Buying
You are not buying a model off a shelf. You are buying one particular steel box with a serial number on the door and a working life behind it that you cannot see. Which is why the grade, and knowing exactly what a grade promises, decides more than the length or the colour ever will.
Start here
Stand two used 20ft containers side by side and they can be twelve years apart in condition while carrying the same description. One spent its sea life full of dry palletised freight and came off the ship straight into a yard. The other has been under a stack in the weather, has had a corner rebuilt after an argument with a forklift and has a floor that somebody hosed out for a reason. Both are steel boxes six metres long. They are not the same purchase.
Which is why the grade is settled first and everything else follows from it. The data plate riveted to the door tells you the year it was built, who built it and what it was certified to carry; our guide to container markings explains how to read one. After grade comes size, then which yard has that combination standing closest to you, and only then does a delivered figure mean anything.
Grade matters more than anything else in a container quote. Grade is what decides whether the box keeps water out. Anything sold as cargo-worthy is inspected wind and watertight before release — for storage use, which is separate from the CSC certification an export job needs — and new single-trip units, one loaded voyage with rubbers that have barely weathered, are sealed as well. As-is is the cheap end and carries no watertight claim at all: expect a previous repair, a floor section that has gone soft, or a gasket that no longer pulls up hard against the frame. We list those faults and photograph them on request, before delivery, so nothing turns up as a surprise when the truck does. If what goes inside has to stay dry, start at cargo-worthy.
Grades
Settle this before you compare anybody's price, because it moves the figure further than size does.
Manufactured, packed once, sailed once, then stripped out at this end. Walls true, floor clean, factory paint, rubbers that have seen almost no weather. Appearance varies from batch to batch — colour, markings and the odd handling scuff — so ask what is on the ground. Where the container will be on show or converted, start here.
A used unit that is structurally sound, with a solid floor and doors that seal. Scuffs, patches of surface rust and faded shipping-line livery come with it. Inspected wind and watertight before release, for storage use — current CSC certification for shipping is a separate matter and is checked on the specific unit if you need it. This is what most buyers should be looking at, and it is the bulk of what leaves the Cornubia yard.
Finished with sea service and priced on its faults. Cheapest by a distance, and perfectly serviceable for plenty of jobs — a locked store under an existing roof, the shell of a site office, the base of a build. Not sold watertight, and not a sealed vessel either. The faults on the individual unit get described plainly and photographed on request before it goes anywhere near a truck.
Inspection
Walk into the Cornubia yard on a weekday, open the doors, put your weight on the floor and run your eye down the roof line. Ring first so the unit you are interested in is standing where you can get around it rather than buried in a row.
If the container that suits you is standing at a yard the other side of the country, that is what photographs are for. Ask and we will shoot that specific unit on request, before delivery — the floor down its whole length, the door gear, the roof, and anything that has been repaired. What we will not do is send you a stock photograph of a different container and hope.
What to look at
A dented side panel photographs badly and matters very little. The things below matter a great deal and photograph fine.
The range
10ftSide access is pinched, the setback leaves nothing to manoeuvre in, or all that is needed is a lockable spot for the mower, an air compressor and a wall of hand tools.
20ftThere is about seven metres of straight, reasonably level ground for it to sit on, and you would rather not discover in half a year that the bigger box was the answer.
40ftYou have the space, the approach is genuinely open, and you want the most storage per dollar the site will allow.
Prices are quoted with the container and the delivery together, so the figure you get is the whole cost to your address rather than a headline that grows later. Ring 1300 467 776 or send the form and you will have a price for the exact unit.
Supply
No two yards hold the same stock in the same week. A grade that is standing four deep at one is a fortnight away at another, and the honest answer sometimes is that the closest yard has an excellent container that is not quite the one you asked for. Tell us the delivery town early and the conversation gets much shorter.
Buying a unit that is a long way from you is perfectly normal and happens every week — it just needs the photographs done properly and the cartage worked out before anything is agreed rather than after.
Questions
Ask what happens if the contents get damp. If the answer is nothing much — steel, timber, garden gear, building materials, a lock-up already standing under a roof — as-is is a genuinely good buy and paying for a higher grade buys you nothing you will use. If the answer is that something is ruined, start at cargo-worthy, which is inspected wind and watertight before release. New single-trip is for the jobs where the container is on show or is going to be built into something.
Yes, and it is the best hour you can spend. The Cornubia yard at 51–55 Bromley Street, Cornubia QLD 4130 is open on weekdays and Saturday mornings — ring ahead so the unit is pulled out of the row rather than buried three high. If the container you want is standing at a yard nowhere near you, ask and we will photograph that individual unit on request, before delivery: doors open, the length of the floor, the roof and any repair that has been done to it.
The purchase is settled before the container is released for transport. That is standard in the trade and it is what allows a particular unit to be held with your name against it instead of being sold out from under you while paperwork moves. It is also exactly why we would rather you inspected it or looked at photographs of it first — nobody benefits from a surprise on the back of a truck.
The grade is the guarantee, and it is a real one. Anything sold as cargo-worthy is inspected wind and watertight before it leaves, and if one turns up and is not, sorting it out is our problem rather than yours. As-is is the opposite arrangement done openly: the unit is sold on its faults, those faults are described and photographed, and it carries no watertight claim at all. What will not happen is a unit being described as something it is not.
Usually, within reason, and plenty of people buy while the base is still being poured. There is a practical limit — a yard full of containers with names on them and no delivery dates is a yard that cannot trade — so treat it as a conversation rather than an assumption. Tell us the likely date when you buy and we will tell you honestly whether holding it that long works.
Often, on current quotes — a 40ft frequently costs only a little more than a 20ft for about twice the room, and it arrives on one truck instead of two. That depends on the grade, the units standing in the yard and the delivery run, so there is no blanket winner; ask for both figures. The catch is entirely at your end: a 40ft wants a good deal more straight approach, more room to manoeuvre and a longer level pad, and there are plenty of blocks that will take a 20ft comfortably and simply cannot fit the longer box. Work out what the site allows first, then compare the prices.
It depends on your council, and the rules genuinely differ from one shire to the next — how long it is staying, whether it is visible from the street, how close to the boundary it sits and what you intend to use it for all come into it. It is one phone call to your own council and much better made before the container arrives than after somebody complains. There is a general rundown in our guide to council approval.
Get a price
Tell us what the container has to do, the town it is going to and what the entry looks like. We will tell you which grade the job genuinely needs.
Or skip the form and ring us — 1300 467 776, Mon-Fri 7:30am-5pm, Sat 8am-12pm