Footings for shipping container

[toyotadriver]

Hopefully later this year I'm going to be getting a 40ft shipping container. I need to free up some space in my shop by having some extra storage capacity. I plan to put it parallel to my 40 ft long shop and probably 6ft off. Eventually, I plan to put a roof over the shipping container to both protect it as well as to make it look a little better. I'll be painting it to match my shop colors. I will mount it as close to the ground as possible.

I want to pour some concrete footers for each corner. I know shipping containers are made to be supported only by the corners but I'm still thinking about putting another footer for each side about 1/2 way between the corners.

We have a rather shallow frost line here (less than 12 inches) so they don't have to be deep.

How thick and deep would you pour 4-6 pads to support a shipping container?

 

[rcurrier44]

It all depends on your soil really. We’ve got a dozen or so around the ranch and I think they’re all just sitting on the railroad ties. One at each end. They’re not meant to be permanent.


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[M-technik-3]

I was thinking just place it on a bed of gravel.

 

[Don1357]

I have my 20 footer on four railroad ties, it just made it super easy to level the sucker. Good ventilation underneath keeps it from rusting.

The nice thing about the simple solution is that if I ever need to "repair" an uneven foundation all I need to do is bottle jack up, add some gravel under the tie, bottle jack down.

 

[kd3pc]

I just put mine on a few inches of tamped gravel....that was three years ago and all is still well.

 

[joey1320]

***** my city ordinances are against shipping containers. I could really use one.

 

[nadogail]

Your local soil conditions will help determine the best answer to your question.

 

[Barnabas]

My personal shop is on property zoned Heavy Industrial. I can have all the 18-wheeler trailers I want for as long as I want, but shipping containers are limited to a maximum of 90 days. This shipping container policy is for my entire city, for all property types, so check your ordinances.

 

[Ray-CA]

My personal shop is on property zoned Heavy Industrial. I can have all the 18-wheeler trailers I want for as long as I want, but shipping containers are limited to a maximum of 90 days. This shipping container policy is for my entire city, for all property types, so check your ordinances.

Excavate, put the whole trailer in and backfill?

Ray

 

[bad_idea]

https://www.jlconline.com/how-to/exteriors/sizing-deck-footings_o

The link is for sizing deck footings. Apples and oranges I know, but I would use that chart as a rough guide. Likely would need to double the numbers as the loads for the conex are going to higher per square foot and only supported at the corners.

 

[bigdav160]

Mobile home blocks?

 

[buzzworth]

I put my 20ft'r on a tamped stone bed and now wish I had poured a footer all the way around it. The groundhogs and other wildlife dug holes and built a condo community under it.

 

[rburke65]

Ground hogs are a PITA!. I’d drill some 12” holes with a 3 pt. Hitch auger, 2yards of concrete and be done.

 

[Don1357]

You guys need a doggy and a .22 rifle. My wire hair pointer would love to play with groundhogs all day long. CCI has quiet .22 ammo that sounds like a powerful pellet air rifle.

 

[theoldwizard1]

I just put mine on a few inches of tamped gravel....that was three years ago and all is still well.

If you do NOT allow light and air underneath, skunks, possums, raccoons, etc. will make burrows underneath.

 

[denis4x4]

The containers in my avatar are on pieces of pressure treated 4x4 on the corners and haven’t move in 12 years.

 

[toyotadriver]

I appreciate the input! It's planned to be a permanent storage solution. Eventually I'll put a sloped roof over the shipping container.

 

[matt_i]

A reasonable question might be: what are you going to fill it with?

Different footings for high stacked pallets of gold bars vs. jammed with bags of goose down..

I can see the container itself being pretty light from a ground pressure standpoint, especially with the answers above, but my mind is geared towards machine tools and their density is higher.

I think if you poured an 8cu ft footing (2ft cube) then you'd be in pretty good shape for most anything you could dream up. A question is how it will get leveled after the concrete is poured? If you have a laser level then maybe they can be formed +/- 1/8" and so a steel spacer plate here or there would get all 6 pads bearing equally.

