20ft Containers

The 20ft container is the Australian workhorse. It holds around 33m³ in standard height and about 37.5m³ in high cube, which is a garage bay and a half of usable volume, and it drops onto an ordinary driveway without needing a crane in most cases. If you are only going to buy one container in your life, this is almost always the one.

What fits inside a 20ft container

As a rule of thumb, a 20ft general purpose unit takes roughly ten standard pallets in a single layer, or about five cars' worth of household contents. That makes it the default choice for:

• Household storage during a build, a move or a separation.
• Trade and site lock-up for tools, materials and plant accessories.
• Farm and rural storage of feed, seed, fuel and machinery parts.
• Business overflow stock when the warehouse is full but the lease is not up.
• The shell for a conversion — see home offices and cabins.

Standard height or high cube?

A standard 20ft is 8ft 6in tall externally. A high cube adds a foot: 9ft 6in, and about 4.5m³ of extra volume. That extra height is what makes a 20ft high cube viable as a workshop, a site office or the base for a cabin, because you are not ducking under a low ceiling all day. If the container is only holding boxes, standard height is cheaper for the same floor area.

New, used or one-trip

New build and one-trip units look new, have clean paint and straight doors, and are the right choice where the container is visible or will be converted. Used units have been in shipping service; they are graded on shell, doors, seals and floor. A wind and watertight used 20ft does everything a new one does for storage, at a lower price — see used shipping containers.

Inspection before dispatch

Every unit is opened, swung, sounded and photographed before it leaves the yard. Doors and seals are checked, the floor is checked for soft spots, and the frame is photographed as found — not after a wash. You see the actual unit before freight is booked.

Delivery across Australia

Units are released from our Queensland yard. Queensland drops typically run on our own trucks; interstate deliveries go on scheduled freight, with the booked window and carrier details confirmed in writing. Swing-lift and side-loader trucks are used where a tilt-tray cannot unload. Delivery is quoted against postcode and site access, separately from the unit price.

Buying a container to hire out or modify?

If you are weighing up owning versus renting, read container hire first — hire from $20 a week is often cheaper for a defined project and buys you the option to walk away. If you need power, doors, insulation or a fit-out, container modification is built in our own workshop.