THE TEAM
Cleanwoods Portable Toilets has two sites – one in Hope, Maine, and the other on the island of Islesboro. David and Peggy Pike, who started renting portable restrooms in 1998, own both properties. Peggy handles the billing and accounting, David delivers and services units with help from employee Todd Bowman. The Pikes have two part-time employees who serve a 40-mile radius on the mainland and nearby islands.
COMPANY HISTORY
Like many Maine residents, David Pike had many jobs – construction, caretaker and bartender – when a local caterer complained about the serviceshe was receiving and encouraged Pike to invest in portable rest-rooms for events on Islesboro. He bought a couple units at a time, since that was all his trailer could haul. Between events and construction companies he was renting them out as fast as he could bring them home. By 2003, Pike was in the business full time, and the couple purchased a second property in Hope to have a home/office/warehouse on the mainland.
MAKING CONNECTIONS
Initially, Pike thought he would only provide service to the island where he lived, which saved customers the cost of transporting units by ferry. But his contractor customers worked on the mainland too, and they asked him to provide restrooms. At first, Pike had 15 units on the mainland that he cleaned once a week. He realized there was demand for a company that provided good service and paid attention to details.
When a competitor offered to sell his business, Pike was interested. When the competitor sold to someone else, Pike decided to plunge into the business full time. In 2003, he purchased 60 unassembled PolyJohn Enterprises units. He visited construction contractors and Chambers of Commerce and knocked on doors. He’d put a couple restrooms together and almost immediately set them up.
When contractors want Pike to provide units for jobsites on smaller islands, they help line up rides on transporter barges. Since it costs $400 per hour to run the barges, Pike schedules delivery and servicing when other supplies are being delivered. The barges hold up to three dump trucks and two 1-ton trucks.
On larger islands, such as Islesboro, he uses regularly scheduled ferries.
THE ‘MAINE’ EVENT
About 80 percent of Pike’s business is setting up units on construction sites on the peninsulas and islands. The easy part of island work is the barge ride. In some cases, when there is a lot of snow or the access roads are steep, rocky, seaweed- and driftwood-littered beaches, Pike – and other truckers – need to be pulled with skidders to get on the island. “You have to wait in line to get pulled up, and I think, ‘All this trouble to clean three toilets,’” Pike says.
One delivery required him to load and transport a restroom on a John Deere Gator, because there were no roads on the private island. He set the restroom up next to a stone guesthouse and prepped it with chemicals and saltwater from the ocean. When he returned to pick it up, the island caretaker informed him that Bill Gates was the guest.
Pike’s customers include celebrities such as Kirstie Alley and wealthy clients who hire popular bands for party entertainment. Pike uses his carpentry skills to build two-sided lattice fences to hide his high-end flushing portable units with sinks. Customers cover the lattice with lights, balloons and other decorations.
Pike also utilizes his bartending experience to help customers plan for events. He asks many questions about wedding guests, for example.
“One unit may be enough for 75 people for three or four hours,” Pike says. “But if there’s a lot of drinking for five or six hours, one unit is not going to work.” Experience also has taught him to talk to the mother of the bride – not the groom – about where to set up the units in the most discreet places.
BY THE NUMBERS
In addition to the PolyJohn units he assembled, Pike has some Five Peaks Technology and PolyPortables Inc. units, making up an inventory of 180 units.
Eight of the PolyJohn units have flush toilets and sinks. Units earmarked for weddings purposely don’t have any Cleanwoods labeling for a more sophisticated look. Other specialty units are two PolyPortables Boudoir models, six PolyJohn Comfort Inn wheelchair accessible units, one PolyPortables wheelchair accessible unit and four PolyJohn PJN3 units retrofitted with crane lifts that can be moved from shore to boat or barge.
During the summer, he services units with a 1997 Isuzu Tugger from and a 2002 Mitsubishi Tugger from Keith Huber Inc., both with 550-gallon waste/300-gallon freshwater steel tanks. During winter or when access roads are rough, he uses his 2007 4WD 1-ton flatbed GMC with a 300-gallon waste/100-gallon freshwater steel tank built by Slurry Liquidator Corp.
THE ISLAND EXPERIENCE
As a California native, Pike finds Maine’s winters his greatest challenge. He’s been in Maine long enough to adapt, however. One of his biggest events is providing and servicing restrooms for the U.S. National Toboggan Championships in Camden, which attracts thousands of people. He deals with all the cold weather challenges during the three-day event in February.
Pike’s regular routes take him to many mainland communities and up to seven islands. On the mainland, he prefers to service units at construction sites on Sundays when there are no workers or vehicles in the way.
Depending on barges makes it tricky to schedule servicing for units on the islands.
“If it’s windy the barges won’t run,” he says. He adds extra water to island units in case he can’t get back for a couple of weeks due to the weather.
Though outhouses seem like a more practical option in some cases, Pike’s customers are willing to pay for his portable restrooms and service. That includes his barge time, which can range from 30 minutes to a five-hour round trip for islands nine miles out.
MAINE HUMOR
Peggy Pike named the business “Cleanwoods” even before they started it. As an employee for Islesboro, she was aware of complaints that people building new homes didn’t have toilets and were going in the woods. The Pikes’ business takes care of that problem.
Pike notes he took a lot of ribbing when he mixed drinks as a bartender and provided restrooms.
“People used to tell me that, ‘You’re giving it to us and taking it from us,’ ” he says. But he got the last laugh. Instead of three jobs, he runs one successful business that put his kids through college and allows the couple to take winter vacations in “warm places.”
“I love what I do,” Pike says. “This is a great job.”
