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holcombe3

Porta potty rental??

holcombe3
10 years ago

Xxxx

This post was edited by holcombe3 on Sun, Jun 23, 13 at 22:35

Comments (40)

  • gabbythecat
    10 years ago

    That's about right, although I suppose there's probably some regional variations. We're paying about $95 a month, and that includes once weekly cleaning/pumping. I suppose that for the guys, some of what they do can easily be done without a potty, but not all of it - and what if you have a female crew member? I think potty rental might be an OSHA requirement...I guess I just consider the potty to be a basic nice thing to do for the crew, and we don't mind doing it...we've got some family/friends who will be coming out to see our construction site as well, and I'm glad that we can offer them a "proper" bathroom!

  • _sophiewheeler
    10 years ago

    It is REQUIRED for health code reasons. Suck it up.

  • gabbythecat
    10 years ago

    Thing is - we are building out in the country also, so theoretically the crew could just, uh, find a tree. Same as in your case. But most home builders don't have that much property, so using the nearby street or whatever could be a health issue. And if they have to go off site to find a bathroom, that's a huge waste of time and resources...if we can afford the money to build a house, the money to rent a potty is relatively small. And the payoff is huge. So yeah, suck it up and be grateful that you have a good crew, which so far we do. :-)

  • okpokesfan
    10 years ago

    Yup, port-a-potty is pretty standard here. And if I were a sub, I wouldn't appreciate having to go to the trees to do my business. I am a female by the way.

    I also appreciate having it when we are at our build cleaning on the weekends or in the evening.

  • sweet.reverie
    10 years ago

    Well. Ours is 95 and I have been in the porta potty and I will let you in a secret... our sub poop in there A LOT. And I don't know about the you, but if I went to work, I would not want to poop in a field on someone's property! Jeez. Provide a place for workers to go to bathroom. What about if there is a female sub? Just insist she pop a squat down by the creek? C'mon.

  • zone4newby
    10 years ago

    Yes, you need to provide the people who are building your home with a clean, private, hygienic place to go to the bathroom.

    Even if you feel no need to honor the dignity of your employees, imagine what the land near your house would be like if you didn't. They aren't going to walk miles, so all the "mess" is going to be near your house. It's worth a grand to me to not have piles of human poop around my house. Would you walk around and pick it up every week, or just let it accumulate? Ick.

  • virgilcarter
    10 years ago

    "...should I just fork out the money to rent it?..."

    Of course. Move on to important issues. This is the bottom of nit-picking.

    Good luck on your project.

  • live_wire_oak
    10 years ago

    Yes, you need to rent a portajohn. You also need to provide the workers with cold water and shade for their break periods. The GC of the project is responsible for complying with all OSHA regulations for health and safety. If you are not certain what other responsibilities a GC has, then perhaps you need to visit the OSHA website, as well as the Department of Labor website. You could find yourself in a serious bind here.

  • bus_driver
    10 years ago

    In my area, the building inspector will not do inspections unless a port-a-john is on the premises.And his visits are often unannounced.
    Try to negotiate a price for 12 months-- offer to pay for 11 and get 12.

  • gabbythecat
    10 years ago

    On a side note, if our potty has to be moved due to construction (it could get in the way at some point), the company charges $30 or so to move it - extra equipment is needed, or something. Although - if it has just been pumped, it's easy enough to pick up the entire honey bucket by hand and move it. It is shockingly lightweight. If you have a forklift on site, it is easy to move that way, even if it has not just been pumped.

    (This whole home building project is interesting - I am learning the darndest pieces of information, that are fascinating and will hopefully be useful in the future!)

  • energy_rater_la
    10 years ago

    get the portapotty.
    don't want people pooping in your walls do ya?

    geeze.

    expect people to not have to use the bathroom
    in an 8 hour day out in the woods?

  • worthy
    10 years ago

    OP

    Really???

    Actually, if they run out during the week, I provide tp on my own. (But just the really scratchy cheap kind.)

  • millworkman
    10 years ago

    Nah, don't bother, just let the animals climb down a ladder and piss and crap in your basement.

  • Annie Deighnaugh
    10 years ago

    We rented one and our build went on a lot longer than a year. Yes definitely get it. Otherwise, as our builder guy said, don't ever open a bucket of dry wall compound as you won't want to see what you find in there.

    Of course, despite that, I did catch the mason peeing on the building....