The 4sqft pad x 2000 psf for average soils would get you around 8000 lbs capacity per pad, or 48k for the entire container. That much loaded on a typical semi truck would be past a full max payload (i think they max around 40k payload - more experienced people will know for sure)

 

[sjvicker]

Pour a level footer as deep and wide as you can on the back side. 2`x2`x9' or deeper is ideal but you probably can get away with less. Have the driver land it on this then have a rail road tie he can drop the other end on. From there, jack up the rail road tie end with a bottle jack and securely chock it. At this point you're clear to excavate, form and pour this end. Lower the container down and you're done.

It would be easier to set your footings then land the container with a crane but this is a cheap way to do it.

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[toyotadriver]

A reasonable question might be: what are you going to fill it with?

Different footings for high stacked pallets of gold bars vs. jammed with bags of goose down..

I can see the container itself being pretty light from a ground pressure standpoint, especially with the answers above, but my mind is geared towards machine tools and their density is higher.

I think if you poured an 8cu ft footing (2ft cube) then you'd be in pretty good shape for most anything you could dream up. A question is how it will get leveled after the concrete is poured? If you have a laser level then maybe they can be formed +/- 1/8" and so a steel spacer plate here or there would get all 6 pads bearing equally.

The 4sqft pad x 2000 psf for average soils would get you around 8000 lbs capacity per pad, or 48k for the entire container. That much loaded on a typical semi truck would be past a full max payload (i think they max around 40k payload - more experienced people will know for sure)

Excellent info! It’s just overflow storage. A few ATVs, a riding mower, some canoes and kayaks.....relatively light weight stuff.

 

[Jacko264]

Hi you say it’s going to be 6ft away from your garage /shop if it was me I would make the gap bigger
Graham so you can get decent size vehicles boats etc in the gap

 

[sz0k30]

Hi you say it’s going to be 6ft away from your garage /shop if it was me I would make the gap bigger
Graham so you can get decent size vehicles boats etc in the gap

That's real good thinking.

 

[gnpenning]

How do you plan to support the roof when the time comes? Do you want to attach truss mounts to the top of the container or??? You may want to make this as part of your footer now.

 

[Renegade1LI]

I have two 40' hi Qs, the one on the right has been there 20 yrs, both are on 6" of RCA, if they moved at all I couldn't tell. The parking area around them is 3/4" blue stone, I like to have some nonpaved areas for dirty work.

 

[toyotadriver]

How do you plan to support the roof when the time comes? Do you want to attach truss mounts to the top of the container or??? You may want to make this as part of your footer now.

I have a couple options and haven’t decided which route to take. I’m just getting ideas together at the moment. Have another shop addition project in the works at the moment.

I may make a roof over the container only and attach it to the container by welding plates to the container. Or, I may just attach a lean to over the container attached to the shop and then to posts placed in the ground away from the container. Still thinking. Realistically, I plan to place the container and then do the roof in a year or two. No rush on the roof.

 

[toyotadriver]

Hi you say it’s going to be 6ft away from your garage /shop if it was me I would make the gap bigger
Graham so you can get decent size vehicles boats etc in the gap

I did think about that and it’s a valid idea. The only thing is, I have nothing big I need to park there once I get my current shop project done. It will be able to be used for simple storage of things I would prefer to keep out of the rain but not totally protected.

The placement would also not be conducive to backing a trailer in there. I could park a mower or small garden tractor or my RZR there if needed though.

 

[toyotadriver]

I have two 40' hi Qs, the one on the right has been there 20 yrs, both are on 6" of RCA, if they moved at all I couldn't tell. The parking area around them is 3/4" blue stone, I like to have some nonpaved areas for dirty work.

I plan to paint this one to match my shop colors to try to keep it from looking like a shipping container too much. I may also put a privacy fence around the road side of it but that’s awhile away.

