Any advice, like do they need a slab? We need more storage, and they look like the best option. Any negatives?

We have had one up at our place for 5 or 6 years now. You don't need a slab just a level place to put them. The only problem that we have had is that it will "sweat". You can see water beading up on the ceiling but we haven't had any problems with stuff rusting.

No experience with them myself. I would think condensation might be an issue.

I would check with local building codes before you spend the money and time...Several surrounding communities to me do not even allow them and we are rural...I understand all states are different, just hate to see someone run into a problems that might cost them money...Some of the ones that do also require a building permit or special permit for usage...

We use dozens to store material and tools in on jobsites. Never had any issues with condensation but I could see it being a possability. Where we rent from they have some locks that are special made and they do work better to cut down on the break in's.

We're ok on the permits, but that's good advice. The farm's in a rural community, and it's kind of a run what you brung system. That can obviously be good or bad. Several neighbors already have them.

We'll probably run electricity to it for lights, so I wonder if exhaust fans would help with the condensation?

They can be supported at the four corners if you want it up off the ground a little.

You can exhaust out the sides - vents low on one side and high on the other, but most are made air tight if you want to keep humidity out. Find a shady area for it and that will keep it from becoming an easy-bake oven and will help with condensation if it's an issue.

If you're just looking for storage, find one with the welded cover over the lock area - it prevents bolt cutters from accessing the lock and makes a pretty secure door.

A string of lights and a couple of receptacles down one side makes it even more versatile.

They are built like tanks and were made to take weather and abuse, but there are many on the market that are in bad shape - plywood on floor can be torn up, can have lots of rust, and leaks...be picky and get one in good shape.

They used to be cheap, price here averages $3 - $3,500 for a good one.

Another option is to get two, set them apart 10 - 20' and get 10 pre-engineered wood trusses to cover both the containers and the space in between. It keeps the weather off the top of the container and gives you covered 'garage' space in between.

There are unlimited things you can do with them. I was going to use 8 and make a cabin, but the cost to purchase a good one now made that not really feasible.

Al, I haven't set one up as storage (yet), but have unloaded thousands of them over the years. Very durable. But absorbs heat like crazy. Floors are wood and generally very tough.

If if were me, I would pour some concrete pads that elevated the container about 6 inches or so.

Yellow Jacket's idea about building a roof over a couple of containers is a pretty good idea. If you wanted to get real fancy a concrete pad or gravel between 2 containers would be pretty neat.

Since these things are ugly as sin I would consider planting some shrubs that would cover these things up.

My 2 cents worth of opinion.

Thanks guys, the suggestions sound great. I'll probably set it behind the back building so it's not viewable from the road. Seeing tons of them around here, so I thought it may be time to pull the trigger.

Guess it's time to start shopping.

Al...we bought smaller shipping type containers in the last year.

They have rollup metal doors.
They have pretty nice brushed steel floors.

A guy out near DFW has them for about $2K. The guy delivered them. They are pretty nice looking, but not as big and not as secure as the big freight/railroad type shipping containers.

The picture below is of two containers side by side. They are actually bigger than the picture makes them look. We fit two ATV 4wheelers back to back in one with room to spare.

We have ours on a gravel bed. We are about to add vents to the upper corners.

You can check them out in the next ten days if ya stop by.

Will do, thanks.

I have always been curious as to why these containers are for sale. Are they not useable anymore for their intended purpose, like rust holes, etc?

fish n chips...ours which are smaller were owned by some freight forwarder at DFW Airport that went out of business and the guy got them for dime on the dollar.

F&C The reason we have so many here is because we import way more than we export. Its that simple. It is cheeper to sell them than it is to ship them back to China empty.

A few years ago China was shipping more containers over here than what could be returned back to China empty. This created an extremely large surplus of one-way containers here in the US. I have seen entire container ships in Long Beach dedicated to Wal-Mart. Today there are fewer of the one time use containers and you probably will see more containers that are near the end of their useful life for shipping.

At one time I have seen these thing for less than a $1000. Now in the DFW area you should be able to find them for $2 to $2.5k, not counting transportation cost. If our economy picks up again then prices could drop.

There are two sizes: 20 foot and 40 foot. Interior sizes should be 7'10" tall and 7'9" wide. Overall interior length is about 8" less than exterior.

Just my 2 cents worth of opinion.

I picked one up a few years back, $800. I leveled it on some railroad ties and us it for wood storage. It does condense inside but for what I need it works well.

Bryan

I have a 20 footer I bought locally several years for $500 delivered. It even came loaded with good heavy duty shelving - loaded with crap.

They dropped it in my driveway. I pulled it into place with my tractor (full of a few tons of crap) by rolling it on several 8' round fence posts. I used a hydraulic floor jack to lift the corners, under which I placed concrete blocks.

I've never had a problem with it sweating. It is really solid and secure. It was one heck of a lot better than any comparable size shed kit.

