Modifications
Doors, windows, lining, shelving, ventilation. What a container can be changed into, what that costs you structurally, and why it is nearly always better done in a yard than on your block.
What we change
Everything below is done before delivery wherever possible. A container in a yard with power, hardstand and a level floor is a far better place to cut steel than a residential driveway.
A hinged steel door cut into the side or the end so the container can be walked into without swinging the cargo doors open. A frame is welded into the cut, then a lockset and generally a closer. Worth doing wherever the container is opened daily, or where the big doors face into the weather.
Sliding or awning windows framed into the wall, most often with a security grille or bars and a flyscreen behind. Placement decides how useful the container is afterwards, so mark them out before anyone cuts. A window in the wrong wall costs you the shelving position or the racking run that would have gone there.
A roller shutter fitted into one end or one side, giving a wide clear opening you can drive a forklift straight through. Head clearance decides the job: on a standard container the drum eats into an opening that was already tight, so most roller door conversions are better done in a high cube.
Foam or batt insulation packed between a timber or steel frame and sheeted over in ply, villaboard or colour-backed steel. It cuts the internal temperature swing sharply and stops condensation forming on bare steel overhead. Expect to lose 50 to 75mm off every internal dimension, which is another reason lined jobs tend to start with a high cube.
Steel shelving bolted or welded to the side walls, or freestanding pallet racking set down on the floor. Wall-mounted shelving keeps the floor clear and suits hand-loaded stock. Racking suits pallets and forklifts but needs the aisle width to work in. Decide how the container will be loaded first and the layout follows from that.
Whirlybirds through the roof, louvred vents in the walls, or both together. A sealed container holds warm damp air, condensation forms overhead and it drips back down onto whatever is stored underneath. Cross-flow ventilation is the cheapest answer to that, and it matters most in humid coastal areas and through the northern wet season.
The rule
A container's walls carry load. Every opening cut into one has to be reframed in steel to carry what the panel was carrying, or the unit racks and the doors stop shutting square — which is how you find out, usually about six months later.
That is the difference between a modification and a hole. It is also why a cheap cut-in door is not a saving; it is a structural problem you have paid to install.
Common questions
Yes, and it is nearly always cheaper and better done that way. Cutting a door or a window into a container standing in a yard with power, hardstand and the right gear is a different job from doing it on a suburban block with a generator. Tell us what the container has to do at the enquiry rather than after it has landed.
It can, and that is exactly why the framing matters. A corrugated steel wall is structural, so any opening cut into one has to be reframed with steel to carry the load the panel was carrying. Done properly the unit is still stackable and still moves on the same trucks. Done badly it racks, and the doors are the first thing to tell you.
Usually yes, provided the corner castings are untouched and the frame is intact — those are what the truck and the crane pick up on. Where it gets awkward is a container that has been built into a deck, a slab or a structure at the site end. If you think the unit may move again, say so before the modification is designed.
The container itself is one question and what you turn it into is another. A roller door on a storage unit is rarely anybody's business; a container fitted out as a habitable room, an office with people working in it or something plumbed and wired usually is. It varies by council and it is worth the phone call before the work starts.
Get a price
Describe the job rather than the product and we will tell you what the container actually needs. Every enquiry answered within one business day.
Or skip the form and ring us — 1300 467 776, Mon-Fri 7:30am-5pm, Sat 8am-12pm