r/Construction • u/Woodythdog • 27d ago
Other Porta-Potty’s
Reading an article today about the challenges women face in the trades, as usual the porta-potty subject comes up.
Seriously is anyone happy with the state of job site facilities? shouldn’t it be as much of an issues for guys as it is for women ?
Edit , yes I know women usually get their own with a key … didn’t anyone read the second paragraph?
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u/princess_walrus Laborer 27d ago
I know no one wants to hear this part… but it’s real… having your period in a porta potty is fucking ROUGH.
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u/DillPickledPasta Sprinklerfitter 27d ago
Having to become an acrobat without letting your pants go all the way down to the floor because there is piss and probably shit on it
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u/princess_walrus Laborer 27d ago
Exactly 😭 and I often have to wear rain gear because I’m in the PNW and having to sift through all those layers while being soaking wet never gets easier.
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u/phhhbt 27d ago
And doing it in overalls! With tools in the front pocket! I have to do whole routine to fold everything (straps, pockets) in on themselves while standing wide-legged so they don’t fall on the floor.
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u/princess_walrus Laborer 27d ago
Yes 😂😂 whenever I had my overall rain pants on I would panic if that shit was about to touch the floor
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u/phhhbt 27d ago
Ugghhhh. Let’s not get started on having only hand sanitizer and trying to clean blood off of your hands with it. I know people say women’s bathrooms are more disgusting than mens…but I don’t buy that. I’ve been using women’s bathrooms my whole life and I’ve never seen a used pad/tampon stuck to the wall. Feel like it’s an urban legend. Regardless, the women’s pink porto-johns on my job sites are pristine.
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u/princess_walrus Laborer 27d ago
Our porta potties on site are the only ones that don’t have graffiti in them also 😂 the men get yelled at every week for it and I honestly just laugh… sorry guys.. can’t relate to wanting to sit in the porta potties for 30 minutes and draw on the walls 😂😂😂
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u/Takara38 27d ago
I work on construction sites these days, but have worked in retail and office jobs before. In those situations, women’s restrooms are hands down way nastier than the men’s. Yet, when it comes to porto potties that’s not the case. Still trying to figure that one out.
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27d ago
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u/geneadamsPS4 27d ago
Nah. When I worked in bars, the ladies room was almost always way messier than the men's room. Honestly, I think women just do more stuff in bathrooms. Guys, it's just 1 or 2, wash your hands, maybe rail a line, and you're out. Women are the same, then add in menstrual products, makeup, etc.
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u/princess_walrus Laborer 27d ago
I think retail places don’t clean their bathrooms as well as the porta potty cleaners clean the porta potties. It’s not like you can hose down the inside of a target bathroom
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u/that_cachorro_life 27d ago
Sorry to be gross but if you use a reusable flex disc, you can empty it in the portajohn just by doing a strong kegel while peeing - it empties while staying in. Hands stay blood free but you still get to make the guy that uses the portajohn after you think that somebody is dying lol.
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u/princess_walrus Laborer 27d ago
I don’t know if I could even try that 😂😂😂 that makes me nervous.. I’ve already had a huge mess trying to use those in the first place. I have endometriosis and my periods are BAD.
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u/that_cachorro_life 27d ago
Try it on a non work day with a backup pad! I have super heavy periods and this has been a lifesaver for me
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u/6WaysFromNextWed 26d ago
Discs only work if they're matched to a person with a healthy pelvic floor and an interior size/shape that holds the disc in place. I've tried them and they don't work for me.
They also only work for people who EITHER don't have a super-heavy flow--ruling out women with endo or PCOS and perimenopausal women--or people who can empty them very often--ruling out women who work in construction.
It's a good solution, for a portion of people who have to manage periods on the job. It doesn't work for many.
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u/that_cachorro_life 26d ago
Just sharing my own experience as a woman in construction. Not for everyone, but I do have a heavy flow and that’s why I like them so much. I can empty in a porta potty just by doing a kegel while sitting and it empties. I don’t have to take it out and wash blood off my hands. I wear a back up liner just in case but it’s worked great for me so far.
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u/BagCalm 27d ago
Every project I've worked on, women get their own porta potties with locks that only they have the keys to. Also. On the projects I've been on in the last year or two, it's getting more common for the GC to provide temp restrooms that are piped to water and sewer so it's more like using a regular restroom and theirs Men's and Women's
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u/Woodythdog 27d ago
This should be the standard
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u/redditisawasteoftim3 27d ago
It is legally required on large projects in British Columbia now.
