Portable Sanitation Association International

PSAI Association Insight, July 7, 2021 I 13 Fiberglass units. Several years after Ed Crafton's "fiberglass missile" failed to launch, the manufacturing of portable restrooms rooms seemed a necessity to keep up with demand. Since fiberglass was already replacing wood in several product lines including boats, this material seemed like the solution for the mass production of portable restrooms to replace the slow, locally made, wood units operators were building largely by hand. As compared to the wood units of the day, these manufacturer fiberglass restrooms would weigh less, be uniform in size and dimensions, be easier to transport and simpler to keep clean. Manufacturing of fiberglass units begins. Numerous plants manufactured fiberglass products in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Portable restrooms would merely be an addition to their product line. Several of the more familiar company names and notable PSAI members were: • Virginia Fiberglass Products – Frank Van Balen • Phil Carter Systems – Frank Ranson • Olympic Fiberglass – Bill Adams • Fiberglass Products – Ned Carpenter • TSF - Gene Barnhardt These and numerous other manufacturers supplied fiberglass units to operators eager to grow their businesses in an expanding market. Interestingly, several operators took a different approach to these new units. Having built their own wood units, these companies opted to have fiberglass units made exclusively for themselves at fiberglass manufacturing locations. Bill Reynolds, Jr with Rent-A-John in Columbus, Ohio relates the following story about his father, Bill Reynolds, Sr., in 1970: "Bill Sr had started the company in 1959 and he had built wooden units to the specifications that his customers wanted and that also made sense to his company to produce. He took the same approach with fiberglass units. In 1970, he purchased the facilities to produce fiberglass units at a location in Athens, Ohio. Every unit made was for his company and for his customers. Any small design changes or improvements could be made easily and quickly." Ned Carpenter and his father, Reese Carpenter, owned Porta-Jon of the Piedmont in Gastonia, North Carolina from the 1970s until the 2010s. Ned purchased a fiberglass facility, Fiberglass Products, in 1985 and produced units for both his company and for other companies as well. Tragically, the facility burned sometime later, and it was not rebuilt. As a portable restroom operator that purchased fiberglass units from several manufacturers, Ray Luden, Sr of Farnham Sanitation Systems in Branford, Connecticut had an advantage over some of his competitors. His son, Ray Luden, Jr with PolyJohn recalls: "From the very beginning after he purchased the company in 1980, my Dad was 100% committed to fiberglass units. He had been in the boating business and had become an expert in repair techniques. He could repair a unit and you couldn't tell the difference." Fiberglass Units – The Bridge Between Wood and Plastic (continued from page 12) (continued on page 15)

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