Sea container shop

[juddspaintballs]

I am selling my house, garage, land, etc. We have bought a big 5th wheel RV to live in on my parents' farm hooked up to power, water, and septic. We are having two sea containers delivered--one for storage and one for my garage stuff.


Not much time to talk about it right now, but give me some ideas for making it usable as a small shop for me. I have six LED shop lights I'm taking with me to put in there, but I'll probably get more. I will get at least 20A power in there and if I need to weld, I'll fire up my big generator that has a 50A receptacle. I do not want to cut holes in the walls or ceiling.

 

[Captain Spaulding]

They are hot and cold without cutting holes in them, and having to open and close the doors to go in to get a wrench is irritating.

We used several as shops and storage on a test range where I worked. They were serviceable, but not pleasant. If I owned them, I’d put a roof on top with a 10ft space between them for sheltered parking and add a window and man door to each.

 

[830singleshot]

If it's not yet delivered, pay the premium for a insulated high cube

 

[patterg2003]

Similar to Captain's post. I worked on a site where they set up fab shops for contractors to store and fabricate. They set long sea cans parallel and bridged them with long span peaked roof trusses and put in end walls with man doors and fabricated barn doors. The ends and roof had some insulation and were heated with direct fire heaters as they were not sealed very well. Depends on budget and climate. if it is cold there then the cans will get wet with condensation so they will need some insulation and heat. Insulation eats space. Put in a work bench and some shelves then a can becomes a narrow tunnel. They used the sea cans for tool cribs and for issuing coveralls. They congest quick. The fab shops had doors cut into the cans that a person could access them from under the roof or use the container doors. If there is budget then maybe consider building a small shop that is big enough for some activity, easy to insulate, heat and light up.
Some of the cans had the doors removed and replaced them with a wall with a door and a window so they were more people friendly.

 

[juddspaintballs]

Here's a little more detail:

We're going to have them placed 20' apart and eventually build a roof over them. I might narrow the space up a bit and go for 16' though. I might be convinced to put a man door on the roof side of each one. Maybe even be convinced to put a window or two in.

Full insulation is probably out. Foam board insulation on the ceiling, maybe. That only requires 10 sheets.

We put our house up for sale on Dec 18 and had a contract by Dec 20 and a backup contract on Dec 21 with closing set for Jan 25. Since Dec 20, we've celebrated the holidays, started packing, found and purchased an RV, prepped a site for parking, power, water, and septic on the farm for the RV, placed the RV, located and purchased two standard 40' sea containers from someone who can actually deliver them before we move (Jan 18 delivery...it's amazing how difficult it is to get one in a timely manner right now), taken care of inspections and remediation, and now I'm working on sorting out **** to sell, give away, or throw away. I should get a roll-off dumpster delivered this week as well. Lots of moving parts, not a lot of time left.


So what will likely happen is one sea container gets filled with boxes and furniture. The other will get filled with my garage ****. I have mostly battery tools these days and everything else but my air compressor and welders can run off of my Honda eu2200i generator. Shop lights and the occasional other thing plugged into an outlet is about all the power I need in the sea container shop. The goal is to be in the RV/sea containers about a year while we figure out what/how to build a house on the farm.


My dad has a small garage. It's crappy and I can't stand his tool "organization." He has buckets of sockets sorted by metric or standard. Aside from a bucket of 1/2" drive metric sockets, his metric tool compliment consists of a little bin with a few cheap metric wrenches, a sparse supply of 1/4" drive metric sockets, and an occasional SAE wrench or socket thrown in for fun. Good luck finding even a ratchet in his garage. I cannot work like that and there's no way I'm going to subject my tools to him losing them or stashing them in whatever secret hiding spots he happens to be near when he doesn't want a tool in his pocket anymore. My spanners are hung on the wall in order with labels above them by size, my sockets are in trays in tool box drawers, my screwdrivers are laid out by size and type in the drawer, etc. The only tool I'm missing right now is a 12mm deep 6 pt socket that I dropped in the engine bay of my Volvo last week and if it hasn't fallen out while I've been driving it, then I'll find it on the belly pan when I change the oil soon. It was a cheap Stanley anyways, so no big loss.

 

[CTyankee]

Location might be helpful in getting better answers.

