Site Toilet Hire Guide for Builders and Project Managers

Site toilet hire is a term contract, not a transaction. The units will be on site for months, serviced repeatedly, moved as the build progresses, and invoiced against a purchase order. Brief it accordingly.

Your obligations

Australian WHS legislation requires employers and persons conducting a business or undertaking to provide adequate toilet and handwashing facilities for workers. The regulations and supporting codes of practice describe outcomes — accessible, clean, private, adequate in number — rather than one prescriptive national ratio.

In practice, a widely used planning benchmark is one toilet per 10-15 workers, with handwashing provided alongside. Additional considerations that commonly apply:

• Mixed-gender crews may require separate or clearly lockable facilities.
• Walking distance matters on large or linear sites — a single amenity block at one end of a civil job is inadequate in practice even if the ratio is met.
• Facilities must be maintained in a clean and serviceable state, which is a servicing question, not a procurement one.

Confirm the specifics with your state or territory regulator for the project. This guide is planning information, not legal advice.

Match units to the crew

Give the supplier:

• Usual crew size and peak crew size — these often differ substantially.
• Project duration, so the hire can be structured as a term.
• Whether subcontractors share the facilities, which drives peak usage.
• Trade mix — a concrete pour week looks nothing like a fit-out week.

Larger projects typically need handwash stations, urinals and sometimes showers alongside toilets. A combo unit bundling toilet, urinal and handwash is often better value than hiring each separately.

Plan servicing properly

Servicing is where site hires succeed or fail.

• Weekly is standard: pump-out, clean, restock consumables.
• Twice weekly for large crews, summer conditions, or high-use sites.
• Agree what each service includes — pump-out only, or clean and restock too.
• Confirm who to call when a unit needs an unscheduled service.
• Check whether additional services are charged and at what rate.

An underserviced site toilet becomes a real amenity and morale problem within days, and workers will simply stop using it.

Make delivery and servicing workable for the whole term

Delivery-day access is the easy part. The service truck needs repeatable access for months.

• Firm, level placement that will stay firm through wet weather.
• Truck route that survives the build — will the crane, scaffold or slab block it later?
• Gate widths, overhead obstructions, weight limits.
• Whether crane lifting is needed for high-rise placement.
• After-hours or restricted-window access requirements.

Contract the commercial terms

• Term rate rather than repeated short hires — the rate difference is material.
• Monthly invoicing on account, with PO handling agreed.
• Relocation — included or charged per move?
• Adding and removing units as crew size changes, and notice required.
• Damage and loss responsibility on an open site.
• Notice period for end of hire and collection.

Indicative costs

Item	Weekly
Standard site toilet	$150 – $250
Handwash station	$50 – $100
Urinal pod	$140 – $260
Combo (toilet + urinal + handwash)	$380 – $650
Portable shower	$300 – $480

Full bands are in the portable toilet hire cost guide. To compare construction-focused suppliers, start with site toilet hire.