Porta Potty Forum

75-person crew, all men: can urinals meet OSHA?

Marcus B.asked 1 viewHow Many UnitsUrinalOsha 1926 51Units per personStandard unitCrew size

I'm bidding a six-week commercial job with a 75-person crew, all men. The site is a cleared lot with good truck access. I'm trying to optimize the portable toilet order for cost and efficiency. OSHA 29 CFR 1926.51 requires one toilet seat and one urinal per 40 workers for crews between 20 and 199. That math gives me two toilet seats and two urinals minimum. I'm considering whether standalone portable urinals paired with standard units could meet the requirement instead of all standard units. Has anyone used urinals to reduce the number of full units on a male-only site? Does the inspector count a urinal as meeting the OSHA urinal requirement if it's not part of a standard unit?

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Carl D.Oklahoma City, OK

Yes, a standalone urinal counts as the urinal in the OSHA 1926.51 table, but it never counts as a toilet seat. So for 75 guys your floor is two seats and two urinals, and the seats have to be real enclosed units with a seat.

What we run on all male crews in that size range is two standard units plus a standalone urinal unit. Most standalone urinals have more than one station, so one unit usually covers both urinal positions. Inspectors I've dealt with just walk it and count fixtures. They don't care whether the urinal lives inside a standard unit or out on its own.

The catch is the seats. Two seats for 75 men is legal but it gets ugly by Thursday. Lines at break time and tanks filling faster than the weekly visit can keep up with. The urinal helps a lot there because it takes most of the quick trips off the seated units.

My honest advice is bid two standard units, one standalone urinal, and a handwash station, then watch the first week. If the tanks are heavy at service, add a seat or add a second weekly visit before the crew starts complaining.

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