 

[juddspaintballs]

.WV.

 

[denis4x4]

See my avatar. Will this be a permanent location for the containers? I have some storage above the containers and there are no issues with the heat. Mine has vents and a hardwood floor. These are 20 footers.

 

[juddspaintballs]

It will not be permanent. About a year or so.

 

[DeeKay]

I have a 20 footer used for storage and a small work space. I will tell you without ventilation it got up to about 140°F in there in the summer. I cut two holes in the roof last spring and installed two turbine vents and now it doesn't usually get above 100°.

For only a year though I wouldn't mess with it and just deal with the heat/cold.

 

[Hghgrad]

What sort of climate are you dealing with? A metal container would be awful without ventilation. If you have a window or two and can open the door on one end it’ll help with air movement and make it tolerable. My shop has a metal roof and in the summer it’s only tolerable if I open the doors on the wings and let the breeze move through it. I’m in Michigan, so it gets high 90’s a few weeks a year. Arizona is obviously going to be different.

 

[patterg2003]

Insulation is cheap. Do the ceilings first and leave the walls open so they can be insulated and clad in the future. A bit unconventional but you could compact gravel then eventually put down a compacted layer of sand, vapour barrier with an inch sand then a unistone floor or concrete paver floor.

 

[Lassen Forge]

Get out a welder and frame in a man door, maybe a couple windows... you can buy them already modified like that, and after seeing a few it's dead easy to do. You'll need to frame in walls and when you do that you should insulate at the same time - for benches, for shelves, etc. Next you'll want to put a roof over it, as the tops on them are not designed for long term use... Also get railroad ties to set it on - it will be further to step up, but will keep the bottom from rotting out.

We had one that had a roller up door in one side, and a separated out shop area in the other side with lights, vents, and heat. It worked so well that I'm planning on putting up another one at our new home.

 

[Renegade1LI]

I am a big sea container fan, use them for everything, I have 2 at my house for storage. The biggest problem is condensation, I have to better ventilate both containers soon & I am working on a solar powered set up that will be triggered by humidity & temp. I've seen a few roof curbs to mount fans on but I am fabricating my own & the intake air louvers as well. Luckily I have a 100' 50amp cord to plug the welder in that reaches where I have them set up. The other option if I don't go solar is just plain old powered venting, interlock the fan & louvers & using a humidity sensor switch to turn on & off.

 

[Renegade1LI]

Hers some pics, see the condensation on the ceiling? & thats not bad from some days.

 

[atch]

...We're going to have them placed 20' apart and eventually build a roof over them. I might narrow the space up a bit and go for 16' though. I might be convinced to put a man door on the roof side of each one. Maybe even be convinced to put a window or two in.

Full insulation is probably out. Foam board insulation on the ceiling, maybe. That only requires 10 sheets...

I like where this is going.


If this is to be your forever shop later on with a roof over them and front/back walls I suggest you not install any windows in the containers but install one man door in each one facing each other (I assume that's what you mean when you say "roof side of each one"). Then, when you've moved everything out of them when your house is done you now have two 8x40 storage only rooms as part of your shop. If you want to insulate your new shop it can be installed on the shop interior/container exterior on the two containers without infringing on your container interior space. The man doors I suggest could also be installed later.

And as to your original question regarding shop layout (that really has no answers so far) I suggest:

• 12" or 16" deep shelves floor to ceiling on one of the long walls (1/4 or 1/3 of 4x8 sheet).

• 24" or 30" deep bench along the other wall, as long as you want/need.

• drill press, welder, chop saw, RA saw, miter saw, jointer/planer, etc. along the same wall as the bench.

• table saw and jointer/planer on casters so they can be moved out into the middle

• deeper shelving along the end without doors; or store table saw there.

• 3-4 four or five drawer file cabinets along the same wall as the bench; these are great tool or misc. storage.

• shallow shelves to the ceiling over the bench, file cabinets, and everything else along that wall.

We know nothing of what you will use the shop for. Woodworking? Motorcycle building? Gunsmithing? Electronics build/repair? Yard art construction? Based on this you'll obviously want to delete items above as necessary. I also don't know how much clear space a container has inside so the shelf &/or bench depths need to be such that foot traffic is possible.