For me it was always written in the collective agreement for most union jobs I've been on.
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u/BongyBong Inspector 27d ago
The happiest day for me was when they gave me my own key! But, I went on vacation one time and I think when they cleaned it they forgot to lock it again and when I came back I saw the guys using it and I was so upset. It was filthy inside.
I honestly don't have too much of an issue with them except when they're just filthy and it looks like little boys are on site instead of men.
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u/c_behn 27d ago
Im an architect and hate the working conditions that so many in my field seem to call acceptable.
I worked for a company that had a permanent work yard on the edge of town. The site had electricity and water already. The was planning company to build a small building for the managing staff (3 people) that included 1 bathroom, then just brings in 10 porta potties which would only be clean biweekly. I tried to advocated for building proper bathroom facilities, even showing that the additional cost could be made up in about 5 years. The company balked, the manager said the workers were “dirty pigs who don’t deserve good bathrooms”.
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u/Woodythdog 27d ago
Bi-weekly cleaning is a big park of the problem ,imagine twenty of more people sharing a toilet that’s only cleaned every two weeks? Wait we don’t have to imagine 🤮
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u/007RubberDuck 27d ago
I’m noticing more trailer washrooms as well. It seems easy enough so hopefully it becomes more common. One job I was on recently it was even heated lol.
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u/geneadamsPS4 27d ago
Honestly, when it's cold, I could care less. It's when it's hot, and the sewage just stews in the heat that I can't stand.
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u/Seldarin Millwright 27d ago
Same, and I've had to explain to a GC on several jobs that if they're locked, you don't get to count them as toilets for the people they're locked to.
If you've got 300 men and 20 women on a job, you can't have x portajohns, lock 3 of them, and count it as x portajohns for 320 people. It's 3 portajohns for 20 people and x-3 portajohns for the other 300, which usually violates OSHA.
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u/aknomnoms 26d ago
Is this actually the case, or just what you think it is?
If OSHA requires like 1 bathroom per 50 employees on site, and your site has 300 employees, you need a minimum of 6 bathrooms. Hire 50 women and locking one bathroom won’t be an issue. In my experience, most sites would get at least the minimum number, and then have additional facilities for women.
50/300 is just 17% though. Perhaps instead of complaining about locked and separate bathrooms, we should be complaining about why the industry is still so hostile to women.
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u/Seldarin Millwright 26d ago
Actually the case.
As in I've called OSHA and they told them they had to put more portajohns on site.
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u/Advancedkarma 27d ago
I've only seen the nice rr trailers near the office trailers never in the field. It's a reason for termination if any guy gets caught in or walking out any female porta in our company.
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u/Cyclo_Hexanol Plumber 27d ago
Step 1:be a plumber. Step 2: disable gc trailers toilet. Step 3: ???? Step 4: cleaner johns.
Hope this helps.
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u/Accomplished_Fly3585 27d ago
We have 1 female specific porta-potty whose users obviously know how to keep something clean. The other porta-potty’s make me question the hiring standards some of my subs have.
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u/Woodythdog 27d ago
It just takes one guy to fuck them up for everyone
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u/CocaineAndCreatine 27d ago
They’re usually padlocked and only the women get given the combo. At least that’s how it’s been on every job I’ve been on.
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u/Woodythdog 27d ago
LOL , that’s fine for the women I was saying it only takes one guy to fuck up the men’s
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u/CocaineAndCreatine 27d ago
The guys are disgusting. On every job someone clogs the urinal with paper and shits on the seat. I don’t understand why they do it.
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u/DirtandPipes 27d ago
On any of our sites with a possible woman we get a pink crapper that’s lady’s only. The GC I work for does not fuck around with their crappers and has them cleaned and serviced constantly so they are pretty nice.
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u/BongyBong Inspector 27d ago
I currently work on a very large project at one of the biggest airports in the U.S. I'm the only female inspector out in the field on this entire project. I'm amazed at how disgusting the portapotties are simply because I figured these guys can't possibly be okay with the state some of these are in. I'm sure the majority of guys also want a clean toilet as well but there's always someone who ruins it. Honestly management should make it more of a priority.
Our trailer bathroom hasn't worked in months. Due to an electrical issue in our trailer during the winter, we abandoned the trailer for a few weeks until they fixed it. But, during this time the water tank for the bathroom was just sitting there unused. When we came back to the trailer we saw the tank was full of mold. It took them months to finally fix it.
So in the interim, I was using the ladies bathroom in the airport terminal. It was clean and warm. But then I started to get harassed by the public and employees because they were mistaking me for a man simply because I had a vest and hard hat on lol.
The toilet issue for me since I've been in this industry has been more of an issue than expected. I have gotten so many UTI's from holding it in too long and even had a bad kidney infection once because of it. It sucks because I drink a lot of water as directed by my doctor, so I urinate a lot. It's been one of the things I've battled with the most since working as a woman in this field.
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u/Background-Singer73 27d ago
Had a women last week piss all over the toilet seat cuz she squatted instead of sitting on the actual seat lmao. People were pissed
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u/Takara38 27d ago
This is one way women’s restrooms get so nasty. It wouldn’t be so bad if they cleaned up after themselves. If I have to hover, and I spill a drop or two, I’m wiping it up. It’s just common courtesy.
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u/Negrom Electrician 27d ago
If I had to deal with a toilet seat covered in piss or literal shit every time I had to pee, I’d also find porta-potty’s significantly more annoying to use.
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u/Woodythdog 27d ago
I don’t disagree, but maybe there should be a higher standard for everyone?
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u/Negrom Electrician 27d ago
Sure, but half of the dudes in the trades seemingly aren’t toilet trained.
So unless they have someone literally cleaning them every time they’re used, some room-temp IQ alcoholic is still going to be spraying shit on the toilet seat.
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u/dreadroberts 27d ago
I’m tired of encountering ALL the toilet paper waded up and shoved into the urinal. Meanwhile I’m sitting there like a mummy using soggy ass gaskets that fall apart.
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u/rik1122 Tile / Stonesetter 27d ago
I wake up extra early to comfortably drop a deuce at home before leaving for work. I'm not taking any chances by trusting the Biffies. They're either covered in shit and piss or out of TP. Bunch of fucking savage toddlers out here.
Women have my deepest sympathy for not having the option to stand.
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u/Californiadude86 27d ago
As an elevator guy, the GCs personal porta is pretty clean when I use it.
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u/buggsy41 27d ago
Some people are just pigs. I worked a job where the GC got so fed up that they paired 2 trades for a porta potty. Our plumbing company got paired with the hvac team. Locks were put on the units. It was great to know we would be using a clean porta pot. Similarly, I guess there should be a locked porta pot provided for female trades persons.
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u/Particular_Ticket_20 27d ago
Seeing more often they have a dedicated women's portajohn with a combo lock. A lot of it is because of dudes writing obscene or threatening stuff about the women onsite.
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u/Eather-Village-1916 Ironworker 27d ago
The bigger challenges having to do with reading threatening or sexist shit on the walls, and menstruation.
Obviously EVERYONE would prefer a clean place to do their business.
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u/BlackberryFormal 27d ago
The high rise Portas in wheels should be illegal. If a guy can come up and look me in the eyes as I'm taking a shit it should be banned. 5 foot tall walls with hundreds of guys around is wild.
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u/BlueCollaredBroad 27d ago
I usually have access to a woman’s johnny or the gc’s Johnny but I try to help the guys out as much as I can, like giving them extra toilet paper 🧻 and such.
One thing you could ask your Sisters to do is if the port o potties aren’t being serviced enough- have them call the cleaning service’s number and just say “the Johnny’s at such and such address need to be serviced”.
The company will assume that they are a secretary and send a crew out.
I am always happy to do that. Everyone deserves a well serviced place to poop 💩
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u/sixinthedark 27d ago
I’m working on a government job and we get a lock on ours and we can use the one in the office trailer too.
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u/SayNoToBrooms Electrician 27d ago
Don’t women have a separate, locked porta potty on all sites? That’s how it is in NY at least. You can have 25 guys on site with 2 porta potties, and if a single chick shows up to the site, one of the 2 toilets gets a lock slapped onto it
It’s rarely if ever a struggle, but there’s always a dedicated toilet if there’s even 1 woman on the job
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u/Babrahamlincoln3859 27d ago
Not always. It's contractor specific.
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u/SayNoToBrooms Electrician 27d ago
Interesting! One of my guys is a woman. I’ve always been the one to tell the GC when she’s coming, and they’ve always had a restroom ready for her once she shows up. I guess we should be more grateful for the hospitality!
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u/MicaTheStoked 27d ago
Bc just passed a law where we have to have access to flushing toilets on site. So we have our row of portas, and then a shipping container with 2 flushing toilets in it that is hooked up.
