Porta Potties · Dumpsters · Storage Containers — University City & West Philadelphia, Philadelphia
Porta Potty, Dumpster & Storage Container Rental in University City & West Philadelphia
West Philadelphia runs on two kinds of construction. Along the Schuylkill, the universities and hospitals keep cranes in the air year after year: labs, student housing, clinical buildings and the parking garages that go with them. West of 40th Street, the Victorian twins and rowhomes of Spruce Hill, Cedar Park and Kingsessing get rehabbed one at a time, often by the owner. Both pull permits all year, and both need restrooms, a dumpster and somewhere to lock the tools.
Where We Work in West Philadelphia
University City
The campus and hospital district from the river to about 40th Street: large, fenced institutional sites with laydown areas, where a 40 yard box on swaps and a 40 foot container inside the fence are routine, and the restroom count has to follow a crew that can run into the hundreds.
Powelton Village & Mantua
Student housing conversions and new apartment buildings north of Market Street, mixed with rehabs of the big Victorian houses along Powelton and Baring. Demolition permits are common here as older houses make way for larger buildings.
Spruce Hill & Cedar Park
Three-story twins and rowhomes with porches, slate roofs and plaster walls, rehabbed by owners and small contractors. Many have driveways or rear access from an alley, which keeps a 20 yard box off the street.
Kingsessing & Southwest Philadelphia
Rows along Baltimore Avenue, Chester Avenue and Woodland Avenue with steady rehab and roofing work and investor turnovers that need a short dumpster rental and a fast pickup.
Clark Park & the Baltimore Avenue Corridor
Farmers markets, festivals and neighborhood events in and around Clark Park, plus the restaurants and shops along Baltimore Avenue, where a storefront fit-out needs a box for a week and a container for the fixtures.
The Work That Keeps West Philly Busy
Campus & Hospital Construction
Multi-year institutional jobs with large crews, strict site logistics and a gate the truck has to clear. Units on the working floors, swaps on a schedule, and a container that serves as the job's warehouse.
Victorian Rehabs
Slate, plaster and old-growth framing come out heavy, and the houses are big. A 20 or 30 yard box in the driveway or at the curb, a porta potty for the crew and a container for the trim package that arrives early.
Student Housing Turnover
Every summer the apartment buildings around the campuses turn over at once, with cleanouts, paint and repairs on a deadline. A 10 or 20 yard box for a few days, dropped and pulled on the dates you set.
Working Around the Campuses
A job near a campus or a hospital lives with deliveries, buses, pedestrians and a street grid that doesn't forgive a truck in the wrong lane. Tell us the gate, the hours the site can take a delivery and whether the box sits inside the fence, and we'll schedule the drop and the swaps for the windows that work. For an owner rehabbing a twin in Cedar Park, the answer is usually simpler: the dumpster in the driveway or on the alley side, the porta potty beside it, and no Streets permit needed. See Contractors & Job Sites for how the three products fit the phases of a build.
The Summer Turnover
West Philadelphia runs on an academic clock, and the busiest two weeks of the year for anyone renting a dumpster here fall between the last lease ending at the end of July and the first new tenant arriving in late August. Hundreds of apartments and student houses from Powelton to Cedar Park turn over at once, and every one of them produces a load: the furniture the last tenants left, the carpet that's coming out, the kitchen the landlord finally replaced. Boxes get scarce, parking spaces get scarcer, and the Streets Department's permit desk is busier than any other month. The landlords who do well book in June: a 20 yard box per building or per block of houses, scheduled by address for the days between leases, swapped as they fill, with the Temporary No Parking permits applied for a week ahead. The ones who call on August 1 take what's left.
The same turnover produces the year's cleanout work: a whole house of a departing tenant's belongings, bagged and carried out in a day. A 20 yard box handles a three-story student house; a 10 yard handles an apartment or two. Loading matters on a block where the box is in a parking lane: everything in through the door and under the rail, so the driver can tarp it and the box leaves on schedule. Our What Size Dumpster Do I Need guide has the arithmetic for a cleanout.
