Spiffy biffy Party Poopers no more, these guys will rent you a luxury loo for your outdoor social event By: Bill Redekop  Posted: 7:00 PM CST Friday, Feb. 15, 2019

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/02/2019 (2044 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Potty on, Garth. Potty on, Wayne.

And now Manitobans can potty on, too.

Potty On Luxury Washroom Rentals, punning on the Wayne’s World skit from TV show Saturday Night Live, bills itself as Manitoba’s luxury porta-potty service.

The company’s previous name, under its first owner, was Party Pooper. Some other possible names not used: Have Outhouse-Will Travel, Royal Flush, Game of Thrones, and Golden Toilet, with a nod to the solid gold facility at the Guggenheim Museum.

“It’s a little business we thought we’d take on to subsidize our retirements,” said co-owner Paul Levreault, 47.

Levreault is an electrician by trade while his business partner, with a nod to the old Bob Newhart show (“This is my brother Daryl, and this is my other brother Daryl”), is one of four friends he has named Daryl — in this case Daryle Kaskiw, with an ‘e’, who by day runs company, Crackerjack Construction.

Their washrooms come complete with his and her units and flush toilets.

Another company in town has trailer toilets for construction sites. Potty On is for outdoor social events: everything from outdoor weddings to golf matches, from anniversary parties to baseball tournaments.

“We try not to rent it for job sites because it’s more on the upscale,” said Levreault.

Often it’s for occasions where people may dress more formally.

“They’re for people who are dressed up and don’t want to go in those plastic, job-site porta-potties,” he said. “It gives you enough room so that if you’re wearing a dress you don’t have to worry about it getting dirty” like with portable toilets.

Kaskiw was introduced to the spiffy biffies by a friend of his brother-in-law in the Parkland area, where the luxury porta-potty served Westman for five years.

“As soon as I saw it, I said I wanted in,” Kaskiw said, meaning in on purchasing not in as in having to use it. He and Levreault purchased the trailer and started renting it last fall.

“I’d never seen anything like it before. Compared to the little blue porta-potties, this was like heaven.”

Most people have similar responses when they enter the six-foot by six-foot washroom, he said. “When people first walk into it, they’re like wow! It’s like walking into your home washroom.”

Once the outside temperatures warm up, owners will be hauling their toilets on 20-foot trailers to various farm or rural residential locations. They drop them off on a Friday and pick them up Monday.

It can serve a crowd of to 250 people. In a case of too much information, Levreault said the women’s septic tank tends to be fuller than the men’s. It seems some men still find bushes make the best commode, he said.

The luxury washrooms are heated or air conditioned, depending on the season, with lighting, full mirrors, and hot and cold running water. The women’s biffy is stocked with various amenities from hairspray and tissue paper to disposable toothbrushes. The men’s includes a urinal as well as a toilet.

Potty On was recently at the annual wedding show in Winnipeg. “We rented space for three booths and brought the whole trailer. The response was really good,” Levreault said.

The owners just bought a second trailer that arrives in six weeks.

“It’s also not having to open your house for everyone having to use the bathroom,” Levreault said.

Its website is www.pottyonrentals.com. The cost is $875 before tax and $1 per kilometre for drop-off and pick-up. Most rentals cost in the $1,000 to $1,100 range before tax, he said.

ck-up. Most rentals cost in the $1,000 to $1,100 range before tax, he said.

If this “spiffy biffy” story sounds familiar, it’s probably because you may have caught wind of King’s Services, the Headingley-based operation that supplied the Winnipeg Jets’ whiteout parties with port-a-potties, handwashing stations and was featured in the Free Press last year.

In growing the business, owner Steven Moon described — let’s call it his pee-de-resistance —  an upscale portable toilet dubbed the King Jon that would put most people’s home restrooms to shame. Manufactured in the States, the five-metre-long trailer unit carries a US$50,000 price tag and features five individual stalls, a granite countertop, gooseneck faucets and porcelain sinks. 

“They’re great for corporate events or golf tournaments, plus there are a lot of wedding planners who put value on having great toilets, if the couple is getting married outside or in the country or whatever,” Moon said.

“The one thing I will say: If you have terrible toilet facilities, no matter what the event, you will get complaints,” he added. “So when you give people the option of models that smell great and aren’t as hot as a greenhouse, they’ll see the value in paying five-times the cost of a plastic toilet to rent it.”

— With files from David Sanderson

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca