Romtec designs, supplies, and constructs buildings and structures for parks & recreation facilities across the nation. Our buildings and structures include many components that are manufactured in-house by our wood shop, metal shop, or another production crew. Manufacturing many of our own components improves our quality control, reduces lead times, and increases flexibility with our designs. We fabricate custom metal brackets, gable trusses, and even typical replacement parts. Our culture for solving manufacturing challenges began decades ago when Romtec was a plastic rotomolding company.
The Creation of Sweet Smelling Technology
Over 40 years ago, the United States Forest Service (USFS) came to Romtec with an odorous issue. The USFS wanted a more comfortable solution for using the vault restrooms that were common in the remote areas where they worked. Romtec used its rotomolding equipment to prototype, manufacture, and patent the first polyethylene toilet riser to work with Sweet Smelling Technology, which vents odors away from a vault restroom. Romtec sold many risers and started to develop more rotomolded products such as vent pipes, prefab structures, and more. These products were the first steps in a long line of developing innovations for parks & recreation buildings.
Continuously Improving Our Products
As Romtec grew, we began providing complete buildings with design, supply, and construction services. In 2012, Romtec was contacted by the owner of several waterless restrooms in a national park. The customer advised us of the risk that vent pipes posed to birds and other wildlife that become stuck in the vault. Many birds mistake the black, SST® vent pipe for a hollow tree cavity and dive into it without being able to get back out. Our production team got to work and manufactured a quick and low-cost solution. The end result was a steel mesh vent cap that can be installed on any vault restroom. This quickly became a stock item, and it is now shipped with all of our vault restrooms. Helping our custom resolve their issue also helped improve the quality of our product. Sometimes helping customers means manufacturing new components, but in some cases a simple solution offers more benefits.
Public restrooms are notorious victims of vandalism, and damaged components need to be replaced to maintain the functionality of the restroom. Historically, restroom designs tried to combat vandalism by implementing heavy duty parts like stainless steel fixtures and automated doors. These are stronger than their counterparts but can be very expensive and may not be immediately available in the need for replacement. The first Sidewalk Restroom prototype featured a door that we fabricated ourselves. We discovered it was more economical and faster to use a standard door option that was easily replaceable and could be purchased nationally. Romtec went through our product design to provide components that would be easier to manage and that didn’t have any proprietary restraint for the end owner.
We are proud of every building we design, and as we continue to refine our process, our capabilities for providing high-quality buildings and structures grow too. Using our in-house capabilities to produce supplies saves our customers – and us – time and money. It can also help customers resolve maintenance and management issues. Choosing an experienced design-build firm with a history of engineering solutions for ever-changing problems is the best way to get a building for your facility. Contact the Romtec Sales Team today, and we’ll start designing your new building!
