I’m sure most of you are familiar with OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration), since regulations put into place by OSHA are used in most workplaces across the country. It is difficult to understand all of the OSHA regulations that you must follow for your particular industry, so this blog is going to explain to you the regulations that you must meet in regards to portable restrooms.
How Many Should Your Site Have?
OSHA does require under temporary field conditions, provisions shall be made to assure not less than one toilet facility is available, and they have specific guidelines on how many restrooms should be provided for the number of workers that you have on a particular site. OSHA regulations are located here 1926.51 (c)(1) , but we prefer to follow the PSAI recommendations for portable restrooms on the job site. These are the number of restrooms that should be provided with once a week service.
| Number of Restrooms Recommended on Job Site |
|---|
| Number of Employees | Number of Restrooms |
| 10 or Less | 1 |
| 11-20 | 2 |
| 21-30 | 3 |
The types of restrooms that can be used are: privies, where their use will not contaminate ground or surface water, chemical toilets, recirculating toilets and combustion toilets. On Site’s standard portable restrooms can meet these standards and we will service these restrooms weekly. You could also consider our Comfort Station restroom trailer that can provide temporary restroom facilities all throughout the year. This restroom trailer can provide your employees with an experience much like a stationary bathroom. It includes running water, flushing toilets and heating and air conditioning options.
Portable Restroom Heaters in Minnesota
According to OSHA Revisor 5207.0800 (Privies at Construction and Engineering Projects) “Privies shall be provided on all construction and engineering projects. Privies shall be placed inside of heated buildings wherever possible to do so. Where privies are not placed inside of heated buildings, provisions shall be made for heating privies to a minimum of heat that can be emitted for the installation of a 1,300 watt heater or other type of equivalent heater. Section 5207.0810 describes November 1st to March 15th as the winter season.” We all know that Minnesota winters can get brutally cold, so you must remember that OSHA does require you to placed small heaters inside of all restrooms placed on your construction or engineering project. These heaters can be easily rented from On Site. If you choose to rent one of our restroom trailers, such as the Comfort Station, you will not have to rent additional heaters for the facilities. You will simply have to activate the heaters on the first of November or at an earlier date.
Since it is OSHA regulations to provide these heaters inside of your portable restrooms by November 1st, you should have your heaters rented prior to this date, and have them delivered with the first service of November. If you have an OSHA inspection, you surely don’t want to get cited for something as small as not providing heaters for your portable restrooms.