Victorian Twins: Slate, Plaster and a Side Yard
The three-story twins of Spruce Hill, Cedar Park and Squirrel Hill are the best thing about renovating here and the heaviest. A slate roof is three or four times the weight of shingles per square, and a twin's roof is big; plaster on wood lath covers every wall of a house that may be 3,000 square feet; and the old-growth framing that comes out of an opened wall is dense, long and awkward. Sized by volume, a 30 yard box looks right for a gut; sized by weight, it's two 10 yard heavy-debris boxes for the slate and plaster, filled to their marked lines, plus a 20 for the lumber and the drywall that follows. One overloaded 30 that can't be lifted costs more in a stuck box and a dry run than the extra delivery ever would.
What these houses have that rowhomes don't is a side yard and, often, a driveway between the twins. That's the placement. The box sits in the drive or at the side, inside the lot line, with no Streets Department permit needed; the porta potty goes beside the garage or at the back of the yard, out of the neighbors' sight and reachable by the service truck's hose from the street; and a 10 or 20 foot container fits the drive on a long renovation where the millwork and fixtures arrive ahead of the rooms. The one caution is the trees. The blocks were planted a century ago, and the canopy over a driveway is often lower than the 14 feet a roll-off truck needs to raise its bed. Walk the drive before the delivery date and tell us what's overhead.
Campus Rules, Hospital Hours and the Baltimore Avenue Calendar
The institutional work from the river to 40th Street runs on the institutions' rules. A campus or hospital job site has a designated gate, a delivery window the facilities office sets, a site logistics plan that says where a box can sit and when it can be swapped, and security that expects the truck on the list. The dumpster is usually a 30 or 40 inside the fence on a swap schedule, the container a 40 foot box in the laydown area as the job's stockroom, and the units follow the crew as the building rises, with high-rise units on the upper floors of a tower draining to a holding tank. Tell us the gate, the window and the contact, and the deliveries land in the window instead of in the queue of trucks waiting at the hospital's dock.
Baltimore Avenue and Clark Park carry the neighborhood's events: the weekly farmers market, the spring and fall festivals, the Dollar Stroll, the block parties and the runs that start in the park. Those need units in a cluster at the edge of the park or at one end of the closed block, an accessible unit with them on a path a wheelchair can use, a hand wash station if there's food, and a pickup the morning after. The campus commencements and the fall move-in put bigger crowds on the lawns and lots, with the university's event office setting the counts and the placements. Our How Many Porta Potties Do I Need guide has the planning table.
What We Deliver in University City & West Philadelphia
- Porta Potty Rental in PhiladelphiaStandard and deluxe porta potties, ADA-accessible units, hand wash stations and luxury restroom trailers for the ground floor, plus high-rise units and holding tanks for the upper floors and the office trailer, all on weekly service.
- Dumpster Rental in Philadelphia10, 20, 30 and 40 yard roll-off dumpsters for demolition, gut rehabs, roofing, cleanouts and new construction, with heavy-debris boxes for concrete and brick, swaps on call, and the rental days and weight allowance stated on every quote.
- Storage Container Rental in Philadelphia10, 20, 40 and 48 foot steel shipping containers for job site tools, materials, fixtures and office overflow, set on the ground where you point, locked and dry, with shelving and lighting on request, rented by the month and picked up when the job is done.
University City & West Philadelphia FAQ
Can you supply a large institutional site in University City?
Yes. Fenced sites get a 40 yard box on a swap schedule, restrooms sized to a crew that can run into the hundreds, with units on the upper floors, and a container inside the fence.
Does a dumpster in my Cedar Park driveway need a street permit?
No. A dumpster on your own property needs Philadelphia's L&I dumpster license, not the Streets Department's right-of-way permit. The street permit applies when the box sits on the sidewalk or in the street.
Do you rent restrooms for events in Clark Park?
Yes. A park event with 50 or more people goes through Parks & Recreation's Large Event permit and the city's portable toilet permit; we provide the unit counts, accessible units and hand wash stations the applications ask for.
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