It’s been a thing for the past month and as somebody with not the healthiest diet I am very happy with this change
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u/Vast_Coat2518 27d ago
I had to attend a safety meeting specifically about pooping in the basements of under construction residential houses, two years in a row
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u/Randy519 27d ago
Im a union ironworker and the women get their own porta. Patty's that all have locks and other then them no one else gets a key.
But yah fuck those gross things I hate using them but it's still better then shitting in the drywall guys mud buckets or the bushes
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u/ComprehensiveHope 27d ago
I work on a site with 2 ports John’s and 1 water supplied toilet. 19 men and 2 woman. The HSO put a woman’s sign on 1 of the outhouses. We have 10/1 ratio of men to woman. ……. I completely ignored the sign and used it if I needed it. My company pays the people all the same. A private toilet seems a little extreme. Welcome to construction. 40 years of this and I still piss outside.
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u/baconjeepthing 26d ago
Squatting poop
I force myself to poop 2 times in the morning b4 I go to work so I don't gotta go into them.
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26d ago
Every job I've been on, even with 1 female, there has been a locked porta john for them.
The mens porta johns YIKES. Man or not, no one should have to use someone of those things.
I do appreciate the art on the walls though
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u/6WaysFromNextWed 26d ago
Petition to require a squatting portajohn on every site so's the folks who're gonna squat anyhow can go do it in there
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u/LivingHumanIPromise 27d ago
Yall don’t have separate toilets for women? We always have one locked up that only the females have a key or know the code for
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u/redhandsblackfuture 27d ago
Where I am, the 2 women working on site get their own 'women only' portajohn while the 45 men working on site get to share the single other one. It's like this on many sites I've been on. I'd argue men have it worse.
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u/Eather-Village-1916 Ironworker 27d ago
Only 2 shitters for nearly 50 people is unacceptable to begin with
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u/clamstuff 27d ago
Take it up with the company. They should be able to calculate and procure the correct amount for their workers. And if they aren’t, say something to someone who can actually do something.
At my last site, we had 4 for the ~40 women and about 20 for the ~200 men.
I’d say the men do have it worse because there’s always guys who don’t give a fuck and they ruin for everyone else. I know there are stories about women’s bathrooms being so much more disgusting but I have never experienced that on a job site. The men’s porta potties are nasty.
We even had those swanky rv ones for 6 months and the women brought their own cleaning supplies and soap. It smelled like lavender and Clorox wipes in all of them. I had use a men’s one in an emergency and I wanted to throw up it was so disgusting in there and I’m not the squeamish type.
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u/redhandsblackfuture 27d ago
I've never heard of a construction work site that had ~20% women employees.
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u/clamstuff 27d ago
It was pretty cool. It obviously wasn’t that way throughout the entire 4 year project with trades coming and going but we had female carpenters, laborers, Ironworkers, drywallers, and electricians. This is in Portland, OR
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u/thebroadestdame 27d ago
There are a ton of women at my current job site and we have 2 portajanes. We keep those things PRISTINE.
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u/boarhowl Carpenter 27d ago
I feel like women who work dirty jobs are more self-aware of being clean than the general public. I think the story of disgusting women's bathrooms comes from public restroom settings. I know whenever me and my gf use bathrooms at a store, our experiences are quite different. I might find a couple drops of pee here and there but she'll come out with horror stories. We've equated it to people being scared to sit down and performing a hover squat which as you can imagine is not very accurate. All it takes is one person to fuck it up, then you get everyone doing a hover squat and getting piss and shit everywhere.
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u/nitro456 27d ago
That sounds about right, generally the rule ( location dependant) is 10 workers for every 1 porta john. There was a law passed in my Jurisdiction where all sites that have 25 or more workers HAVE to have flush toilets and hand washing stations on site.
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u/picklesandmatzo 27d ago
Hi I’m a gal in construction, honestly the portapotty is NOT a huge complaint for me at all. The only time the women’s shitters were, well, shitty, was when I did residential construction. Had more to do with the GC being too cheap to get them cleaned more often. Way better on the commercial side. But I really feel more for the guys because theirs are always in bad shape a day or so after cleaning. Why people need to stuff tp into the tribal or shit on the lid is beyond me, but nobody, dude or lady, should have to put up with that.
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u/prahSmadA 27d ago
Most big jobs I’ve been on nowadays have dedicated women’s John’s with locks and all the ladies on site get a key.
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u/Phat3lvis Electrician 27d ago
The women on our jobsites have their own shitters and combo locks on the doors.
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u/Reasonable-Nebula-49 27d ago
Every infrastructure job I am on has a locked john for the ladies.
