Shipping Container Parts Storage Layouts

[Lionelgee]

Originally Posted by Lang

Lionel

I know you like to do things properly but my approach would be "tell them nothing take them nowhere"

I would just set my container up and if and when they said anything you could string it out forever with reams of correspondence on claims about temporary storage, requests for regulation variation (great ploy that takes forever), protests and chucking their letters in the bin.

What are they going to do - put you in jail? By the time and if, they ever got around to forcing a removal by getting a tilt tray at your expense to remove (they can't confiscate) the box you would have had a couple of years of good use and have it removed the day before their truck arrived.

Probably not good advice as this is rebellion more than most people would extend to but it is great sport if you can stand the stress! Volunteering to put your head on the chopping block only encourages the bastards.

Lang

Hello Lang,

Yes I hear you - well read.. unfortunately my block is looked over by the road and has new estates popping up - we were on the outskirts of town ... Plus the road is now a connection point for other townships. We were in the country ... then the town has grown.

For example, I lit a within regulations - size and height . - pile of branches next thing the local fire brigade turned up due to some one in the new estates seeing smoke. No this was not recently and especially not during a fire ban. Being ex-bushfire volunteer I now contact "Fire Central" and now notify them of my intention to burn.

Oh - did I mention about looking at perhaps three shipping containers with spaces for trailers or a working area in between them with a roof . Also asked about the alternative option of more shed space. Just in the research and possible alternative stage. Establishing parameters and courses of action.

Most of the local containers being advertised are only 20 feet. I was thinking the 40 foot option that other people have mentioned in their replies.


Kind regards
Lionel

[Lang]

Lionel

Good call. Run your own race.

I remember my mum saying when I was stopped going to the movies with my mate Alan

" Just because Alan is going does not mean you have to. If Alan jumped off a bridge would you jump off the bridge?"

Mother's logic!

[Lionelgee]

Originally Posted by Lang

Lionel

Good call. Run your own race.

I remember my mum saying when I was stopped going to the movies with my mate Alan

" Just because Alan is going does not mean you have to. If Alan jumped off a bridge would you jump off the bridge?"

Mother's logic!

Hello Lang,

Not so much of the not following Lang. More of first-hand experience with dealing with said local council on previous occasions. The trouble is with the flat ground around here - things are too readily observable. If I thought I could get away with it .... well! The trouble is - I would be the first one to be caught - and made an example of.

Kind regards
Lionel

[rob love]

Here in Canada, the sea cans were not considered favorably by the various municipal and city councils. This province put a section into it's building code so the RMs could regulate them.

A friend of mine has over a half dozen of them in his commercial operation. What he did was put a "For Sale" sign on a couple of them, and they are considered inventory rather than temporary structures.

His price must be too high though, as he has never sold one yet.

[Mike Cecil]

Hi Lionel,

You'll find moving 20 footers much easier to organise (it's just a tilt-bed) than a truck capable of loading & moving a 40 footer, should you ever have to move them. If you want 40 feet in length, consider two 20s end to end.

Best regards

Mike

[David Herbert]

As Mike says, twenty footers are much easier to move. They are also less like a black hole as the light gets to the far end from the door. This doesn't matter if you are using a 40 footer for long term storage but rooting around with a torch can be a bit of a pain.

David.

[maple_leaf_eh]

Originally Posted by Mike Cecil

Hi Lionel,

You'll find moving 20 footers much easier to organise (it's just a tilt-bed) than a truck capable of loading & moving a 40 footer, should you ever have to move them. If you want 40 feet in length, consider two 20s end to end.

Best regards

Mike

That is also why the little ones cost almost as much as a big one.

Speaking of black holes .... every time I try to upload an image to add to this conversation, I get a Load Failed error.

