Whether you’re new to the construction industry or you’re a seasoned veteran, deciding on placement of your jobsite porta potties requires some thought. There are so many factors that go into choosing where to place your construction porta potties. To help you out, we’ve compiled some handy rules of thumb to make the process easier.
Put in a Safe Place
When deciding where to place your construction porta potties, you’ll first want to think about the safety of your workers. Rule out placing them anywhere near walkways, driveways or main roads. You won’t want people opening the door to the porta potty and almost getting hit by a vehicle, right? Try to put your porta potties at least 10-15 feet away from any high traffic areas for optimal safety.
If you’re doing road construction, you’ll also want to keep your porta potties behind concrete barriers. This keeps your workers safe from oncoming traffic and keeps the service drivers safe when pulling their trucks in to clean the porta potties.
Keep Away from Curbs
This one isn’t as obvious. Try not to place your restrooms on or near curbs. For instance, you wouldn’t want to have your porta potty too close to the edge of a curb and have people tripping when they’re coming in and out of the restroom. Curbs could also be a problem for the porta potty doors. If the restroom shifts it could make it more difficult to open the restroom for both cleaning and use.
Clean and Level Surface
Construction porta potty placement may include a little foresight. You’ll want to think about your construction site conditions in the near future. Place your porta potty in a place that won’t get too muddy or cluttered with junk.
You’re also going to want your porta potty on a level surface that will stay level. The best-case scenario would be a paved surface. If a paved surface isn’t available, then just look for a spot to put your restroom that isn’t going to become unstable.
Accessible for Servicing
Remember that your construction porta potty will have to be cleaned at least once a week. You’ll want to pick a spot that will be easily accessible for the sanitation service trucks.
These are large and heavy trucks, so again we want to stress not placing your porta potties somewhere muddy. We don’t want to get trucks stuck on your construction site. It’s best to pick a spot no more than 10-15 feet away from a road or driveway. If you’re on a big construction site, just make sure that restrooms are placed in an area where you would feel comfortable driving your truck up to
Placement for Jobsite Workers
When deciding on porta potty placement you’ll also want to consider accessibility for your workers. What good is a porta potty if it’s out of the way and inconvenient to use?
If you have a small construction site and you only have one porta potty, just place it near the jobsite trailer or at the entrance of the building site. This will make it easily accessible for all workers on the site at all times.
When you’re dealing with a jobsite that has several construction units, you’ll want to put together a plan that will provide easy access to workers at the different locations on the site. In this situation you’ll want to put a high number of porta potties in high traffic areas. Like smaller sites, that means by the jobsite trailer, near the entrance of the building that you’re working on, and near all exits of the building.
Placement to Prevent Vandalism
Vandalism and destruction of porta potties is an eyesore and can make your company look bad. When deciding where to place your porta potties, you’ll also want to make it a little harder for people to mess with your equipment.
Try to place porta potties in a well lit area to deter would-be vandals. You can also place them behind locked fences or near security cameras. If you’re looking to prevent tip overs, you can place them next to a sturdy structure or stake them down. If you want some more info on preventing vandalism to your construction porta potties, we have a whole post on that subject.
Special Equipment for Special Jobs
The placement tips we’ve talked about are perfect for construction sites that only have one or two levels. But what about placement for larger or high-rise buildings? This is where specialty restrooms come into the picture. Porta potties such as hook units and high-rise restrooms are designed for these elevated projects.
Hook units have a secure hook on top of the porta potty so you can lift it onto a roof using your construction crane. We would recommend these types of restrooms for construction projects where workers will be spending a lot of time up top, and don’t want to come all the way down to ground level to use the facilities. This saves time and improves productivity on your jobsite.
High-rise portable restrooms are a great solution for large and enclosed projects that have a working elevator. These units are designed to collapse so they fit into a standard construction elevator. This allows for weekly service of the porta potty and easy mobility when your project evolves.
Deciding on a solid placement strategy for your construction porta potties just takes a little bit of consideration. You need to ensure they’re in a safe place, are level and easy to service, are accessible to the people that need them, and are also the right equipment for the job.
If you are looking to rent porta potties for your construction site, feel free to fill out a quote request form to get pricing and info or give us a call at 651.429.3781.
