Porta potty rental for a backyard party, graduation or quinceañera

When one unit is enough

One portable toilet handles up to 50 guests for about 4 hours, which covers most birthday barbecues, graduation open houses and baby showers. Past 50 guests, past 4 hours, or once a bar opens, the count goes up, and the porta potty calculator does the arithmetic for any guest list.

The rule we use is 1 unit per 50 guests per 4 hours, plus 20% when alcohol is served. Quinceañeras are the exception on this page: a 6-hour reception with dancing and a toast behaves like a small wedding. The wedding rule of 1 unit per 75 seated guests for 5 hours gives 3 units for 150 guests; the general rule scaled to 6 hours with alcohol gives 5 to 6. We quote 5, or one 2-stall trailer.

Add 1 unit for every 50 guests beyond the table, and round up: 1.2 units is 2 units.

Luxury flushing unit or standard

The difference is $100 and a sink. A standard porta potty at $195 is a non-flush unit with a 70-gallon tank, toilet paper, a hand-sanitizer dispenser and a vent stack. The luxury flushing porta potty, also called a deluxe unit, at $295 adds a flush toilet, an interior foot-pump sink with soap and paper towels, a mirror and a solar light that comes on after sunset.

Hosts of a 150-guest quinceañera usually rent one luxury unit for the court and family and standard units for everyone else, or skip porta potties entirely for a 2-stall luxury restroom trailer with flush toilets, hot-water sinks and air conditioning at $2,495 for Friday to Monday. The trailer needs a 12 × 8 ft level pad plus a straight 40-ft approach, so it is a driveway item, not a backyard item.

If a guest uses a wheelchair or walker, the ADA accessible unit at $325 has a 78 × 92 inch floor, ground-level entry and grab bars. Place it on a firm path with no step.

Placement in a yard or driveway

No permit is needed for a porta potty on private property anywhere in the Bay Area. Your backyard, side yard, driveway and front lawn are all yours to use, and the only approval that can apply is private: an HOA. CC&Rs often regulate "temporary structures" visible from the street, so ask your HOA manager for a written yes if you live under one. The permit guide covers HOAs, setbacks and the street case in detail.

Four things decide where the unit goes:

1. Truck access. Our driver wheels the unit from the truck on a hand truck, so we need a clear path at least 36 inches wide with no steps, and a drop point within about 25 feet of where the truck can park.
2. Gate width. The standard unit is 44 inches wide and the luxury unit 47 inches. The gate or opening the unit itself passes through must be at least that wide; a 36-inch gate means the unit sits in the driveway or front yard. Measure the opening, not the gate leaf.
3. Level, firm ground. Concrete, pavers, compacted gravel or dry lawn. Not a slope over about 5%, not soft mulch, not over a septic lid or sprinkler valve box. We carry leveling blocks for a slight grade.
4. Distance from the house. 10 to 20 feet from doors and windows, downwind of the patio, with the door facing away from the dining tables. There is no legal setback on private property; this is practice from servicing units, not code.

The street is different. If the only flat spot is the parking lane in front of your house, the city's right-of-way permit applies: San Francisco's Street Space permit from Public Works, Oakland's Obstruction Permit with No Parking signs posted 72 hours ahead, San Jose's encroachment permit.

Delivery the day before, pickup the day after

The event price covers up to 3 days, which is built for exactly this schedule: we deliver on Friday, your party runs Saturday, we pick up on Monday. The unit arrives clean, stocked and charged with a non-formaldehyde deodorizer, and you do not have to be home as long as the gate is open and the spot is marked. A dropped pin on the exact placement plus a photo of the path saves everyone a second trip.

Delivery and pickup are photographed, GPS-stamped and timestamped, and the record is texted to you, so if the unit has to go in before you get home from work, you see where it stands within a minute. For a graduation weekend in June, book at least a week ahead; for a quinceañera in September, two to three weeks, since the same Saturdays fill with weddings. Trailer prices carry the May–October peak season surcharge of 15%; porta potties and handwash stations do not.

Prices for a backyard party

Every price below is all-in within 25 miles of our Hayward yard: delivery, pickup, a full stock of paper and sanitizer, and tax. That circle covers Hayward, Fremont, Oakland, Berkeley, Palo Alto, Redwood City and 12 more cities. Beyond it we add $3.50 per extra mile each way: San Jose at 28 miles adds about $11 per trip, San Francisco at 30 miles about $18.

The handwash station is the add-on that matters when a taco cart or a caterer is working in the yard: a two-sided, foot-pump sink with 22 gallons of fresh water, no plumbing and no power. Guests wash before the buffet and the caterer washes between tasks, and the $99 is cheaper than hearing about it from the health-conscious aunt. The full pricing page lists every add-on, including the $45-per-hour attendant that larger quinceañeras sometimes book for the trailer.

Get your all-in price for your address in 30 seconds: Instant price · or call (650) 977-2883.

What happens to the waste

Nothing stays on your property. At pickup the truck pumps the tank, and the waste goes to a permitted receiving facility such as EBMUD Resource Recovery in Oakland, which accepts trucked waste 24 hours a day under permit. We are a registered chemical-toilet hauler and dispose only at permitted facilities.

For larger events than a backyard, the weddings page sizes seated receptions and the festivals page covers crowds of 500 and up; the main events page ties the three together.