[Lynn Eades]

Lionel, you can get High Cube containers that are (of course) highr than a normal container. You can also get them with a galved sub floor.
My friends built a house with 4 x 40 foot high cube containers. they were new and had done only 1 trip from China. The floor was treated with a "safe" treatment. Some are not so"safe" to live in. You wouldn't know you were in containers from the inside. They used the extra height to put in an insulated ceiling space. Each container was separately wired and plumbed so that they could be separated easily for removal and easy re set up. Each container was plugged into a caravan park type power supply post. Check you shire's rules on "temporary" or "relocatable" If they are not permanent the rules are quite likely different. Good luck.
Btw. they clamped them together with proper turn buckles, and bought some U.V. proof tape from Australia to seal the roofs together.

[John Mackie]

Over 40 years ago I moved on from the garage I moved a set of wodden 'pigoen holes' about 6' high , 10' long and 12" deep to a shed that I had built. I used this to store parts..I eliminated all the English Ford , Y block and Falcon parts ,this left only the SV V8 .Moddel T pasrs are stored saparatly I recently found that the white ants (termites) had taken a liking to the shelvig. i had to move all the parts out of the shelving and remove what they had left.
I am bying new steel shelving 2170 mm high and 300 mm deep this suits me as the parts are in boxes 300 long. EAT THIS YOU BARSTARDS!
So I will have to sort out all the parts and rebox them starting with 1012 wheel nuts to way past the12000 numbers.
i like the narrow shelve because i try to keep 1 , 2 or 3 parts per box . and it makes them easier to find.

[Lionelgee]

Hello All,

Around 8:00 this morning my shipping container arrived home. It is a 40 Foot "High Top". I bought the container locally and was able to inspect it prior to purchase.

There are a number of local suppliers; however, they mostly handle the 20 Foot ones. All suppliers advertise a base price which involves units that are barely fit for purpose. The price rises dramatically for containers that are suitable for storage.

My container is unlined. It is a starting point. The first task is to clear at least three engines that are on dollys and other "goodies" that are currently blocking access to walkways and shelves in my shed. Then panels like spare bonnets and mudguards will be stored in the container.

Once I have safe and hassle-free access to the shelves it will mark a time for sorting. All the contents of the shelves will be spread out on the shed floor. Things will be sorted and stored back on their own dedicated shelves. That way I might not waste so much time trying to find a tool that was put "somewhere - a while ago".

Well such is the plan ... will it become a reality??? At least the first steps have been taken. Enter one big shipping container.

Kind regards
Lionel

[Lionelgee]

Hello All,

Just in case you were wondering... the container is sitting on four specially made concrete blocks. The company I bought the container off have been in the game for decades. So for the princely sum of $50 I went home with four of their purpose built blocks.

The container doors open without any trouble.

It is now raining here for the first time in quite a while. I will wait and see how much settling happens. After a week or so, I will grab a spirit level and see what fine adjustments have to be made.

Kind regards
Lionel

[Lionelgee]

Hello All,

Well things have been happening here. I bought one 40 foot hi-cube shipping container and had it delivered a couple of months ago. I started to transfer some of my stuff from my shed to the container. I quickly realised that not have any shelving or racks was making the consumption of shipping container space much too rapid to be acceptable. So I stopped.

I decided to track down some pallet racking and steel shelving units. One side wall can fit four bays of pallet racking. The other side wall fits six bays of shelving. I tried a local bloke for a quote to fit out the shipping container. They were twice the price for less stuff and of a dubious brand. So off to Brisbane I went to a mob there who sells second-hand but named brand material: "Dexion".

During the wait to be able to pick up the racking and shelving I had another look in my shed and the stuff still stored in there. This triggered me buying another 40 Foot High Cube. Plus, a duplicate set of pallet racking and shelving. The containers will be spaced parallel with each other.

