Are porta potties required on construction sites, even for a two-person remodel crew?

OSHA wants sanitary toilets available to the crew, not a standard portable toilet on every two-person remodel driveway.

29 CFR 1926.51 still applies on construction work, including small residential jobs. For 1 to 20 workers the table calls for at least one toilet. The catch for your Chicago remodels is whether the house bathroom counts as that facility. If the homeowner keeps it open to the crew all day, it is clean enough to use, and nobody is locking you out during work hours, most supers treat that as meeting the rule.

Mobile crews with transportation ready to nearby toilets also get an exemption under 1926.51(c). Two guys who can walk to a working bathroom inside the occupied house are in a similar spot. Where it breaks is when the owners say "use the bathroom only at lunch," the only toilet is upstairs through finished rooms they do not want dirty boots in, or you are on a vacant gut job with water shut off.

On those days we drop a unit. On occupied kitchen jobs with a clear bathroom path we usually do not. Ask your safety person how they want "readily available" documented if a site visit happens.

Tyler covered the exemption. The house bathroom must be truly accessible. OSHA 1926.51(c) requires the facility to be available without delay. If the crew must walk through a clean living area, remove boots, or wait for the homeowner to unlock a door, it is not readily available. I tell my crews to confirm the bathroom is open, has running water, and is on a path that does not require crossing restricted areas. For a two-person remodel, a standard portable toilet on the property eliminates this risk. The service frequency for a small crew is lower, but the rental company still requires weekly access for the vacuum truck.