Washing Quarters

Temporary work sites must have hot and cold running water for bathing and laundry. (This means that the living space must also have the proper facilities to heat this water.) There must also be facilities for drying clothes.

29 CFR 1910.142(f) provides the ratios for laundry, handwashing, and bathing facilities. These ratios are as follows:

• One handwashing basin per family shelter
• One handwashing basin per six people in shared facilities
• One shower head for every 10 people
• One laundry tray or tub for every 30 people
• One slop sink (for laundry, hand washing, and bathing) in each building
• Floors must be made from smooth (but not slippery) materials.
• Floors must be made from materials that are impervious to moisture.
• All shower baths, shower rooms, or laundry rooms must have floor drains.
• All junctions of the curbing and the floor shall be covered.
• Shower room walls must be "smooth and impervious to the height of splash."

29 CFR 1926.51 (titled "Safety and Health Regulations for Construction; Sanitation") provides requirements for soaps and towels. This standard states that "hand soap or similar cleansing agents shall be provided" and that "Individual hand towels or sections thereof, of cloth or paper, air blowers or clean individual sections of continuous cloth toweling, convenient to the lavatories, shall be provided."

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