Fireishot,my dad looked into getting one or two when we lost a old outbuilding but we decided not to.He ended up getting a A frame carport that is around 20x40 for quite a bit less then 2 containers.They came and installed it on a existing slab in a day and later on we sheathed it and added 2 garage doors.I was skeptical about how it'd hold up but it has been through 2 hurricanes (it was just a open carport for Irene)and many nor'easter storms since.

Here is the website for the place http://tntcarports.com/index.html They have tons of options but for us the basic car port and enclosing it ourselves was the best bang for the buck.Since you're shopping cant hurt to have a look.

Robert...we got one of those too & we are pretty impressed with it.

If we had it to do over again we would go slightly larger because it doesn't add much to the cost.

I think it was about $2500 for the bldg, delivered and installed.





Winslows Storage Buildings - (Emory, Wills Point, Sulphur Springs, Athens)

Zep,I think he paid $3,500 installed,it could have been a little cheaper but he went with a odd size to maximize use of the existing concrete pad.I also doubt he spent over $1000 to enclose it,doors windows etc,but we reused as much from the old building as we could.All in all when I told a friend what he spent vs his new pole barn he was almost sick to his stomach

Wow, more options for the money than I had originally thought. So, I guess I'll spend more time shopping.

Thanks again guys for all the advice.

FIH,I'll snap a few pics and get some more details tomorrow when I head over there and post them.

Going to start looking at these today. Since the 4 wheelers got stolen, I have found that hiding them in the woods isn't the answer. I need steel. Nor do I want to haul them back and forth since I would have to rent a storage place for the trailer.

BTW, bought a new Honda 420 that I don't like as much as the old Yamaha's. It just isn't much of a farm machine. But, since I paid cash, it had better learn.

Dave, when you get it, I'd suggest you go to a self-storage facility and buy one of their locks. I have several like this:



I just hope I never lose the keys for mine. I don't know how they cut the things off of abandoned storage buildings. When on a tight hasp, like a storage container, it would be about near impossible to use bolt cutters or a sawzall on one these things.

Ken, I have a couple of those and will probably use one.

Dave I am fearful we could lose our ATV's at some point too. I hated to hear about you losing yours. I may try and see if there is some kind of chip that can be hidden on an ATV that shows it's location. I have some app on my i-phone that is extremely precise and when I lose my i-phone it shows me within feet of exactly where it is. If this isnt available at a decent price yet, I bet it will be soon. Kind of like OnStar for a vehicle.

http://www.worldtrackingsolutions.com/products

Mark, the price isn't what gets me. The subscription fee kills the deal.

BTW, what's the deal on your phone tracker?

Dave:

It looks like this one doesn't have a subscription. $20 credits for $25 is what I think I saw.

http://digitalguardiangps.com/products/vehicle-tracker/

How about hiding an old cell phone on your ATV, with charger hooked to the battery?

Oh I know....I betcha we'll see this stuff coming down in price.


Dave it's an app called "Find My iPhone". If you lose your i-Phone or i-Pad you can log-in to any computer with your "Find My i-Phone" password and it will show you the location of the device. It zooms in very close. For example I was at work one day and could not locate my i-Phone. I wasn't sure if I even brought it to work. So I logged in and it not only showed that my i-Phone was at my work location, it showed it was in my parking lot. So I went out looked around the outside of my vehicle first to see if I had maybe dropped it, next I looked inside my vehicle and there it was....it had dropped down between my seats. Of course this app may not be 100% effective in every case, but it's a great tool to have.


http://ipod.about.com/od/usingios4/ht/Use-Find-My-Iphone-To-Locate-Lost-Or-Stolen-Iphone.htm

I just checked the price on the shipping containers. $2,400 for 8x20 and $3,400 for 8x40. They are 18 ga steel. $150 for hauling. Have to also have the land leveled. This is my first price check.

I've replaced the 4 wheelers and they are sitting in my garage in DFW area. I have a 16 ft trailer to haul them to the land but nowhere to store the trailer. Local storage places are about $50 per month.

I settled with the insurance company. I had them insured for $3,500 each and got paid $2,500 each. Unquestionably I was over insured for 2000 models. I'm going to review my insurance on tractors, etc. I'm leaving too much $ on the table.

Dave -- I only semi-leveled the area where I placed my container. I used two hydraulic floor jacks to lift the container off the ground once I got it in place. Mine has a lip near the bottom that allowed the floor jacks to easily lift it. I used different sized concrete blocks, and pressure treated lumber as shims, to get mine pretty darn level.

Dave:

Can you insure them for a fixed value, or replacement value? If not, then it would seem that you'd have to review the insurance policy every year to drop the level of the insurance of them to fall in line with the lowered replacement values.

I'm going to be talking with the homeowners insurance company shortly. The insurance jumped rouhly 30% in a year and I didn't have any claims.