  • WNCAU
    10 years ago

    Please get the potty. We paid $500 flat rate in the contract for a build that lasted about 10 months. Emptied periodically and re-stocked with t.p. Where else would the workers go #2 if you don't have a potty?

  • holcombe3
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thanks for the feedback although I could of done without some of your rude comments. I never intended not to supply one at all. I was simply wondering if it was our responsibility to supply it or if the general contractor normally sets that up? Guess i wasnt clear. After talking with the GC today, he was actually planning on building an outside toilet this week which will only cost around 100 dollars for the materials. So I'm glad I asked him before renting the potty.

  • gabbythecat
    10 years ago

    I don't think anyone meant to be rude, but you did sound like you were griping at the idea of having to pay *$85 a month* for something essential to the comfort of your employees. That sounds kind of, well, chintzy. If you can afford to build a house, $85 a month is really pocket change. Yes, I understand how to "go" in the forest - as a female, I've done it often when backpacking. But it still wouldn't be fair to expect your crew to do that - which is how it sounds you were asking.

    As for whether it's the GC's responsibility or yours - technically, it's probably the GCs responsibility, but ultimately, you are the top boss, so you need to make sure it gets done. And - if he is going to build an old fashioned outhouse - it needs to meet OSHA requirements and also make sure it isn't near a stream, etc. It's probably be easier to hire a portable potty - that would get cleaned/pumped/resupplied every week, which probably wouldn't happen with your outhouse.

    This post was edited by gladys1924 on Sun, Jun 23, 13 at 22:28

  • live_wire_oak
    10 years ago

    You can not do an outhouse anymore. It won't meet health regulations. If a GC would do something illegal like that, you need to keep an eye out for what other short cuts he might do.

  • LuAnn_in_PA
    10 years ago

    I would like to see the OP work for weeks without proper bathroom facilities....

  • Annie Deighnaugh
    10 years ago

    We have an outhouse....but I don't see how a builder can create one for $100...it would need to have a concrete pit that contains the material and which can be pumped. An open pit latrine is simply not adequate IMO.

    The best part about the port a pot is that it is regularly maintained so it has paper and it's kept reasonably clean and bug free. You can even be a good sport and include hand sanitizer.

  • worthy
    10 years ago

    We have been looking at this all wrong.

    Open defecation is the norm in large parts of the world. Half of India's 1.2 billion people, for instance, have no toilets and instead use fields, streams and railroad tracks. So the OP and her like-minded contractor are just part of a growing internationalism. Bringing Third World standards of sanitation to the US--or at least to the OP's back 40.

    I lived part of my childhood in rural Ohio; I still remember the piles of faeces exposed by overturned outhouses after Halloween hijinks

    As old Ski-nose would sing, "Thanks for the memories!"

  • GreenDesigns
    10 years ago

    I live in an area where some outhouses still exist. They are grandfathered in, but are slowly being eliminated, pun intended. There are no new permits being issued for them in any state in my region, which is an area notoriously lax in building regulations. A building site can be shut down by the local Health Department if proper sanitary conditions do not exist. That means a porta potty until such time as you have the home's septic installed and the house facilities up and running. The owner of the property can be fined as well. Many rural people still depend on wells, and they do not want your coliform bacteria in them, thank you very much.

  • Annie Deighnaugh
    10 years ago

    Half of India's 1.2 billion people, for instance, have no toilets...

    and 97 million have no access to safe drinking water and over 20% of communicable diseases in India relate to unsafe water.

    I'm surprised about outhouses though. We talked to a fellow from our local water co. and he actually has less problems with our outhouse than he does with a septic system. Our outhouse has a concrete pit which contains the un-degraded material and can be pumped out. Whereas the output of a septic system/leeching field eventually ends up in the ground. I just assumed that outhouses were not built any more as people like running water, and heat, and flushing.

  • gabbythecat
    10 years ago

    All things considered, I prefer outhouses to portapotties when I am in the backcountry (hiking, backbacking). They often are more open to the outdoors (leaky roofs!), so they smell better. It does appear, however, that the old fashioned outhouses are being replaced with composting potties for sanitary reasons. I understand - composters cost more initially, but they don't have to be emptied much/if at all.

    We are doing an outhouse theme in one of our new bathrooms! We are a couple of outdoorspeople, and our house is on the edge of a major backcountry area in Washington....

