I have a standard portable toilet on the 15th floor for a crew of 40. The elevator is scheduled for maintenance next week, which means the vacuum truck can't pump it. We have a weekly service contract, and I don't want a missed service log or an overflowing unit. Has anyone dealt with this? What are the options when the elevator is out? Do I need to reschedule the service, or is there another way to handle the waste?
Call the rental company now and either move the service visit before the elevator goes down, or put a temporary ground-level standard portable toilet on site for that week.
On a high-rise, the vacuum truck hose and crew need elevator access to the floor where the unit sits. Fifteen floors of hose from the street is not a real option for a normal weekly pump. If the freight car is locked out for maintenance, that upstairs unit does not get pumped unless you rearrange access.
What usually works on jobs I have been on:
1. Pull the service forward into the last full day the elevator runs, then resume the week after.
2. Drop a spare unit at street level for the outage window so the crew of 40 still has a working toilet while the upstairs tank sits sealed.
3. If maintenance only blocks freight for part of a day, ask building ops for a short window the vac crew can use and put that time on the ticket.
Do not let the upstairs tank run past its normal cycle with forty people on it. A missed pump on a busy floor fills fast, and once it is past the fill line you are dealing with odor and a shut unit. Flag the outage on the service ticket so it does not look like a no-show on your contract log.
Also confirm whether the freight car has weight limits or after-hours rules the vac crew needs noted before they show up.
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