 

[Don1357]

A reasonable question might be: what are you going to fill it with?

Different footings for high stacked pallets of gold bars vs. jammed with bags of goose down..

I can see the container itself being pretty light from a ground pressure standpoint, especially with the answers above, but my mind is geared towards machine tools and their density is higher.

I think if you poured an 8cu ft footing (2ft cube) then you'd be in pretty good shape for most anything you could dream up. A question is how it will get leveled after the concrete is poured? If you have a laser level then maybe they can be formed +/- 1/8" and so a steel spacer plate here or there would get all 6 pads bearing equally.

The 4sqft pad x 2000 psf for average soils would get you around 8000 lbs capacity per pad, or 48k for the entire container. That much loaded on a typical semi truck would be past a full max payload (i think they max around 40k payload - more experienced people will know for sure)

The 8 railroad ties I used gave me a surface of 60 square feet, close to 3 times the load bearing capacity of your cement pads. If that foundation ever needs to get adjusted all I do is bottle jack the container, pull the tie, spread some gravel, put things back together. If I change my mind and want to move the container a few feet, it is ridiculously easy. If I ever want to get rid of the container the foundation just needs to be picked off the ground.

 

[dmcintosh]

So a bit off topic, but I am wondering what you are planning to use/did use to paint your container and how extensively you prepped the surface. We have one that has a few surface rust spots. I want to paint the interior and exterior and possibly do something to the floor too. In our case we are planning to use it as a 'portable' aquaponics lab to do some workshops and training in, so we want to look a little nicer and brighter (inside) than a used tin can. Thoughts? Suggestions?

 

[Renegade1LI]

Put down some rca grade it level & you're good, I have two 40' hi cubes, ones been their for over 20 years, no issues. This is one of those things that requires very little effort.

 

[toyotadriver]

Don’t have the container yet. Probably paint it with a metal paint....possibly Rusoleum

 

[dmcintosh]

Don’t have the container yet. Probably paint it with a metal paint....possibly Rusoleum

Thanks.

 

[csp]

A friend of mine painted his with Kilz tinted to match his metal building that the shipping container sits next to. It has held up well for the six years he has had it so far.

 

[dmcintosh]

A friend of mine painted his with Kilz tinted to match his metal building that the shipping container sits next to. It has held up well for the six years he has had it so far.

Thanks.

 

[harley jim]

So a bit off topic, but I am wondering what you are planning to use/did use to paint your container and how extensively you prepped the surface. We have one that has a few surface rust spots. I want to paint the interior and exterior and possibly do something to the floor too. In our case we are planning to use it as a 'portable' aquaponics lab to do some workshops and training in, so we want to look a little nicer and brighter (inside) than a used tin can. Thoughts? Suggestions?

There is a company here that pressure washes metal buildings with an acid wash then sprays them with DTM (direct to metal) paint using a graco high pressure spray rig. A couple of days and they are done with some really big buildings. Do you have a Sherwin Williams store you can call.

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[duckarolltape]

Excavate, put the whole trailer in and backfill?

Ray

 

[dmcintosh]

There is a company here that pressure washes metal buildings with an acid wash then sprays them with DTM (direct to metal) paint using a graco high pressure spray rig. A couple of days and they are done with some really big buildings. Do you have a Sherwin Williams store you can call.

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I do. Was planning to pressure wash prior to paint. I’ll stop in and chat with them.

 

[toyotadriver]

No way I would bury a shipping container. WAY too risky.

 

[harley jim]

No way I would bury a shipping container. WAY too risky.

I have seen that done, it wasnt pretty. 18" of fill on top the roof caved in and the sides buckled.
My bil is in the process of purchasing a 40' container, it will be placed on three railroad ties. It will be filled with everything, him and his gf have a second hand store.

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[pennsylvaniaboy]

Im sure this has been discussed elsewhere, but I know these sweat and such in swing temps...

is there a fast or affordable way to insulated them? If you are going thru the trouble to build a roof overhead, etc...