Shipping Container Parts Storage Layouts

[Lionelgee]

Originally Posted by Matthew P

Lived in them, worked in them, stored stuff in them and have two in the yard right now.

The door latches on the bottom make it difficult to put a good ramp to transition small casters over. The dimensions are for the OUTSIDE so with the corrugations your useful interior space is a bit reduced. But they are pretty darn moisture tight. I put some tape over the vents on the inside and run a dehumidifier. No problems with high humidity or rust on my stuff. You only need to support the corners. Some people put cribbing in the middle, but that's not needed. I'm still waking up here, so maybe tonight I can elaborate more.

Matt

Thanks Matt,

Look forward to hearing from someone with lived experience of shipping containers.

Kind regards
Lionel

[Lionelgee]

Hello Chris and Phil,

Shelves and racking - hear you loud and clear. I am currently in the transition stage of making up for 10 years of poor storage.

I had those cardboard pack press galvanized paper thin five tier shelves. Every project had hours of inbuilt down-time and offered risk to life and limb as I fossicked for what frequently proved an elusive part or tool.

After one prolonged attempt to find something and after having some stuff in a pile shift I reached a point of no return. I saved up for proper industrial pallet racking and the rectangular cubed steel shelving.

I took every thing off the old flimsy gal shelves and whacked it into the new pallets and shelves.

My next task is to buy some of the base-board supports that go under sheeting to make more shelves.

Once everything single thing is off the floor I will go through everything one shelf at time, until I have stuff sorted, labelled and with its own spreadsheet entry.

There is nothing more frustrating than knowing you have a specific tool. Then when you go to use it - somehow it has disappeared. Then more time is lost trying to find it. Enough. Once the support bars are back home and installed the times will be a changing - for the better.

Shelves and racks are great!

Kind regards
Lionel

[Matthew P]

In some of the rougher containers over in Kandahar we had wood studs jammed floor to ceiling. Basically wedged in friction fit, then hung plywood. This was sometimes done for an easy to use man door as well. That way you didn't have to fight the main doors. But then in the desert we didn't have to worry about humidity. Because once you started drilling holes in a container it was no longer seaworthy and somebody in the Army got upset with you. So sometimes for mini-spit air conditioners we would run them through the plywood front wall too.

We usually had steel angle welded up into shelving units with heavy plywood. Worked fine for all the generator or vehicle parts. I have some where I'm at work now. I'll try to get some pictures shortly to show you.

At home I have two with the common walls cut out forming a larger temporary shop space. I just moved them from my old home to the new place and they aren't set up yet. I have to build a roof over the whole mess. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't get the seam between them to be water tight on the roof. I would have a pond and it would drip. I had begun welding steel studs to the interior, insulating and hanging plywood. Something I plan to finish up next month.

Matt

[chris vickery]

Further to my early comments.
Ultimately, I have a plan to purchase a second sea can identical to my first.
I would like to put them beside each other with a space in between, maybe 12-14ft or so. Overall this would be a footprint of 28/30ft x 40ft. I am thinking of adding a roof to this structure so the center would act as extra storage or even shop space in the future. Initially I'd put down gravel but eventually perhaps a concrete slab, especially if it turned into a semi indoor/ outdoor work shop area. This in in addition to the 1200sq ft shop that I already have, which is full btw...

[Matthew P]

Originally Posted by chris vickery

Further to my early comments.
Ultimately, I have a plan to purchase a second sea can identical to my first.
I would like to put them beside each other with a space in between, maybe 12-14ft or so. Overall this would be a footprint of 28/30ft x 40ft. I am thinking of adding a roof to this structure so the center would act as extra storage or even shop space in the future. Initially I'd put down gravel but eventually perhaps a concrete slab, especially if it turned into a semi indoor/ outdoor work shop area. This in in addition to the 1200sq ft shop that I already have, which is full btw...

That's pretty popular in the States. There's even some enterprising pre-fab metal shed/garage makers who sell kits sized for mounting to shipping containers. The center space is great for large equipment because of the clear span and height.

Matt

[Lynn Eades]

Chris, If you slab it first, you container shouldn't sink (in the wrong place) and have water running back to the covered area. We have an old set up like that at work. The roofs are rotten where the shelter sits on the edge of the containers.

[motto]

I was very fortunate to be able to acquire base units and rails for a compactus rolling shelf set up that was no longer required by a city book store. I came away with a truck load of the stuff.
The units are six feet long and about 32" wide. I installed 17 foot rails in a 20 foot container and built shelves on a number of base units which leaves me with a walkway down one side and one empty space that can be opened up between any of the rolling shelf units. It is the optimum use of space as it only has one lengthways aisle and one crossways. The 3 foot shelving at the far end is fixed.
I would not have a container for storage without a roof of some sort over it. this is for two reasons. One is that there is no runoff and water will inevitably pool in some areas and the other being a bad tendency for containers to sweat and promote surface rust on any unprotected steel or iron. I once opened a container in Melbourne that had been packed in the UK and of course had to pass through the tropics. it looked like someone had hosed the underside of the roof.
A friend packed his workshop into a container in Darwin and had it shipped to Victoria where it sat for some months. When he opened it the rust had really taken hold.

David

[Paul Singleton]

In some areas you will be taxed on your property taxes for using shipping containers. It would be something that you should check into first, especially if you put a roof on top of a pair of containers. The tax man would consider them permanent if they can’t be moved.