Designing Your Bathrooms For The Craft

Designing Your Bathrooms for the Craft: Why It Sets the Tone for Your Jobsite

In this blog, we’re going to dive into something that might not seem groundbreaking at first—bathrooms on the jobsite. But hear me out. If you care about quality, safety, and culture, then how you design and maintain your bathrooms says everything about your leadership.

Let’s be real—if you want to start lean, you start in the bathroom. Paul Akers says it, and I stand by it. The way your site treats workers—starting with restrooms—sets the tone for everything else.

Early Planning Is Key:

During Pre-Construction, we should identify where we’ll place portable restrooms—with hand wash stations, trash cans, and either shade tents or heated enclosures for cold weather. Ideally, we also consider temporary bathroom trailers that truly take care of our craft professionals.

One commitment we’ve made as a company? The management team doesn’t get separate restrooms. We use the same facilities as the craft. If it’s not good enough for us, it’s not good enough for them.

Industry Shoutouts: We’re Moving in the Right Direction:

It’s been encouraging to see quality setups on jobsites. On a recent trip, I saw a DPR site in Phoenix and an Oakland site that had completely dialed in restrooms—clean, shaded, and clearly well thought out. That’s the gold standard. And the best part? We don’t need regulations or unions to force us into caring—we can do it because it’s the right thing.

Options That Work:

We use rentable restroom trailers when possible—clean, well-kept, and available for male and female workers. When that’s not feasible, porta potties (or “honey buckets” as I call them) with hand wash stations and trash cans are totally fine—as long as they’re well-maintained.

Let’s get this straight: three cleanings per week is the minimum. Don’t let your service provider talk you into more units instead of more cleanings. Clean matters more.

Other Considerations:

• Shade and weather protection are critical—no one wants to use a restroom that’s freezing or sweltering.
• If it’s not suitable for your grandma, it’s not suitable for your crew.
• Bathrooms should be conveniently located on the logistics plan, and if you need more units, get them.

Final Thoughts:

Design your bathrooms during Pre-Construction. Get them into the budget. Make them a priority. Because how you treat your workers is how they’ll treat your site. And how your site looks and feels is how your client will experience your work.