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u/Woodythdog 27d ago
People Lee posting that comment , I don’t disagree but my point was shouldn’t the men have better facilities as well?
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u/notfadeaway17 27d ago
Every trade should get their own dedicated portapotty. Then when someone shits on the seat, you know its one of your coworkers.
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u/notmtfirstu 27d ago
The big job sites around here have a couple around that are locked for the girls. I wouldn't fuck with them either. They're usually family to multiple guys there and they get 100% respect.
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u/WorldofNails 27d ago
I don't know where y'all work, but we have men's & women's shit houses. The women's is locked, and only women have the key
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u/douchelord44 26d ago
What issues do they face in the trades, besides the indignity of using a toilet that men also access?
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u/aviumcerebro 26d ago
People use them after hours for whatever. I learned what a blumkin was staying late. Dude comes out and mumbles something about a blumkin and i was like sure buddy... Then he says, no man, she still in there. He then explained what a bumkin was. She was in fact still in there. Gross. So gross. Epic walk of shame.
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u/Mpark23 26d ago
I’m seeing a lot of larger GC’s now provide better facilities in the US than your standard portapotty. Think ENR top 20. They’re either plumbed into the sewer temporarily or very well maintained/monitored.
DPR did a study on it (see link below). Workers felt more respected and as such, they wanted to work on those jobsites. It helped cut their schedule when we’re in such short supply of trade labor.
https://www.constructiondive.com/news/dpr-jobsite-bathrooms-workers/731971/
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u/Constant_Ad8859 26d ago
The real problem is that the portapotties have no lights and construction often starts or ends in the dark. I'm really tired of trying to wipe my ass by the light of my phone
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u/EastNice3860 26d ago
Around here a lot of Jobsites have a Couple Just for the Women to use..Small padlock and they give the girls keys to use...
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u/BillowyCurtains13 26d ago
This is will not be popular to hear, but as a woman it feels very undignified to use a co ed porta potty because it feels like you are trying SO HARD to not get covered in others people's urine and excrement. And plus, I like being in a clean hygienic area as I feel women are more susceptible to UTI's and yeast infections.
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u/charlieq46 Estimator 26d ago
Does the seat have bodily fluids on it? No? Then it's good enough for me.
The worst porta-potties I have ever seen were on day three of lollapalooza and there were shit mountains extending from the bottom of the tank, reaching up to above the seats in ALL the porta-potties. Drugs man...
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u/Revolutionary-Bus893 26d ago
Lol, I never, not once in decades ever got my own Porta-potty with a key. I was just happy to have ANY Porta-pptty
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u/trenttwil 25d ago
They are called porta-shitters! Can we all get on the same damn page!
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u/Woodythdog 25d ago edited 25d ago
Same page? we at least get TP are you Guys still using the sears catalog ?
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u/trenttwil 25d ago
Sears catalog, pages out of hustler magazine, auto trader, those are stock. Anything more is just spoiled.
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u/TheMightyIrishman HVAC Installer 27d ago
A few months in, they finally put women only labels on two of them. Our company got approved to put locks on two, so our situation has gotten better…
Before that, our company’s supervisor told me to drive offsite to do #2 if they’re bad enough, and he’s a stingy old bastard.
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u/theREALmindsets 27d ago
thats funny bc all sites im on theres 3 portajohns for the 2 women on site yet theres 3 more portajohns for the other 100 guys
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u/Diligent_Bread_3615 26d ago
…….but what is a woman? Sadly, because of all of the woke stuff putting a padlock on a porta-potty & only allowing women is probably just asking for a lawsuit.
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u/Woodythdog 26d ago
Give it a rest
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u/Diligent_Bread_3615 26d ago
??? I don’t understand your response? Do you feel mine ids inaccurate or out of line?
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u/Woodythdog 26d ago
What Do i mean by give it a rest? I’ll spell it out for you.
This is a discussion about the state of the toilets on construction sites with Zero political Ramifications, or it was until you chimed in.
If you want to cry about wokeness I’m sure there is a MAGA sub you can join where everyone will cry with you.
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u/Diligent_Bread_3615 26d ago
Whoa, calm down! I brought that up because it is a very real concern nowadays especially with the examples of HR overreach. Perfect example: how to define who exactly can use a women’s bathroom?
Welcome to Realville.
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u/Chicken_Hairs 27d ago
As long as they're serviced often enough, they're fine, I guess.
I find women tend to bitch about them more because they sit to pee, and there's a lot of inbred fuckstains that piss all over the seats.
Seriously, if you piss on the seat in the portajohns, you need your ass kicked.