10ft New Shipping Container

excl. VAT · incl. VAT: €3,687.81

Where a 10ft new shipping container earns its place

Most people who end up buying a 10ft new shipping container did not start out looking for one. They started out looking at a 20ft box and then measured the gate, the driveway or the corner of the yard where it was supposed to go. The 10ft exists because sites are not always generous. It is the size you choose when the constraint is not how much you need to store but how much room you have to put something, and how a delivery vehicle is going to reach that spot at all.

That makes this a page about logistics as much as about steel. The specification is below, but the questions that actually decide whether the purchase works are about access width, turning circles, overhead clearance, ground bearing and where the doors will end up facing. Get those right and a small box is one of the most useful things on a constrained site. Get them wrong and you have paid for a delivery that cannot be completed.

Verified dimensions and weights

A footprint you can actually place

The external footprint is 299.11 cm by 243.79 cm. That is a shade under three metres by a shade under two and a half. It fits along the side of a house, across the end of a parking bay, in the corner of a small builders yard, on a balcony deck of the right construction, inside a warehouse bay or beside a workshop where a longer box would block the fire route.

Height is where people are caught out. At 259.11 cm the unit is taller than a domestic garage door and taller than many yard canopies, and the delivery vehicle needs considerably more clearance than that while the box is in the air. Before ordering, walk the route the vehicle will take and look up as well as ahead. Low branches, cables, signage, canopies, first floor overhangs and car park height barriers stop more deliveries than narrow gates do.

Getting the box to the spot

Small sites usually mean one of a handful of placement methods, and each has its own space demand.

• Lorry mounted crane. The vehicle parks alongside and lifts the box over. This needs stabiliser legs to be deployed, so allow clear width beside the vehicle as well as behind it, and firm ground under the outriggers.
• Tilt bed or roll off. The box slides off the rear of the vehicle. This needs a long, straight, reasonably level run behind the vehicle rather than width, so it suits a driveway but not a tight courtyard.
• Forklift. With the right machine and forks long enough for the width, a 10ft unit can be handled by yard equipment. Ask about lifting points before assuming it, because a dry box is designed to be lifted from its corner castings.
• Lifting legs or a set of container trolleys. Detachable leg systems and wheeled trolleys let a small box be moved or repositioned without a crane on each occasion. This is worth considering if the container may need to move around the site later.

Tell whoever is delivering the tare weight of 867 kg, the external dimensions and an honest description of the access, including surface type and any slope. An accurate description of a difficult site is far cheaper than a failed delivery.

Ground preparation on a small plot

The whole weight of the unit and everything inside it passes through four corner castings, so it is a point load in each corner rather than a spread load. On a small plot this is helpful, because you do not need a full slab. Four solid, level bearing points do the job: concrete blocks, paving slabs bedded properly, railway sleepers or purpose made pads.

What matters is that they are level with one another and that they stay level. Set the box directly on soil or grass and two things happen. The corners settle at different rates and slowly rack the frame, which makes the doors stiff, and moisture is held permanently against the underside cross members, which is where corrosion starts. Raising the box even slightly lets air move underneath and keeps it dry. On a garden or a soft yard, the preparation is a small job compared with the cost of correcting a sunken corner later.

What actually fits into 15.90 m³

A rated volume is easy to quote and easy to misread. The 6.66 m² floor area is the number to plan from, because most things are stored in plan and then stacked upward.

In practical terms, the floor takes a short run of shelving down one side with a working aisle, or shelving down both sides with a narrow standing space in the middle, or a small number of pallet positions if you accept losing the aisle. Long items are limited by the internal length of 283.11 cm, so timber, pipe, ladders and conduit that exceed that length will have to go in diagonally or not at all. That single figure is worth checking before anything else if you handle long goods.

Typical loads for a box this size are groundworks tools and small plant, garden and landscaping equipment, event and market stall kit, workshop overflow, archive boxes, sports club equipment, seasonal stock and building materials that need to be locked away rather than left in the open. For bulk that fills volume rather than floor, the 15.90 m³ figure is a ceiling, not a target. Real fill rates are lower once aisles and irregular shapes are allowed for.

The payload arithmetic

The maximum gross weight is 6,500 kg and the net or tare weight is 867 kg. Subtract one from the other and the cargo allowance works out at 5,633 kg. That is the figure to plan against if you are storing anything dense, such as fixings, tiles, aggregate in bags, tooling or metal stock.

