Advice

March 3, 2023

How Many Toilets Should You Have on Your Construction Site?

Whether you are doing a renovation or extension to your own home or a large-scale building project involving the construction of many buildings, getting your toilet facilities right for the work force has to be spot on.

Portable toilets are a quick and convenient way to meet your needs, but how many to you need and what other factors should you be thinking about?

There are some things you will need to take into consideration when deciding how many portable toilets you will need.

How many toilets per person on a construction site?

The Approved code of practice provides a minimum number of facilities you need to provide shown in the table below.

As a minimum, there should be one toilet per 7 persons per 40 hour working week.

Our online portable toilet calculator can help you to work out what you need. However, there are other requirements you need to be aware of.

Toilet requirements for construction sites

The relevant legislation is the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992. Regulation 20, Sanitary conveniences. It states:

Suitable and sufficient sanitary conveniences shall be provided at readily accessible places.
Without prejudice to the generality of paragraph (1), sanitary conveniences shall not be suitable unless -

the rooms containing them are adequately ventilated and lit;
they and the rooms containing them are kept in a clean and orderly condition; and
separate rooms containing conveniences are provided for men and women except where and so far as each convenience is in a separate room the door of which is capable of being secured from inside.

You need to provide the following according to the health and safety executive.

Enough toilets for those expected to use them, workers should not have to queue for long periods to go to the toilet.
Lockable toilet doors.
Clean facilities.
ventilated facilities that are well lit.
Hot and cold running water.
Soap, toilet paper.
Hand drying.
There should be arrangements for cleaning the toilets (daily may not be sufficient)

Toilets need to be adequate for the work. There are two main types of toilets:

Flushing toilets – These are to be provided where possible. Connect them to mains water and drainage systems where available. Otherwise, use toilets with a built-in water supply and drainage tanks.

Chemical toilets – portable toilets can be used where you cannot provide flushing toilets. Portable toilets may be the only way you can provide toilet facilities for your construction site. If you don't have access to flushing toilets, talk to us about construction site toilet hire today.

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How many people will be working on site?

The maths is simple, the more people on site, the more portable toilets you will need.

Bear in mind, that if you have a large-scale project, you will also need to consider other work trades at your location as the build progresses, who will also need to access your toilets. There should also be enough toilets for those expected to use them, workers should not have to queue or wait too long to use the toilet.

As a minimum, there should be one toilet per 7 persons per 40 hour working week. Our online portable toilet calculator can help you to work out what you need.

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How many hours a week will they be working?

Are your workforce working more than a 40 hour week? If so, you may have to consider more portable toilets or additional toilet empty and servicing to the ones you have, to stop them from overfilling and to keep them clean and fresh. No one wants to use a smelly toilet!

How frequently are they being used?

This is an important point, for example, if you are building in the middle of a freak warm spell (well, it does happen occasionally) your workforce will need to stay hydrated and that will mean more trips to the loo, and your toilets filling quicker.

So, you can either:

arrange to have more toilets on site to equal out their usage or
have additional servicing during the working week. (an empty, clean and replenishment).

Dtox provide a weekly service as part of your toilet hire, but you can ask us for additional servicing if you think your toilets are going to fill up faster than usual.

As well as providing toilets, you will need to provide washing facilities. They should include:

Clean hot and cold, or warm running water
Soap or other suitable means of cleaning
Towels or other suitable means of drying (such as paper towels, and toilet paper)

Sinks / washbasins - As an employer you need to allow workers access to washing facilities, so they can wash their hands, face, forearms etc properly. That's why we supply Hotwash Toilets with a forearm sink and water heater.

View our hot wash toilet spec sheet to get the low down and ensure you are meeting HSE welfare requirements. You can additionally enquire about our Hotwash Toilets for a quick price and find out availability.

Why should I provide Hotwash Toilets?

This could cause anything from a bout of sickness to longer term health problems. To keep your workforce healthy and sickness levels down - talk to us about Hotwash Toilets.

‍Other facilities you could consider.

We can also provide foot operated two-person sinks with soap dispensers should you need additional washing facilities.

Need paper towels or soap? Yes, we can provide these too, just add these to your booking.

We are happy to offer advice and suggestions if you need help putting together facilities for your site. Just give us a call or you can email us. Or send us a question via our product pages.

Standard toilet

Hotwash toilet

2-person sink

General queries

Closing thoughts

Ensuring you have adequate toilets on your building site is vital to complying with health and safety regulations, as well as keeping your team happy. Portable chemical toilets are a staple of pretty much every construction site and we help provide these up and down the country.

We offer site toilet hire as well as regular servicing included in our pricing. Request a quote today and a member of our team will be in touch to discuss your requirements in more detail.

References

L24, Workplace health, safety and welfare, approved code of practice and guidance, (ISBN 0717604136 - available from HSE Books).

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How frequently they are being used?

So, you can either:

· arrange to have more toilets on site to equal out their usage or

· have additional servicing during the working week. (an empty, clean and replenishment).

Dtox provide a weekly service as part of your toilet hire, but you can ask us for additional servicing if you think your toilets are going to fill up faster than usual.

As well as providing toilets, you will need to provide washing facilities. They should include:

Clean hot and cold, or warm running water

Soap or other suitable means of cleaning

Towels or other suitable means of drying (such as paper towels)

Sinks / washbasins - As an employer you need to allow workers to wash their hands, face and forearms properly. That’s why we supply Hotwash Toilets with a forearm sink and water heater. View our hot wash toilet spec sheet to get the low down and ensure you are meeting HSE welfare requirements. You can additionally enquire about our Hotwash Toilets for a quick price and find out availability.

Why should I provide Hotwash Toilets?

Apart from meeting HSE requirements, it will benefit you in the long run by controlling the risk of contamination. Your workforce will want to have clean hands, particularly when eating. Unclean hands could lead to exposure to hazardous substances like cement, lead or micro-organisms. This could cause anything from a bout of sickness to longer term health problems. To keep your workforce healthy and sickness levels down - talk to us about Hotwash Toilets.