers carry a rubber bumper: Strybuc calls the part a bumper keeper, Bobrick's perpendicular keeper has a bumper that comes off with pliers, and Jacknob sells the rubber bumpers alone.

Door stop and bumper

A door stop keeps the door from swinging past closed. On many stalls the keeper and the stop are one part, which is why General Partitions lists a stop & keeper; General Partitions also sells a plain stop for laminate, HDPE, and SPC pilasters and a polished stainless door stop that attaches to the pilaster to prevent over swing. All American Metal's #108 door bumper is for out-swing doors, and Bobrick's inswing doors take a second keeper or a stop plate on the opposite side of the door.

Coat hook and bumper

The hook inside the door usually doubles as the bumper. Bobrick's 1540 sheet mounts robe hooks "at locations where they can also perform as door bumpers", Metpar lists a hook & bumper, General Partitions a hook & bumper combination with 7/32 in. holes, and All American Metal's #106 coat hook with bumper is for in-swing doors, while its out-swing doors take a two prong coat hook and a separate bumper. General Partitions' ADA hook has 3/16 in. holes. On an outswing accessible door Bobrick says to position the hook per local accessible compartment codes; the reach range rule is on the stall dimensions page.

Door pull

The door pull is the handle on an outswing door, and an accessible door has one on each side, through-bolted back to back: Bobrick's is the back to back door handle packet, General Partitions' ADA door pull kit is two pulls thru-bolted together, and All American Metal lists a double sided door pull. General Partitions' and Metpar's standard pulls are on 3-1/2 in. centers, and every pull order needs the door thickness. The 2010 ADA Standards say "A door pull complying with 404.2.7 shall be placed on both sides of the door near the latch." The height for the latch and pulls is on the stall dimensions page.

Privacy strips and urinal screens

Privacy strips and sight-line fillers

Privacy strips close the gaps at the door edges. Jacknob's are clear anodized aluminum with a 1/8 in. offset, 60 in. or 72 in. long, "used to cover the gap between the door and pilaster post". General Partitions also sells an aluminum offset privacy strip, and All American Metal sells 54 in. in-swing and out-swing privacy strips for solid plastic plus no-sight door strips for the hinge side and the strike and keeper side of its steel doors. New partitions can build the filler in: ASI Global's Ultimate Privacy system uses a continuous strike keeper and a continuous hinge side filler to remove sightlines, and Bobrick's gap-free option is an interlocking, sightline-free door and stile. Order a strip by length, side, and swing.

Urinal screen

A urinal screen is a single panel between urinals on the same bracket families. Jacknob calls urinal screen brackets "a type of toilet partition wall bracket that are normally used to install urinal screen bathroom partitions" and sorts them for 1/2 in. to 1-1/4 in. material; Metpar's listing has wall hung screen bracket sets by panel thickness, and ASI Global an aluminum full height urinal screen bracket kit. Scranton offers its urinal dividers in four mounting configurations, so say whether the screen hangs on the wall alone, on a pilaster, or on a post.

Every part at a glance

How the makers name the same part

• Stile is Bobrick's word for the pilaster, and Metpar writes "STILES (aka Pilasters)". The others say pilaster; a square aluminum upright is a post.
• Keeper and strike are one plate: strike & keeper at Metpar and All American Metal, keeper at Bobrick, strike at ASI Global, bumper keeper at Strybuc.
• Lock is the buyer's word and no maker uses it. Look for slide latch, latch assembly (Metpar), latch packet (Bobrick), throw latch (Strybuc), or concealed latch.
• The hook is a clothes hook in Bobrick's 1080 sheet, a robe hook in its 1540 sheet, a hook & bumper at Metpar, and a coat hook w/ bumper at All American Metal. Bobrick says door handle where the others say door pull.
• Hinge parts: Bobrick says hinge cam and hinge pin; Strybuc, Metpar, and Jacknob say pintle and cam.
• Fasteners are part of the order. General Partitions sells sex bolts, Bobrick's 1540 sheet uses one-way screws and threaded sleeves, its 1080 sheet uses pin-in-head Torx screws and supplies a tamper-proof T-27 bit, All American Metal lists a T-27 drill bit, and Bobrick's latch setscrew takes a 5/64 in. Allen wrench.

Identifying the manufacturer from the hardware

Partition hardware is brand specific. Strybuc's catalog is organized by partition maker (Accurate, All American, American Sanitary, Ampco, Capitol, Fiat, Flushmetal, General, Global, Hadrian, Knickerbocker, Metpar, Mills, Sanymetal, and Weis Robart, then universal metal, laminate, and solid plastic sections), and Jacknob's brand parts index includes Bobrick, Bradley, Hadrian, Metpar, and Santana/Hiny Hiders. Three clues narrow it before you find a name. The pilaster edge points to the material: in Strybuc's catalog the 1-1/4 in. round edge pilaster is metal and the 1-1/4 in. square edge pilaster is laminate. The hinge points to the family: an 8 in. aluminum wrap-around hinge is solid plastic at ASI Global and All American Metal, top and bottom brackets with a cam are metal or laminate, and a full height hinge is an institutional or heavy duty option. Age matters: General Partitions dates its cams, pins, and bushings to before or after 1987 and 1990. Photograph the hinge, latch, keeper, and shoe, measure the pilaster width and thickness, the door thickness, and the hole centers, and pull the original submittal if the building has one; the section it was filed under is in the Division 10 CSI codes guide.

What to do next

Send the photos and measurements through the quote form and say whether the door swings in or out and which hand it is. SupplyGopher quotes replacement partition hardware and, when a stall is past repair, complete compartments in solid plastic HDPE, phenolic, powder coated steel, and stainless steel; the material comparison covers which to pick.