  • ncfarmer
    10 years ago

    We are building in NC and it is a "must have" or no inspection, cost, $68.32/mo. Speaking of India. My 30 year old computer nerd daughter is doing a lot of Bollywood stuff in WA. Kinda living the Indian culture off her normal job. She took a trip to India a few months back and confirmed what I had read. In most homes and hotels there is a bath room with only a hole in the ground. There is no toilet paper, you use your left hand. Below is a link to a demo of how to use one. Never get me there, never!

    Here is a link that might be useful: India bath room demo

  • energy_rater_la
    10 years ago

    I'm not watching the demo...TMI!!
    but why do they use the left hand?

    just going to bother me until I know!

  • dekeoboe
    10 years ago

    but why do they use the left hand?
    Because you shake with the right hand.

  • millworkman
    10 years ago

    Also you get caught stealing they cut off your right hand, then you eat and wipe................

  • gabbythecat
    10 years ago

    The left hand is considered dirty in those cultures (pity the people who are left handed). You eat with the right hand, shake with the right hand, etc. The left hand is only used for personal cleaning, which is important considering the lack of TP in those cultures.

  • eosinophil
    10 years ago

    But most Indian toilets also have a water source - either a watering can type thingy that I have no idea how one is to use or, in the fancier places, a sprayer much like I have in my kitchen sink. I call it the hiney hose, but I understand it is more delicately referred to as a "mini shower". Either way, watch where you step as the water goes all over. That's why Indian people have special shoes just to wear in the bathroom!

  • akshars_mom
    10 years ago

    Milworkman, I am from India settled in the USA for the last 15 years. I think cutting of the right hand if you caught stealing is a myth. I have never heard of being done in India. It could be some other cultures though.

    I know the lifestyle there is not to the standards of what people are used to here in the USA but a lot of things are changing in someways for the better and some not so great.
    There are a lot of great things about India as there a not so great things there (just like there are in any place)

  • Annie Deighnaugh
    10 years ago

    The demo was very interesting. (Don't worry...no one dropped trou.) Only problem is, after you wash with all this water, how do you dry? Do you walk around with wet pants and hand for awhile? Or is it so warm that you dry quickly anyway...or is it that it's so hot that you're sweating so much that your damp all over anyway....

    It also begs the question of what are you supposed to do if there is no water in the latrine (like running out of TP).

  • energy_rater_la
    10 years ago

    I think Gladys has the right answer.
    I remember hearing something similar
    from a friend of mine from India, years
    ago.

    interesting thread...LOL!

    I've not used the edit feature yet, but
    it seems something has been edited out
    of the original posters first post.
    like the whole post.

  • millworkman
    10 years ago

    akshars_mom, it very well be a myth as I remember it from 9th or 10th grade social studies in school. And that was more than a few moons ago!!

  • energy_rater_la
    10 years ago

    On television today there was a story about
    someone finding dirty diapers behind the
    sheetrock in a wall.

    I thought of this thread. LOL!
    (and gross!)

  • galore2112
    10 years ago

    " In most homes and hotels there is a bath room with only a hole in the ground. "

    Not just in India. This is also common in parts of Italy. The tourist restrooms in the Vatican have a selection of sit down toilets and those holes so there must be people preferring those. Requires strong thighs if squatting for a long time.

  • Annie Deighnaugh
    10 years ago

    I was doing my exercises with a cable tv program and was stunned when I saw the ad come on for this product. Really?

    I figured here was as good a place as any to post it.

    Here is a link that might be useful: The squatty potty

  • bird_lover6
    10 years ago

    I've been in major airports with holes in the ground. And paid for tp. :( Russia comes to mind, but that was ten years ago.

  • weedyacres
    10 years ago

    Use them enough and you learn how to squat. :-)

    I've traveled through dozens of 3rd world countries, many of which have squat toilets, and appreciate the one big benefit: no sharing unsanitary toilet seats.

    Also, the toilet stalls in India typically have wastebaskets as well. Their plumbing systems aren't designed to handle paper products, so you dispose of your TP in the wastebaskets. BYOTP, baby.

    The worst one was on a boat in China somewhere. The toilet stalls had a trench with water running through the stalls (side to side), so you turned to the side to squat, and the water carried away your waste---through the other stalls. I learned quickly to only use the upstream stall. :-)

  • millworkman
    10 years ago

    weedy, that may be the funniest thing I read in a while and just spit coffee on my monitor.