Construction storage: a builder’s best friend

Every site has the same problem. Tools and materials have to be somewhere overnight, and the two usual answers are both bad. Loading the van every evening wastes an hour a day at each end. A shipping container needs a lorry with a crane, hard standing that can take the weight and a clear swing for the lift, which rules out most of the places a unit is actually needed.

Our units arrive flat-packed on a van and are built by hand where you want them. That one difference is what puts secure storage on sites a lorry cannot reach.

What it costs

Prices exclude VAT. Hire is billed every four weeks, four weeks is the minimum, and installation and collection are one-off fees. Pay six months up front and those fees halve; pay twelve months up front and they are free, which suits a job with a known programme. Booking online takes 10% off the hire.

Transport is included within 30 road miles of our Luton depot. Beyond that we add £2 plus VAT per extra mile each way, worked out from the site postcode. Inside the central London Congestion Charge zone the charge is added per visit. There is no ULEZ charge, because our van is compliant.

What we need to get a unit onto your site

• A route in with 2,150 mm of height clearance. The panels are carried in by two people, so a side gate, a passage or a gap between scaffolding is enough. No crane, no HGV.
• A firm, reasonably level spot the size of the unit. Grass, gravel, hardcore and concrete all work. It does not have to be perfectly level; we put wooden blocks under each corner to level it and let air move underneath.
• Permission to put it there, which on a site usually means the site manager rather than the planners, because the unit is temporary and not fixed down.

Waterlogged or very loose ground needs preparing first. If you are not sure, tell us about the ground and the access when you book and we will tell you straight whether it will work.

Security

The unit is steel throughout with two built-in deadlocks on the door and you hold the keys. There is no padlock to buy and nothing for anyone to cut off. For high value plant, some of our customers add their own alarm or camera inside, which is fine.

The real security gain is simpler than any of that. The kit is on your site behind a locked steel door instead of in a van parked on a street overnight.

Picking a size

For a small refurbishment or a first fix, a 2 × 2 m at 40 sq ft holds tools, fixings and a few materials. For a full site with several trades, the walk-in sizes earn their keep: 4 × 4 m and 4 × 6 m let you get inside and reach things rather than unstacking the whole unit to find one box. Units are modular and can be joined, so if the job grows, so can the storage.

One thing to plan around: a unit cannot be moved while it is loaded. If it has to go to a different part of a large site, or to the next job, it must be emptied and dismantled first, so choose the position with the whole programme in mind.

Weather and condensation

The units are wind and watertight and built to live outdoors through a British winter. For anything that suffers in damp, and that includes plasterboard, timber, documents and some power tools, add Absorpoles at £25 each to pull moisture out of the air. The bigger the unit, the more we suggest.

Getting one on site

We ask for 7 days’ notice to book an installation and can often do it sooner. Off-hire needs 7 working days’ notice, so tell us as soon as the programme has an end date. We install Monday to Friday, 9am to 4pm, and Saturday mornings by appointment.

See the full detail on our construction storage page, get a quote with the site postcode, or call 0800 043 9302.