For a construction crew, plan on 1 toilet for every 20 workers under OSHA 1926.51(c). For an event, plan on 1 unit per 50 guests for a 4 hour event, more if you're serving alcohol. Portland Porta Pros builds your count around headcount, hours and whether beer is involved.
Start with the crew size and let OSHA do the math. Under OSHA 1926.51(c), a site with 20 workers or fewer needs 1 toilet facility. Climb past 20 and you need 1 toilet seat plus 1 urinal per 40 workers, and once you hit 200 workers the ratio eases to 1 seat and 1 urinal per 50. A 15-person framing crew in Portland needs exactly one standard portable toilet. A 60-person site crosses into the 40-worker bracket and needs two units. Add a third if the crew works two shifts on the same footprint, since a unit serviced for an 8 hour shift gets hit twice as hard across 16. OSHA 1926.51(a)(1) also requires potable water on site, so pair your toilet order with a handwashing station rental rather than treating it as optional. Multi-story builds and large lots change placement logic too; check the porta potty placement guide before you lock a location. If you're bidding a job now, run your numbers against the porta potty rental checklist so nothing gets missed at permit time.
| Workers on site | Toilets required |
|---|---|
| 1 to 20 | 1 toilet facility |
| 20 to 39 | 1 toilet seat + 1 urinal per 40 workers |
| 40 to 199 | scales at the 40-worker ratio |
| 200 or more | 1 toilet seat + 1 urinal per 50 workers |
That's the full bracket structure under OSHA 1926.51(c)(1). Worked example: a 90-person site in Milwaukie, 8.3 miles south of Portland, falls in the 40-to-199 band and needs units scaled to that ratio, not a flat count. Most Portland crews rent standard units for this, and if the crew includes any painters or anyone using coatings, herbicides or insecticides, washing facilities under OSHA 1926.51(f)(1) kick in separately from the toilet count. That's a contaminant-specific rule, not a general handwashing mandate, so don't confuse it with 1926.51(a)(1). If your job needs an accessible unit for a worker with a mobility need, ADA Standards 213.2 requires at least one accessible unit in any cluster, even a two-unit cluster.
| Guests | 4 hours | 8 hours |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 2 units | 3 units |
| 250 | 4 units | 6 units |
| 500 | 8 units | 11 units |
Events run on a different math than jobsites because everyone shows up in the same window instead of spreading out across a shift. A wedding for 150 guests over 5 hours in Lake Oswego, 12.5 miles south of Portland, lands close to the 4 to 6 unit range once you account for the extra hour. Add one unit for every 2 hours past the first 4, and add an ADA accessible porta potty once your guest count clears roughly 50 people, per ADA Standards 213.2. Serving alcohol changes the curve fast: build in 20 to 30 percent more units, because beer and wine push visit frequency up regardless of guest count. A multi-day festival needs a servicing plan, not just more toilets, since ANSI/PSAI Z4.3 sets a weekly service baseline for light use, and a three-day event blows past that fast. For weddings specifically, see wedding restroom rental, and for anything drawing a real crowd, check festival restroom rental or concert restroom rental for the heavier-traffic version of this table.
Yes. Alcohol increases bathroom visits, so add roughly a quarter more units than the dry-event number above. A 250-guest party with an open bar in Portland should plan closer to 5 units for a 4 hour block instead of 4. Longer events compound this further: a beer festival running 6 hours needs both the extra alcohol buffer and the extra-hours adjustment stacked together. If the event runs past dark, pair your restrooms with a light tower rental so the line and the path to the units stay lit. For anything upscale, a deluxe flushable porta potty or a small restroom trailer rental handles higher per-unit traffic better than a standard unit under sustained alcohol-driven use.