Different states have different insurance laws and then you have the policies that vary by company. Most companies that I'm aware of settle all vehicle losses based on Actual Cash Value (ACV, the value of the vehicle prior to the loss). I know of none that pay based on Replacement Cost (RC). Would I like to have my '97 Polaris replaced with a 2013? Sure but I wouldn't be able to afford the premiums.

The company I represent bases the premiums on the year, engine size and MSRP, not on current, stated or declared value. Do the premiums decrease every year? Not necessarily but a 2010 ATV is still less to insure than a 2011. A 2008 less than a 2009 etc.... The question is always at the time of settlement, of whether you're receiving a fair value on that unit. With an answer to that being; "with what they've paid me, can I purchase a comparable unit?" If not, they've underpaid, IMO.


Scott, regarding homeowners (HO) insurance, it's definately a sore subject with most!

HO insurance is an unprofitable line of insurance for every insurance carrier which is why you don't see ads on TV for it. They can't charge enough compared to what they're paying out in claims, yet they need to find a way to be competitive to get, and keep your auto insurance (and life/health, etc.). And now with a wealth of technology and accumlated data, for the company I represent the rates are (in part) based upon the location of the risk. Where it used to be based upon your Fire Protection Class (distance from a fire station and hydrant) it's now based upon where claims are occuring, right down to the zip codes, if not even longitude and latitude.

Causes for increases?
Poor rating practices (low premiums to attract auto business then 30-50% increases because it caught up)
A change in the underwriting model (matching price to risk)
Living in an area with a high loss ratio
Credit scoring (now used by almost every insurance company)
And whatever other reason they can find to generate revenue

There's a lot I don't agree with in this industry but hey, I'm just a small fish in a big pond

Literally

PS - Sorry for the long post

Thanks!

I think I know part of the increase, but have to verify to be sure. Last year the county changed the zoning from agriculture to residential. Why? I have no idea. Property tax increased as well, but not as much as the homeowners insurance did. I had to take my IRS tax return to the county and show farm income to get it changed back. Maybe the insurance company picked up on that.

Ag or residential zoning should have no impact on HO rates. We use Zones and Subzones which are dictated by zipcode. There also may be a difference in whether you have a Homeowners policy or a Farm/Ranch policy and which of those policies had an increase if not both. It's likely all HO or FR policies in the state had an increase and it's my guess that's what you'll be told.

Insurance companies used to have to file with the state's Dept of Ins. to request and justify a rate increase. But companies are now "scoring", using models with hundreds of rating factors. So all they have to do now is "change" their model which in-of-itself creates an increase they don't have to file for or justify. Just one of the many changes in the past 25 years I've been doing this that I don't agree with, nor does it seem fair to policyholders. I understand profits are down due to poor investment returns but the door has now been opened. And the "predictive model" is so secretive (trade secret?!?!) that there's no one within the company that can explain to even the Agent why the premium increased. Very frustrating!! If you want to stump your Agent a little bit, ask if they use scoring and what exactly you can do to improve or better your score.

Back to the small fish in a big pond

Afterthought:
Scott, if you generate ANY farm income, I would think you could/should have a FR policy, or at least an endorsement to cover an incidental business (if appropriate). Do a thorough review and make sure all your bases are covered, not only all of your equipment but especially your liability exposures! Most HO policies specifically EXCLUDE losses due to any business related activities.

Just a thought (and rambling again)

Scott, I had a fixed value but was paid based on replacement value. The problem is that replacement value is subjective. What is the replacement value of an adult ridden vs a kid ridden one? Mine were well maintained with relatively low hours.

The adjuster called my local Yamaha dealer who valued a 2000 model, 400 cc, 4 wheeler at $1,700 to $1,900. Of course, if they got one in good condition, they would ask more for it.

That insurance company has a lot of, but not all of, my business. That involves 2 rental properties, my trailer house on the property and all of my farm equipment. I know the Agent and have dealt with the Adjuster before. Both are good guys. On a previous theft, I posted a reward in the local shopper newspaper and got both the stolen 4 wheeler and tandem axle back without them having to pay a claim. The Adjuster hasn't forgotten that and I believe he cut me a little slack.

I believe I need to review all of the stuff I have insured.

Dave, in theory it shouldn't make a difference but in reality it does. Having a good agent and a good relationship with your agent (let alone the adjuster!) can make all the difference in the world at claim time. I'm glad to hear you were satisfied!

And just as a minor "insurance lingo" correction, a true Replacement Cost settlement does not included deduction for depreciation whereas Actual Cash Value does. Your loss was settled on ACV (simply a technicality in terms). If your agent asks how much you want to insure an item for, ask how a loss would be settled so you're not overinsuring, then review it annually.


Deeds like that are good for all parties involved and helps keeps everyone's rates down. I wish I had more clients like you!

40' are $2,400 here. If you get one, be sure to ask for watertight, floor in good condition, and make sure it has the steel cover over the lock to keep bolt cutters out. They are pretty darn secure with that.

LL, thanks. It's a FR policy.