Can a Shipping Container be Used as a Garage?
Wednesday 28 August 2024
Updated: Thursday 29 August 2024
Filed in: General
You may have heard of shipping containers being used as garage to store cars in. This is in part true, but if you're thinking of using one yourself, you should dig a little deeper to find out how to avoid getting stuck in your car inside the garage!
Shipping containers tick all the boxes to make a good garage:-
- Portable
- Secure
- Extra strong
- Waterproof
- Can avoid the need for planning permission
- Low-cost compared to traditional structures
So what's the problem? Picture your car, as above, parked up in a standard, unmodified shipping container at 8ft wide. The average car is around 5.8 feet wide, which leaves just over a foot of space to open your car door to exit before you hit the container wall. So unless you are an exceptional contortionist or remarkably slim, you're going to get into a jam.
So how do we solve this problem to allow enough space to use a shipping container as a portable garage?
Containers Direct have come up with two designs to extend the width of a container garage beyond 8ft:The Cartainer® - the 10ft wide shipping container garage
An exclusive design and build that gives any extra 2ft of width to allow for comfortable access through your car doors. Our CarTainers® are extra wide new builds with a range of strong and secure features specifically for car storage. They made to a standard design in three set widths, to keep production costs down, which is reflected in the retail price. As with most of our shipping container products, optional extras can be added to the package, such as ply lining and electrics. Bespoke widths up to 12ft can be made to order.
Prices shown are accurate on the date displayed here - subject to future changes
Joined-up shipping container garages
For even wider shipping container garages, double garages, or even triple garages, standard ISO shipping containers can be joined together to give a total of up to 32ft wide! That's enough room for at least a couple of cars, bikes, and even storage space for all the paraphernalia car enthusiasts need. How do we achieve joined-up container garages? As an example, if we are joining two 8ft wide shipping containers together, first we remove one of the long sides from both containers. To prevent the roof from dropping down we reinforce the apertures with either box section steel along the sides, or create a supporting post down the middle. In simple terms the containers are joined together by sealing with PVC flash banding and expanding foam - for a precise description of this read our joining up instructions. This has to done after delivery, on site, as anything wider than 12ft can't be transported on the highways.This method produces 16ft wide garages (2 x 8ft wide containers), 24ft wide garages (3 x 8ft wide containers) and 32ft wide garages (4 x 8ft wide containers)
Customising your shipping container garage
You may find it hard to believe that some container garages we've converted for our clients are indeed shipping containers! With a comprehensive choice of customisations on offer you can create your unique design. For example, wood cladding disguises the metal box underneath and can even help with gaining planning permission when required. Roller shutter doors can replace standard doors and a personnel door can even be fitted in addition to the car entry door, so you can walk in and out your garage with ease.See some examples below of our high-end garage conversions:
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