I was not happy how the first shipping container was placed in my paddock. A previous owner had a series of raised mounds built for fruit trees. So there was a series of mounds and drainage ditches. When the semi-trailer came to drop off the second container I had it positioned away from where the first container was placed. Some extra cash changed hands and the first container was lifted up and moved away from where it had been standing. On Saturday an earth moving company is going to level the area. A mix of recycled road-base and bitumen off the local roads is being trucked in. The road-base is going to be mostly level - with a nice uniform slope for drainage and it will all be compacted down. The next step will be to get a mobile crane to position the shipping containers onto their pad.

I jumped the gun a bit today. I got sick of having to carefully squeeze how far I can open my best car's door to stop it hitting against an engine mounted on a stand. I figure there are plenty of tie-down points in the shipping container to be able to secure the engine stand when the crane comes to move the container.

Roll on to the weekend so I can have a level spot to sit the shipping containers on in the very near future. After that I can continue my quest in trying to bring order out of the chaos that currently exists in my shed.

Kind regards
Lionel

[Lionelgee]

Hello All,

The two 40 Foot shipping containers will be parallel to each other on a pad that is 14 Metres by 15 Metres ... 45 by 49 Feet. I decided on getting the 40 Foot sized container due to finding a local source that sold them for a damn good price. Other companies were selling a single 20 foot container for not that much less money than what I could get the 40 foot container for. I could also inspect the container locally before purchase and I was guaranteed having the same container arrive on my block. Apparently, some mobs have a display container that you inspect; or they show photographs of a sample container that can be viewed online. They then transport the container from their storage space located in another town to here. What arrives on the block may not be the exact same container that you inspected. It's quality can also be a lot different too.

I will be getting mains power connected to the inside and outside of the containers. Yes, it does get darker the further into the 40 foot container you go! Yes - I will need to organise a mobile crane to re-position the containers. Hopefully, it will be a one-off pain to deal with.

Following on from the advice from other posts in this thread, I have left a space at the back of the container and at the front.

In the future I intend to get some second-hand 6 Metre (19 Foot) "C" and "Z" purlings to make a roof over the top of each container. These sections are frequently advertised online locally. The steel will allow for some roof coverage for workbenches along the inside-side of each container.

Lang, with the whirly-birds - can they be fitted high to the back of the container instead of cutting a hole in the roof? I live in the sub-tropics and condensation is already noticeable inside the containers. It may be a while before I start putting a roof over the containers and cutting holes in a flat roof for a whirly-bird just seem so counter-intuitive.

Another long-term plan is to have the two skillion roofs joined together to form one big covered area.

I will take some photographs of the pad being formed. Now to arrange for a mobile crane....

Kind regards
Lionel

[Mike Cecil]

Lionel,

You can also vent the containers by using a vertical length of black pipe like poly pipe or plastic pipe, from any point in the container (near the base is good). The pipe has to be high enough to get direct sunlight as long as possible each day. Once it heats up each day, and the air inside rises, it causes suction from inside the container. Cheap venting: a few plastic plumbing fittings and some flat black paint. Needs a vent top to prevent rain getting down inside the pipe.

Mike

[hrpearce]

Lionel I used podroof for my containers, a bit more expensive than sourcing the parts yourself but designed to bolt straight to the containers.
They only supply the roof I have to make the back wall myself when I get the time.

[Lionelgee]

Originally Posted by hrpearce

Lionel I used podroof for my containers, a bit more expensive than sourcing the parts yourself but designed to bolt straight to the containers.
They only supply the roof I have to make the back wall myself when I get the time.

Originally Posted by hrpearce

Lionel I used podroof for my containers, a bit more expensive than sourcing the parts yourself but designed to bolt straight to the containers.
They only supply the roof I have to make the back wall myself when I get the time.

Hello Rob,

Thanks for posting about your roof. Could you take some close-up photographs of how the posts for the roof are connected to the shipping container?

I had a yarn with a shed constructor and he suggested having a steeper pitch to the roof. This will allow storage space on top of the container and under the new roof. From your photograph it does not look like the roof pitch has that much clearance over the container. I also want to span 14 Metres with the roof.

First thing to do is to get the pad done though.

Kind regards
Lionel