To pay to hire portaloo for workmen when they could just use the toilet in our house?

[CandidAzureReader]

I'm planning on having some renovation work done in my home which will take about a week to complete. I'm aware that the tradesmen will need to use the toilet while performing the work. I simply can't bear the thought of letting them use our toilet. We have no downstairs toilet, just the one upstairs. I wouldn't want them using a downstairs one even if I had one.

My reluctance in allowing it is due in part to the stories I've read on MN over the years about workmen "shitting nuclear waste" and stinking out the whole house. DH thinks I'm mad to want to hire a portaloo. It would cost around £50 to hire one for a week and around £60 for delivery and removal of the loo. That to me seems a fair price to not have to deal with them using the toilet in the house. What are your thoughts MN?

Don’t need to assume! It’s in the OP. She doesn’t have a downstairs loo.

I loathe it when workmen use my loo, even the downstairs one. If they have to go upstairs to yours, presumably they'd be covered in dust, paint etc and that would be traipsed everywhere as well.

If they're doing a week's work £110 would presumably be a tiny proportion of what you're paying. I'd hire it and think it money well spent. In my area it seems standard for work lasting more than a couple of days for them to bring their own anyway. Although I suppose I assume they bring their own, of course the owners could have organised and paid for it, but most jobs have a portaloo outside it seems.

I've never cleaned tradesmen's excrement or urine either.
Clearly I've had very clean tradies!

I think it's exactly the same. However, we'll just need to agree to disagree.
I've made my points, I just don't get it.
Good luck with your tradesmen, everyone! 👋

OK fair enough I missed that.

I'd be more focused on the carpets than the loo but yes I'd hire one

I would always allow a fellow human being to use my loo, especially if they were stuck at my place.
As someone who has had a lifetime of IBS I have always been grateful for the kindness of others when I have been caught short.

Yes agree. It’s not just the wee/poo.

I’ve not had a terrible experience thankfully but can guarantee that every male tradesperson that has used my loo has always left a few drips. And who has to clean that up?

I know in the grande scheme of things and current state of the world it’s nothing. But if I can pay a bit - I’d do it.

also wouldn’t like them coming up and down from a privacy standpoint

I'm in a hotel now, went to the hotel in the lobby area, 4 cubicles, all had skid marks in the bowl, couple had toilet paper on the floor and one smelt like a farm so remember that women are the same as men and shit just the same as them and clearly don't leave them clean.

This is a prime example of uptight princesses on mumsnet that you never come across in real life influencing others into thinking this kind of thing is normal. I've never met a single human being in real life that would ever consider getting a portaloo whilst getting some work done in your house.
It's not your fault though, as you said you have been scared by the hyacinth bucket parade!

The only thing I/tradespeople have ever been concerned about is my cream carpet on the stairs to get to the toilet which they completed covered and cleared at the end of each day

i do wonder how people deal with dirty toilets from tradespeople. I've never had this and I would have sent them back upstairs to clean it up

But I didn’t have to clean these public loos. They weren't in my home bathroom with all my stuff in and the rest of the family’s, getting mucky with use by multiple people. What is exactly the same, exactly?

Anyway, the cost quoted in the op makes it a no brainier for a week job as a PP has said.

PS. Who usually cleans the bathroom OP?

You hear the bad stories on MN, but they aren't that common. It's just no one starts a thread saying we had a workman ask to use the loo and I couldn't tell afterwards!

But having people traipsing upstairs might be a bit problematic if you WFH or have young kids or something. If the work you're getting done is taking a week of multiple workmen, it's probably costing a fair bit and another £110 probably isn't that significant, so might well be worth it. I believe you'll also need to provide soap and water for handwashing (not just gel cleaner), so make sure that's covered too or you have something suitable outside.

Mumsnet is the only place I have ever heard of workmen not being able to use a toilet properly. I’ve had plenty of workmen and never had an issue.

YABU

I've let plenty of men use my toilet (ex-Catholic Convent School girl).

I don't know where you live but near me almost all jobs lasting more than a few days nowadays seem to have a portaloo outside.

If there's an opportunity for workmen/women to use a portaloo rather than the house loo I don't know why anyone would rather they went indoors.

I view workmen as a necessary evil to do work which I can't do myself. I don't like them or want them there. I'm polite and give them plenty of tea and biscuits but I don't want to have anything more to do with them than necessary, and that includes using my loo.

When we had work done a portaloo just turned up arranged by the builders. There wasn’t even a discussion.

Don’t let them use your loo.
Hire .

We had a team of workmen in for a couple of weeks & the Portaloo was included in the price. We also had a delivery guy ask if he could use it!

I'd get one in your circumstances. Some workmen ask to use our loo; others don't ask even when they're here all day: I think they just drive somewhere at lunchtime. Well, I hope they do, & they don't do what a neighbour's delivery team did. My cctv caught them relieving themselves in my front garden!

Clearly you have. I have had a blocked toilet, pee over my seat and floor and our bath towels used as hand towels when we had trades people in as well as one of them heard wandering around upstairs having a look in through the bedroom doors. Never again. Having one person do a job is different from having a team of them at your house when you may not even be there.

My experience after 9 years of house renovations is they always piss on the floor.

Portaloos can get really cold. Pretty horrible idea to be honest.

Will you be making them tea in special workmen's mugs too? My mum had these, two of them, set apart from the cups and saucers in the crockery cupboard. It mystified me as a child in the 1960s and 1970s.

Now I'm grown up, I understand that no respectable person wants to run the risk of germs from sub-humans contaminating their china or their porcelain, and passing nasty infections on to their children.

Going on holiday and public transport makes me quite anxious, because you might encounter tradesmen there too, and have to sit on the same seat or swim in the same water as them. The trouble is, they might not be wearing their tradesmen's clothes, so how would you recognise them?

Then I remember that 120 years ago, one of my great grandmothers was living with her husband and 10 children in a three-room back-to-back, with a lodger, the men grimey from sitting at a lathe forging blades for hours every day.

Actually, workmen's mugs are a good idea simply because stuff used outside easily gets chipped or broken. I've lost a few mugs that way, & it's easier all round if you don't care about them. It's nothing to do with snobbery. When buying them, make sure to get a variety of colours or designs, to differentiate drink orders.

You do need to be careful - given half the chance 'workmen' will rub their hairy, sweaty arses on doorways and soft furnishings to mark their territory. Also once the job is finished make sure all the workmen have actually gone - I've heard stories of workmen hibernating in the basements of houses they really like and only being discovered in spring. Make sure you don't leave any cans of Monster or copies of The Sun lying around as this attracts workmen.

We’re lucky to have a downstairs loo now and the hall is not carpeted, so there’s no problem with boot marks, but before that we just let people use the main bathroom. We’ve had a loft conversion and back extension as well as plastering work, electrical work, wardrobes fitted etc. Over all that time there was only incident where a young apprentice was in the loo for quite a while, clearly not feeling great, and I overheard the boss telling him he’d better not have left a mess. The only smell was the result of about half a bottle of Tesco toilet gel that he’d used to clean the loo. There’s no way my DH would agree to spending £100 on hiring an outside loo.