How Weather Impacts Portable Toilet Performance Significantly

How Weather Impacts Portable Toilet Performance and Placement

Weather affects everything; your mood, your hair, your weekend plans… and yes, even your portable toilets. Whether you’re hosting a summer festival or managing a construction site in unpredictable Canadian weather, understanding how the elements affect your sanitation setup can save you from some messy surprises.

1. Hot Weather: The Great Odor Accelerator

As you can imagine, heat plus waste equals accelerated smells in your porta-potty. This can be a problem if there’s a lot of people using that unit and it gets super hot out like it does here in beautiful Muskoka.

There are a few things that can help when it comes to the summer months. The first thing you can do is get a secondary unit added to your site. This alleviates some of the usage off one unit and frees up the team to have a second unit to use. If you have a lot of people on site and don’t have room for a second unit, you can request that your unit gets twice a week servicing. This isn’t possible with every unit as some properties are too far away or off route too far to service more than once a week.

The second and one of the most helpful ways to keep the scent down is to have your units placed in the shade. This makes a world of difference in the summer when the sun is out for a lot longer in the day and the temperature is higher, the shady spot under trees on site may save a lot of your crew’s noses and allow everyone to feel a lot more comfortable.

All the units from Call of The Wild get serviced at least once a week, have great ventilation around all sides of the unit which creates a cross breeze in through the unit which also helps keep the smells down.

2. Cold Weather: The Freezing Challenge

Winter brings its own set of completely opposite issues. Waste can freeze, making pumping difficult and sometimes impossible to complete.

In the winter, you’ll want to use a winter-grade deodorizer that will last throughout the season. You’ll also want to keep your unit placed in a sunny spot that will allow it to be a little warmer for you and your crew to use throughout the colder months of the year.

Speaking of keeping your unit warmer in the winter, there is a product that we at Call of The Wild carry called a ‘blanket’ these are covers that go over your unit to keep it a little warmer inside of the unit throughout the season. They act as literal blankets that insulate the unit and keep some of the cold out during the winter. In the spring when the temperature returns to milder numbers, we will remove the blanket for your unit and bring it back to our shop and get it ready for next year. We also carry a unit that can be hooked up to power or a generator that is fully heated. This may seem a little extravagant for your basic construction needs, however the difference between a cold porta-potty and a warm one when you’ve been working outside in the cold all day, is a big one!

In the winter months, we use a salt-brine mixture that keeps the waste sitting in the tank from freezing into a solid heap in the chamber of the unit. These are for units that need to stay outside throughout the winter months; they must remain in a thawed state so that the waste can get pumped out with each service visit.

3. Rain: The Mud Maker

Rain isn’t a problem when it comes to having a portable toilet on your site, but mud can become a problem when the unit is placed somewhere that our trucks cannot get to on your property. Recently, we had a unit that was supposed to be delivered to the other side of the lawn. When this request was made, we asked if their lawn would be firm enough to drive on. Usually this isn’t too big of a problem but with the high water table in Muskoka, our very heavy trucks with a clean water tank and a sewage tank on the back of the truck, and heavy rain fall, this was a cause for concern. The customer said yes that wouldn’t be an issue.

That Friday rolls around and it’s our driver’s last stop of the day, we get a call from him saying he’s in need of a tow truck, he’s sunk down about six inches into the client’s front lawn. This wasn’t the end of the world, and the client was able to have the unit serviced from the other side of the property.

Avoiding muddy areas can definitely be tricky in Muskoka as there’s more dirt than concrete, especially along the back roads. If the unit can be placed on gravel or pavement, that is always the most ideal situation. If it can’t go on a well made path and has to go on the grass or dirt patch, a good way to stabilize the unit is to place it on a slab of plywood or a skid to keep it balanced and even.

You can also plan out a spot that falls on top of a hill or slight incline so even if we get heavy rainfall, the unit won’t be sitting in a puddle if it does start to rain heavily. This also goes with ensuring the area the unit is put down on has decent drainage if it does have to be put on a flat spot.

No one wants to slip and slide their way into the restroom, so it’s best to take these tips into consideration when planning your next event or construction site.

4. Wind: The Unexpected Tipper

We get a few calls every summer from contractors and homeowners letting us know that their porta-potty has tipped over due to a recent windstorm and they need us to come stand it back up again.

Wind‑proofing tips:

A great tip to ensure your unit stays firmly planted on the ground is to have it pushed up against a building or shed on site. It may feel like against a tree is a good option, but watch for uneven roots or muddy ground which will give the unit even more of a reason to topple over.

Avoiding super open areas or areas on top of hills is good practice as well to cut down on the wind speeds.

If you have no other options but to put the units in these sub-optimal spots, then securing the units with some wooden stakes around each of the three sides without the door is a good way to make sure that your portable toilet stays in place for as long as you need it for.

Final Thoughts

Weather is unpredictable, but your sanitation plan doesn’t have to be. With smart placement and seasonally accurate adjustments, portable toilets can handle whatever Mother Nature throws at them.

If you’re unsure how many units you need or where to place them, we’re always happy to help you plan for any forecast.