How do you all deal with the need to use the bathroom while in a customers home? Ask when arriving which bathroom to use and ask permission? Find a bush? Just help yourself if needed? It’s a bit awkward to ask the lady of the house about these things. Thoughts?
Sorry all. Just found a bunch of feedback on the site. Best was Steve “We simply say to the customer, “we’ll be here for several hours, which bathroom do you prefer we use if the need arises?” They will appreciate getting that out of the way up front and then you don’t have to ask to use it later. Teach your people to use the restroom with respect,”
2 Golden rules. Always ask and never #2
- flush.
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About three years ago, working for a company doing a residential window job, I had a new guy working illegally and not speaking much english. It was hard to communicate, and tough to train him, so we kind of just worked in silence and I would walk around and touch up the windows that were butchered.The bathroom was attached to the living room, and the client had some company over that day. I was working in the kitchen and heard him ask in really broken english, “Can I use your bathroom?”.
Instantly the thought, “Oh… no… please don’t Oswaldo”…
15 minutes later, after I am slowly working around on the inside freaked out about what is happening, he comes out and, the stench of death with him. The entire room was flushed out into the entrance with people gasping. One lady had her shirt literally over her face said, “oh my god!”.
There was nothing I could say and just kept my head down, wrapped up the inside and moved to the outside. It was pretty awkward going to deliver the invoice.
I make sure to never be in the situation where I have to use their bathroom out of total fear of this repeating itself again.
Yikes. If I were you, I wouldn’t have delivered the invoice. Just pack up and leave them with a free window cleaning. Maybe ship them a case of air fresheners…
edit- just noticed that this wasn’t your company. You’re a bigger man than I. I would’ve been out of a job for failure to secure payment.
Depends? Van/Car/Truck and have a bottle. Again do not confuse with GG3 later on.
lol 90% of the time i will drive down to the nearest public toilet, or just go home and do it there most of my customers are only 5 mins from my house 
trucker bombs are common in the lions share company vehicles
duces are done between jobs at gas stations.
its in the handbook 
[MENTION=5310]Lsmain[/MENTION]
My hand book is missing a lot of pages for some reason. And missing strips from my t-shirts. LOL
I agree with the ask first and only #1. Unless when using WFP and no other option, guess there was a hose leak. Darn jet came loose again.
Someone should create an app that brings up all the portable toilets in the area…yeah…that’s the ticket!
We simply ask if we can use the bathroom. I guess I’m assuming, but I’ve never received or sensed and negative feedback. Many come out and tell us which one we can use.
4: If you can’t aim straight, clean up the mess!!
A wise old timer learnt me the “bucket trick” for those unfortunate toilet malfunctions. Dump about three gallons into the bowl all at once. that will blow just about any clog loose…
I always try to avoid using customer bathrooms but there are times when it is unavoidable.
From my experience the older female clients (grandma age) have this sense of motherly care about them, its almost as if you are their son and they automatically try to offer you food and point out where the bathroom is, I have taken up their bathroom offers a few times before when I just couldnt hold it in, #1 and #2.
I remember on a job I had to go #2 and a young family with two kids were home, I grabbed my bucket lined it with a hefty trash bag and hopped in the back of my van. Done that more then a few times, I love driving a van.
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For those of you that power wash homes…
Its usually a wet job out here in my neck of the woods, its always hot and sunny out so the water overspray on to my face and body is quite refreshing. When i soft wash the bleach onto the eaves I end up getting a little bit of that bleachy overspray on me too (its always windy) so I will take a water hose and just run it over my entire body to rinse my self of the bleach and also cool off from the hot sun.
That is when I peeee my pants and let the water shower me off. Sure enough after working in the hot sun for another hour my clothes are pretty dry, regardless if I have to peeee again or not I still end up showering myself down 2 or 3 times during the duration of the job.
disclaimer: i do not recommend you peeee in your pants when you are dry.
Being that my father is a plumber and I have grown up in that trade I have never heard that one, its hard to imagine actually doing that especially in a customers home where if it does not work then the poopooo water will overflow on to the ground.
Even if it does work, the initial splash caused by dropping the bucket of water into the bowl will cause the existing dirty water to splash all over the place.
Best option is to use the plunger which most households have in their bathrooms, allow 5-10 minutes for the water to soften the tuuurd and it should clear. if not blame the cat.
can you fill a glass with beer without spilling a drop? do you know the capacity of a typical toilet bowl? do you realize how few bathrooms actually have plungers?
obviously you don’t use this method in every situation (ie. the bowl is nearly full; there is and industrial grade plunger nearby; the homeowner is in the next room drinking tea and eating crumpets). how do they say it…? “another tool in the arsenal”… or something to that effect.
don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.
touchy are we? Since you are so serious then I back my original post up with saying that maybe you shouldn’t be giving advice for problems that you are not qualified to give.
Do you know the potential water damage that can be caused using your suggested method? Those are the type of things that plumbers love to hear because it adds to their list of “stupid things customers do” which warrant an even more important and expensive need for their service.
You obviously have tried it and it works for you, but how do you know what kind of poooop your neighbor across the street is making? I have pulled pooooop hard as a rock out of some toilets, even the 1/2 inch cable auger had a hard time breaking loose.
I have cleared more then a few drains over the years everything from inch and a half residential all the way up to 12 inch commercial. Using everything from a handheld auger up to 15gpm jetters.
For the sake of some innocent passerby here on this forum that does not understand the basic functions of clogged drains but has an increased of confidence because of the statement below…proceed at your own risk!