Also (again obviously) you'll want to place your lights wherever most useful. I'd suggest hanging them from hooks in the ceiling. I'd weld hooks to the ceiling to hang lights from so as to not have roof penetrations. I see you've mentioned 20 amp electricity so I'm assuming you'll use a weatherhead to maintain watertight integrity.

I'd love to have 640 sq. ft. of dry storage attached to my shop.

 

[harley jim]

20 ft. apart will allow two car parking and allow you to open the doors to get in the vehicles. I bought a 20x20 car port it works, a friend has the standard 18 ft. wide car port and it's a squeeze to get in and out. You may not park there but it was my thought of the day!!!

Sent from my SM-A102U using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[Renegade1LI]

A little advice from someone who has been setting these things up for years for job site use, if this is to be a work shop keep your equipment on mobile bases. If you are adding shelves keep them to the back, try to keep the front 1/2 open for equipment, you can add shelves that start above the equipment so they store under it. Hopefully you got high cubes, that extra height really helps & if you do build shelves use dimensional lumber you save 2 5/8" per shelf & can span longer distance especially if you add a cleat center span.

 

[juddspaintballs]

I like where this is going.


If this is to be your forever shop later on with a roof over them and front/back walls I suggest you not install any windows in the containers but install one man door in each one facing each other (I assume that's what you mean when you say "roof side of each one"). Then, when you've moved everything out of them when your house is done you now have two 8x40 storage only rooms as part of your shop. If you want to insulate your new shop it can be installed on the shop interior/container exterior on the two containers without infringing on your container interior space. The man doors I suggest could also be installed later.

And as to your original question regarding shop layout (that really has no answers so far) I suggest:

• 12" or 16" deep shelves floor to ceiling on one of the long walls (1/4 or 1/3 of 4x8 sheet).

• 24" or 30" deep bench along the other wall, as long as you want/need.

• drill press, welder, chop saw, RA saw, miter saw, jointer/planer, etc. along the same wall as the bench.

• table saw and jointer/planer on casters so they can be moved out into the middle

• deeper shelving along the end without doors; or store table saw there.

• 3-4 four or five drawer file cabinets along the same wall as the bench; these are great tool or misc. storage.

• shallow shelves to the ceiling over the bench, file cabinets, and everything else along that wall.

We know nothing of what you will use the shop for. Woodworking? Motorcycle building? Gunsmithing? Electronics build/repair? Yard art construction? Based on this you'll obviously want to delete items above as necessary. I also don't know how much clear space a container has inside so the shelf &/or bench depths need to be such that foot traffic is possible.

Also (again obviously) you'll want to place your lights wherever most useful. I'd suggest hanging them from hooks in the ceiling. I'd weld hooks to the ceiling to hang lights from so as to not have roof penetrations. I see you've mentioned 20 amp electricity so I'm assuming you'll use a weatherhead to maintain watertight integrity.

I'd love to have 640 sq. ft. of dry storage attached to my shop.

Very helpful.


These will not be in the same location forever. Once I've built the house, I'll probably drag them over to the new house and set them up over there. I have no idea how I'd configure them then.

You are correct, I would go ahead and put a man door on each one facing the other one. Centered on the container would probably be the easiest to configure around. If I did a window, it would probably be directly opposite of the man door. I'm sensing that adding some louvered vents low on the doors wouldn't be a bad idea and a powered vent high on the opposite end.

I have a 2' deep by 8' wide work bench I'm taking with me. It's nothing too special, but it's sturdy and has doubled up 3/4" plywood covered in 1/8" mild steel screwed down flush. It's also one thing I don't need to build when I get there. I also have a set of 2' deep by 4' wide free-standing shelves I can put on the same side as the work bench so it doesn't protrude any more than the work bench. I've got some random grocery store shelving I can assemble and toss on that same side.

I figure the deep end will be for storing things I don't use often and can take shelves built in a C shape around that end, all 2' deep. As for big tools, I have a portable table saw, a 12" sliding compound miter saw on a portable stand, a 30-gallon horizontal Speed-Air compressor, shop vac, 6" horizontal band saw, a couple welders on carts, and that's about it. Almost everything else is a battery powered tool at this point (Milwaukee mostly). I don't even use the table saw a whole lot.

