Shipping Containers

[Shox Dr]

I was referring to fridge units when I suggested modifying.

The most difficult part would be the floor in a fridge unit, reuse of the aluminium profiles,
will help it look easy on the eye, secure and waterproof, unit for not a lot of cash.

I'd stay away from portable cabins unless you know what you are looking at. As they can be hiding big problems such as rotten chassis, along with leaking roofs and sides.

I've just multiplexed 4 12x4mtr units, taken from a school, they looked like good units, until it rained.

Then there were the walls, no wonder the HIAB driver thought they were heavier than he was told. They had been overboarded twice. Hiding and holding all that lovely water from the leaking skin.​

Not saying a fridge unit can't be rotten either, make sure they don't have shoddy repairs inside, rotting fish is not what you want on a hot summers day, or any other day for that matter

 

[PhillipM]

A welding firm at the bottom of my estate works out of two steel containers and does so brilliantly. One is a 20footer and the other a 40footer, about 8 feet apart with cladding as a roof over the void. Because of this he pays hardly any rent as he started out with just yard space the lucky sod

Our workshop is 8 containers in a two story U-shape (double width at the back closed side) with a roller door tacked on the front of the open side and clad over the roof, so we have a big double story 40x40 space up front plus containers around 3 edges and two stories. Bit chilly come winter mind, but the containers still have the thick wooden floors which helps.

 

[Wedg1e]

Then there were the walls, no wonder the HIAB driver thought they were heavier than he was told.

We've converted ISOs into mobile darkrooms and x-ray cabins; the xray ones are lead-lined (up to 24mm thick) - the last one was 9 Tonnes, the collecting driver thought we were pulling his leg when he looked in the window and saw two empty rooms

 

[Wedg1e]

Our workshop is 8 containers in a two story U-shape (double width at the back closed side) with a roller door tacked on the front of the open side and clad over the roof, so we have a big double story 40x40 space up front plus containers around 3 edges and two stories. Bit chilly come winter mind, but the containers still have the thick wooden floors which helps.

We've used a roller shutter door as a horizontal retracting roof; the roller door companies weren't sure it would work and indeed it doesn't (the roller would rather just unroll the slats in a heap than feed them along the normally vertical channels) but we'd hit on the cunning idea of using two air tool balancers (those things that you see holding the tools on production lines) to pull the slats along. It meant that the roof of this particular bay could be rolled back to allow the overhead crane in, then closed along with the front sliding doors to make the bay dark for dye penetrant inspection.

 

[PhillipM]

Here you go, main front area, bit chilly in here mind, so we usually work in the double containers behind where the photo was taken most of the time. Gives you an idea of the layout though.

 

[F.J.]

How easy do they come apart? You have an amazing amount of space there, is each one fully seam welded together?

 

[Burdekin]

The workshop looks great.

I need to have a chat with a neighbour who lives near my workshop as he owns an engineering firm and they make or use to make containers for the oil platforms so he might be the man to help me out. I’ll see if it’s worth getting containers modified to fit or whether I’d be best just going for a conventional build. Anyone know if I’d need planning if I used containers as a workshop space?

 

[PhillipM]

How easy do they come apart? You have an amazing amount of space there, is each one fully seam welded together?

Just the corners and a bit of stitching so they can be taken down pretty easily, they're sat on a bit of sealant where they're stacked to stop the weather blowing through.
And yes, I know there's no kickboard on the stairs before anyone goes H&S on me, work in progress as the staircase has just been replaced

 

[awemawson]

Container is classed as a temporary moveable structure, so I believe it can remain for 28 days without planning permission. (Or is that 28 days after they notice it )

 

[F.J.]

A customer of mine builds allsorts using containers from offices to storage and even funeral pallor's. He is away for Christmas but I will ask him once he is back regarding planning permission

 

[Burdekin]

A customer of mine builds allsorts using containers from offices to storage and even funeral pallor's. He is away for Christmas but I will ask him once he is back regarding planning permission

Thanks that would be appreciated.

 

[Wedg1e]

We used to have two containers (one a fridge unit) sited outside our old premises; they were there for 13 years before we moved and as far as I can remember nobody ever said a word about planning.

Just to show you how thick some thieving scum can be, they broke into the one with the Radioactive signs on it and left the one with £20,000-worth of lead in it alone

 

[Cobbler]

Just to show you how thick some thieving scum can be, they broke into the one with the Radioactive signs on it and left the one with £20,000-worth of lead in it alone

In Gloucester some years ago, they broke into a shipping container used to store fireworks for professional displays. They cut there way in with a gas axe!! How stupid was that. They survived though & the police waited for the fireworks to start at night & went round & arrested them. You don't need brains to be a criminal.