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High-rise site: what if the porta potty door freezes shut in winter?

Hector V.asked 1 viewConstruction & Job SitesHigh rise unitWinterizationVandalismConstruction siteAda unit

We're running a high-rise project in Chicago, 20 floors up. Nights drop below freezing, and the wind up here is brutal. We've got a cluster of standard units and one ADA-compliant unit for a crew of 80. They're on a concrete slab, no enclosure, and the service truck can't reach this level, everything comes by crane. Last week, two doors froze shut overnight. The crew had to use the ground-floor units until noon, which wasted time. We're on weekly service, but the cold seems to beat the deodorizer. How do you keep the doors from freezing? Do we need to switch to deluxe units with better seals, or is there a trick with the latches?

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Tyler R.Columbus, OH

The doors freeze because moisture gets into the latch and the door gap and sets overnight, so the fix is keeping water out of the hardware, not switching units. Deluxe units use the same style of door and latch as a standard unit, so a swap alone won't solve it.

What worked for us on winter jobs:

  1. Ask the service tech to wipe the door edge and latch dry at every visit and skip spraying down the outside of the doors when it's below freezing.
  2. Have the last guy out each shift make sure every door is latched shut. A door left cracked catches blowing snow in the frame, and that is what welds it closed.
  3. Turn the cluster so the doors face away from the wind, or tuck the units behind stacked material or a tarp wall. With no enclosure up there, the windward side glazes over first.
  4. Ask your operator about a winter charge in the holding tank. That won't help the door, but it keeps the tank from turning into a block between weekly visits, which is probably why the deodorizer seems to quit.
  5. Keep a can of lock deicer in the foreman's gang box.

Give the ADA unit the same treatment. If that door freezes, your accessible option is gone. And throw salt or sand on the slab in front of the doors at start of shift, because the ice there is a slip waiting to happen.

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