I may keep my motorcycle and dirt bike in there, but probably just the dirt bike and the two kid dirt bikes. The mower can sit outside under cover. My dad is keeping my tractor in the corn crib, but I wouldn't consider putting it in a sea container anyways (Kubota MX5100).

No shelving above the work bench for me. I'll mount a sheet of OSB on the wall there and hang my normal stuff from it (spanners, screwdrivers, safety glasses, etc.). I like the idea of shallow shelving along the opposite wall of the work bench. I might make that first shelf 2-3' off of the floor so I can store stuff against the wall under it. My vise will easily mount to the wood floor because it's on a pedastal with a brake rotor as the base.

Otherwise, I don't know what else. It'll be a work in progress.

 

[juddspaintballs]

OK, I have sold my house now and I'm living in an RV. I have two sea containers with all of our **** in them. One is my shop and it isn't organized at all yet. But that will change.


I want a man door on one side in roughly the center of the container. I don't know the best way to go about that. I have some 4" angle iron I could frame an opening out with, but if I want to slap a commercial steel (framed) door in there, I'm looking at about $600 for the door alone. There are companies that sell container door kits for ~$800 that are commercial steel doors with locks and a frame already.

Thoughts?

 

[joey1320]

I did NOT watch the video. I did a quick search and it came up. No clue if it will help but the difference between a window and a door aren't that big so good luck


<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/89hQXo4LCeI" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Renegade1LI]

OK, I have sold my house now and I'm living in an RV. I have two sea containers with all of our **** in them. One is my shop and it isn't organized at all yet. But that will change.


I want a man door on one side in roughly the center of the container. I don't know the best way to go about that. I have some 4" angle iron I could frame an opening out with, but if I want to slap a commercial steel (framed) door in there, I'm looking at about $600 for the door alone. There are companies that sell container door kits for ~$800 that are commercial steel doors with locks and a frame already.

Thoughts?

We use 4" c channel for the frame 3 1/4" plus for door frame to fit into, tak the metal to back off channel and caulk. Pad channel with 3/4 PT and install prehung into opening, I use 1/8" flat stock to trim. Add a piece of 2 x 2 angle above door before you install the c channel frame for water run off. 4" angle grinder works good to cut opening.

 

[juddspaintballs]

Renegade, do you turn the C so it's facing the prehung door frame or the container opening? Are you using a commercial steel door or a standard residential steel exterior door?

 

[riversedge]

I have one, first thing that was required was ventilation, I have 4 vents in each opposite corner sidewall, about 1.5 sq ft each. I had to insulate the ceiling at least because of condensation, spray foamed a skin about an inch thick and that cut down on the condensation. Also installed one small awning window in the back wall. Also got rid of the clasp bars on the doors, and use a floor and ceiling bolt for one door and made a more convenient latch and lock for the other door. Clasp locks were a PITA. Doors and vents were angle iron frames welded in. Also repainted, and used a rubbery white paint on the top and that helped knock down the heat. More I would like to do, but doing that much has made it a good place to store things.

 

[Renegade1LI]

Renegade, do you turn the C so it's facing the prehung door frame or the container opening? Are you using a commercial steel door or a standard residential steel exterior door?

The open side of channel face the skin & attach some 1x 4 to it, it should now be the ro of the prehung you have, we use standard entry doors, but you can use any just adjust the ro. Tack the skin inside the channel & caulk the exterior, when I get to the site Ill take some pics.

 

[Renegade1LI]

I have one, first thing that was required was ventilation, I have 4 vents in each opposite corner sidewall, about 1.5 sq ft each. I had to insulate the ceiling at least because of condensation, spray foamed a skin about an inch thick and that cut down on the condensation. Also installed one small awning window in the back wall. Also got rid of the clasp bars on the doors, and use a floor and ceiling bolt for one door and made a more convenient latch and lock for the other door. Clasp locks were a PITA. Doors and vents were angle iron frames welded in. Also repainted, and used a rubbery white paint on the top and that helped knock down the heat. More I would like to do, but doing that much has made it a good place to store things.

I am thinking of trying these since no power is required.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B088G29CQ8/?tag=atomicindus08-20