Here at American SaniCan we rent porta-potties for events, festivals, weddings, construction sites, home improvement projects, and more. We have standard portable restrooms, wheelchair accessible restrooms, holding tanks, wash stations, and deluxe portable toilets on trailers.
If you’re trying to figure out whether or not you actually need to rent a porta-potty for your event or project, ask yourself these questions:
- Is there a safe, practical, and easy way for people to use the restroom with my current set up?
- How many people will need a restroom, and what are their needs?
- What alternatives do I currently have?
- What do the codes / permits say?
Current Restroom Setup
If you’re hosting an event or working on a home improvement project, consider what your existing facilities provide. If, for example, you’re having a wedding in your backyard, and your home has three toilets, will that be enough for your guests? A good rule of thumb is that you should have at least one restroom available for every fifty people.
In this case, if your at-home wedding will have fewer than 150 people, you should be fine with the three bathrooms in your home, assuming they will all be easy to access for everyone who attends your wedding.
Here’s another example: if you’re remodeling a bathroom in your home, but you still have another one available to use, you might not need to rent a portable restroom. But if you’ll have the water turned off for several days, or that’s the only toilet in your home, then you’ll want to rent a porta-potty for you and your family to use.
How Many People Will Need a Restroom? What Are Their Needs?
As mentioned above, it’s generally recommended that, for events, there’s one restroom for every 50 people. However, during Covid-19, we need to be even more careful about giving people plenty of space and resources to minimize virus spread. If you haven’t canceled your event, or you’ve found a way to have a safe, socially-distant event, then you’ll want to consider an even more generous ratio of people to restroom.
If you are having a backyard event, you might want to keep people outside rather than inviting them into your home. This is true during Covid but also when we’re not dealing with a global pandemic. Do you really want a hundred or more people traipsing in and out of your home to use your restroom, when you could easily provide clean and easy-to-use facilities outside?
Also, if applicable, you’ll need to be sure that you’re providing facilities that accommodate people in wheelchairs. Unfortunately, many homes are not built with accessibility in mind, but we rent wheelchair accessible portable restrooms to help you ensure that your event is welcoming to everyone.
Finally, especially during Covid-19, it’s absolutely critical to provide a place for people to keep their hands clean. Our porta-potties come equipped with hand sanitizer, but we also offer portable wash stations so that everyone at your construction site or event can keep their hands clean to prevent virus spread.
Alternatives to Renting a Porta-Potty
We get it. Some people don’t want to spend the money on renting a portable restroom for their event or project. Before you decide to eliminate that option, ask yourself what alternatives you have.
Maybe you have a really nice neighbor with an unoccupied ADU, who won’t mind you using their restroom while you’re remodeling your bathroom. Or perhaps you’re planning on just using a bucket or camping toilet for a few days, and you don’t mind cleaning it out yourself (but where will you safely and legally dump it?).
Some folks think they can rely on the nearby grocery store, Walmart, or friendly coffee shop, but is that truly a viable alternative to having access to your own restroom?
What Do the Codes / Regulations Say?
Perhaps most importantly, what do the codes, regulations, and permits require of you? When seeking a permit for an event in Portland, you need to make sure you’re meeting the city’s restroom requirements. Likewise, you can’t have a construction site without providing facilities for your workers.
We rent portable restrooms across southwest Washington and northwest Oregon, so whether you’re in Vancouver, WA, Portland, OR, or other nearby cities, do your research carefully, and if you determine that you need to rent a portable restroom, wash station, trailered restroom, or holding tank, contact us today so that we can give you a porta-potty quote for your project or event.