Dumpster sizing runs on cubic feet of volume and tons of weight capacity, and mixing the two up is the most common ordering mistake.
| Size | Length | Volume | Typical weight capacity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 yard | 12 to 14 feet | about 270 cubic feet | lighter debris loads |
| 20 yard | 20 feet | about 540 cubic feet | mid-range tonnage |
| 30 yard | 22 feet | about 810 cubic feet | heavier tonnage, check with hauler |
| 40 yard | 22 feet | about 1,080 cubic feet | highest tonnage in the lineup |
A 10 yard box runs about 12 to 14 feet long, a 20 yard runs about 20 feet, and both 30 and 40 yard containers run about 22 feet but stand taller to add volume. Tonnage depends on what's going in the box, since concrete and roofing shingles weigh far more per cubic foot than framing scrap, so confirm your load type against dumpster weight limits before you order. A remodel in Hillsboro, 17.8 miles west of Portland, generating mixed debris usually calls for a 20 yard dumpster rental, while a full teardown leans toward the 30 yard dumpster rental or 40 yard dumpster rental. People often ask how many cubic feet in a 10 yard dumpster versus how many cubic feet in a 20 yard dumpster, and the answer is roughly 270 against roughly 540, which is also why how many feet is a 20 yard dumpster comes up so often, since the extra volume comes from added length as much as height. Tonnage questions follow the same pattern: how many tons does a 20 yard dumpster hold and how many tons can a 30 yard dumpster hold both depend on material density more than box size, and how many tons does a 40 yard dumpster hold is the highest tonnage question in the lineup precisely because it's the largest box offered. Full dimensions for every size live on dumpster sizes and dimensions.
Multi-day events need a service plan layered on top of the headcount math, not just a bigger one-time order. A two-day county fair with 5,000 daily visitors in Portland needs both a high unit count and a mid-event pump-out, since no cluster of portable toilets holds three days of heavy traffic on one tank. Standard units carry a 60 to 70 gallon holding tank, so run the numbers on expected visits per unit per day before committing to a count. For anything running more than a single day, build service visits into your order the way ANSI/PSAI Z4.3 recommends for sustained use, and consider a restroom trailer rental or an 8 stall restroom trailer if the guest count runs high across multiple days. Camping and farm events run different math entirely; see camping porta potty or farm and agricultural restrooms for those specifics, and agricultural crews should check OSHA 1928.110, which sets a separate field sanitation ratio for hand-labor employees.
| Unit | Day | Week | Month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | $100 to $350 | $130 to $500 | $125 to $325 |
| ADA | $200 to $400 | -- | -- |
| Deluxe | $85 to $1,200 | $150 to $290 | -- |
Multiply your unit count by the rental window that matches your job or event, not the other way around. A 5-unit jobsite order running a month prices differently than the same 5 units for a single weekend, so check porta potty rental per day against monthly porta potty rental before you commit to a term. Delivery fees, service fees and any weekend premiums sit outside the base unit price, and a full breakdown lives on porta potty rental cost. If your count includes any accessible units, price them from the ADA accessible porta potty page since that rate band runs separately from standard units.
Plan on 2 units for a 4 hour event and 3 for an 8 hour event, based on the standard 1-per-50-guests ratio. Add one more if you're serving alcohol. A backyard party in Portland with a keg and a 5 hour window should round up to 3 rather than sticking at 2.
OSHA sets it by worker count, not a strict per-person ratio: 1 toilet for up to 20 workers under OSHA 1926.51(c), then 1 seat and 1 urinal per 40 workers above that. A 35-person crew still only needs 1 unit until it crosses 40.
Yes. ADA Standards 213.2 requires at least one accessible unit whenever units are clustered, even a two-unit setup. There's no small-cluster exemption, so budget for one accessible unit from the start rather than adding it later.
It depends on material density more than volume, since a 30 yard box holds about 810 cubic feet but tonnage swings hard between light debris and heavy material like concrete or shingles. Check dumpster weight limits before loading and confirm your material type with the hauler.
A 20 yard dumpster runs about 20 feet long and holds roughly 540 cubic feet of volume. Full width and height specs are on dumpster sizes and dimensions, which matters for driveway and street placement in tighter Portland lots.
Yes, because guests return across multiple days and tanks fill faster than a single-day estimate accounts for. A two-day event should add service visits mid-run rather than just multiplying the one-day unit count by two, especially with alcohol service pushing visit frequency higher.
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