Using a Shipping Container as a Store, Garage or Workshop

Choose the size from the use

• 10ft (2 831 mm internal length, about 15.9 m³) — garden tools, bicycles, a small household store. Fits where a 20ft cannot be delivered. See 10ft containers.
• 20ft (5 898 mm internal length, about 33.2 m³) — the default for a household or trade store, a single car, or a compact workshop with a bench along one wall. See 20ft containers.
• 40ft (12 032 mm internal length, about 67.7 m³) — a workshop with room for stock, a vehicle plus a working area, or a store divided into two. See 40ft containers.
• High Cube (2 698 mm internal height instead of 2 393 mm) — worth it for a workshop you plan to insulate, for tall shelving, or simply for headroom. See 40ft High Cube.

Width is the same on every standard size: 2 352 mm inside. A 600 mm workbench on one wall and 500 mm shelving on the other leave a gangway of about 1.25 m. Sketch the layout at that width before you choose the length — it decides more than the volume does.

Which grade to buy

A store, garage or workshop never goes to sea, so wind and watertight is normally the right specification: structurally sound, rain kept out, and no money spent on sea-carriage capability you will not use. Choose a one-trip container where appearance matters — a garden, a customer-facing yard — or where you are investing in a fit-out and want to start from a box with as little wear as possible.

Whatever the grade, check the floor and the door seals when the unit arrives. They are the two parts a garage or workshop uses hardest. See container conditions for what each grade does and does not promise.

Door options

• Standard doors — double doors at one end, with a 2 340 × 2 280 mm opening (2 340 × 2 585 mm on a High Cube). Enough for a car, a ride-on mower or pallets.
• Double door container — doors at both ends. Drive-through access, a working end and a stock end, or a 40ft split into two separately lockable stores.
• Open side container — doors along one full side, about 5.76 m of opening on a 20ft. The best layout where you want to reach every shelf or bench from outside, or load long material sideways. Needs a clear strip of about 2.5 m along the opening side, and has far more metres of door seal, so it is less suited to exposed sites with moisture-sensitive contents.
• Personnel or roll-up door — cut into a wall so you can get in without swinging the main doors. This is a structural modification; describe it on the request and we will tell you whether we can quote it.

Standard container doors swing outwards through about 2.5 m, and that space is needed every time you open them, not just on delivery day. Decide which way the doors face before the container is placed; turning it afterwards is a second lift.

As a store

Storage is what containers do best. The practical points are about keeping things dry and reachable. In a garden, a 10ft or 20ft container is a secure alternative to a shed — and under building law it is a structure just as a shed is, so check the rules for your plot before ordering.

• Shelving along both long walls with a central gangway; heavy items low and near the doors
• Free-standing shelving tied back to the lashing rings rather than screwed through the steel — every hole in the wall or roof is a potential leak
• Everything on pallets or shelves, nothing directly on the floor or tight against the walls
• A welded lock box and a closed-shackle padlock from day one — see container security
• Vents as a minimum, and for sensitive contents desiccants, a fleece or coating under the roof, or insulation
• A battery light by the door: the far end of a 40ft is dark with the doors half closed

As a garage

A 20ft container is long enough for almost any car: 5 898 mm inside. Width is the constraint. With 2 352 mm inside and 2 340 mm through the doors, a car 1.8 m wide across the body leaves about 550 mm in total to share between both sides. Parked tight to the passenger side, that is a little over half a metre for the driver — enough to squeeze out of some cars, not most. Check the width across the mirrors against the 2 340 mm door opening too.

That makes a container garage best for a vehicle that is stored rather than used daily: a classic car over winter, motorcycles, a trailer, a ride-on mower, a small boat on its trailer. A double door container helps with access but not with width.

• The floor sits above ground on its pads, so a car needs a solid ramp as wide as the doors, built as its own structure and not hung off the container
• The 28 mm plywood floor carries a car without difficulty, but oil and fuel soak into it; a drip tray or floor covering is worth fitting
• Never run an engine with the doors closed, and keep the vents clear
• Condensation and bare metal do not mix — ventilate, and for a car stored for months consider a dehumidifier

German state building codes contain specific provisions for garages, including where they may stand in relation to the boundary, and it is the use as a garage that the authority will look at. See container planning permission in Germany.

As a workshop

A workshop is the most demanding of the three, because people spend time inside, use tools, and create heat, dust and fumes. Five things decide whether it works.

• Light — daylight needs a window or glazed door cut into the steel, which is a modification. Otherwise plan LED lighting over the bench and at the door end; with the doors shut a container is completely dark.
• Ventilation — the small factory vents are not enough for grinding, welding, painting, solvents or fuel-burning heaters. Plan deliberate ventilation or extraction for what you actually do, and work with the doors open when in doubt.
• Power — the supply and installation must be carried out by a qualified electrician, including how the steel shell is earthed. In Germany, installation work on systems connected to the public grid may only be done by the network operator or by an installer registered in a network operator's installer directory (§ 13 NAV). An extension cable from the house is not an installation.
• Temperature and condensation — uninsulated, a container is hot in summer, cold in winter and wet on cold mornings, and tools rust. For year-round use, insulate and heat it; with sparks around, keep combustible insulation covered. See condensation and insulation.
• A way out — the doors must never be able to shut and lock with someone inside. For regular use, a personnel door that opens from inside is the proper answer. If employees work in the container, workplace regulations on escape routes, lighting and ventilation apply.

Benches can stand on the floor tied to the lashing rings. Heavy machines need their point loads checked against the floor and the foundation — see container foundations. Keep a fire extinguisher by the door. And where the working face opens onto a yard, an open side container makes an excellent workshop.

Garden room and office: pointers only

Containers are also bought as garden rooms and site or home offices. Both mean people spending long periods inside, which brings insulation, windows, heating, ventilation, electrics and building regulations with it. That is a conversion project, not a delivery. Start with planning permission and condensation and insulation, and budget the fit-out separately from the container.

Before you order

• Use and size decided, with a layout sketched at 2 352 mm internal width
• Door configuration chosen, and which way the doors will face
• Planning position checked with the local building authority
• Foundation pads ready and level, and delivery access checked — see container delivery and container unloading
• Lock box specified at order stage
• Electrician booked if the container needs power

Then send a quote request with type, size, grade, delivery postcode and a line about access. We quote delivered prices on request.