Replies

1. 
   Joe_Hennessey | Jan 12, 2002 03:13am | #1

   *
   This belongs in the
   i "Ask Luka"
   file. :)

1. 
   Luka_ | Jan 12, 2002 03:31am | #2

   *A couple of thoughts here...I believe that it is illegal to build an actual outhouse in most places anymore. Check the regs where you are. (Sanitatin dept. Same place you go for well permit, septic permit, etc.)2 different solutions... Get a short travel trailer that has a toilet and septic storage tank. Use it as you would a porta-potty. Side benefit is that you could also store a few tools, and maybe have some heat, and cooking space, etc. Take the whole thing to a certified dump station, and dump the holding tank when full.Get a thrashed travel trailer that has tank and toilet. Build a porta-potty using the toilet and tank from the trailer. You'll have to find someone willing to come to the site and empty it for you, or you'll have to set up fittings and hose, etc, to empty it yourself into a portable tank which you would then take to a certified dump station and empty. I have no idea if this solution would be legal.You should be able to find a used travel trailer for about what you would pay for a few months rental on a port-o-let. If you want to go the route of using a thrashed one that has the tank and toilet in good condition, you might even be able to find one that is free for the taking.

1. 
   pat_white | Jan 12, 2002 06:39am | #3

   *a trailer sounds like trouble to me. pay the $500.00for the "growler" and the building inspector wil love ya. Pat

1. 
   Tommy_B. | Jan 12, 2002 06:15pm | #4

   *Hey rmanbike.Does your boss make you walk outside to go to the bathroom? Would he care if you took a 45 minute excursion to the 7-11 every time nature calls? Here's a thought. Build $500 less house. If you cant afford the jiffy john, you can't afford the house.I worked for a GC once who wouldn't provide a portable toilet. He also wouldn't let us use the toilet in the unsold spec next door. I asked him where he wanted me to go, he said wherever you want. So I walked right to the edge of a busy street in the well developed neighborhook and took a leak right into the street. He didn't care for that too much.Hey I'd be happy to crap all over your yard, pee anywhere where I can find a little privacy. That goes on a lot around here. It really creates some unsanitary conditions on the job. Hey, just think of all that money your saving.

1. 
   Ralph_Wicklund | Jan 12, 2002 09:21pm | #5

   *Think about the fine you'll be paying to the powers that be when they find out you aren't providing the required sanitary facilties on the job.

2. 
   George_Abramshe | Jan 12, 2002 09:51pm | #6

   *Plenty of trees and streams in back? By the time your house is finished there will be about one hundred or so little 'bombs' of tp and load everywhere in those woods unless you supply an e-tool. The one outside part of your house that is away from prying eyes (inside corner or such) is going to reek so bad of piss that you won't believe it. Most guys don't walk to the stream, they hang it in the first concealed spot. Get the porta-john.

3. 
   Mark_"if_I_were_a_carpenter | Jan 12, 2002 10:20pm | #7

   *Tommy is right. If you think you can't afford the $500. to do it correctly, then you can't afford to build a house in the first place. An option I have used is to get the sewer/septic hooked up immediatly, and as soon as the house is far enough along, install a temporary stool in the basement bathroom. Add a couple of sheets of OSB and you've even got privacy. This way you only have to pay for a few weeks of port-o-potty rental.

4. 
   Gunner_1750 | Jan 12, 2002 10:47pm | #8

   *Don't provide the port potty. Trades love builders like you. Check the drywall buckets and any container you leave lying around. (It's called sending a message.) And if your gonna enclose the bottom of the stairs you can always wonder where that strange odor is coming from. Oh by the way nobody can resist a new bath tub when there mad. Personaly I wouldn't do it but I've seen it happen plenty of times.

5. 
   Tommy_B. | Jan 13, 2002 12:06am | #9

   *Let's do the top ten reasons for not getting a Jiffy John.I'll start.10. All your friends will be jealous of the pee stains on you window sills.Who's got #9I'll take email suggestions for number 1.

6. 
   David_Mason | Jan 13, 2002 12:20am | #10

   *If your out in the woods then they can go pee on a tree. If they gotta go #2 then give'em a shovel.Half the jobs I work on don't have a porta-potty ,it's no big deal. Dave

7. 
   Mike_Willms | Jan 13, 2002 03:29am | #11

   *Never get a porta-potty on any job I work on. That's okay. Standing in the corner under the deck gives me lots of privacy. Quite rank on those hot days, though. Also like it once the basement is graveled before the slab is poured. Easy to bury my business in loose gravel. Save the cash, just watch where you step.

8. 
   Louis_Wilson | Jan 13, 2002 07:24am | #12

   *Use some of the $500 you save to buy latex gloves so you can go around the job picking up Mountain Dew bottles filled with suspicious liquids. Plus all the other locations listed above. It will happen. Do yourself a big favor and spend the dough on the hut. And make sure it gets serviced regularly by its keepers. That's what you are paying for.

9. 
   Boss_Hog | Jan 13, 2002 02:07pm | #13

   *Ditto what gunner said about the drywall buckets. Boxes too. And sump pits.

10. 
    Gunner_1750 | Jan 13, 2002 03:42pm | #14

    *Good point Boss I forgot the sump pit.

11. 
    rbishop_ | Jan 13, 2002 03:48pm | #15

    *I was on a job once ,the gc wouldn't provide a porta potty for a job that took close to a year. I was on on site for about 5 months with 4 guys. I paid for a potty, then had it picked up when I left. Added the price into my price, gc never knew he ended up paying for it. Bet those guys that were there after me gave him hell.

12. 
    Chester_ | Jan 13, 2002 09:19pm | #16

    *Several years ago I was doing finish work for a builder, and even though he provided a porta-potty, someone kept pissing in the heating vents. (they narrowed it down to the drywall guys or the insulators) This happened in ten or so houses.There is nothing worse than going along installing baseboard moulding on a sub-zero day, and suddenly finding the stench of urine blowing in your face.We always wanted to set up cameras to catch the punks who did it, but we never got around to it. I wanted to hook up a 220 circuit to the vent to really catch 'em in the act, but then they would call me the criminal :-)

13. 
    Johnnie_Browne | Jan 14, 2002 01:35am | #17

    *It written in most permits that porter potty be installed first. I got lucky because father in law lives nextdoor. But buddy block down road got busted with a $500 dollar fine.

14. 
    David_Mason | Jan 14, 2002 02:17am | #18

    *I do have to admit that I did have to use snow for toilet paper one time. It was either that or a spruce tree limb. Actually the snow worked really well and cooled off the hemroids(sp).Dave

15. 
    Don_Papenburg | Jan 14, 2002 04:44am | #19

    *Jester ,go to a farm store and get an electric fence charger , It will learn'em good ,well for about three days they won't want to pee.

16. 
    Mike_Shultz | Jan 14, 2002 11:37pm | #20

    *I would advise against using the underslab gravel for a pit. We had to jack out a garage slab when the odor would not go away after the slab was poured. (The GC provided a porta john but someone was too lazy to go outside to use it.) Another time the plumber was hooking up a vent pipe just as the roofer used it as a waste pipe. I had a boss that used to stand under crane loads. He was cured of this bad habit when a porta john they were lowering down from the third story sprung a leak.

2. 
   rmanbike | Jan 14, 2002 11:38pm | #21

   *
   Can I build my own or pay out 500.00 or more for renting one of those things just to build my house. I say to the building inspectors and subs; their are plenty of trees and a stream in back!