Two things follow from it. First, it is easy to reach the weight limit long before the box looks full, so weigh rather than eyeball dense goods. Second, the ground has to take it. A loaded unit approaching gross weight puts a substantial load through each corner, and on paving, on a domestic driveway or on made up ground that is worth thinking about at the planning stage rather than after a slab cracks.

Loading through the doors in a confined space

The door opening is 233.81 cm wide and 227.99 cm high. In a tight yard the practical issue is not the opening itself but the swing. Standard cargo doors open outward and need a clear arc in front of the door end, plus room for a person to stand beside them. When you decide where the box sits, mark out that arc on the ground first. Placing a small container so that its doors face a wall, a fence or a parked vehicle is a common and irritating mistake, and correcting it means a second lift.

Also think about the approach for whatever loads the box. If a pallet truck or a small forklift has to reach the doors, it needs a straight approach and a firm, flat surface right up to the sill. A perfectly sited container that can only be loaded by hand is still usable, but it is not what most buyers had in mind.

Condensation in a small volume

A steel box is uninsulated, and a small one heats and cools quickly. When warm moist air meets a cold roof, moisture condenses on the underside and drips onto whatever is beneath. This is routinely mistaken for a leak. The passive vents built into the side walls near the top rail are there to help, so keep them clear and do not block them with stacked goods.

Beyond that, store goods dry, keep them off the floor on pallets or a low rack, leave a gap between stacked items and the walls so air can circulate, and use desiccant for anything sensitive. If the contents genuinely cannot tolerate moisture, plan insulation and ventilation from the outset rather than treating it as a later fix.

Security and siting

Small boxes are attractive to thieves precisely because they hold tools. The most effective measures are positional rather than mechanical. Place the unit where the doors are overlooked, ideally facing a building or a camera rather than a boundary. Where a site allows, siting the door end close to a wall restricts access to the locking gear without preventing use. Standard cargo doors take a lock box or a shrouded padlock housing, and it is worth specifying that at the point of order rather than drilling into a new box afterwards.

10ft or 20ft: a straight comparison

If access permits a longer box, a 20ft unit usually gives more storage per euro. The 10ft wins on three counts: it fits where the longer box cannot, it is far easier to place and reposition at 867 kg tare, and on a small plot it leaves usable yard space instead of consuming all of it. Where you need a modest, secure, weatherproof store on a constrained site, a 10ft new shipping container is the right tool. Where you have room and are storing volume, do the sum on cost per cubic metre before deciding.

One more point worth raising early. If you may eventually want more space, a second matching unit placed alongside is usually simpler than replacing the first with a bigger box, so ask about matching stock and about clamps or connectors before you buy the first one.

How much space do I need to take delivery of a 10ft new shipping container?

More than the footprint of 299.11 cm by 243.79 cm. A lorry mounted crane needs clear width beside the vehicle for its stabiliser legs and firm ground under them. A tilt bed needs a long straight run behind it instead. In both cases the overhead clearance during the lift is well above the 259.11 cm height of the box itself.

What is the payload of the 10ft unit?

Maximum gross weight is 6,500 kg and the tare weight is 867 kg, so subtracting one from the other gives a cargo allowance of 5,633 kg. With dense goods such as fixings, tiles or metal stock you can reach that limit long before the box looks full, so weigh rather than estimate, and check that the ground under each corner can take the resulting load.

Do I need a concrete slab underneath?

Not usually. The load passes through four corner castings, so four solid, level bearing points are enough: concrete blocks, properly bedded slabs, sleepers or purpose made pads. What matters is that they are level with each other and stay level. Avoid setting the box straight onto soil or grass, where corners settle unevenly and trapped moisture attacks the underside cross members.

What can I store in 15.90 cubic metres?

Plan from the 6.66 square metre floor rather than the volume. That takes shelving down one or both sides with a working aisle, or a few pallet positions without one. Long items are capped by the internal length of 283.11 cm, so check that figure first if you handle timber, pipe or ladders. Typical contents are tools, small plant, event kit, archives and seasonal stock.

Why does water form inside a sealed container?

That is almost always condensation rather than a leak. Steel is uninsulated, so warm moist air meeting a cold roof deposits moisture that then drips. Keep the factory vents clear, store only dry goods, raise everything off the floor, leave an air gap at the walls and use desiccant for sensitive items. If the contents cannot tolerate any moisture, plan insulation and ventilation from the start.