Earn Passive Income Using Shipping Containers as Self-Storage Facilities | The Container Guy
In this video, we will take you along as we explain the pros and cons of using shipping containers as storage facility buildings.
Using sea containers as storage units is a great way to earn some passive income! And we have easy DIY partition walls you can easily install within your shipping container to separate the container into multiple bay units.
You can easily do this with openside or double door shipping containers (cheaper option), or you can also purchase our roll up door kits and install them on a standard shipping container (more expensive and laborious).
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YouTube Video Transcript
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Are you thinking about setting up a storage facility, and want to utilize shipping containers?
Or, do you already own a traditionally built storage facility and want to add some containers
to increase your capacity?
Follow along in this video, and we're going to show you the pros and cons of using shipping
containers and some nifty tricks to partition off individual stalls, which will decrease
your input costs and lower your payback period.
Hi, I'm Channing McCorriston, The Container Guy.
We get tons of phone calls [from] people looking to set up storage facilities, and a lot of
times they want to grab used containers because they cost less, and then install a bunch of
roll-up doors in the sides of a can.
Often, this isn't necessarily the best idea to go about this because the initial cost
is still quite high when you modify a container, and then the asset isn't necessarily worth
as much when you're all said and done, so.
A lot of times, the best way to go about using containers as a storage facility is to use
one-time-use containers, and [then] don't modify them, so that that asset retains its
value, and in 10 years, it's likely worth more than what you paid, not less.
Follow along, I'm gonna show you this one.
Right behind me here, we have some four side door shipping containers.
These are specialty container[s], they're built like this in China.
And so, these are all sealed up.
They utilize the existing container doors, [and] they have lock boxes on them, which
is very secure for your clients.
And, yeah, they're rodent proof, wind and water tight, [and are] great [for] storage,
way better than traditionally built [ones] with just the roll-up doors.
So, being a brand new container, they're super easy to open and close the doors, and they
have waist height handles.
So, typically, on a normal container that's used, the handles are way down here because
the semi drivers need to be able to open the container while they're standing on the ground
and the container's sitting on a container chassis.
That's a huge advantage there, and then just the final advantage with these four side door
40-foot units, you can line them up [like this].
This is 80 feet already, and so it really allows you to visualize the perimeter of a
yard being lined with containers and allowing you--especially if you have a traditional
storage facility already, and all of your storage bays are in the center--to increase
your capacity of your facility.
Here, we are pulling the container into our shop for the installation of the CSM Brackets.
You'll have to remove the D-rings if they line up where you need your strut channels
to mount the partition walls.
For installing these CSM Brackets, check our other videos if you purchase them and need
to know exactly how to install them, either in the insulated or non-insulated positions.
We are installing the channel in the non-insulated position to minimize the gap between each
In these specialty 40-foot, high-cubed, four-side-door cans, we use a three-piece partition wall kit.
The partition wall panels bolt into the strut channel with regular bolts and spring nuts.
To ensure someone is not able to remove the wall and steal the neighbor's goods, we rotate
the middle panel and use bolts with Stover nuts, which require a wrench on the other
If you don't have access to both sides, you cannot remove the partition wall.
Here, we are using 5/16" sheet metal screws, which don't shear off going through the hard
container flooring like a lag bolt would.
So we'll crack one open, show you the insides of this, and then show you the partition walls
that we built that allows this 40 to be rented out to four different people.
And this here would be an 8 by 10 storage bay.
Another interesting thing to note is that a lot of people actually only want this size
of a storage slot, so it'd be a lot of, like, transient students that are heading home for
the summer, needing to rent something, but.
Even 8 by 20s, and 8 by 40s definitely, are way too big, so if you can partition containers
off utilizing these four-side-door cans.
And then we have a nifty partition wall here that I want to show you.
What's cool about them is they can actually be installed so that you'd see the finished
face on one side, and then what we call kind of the framed opening on the other, but.
If we rotate the center panel, now if someone's in this container they can't actually unbolt
this from either side of the can because they don't have the wrench on the other side, so.
It's secure on both sides, and so if one person's renting this they can't break through and
steal the next person's goods.
Often, municipalities require a fire separation, either between stalls, or say, if this was
within 30 feet of another building.
And so, if it's between stalls, what we can do is install all three of these panel sections
regularly, and then we can install one layer or two layers of drywall on this, which would
give fire separation between each bay.
Another thing we didn't do here, but we know in British Columbia is already code, is for
any storage facility, it requires ventilation.
And so we have our Big Air 45 vents.
Those would work great, one high, one low, give good cross flow ventilation.
And the reason for this, actually, is if there's flammable fuel or gasses inside these cans
and it gets so hot and something explodes, it'll actually blow the container doors right
off a sea can, and firefighters have been hit with the doors and killed, and so.
That now is code, and realistically, this customer and everyone should be ventilating
the individual slots of storage facilities.
These four-side-door shipping containers have one stock shipping-container vent on the end
wall here, or the back side, and then [it has] another one on the container doors.
But these should hardly be called vents because they only ventilate the size of a dime, and
they're more meant for depressurization in the container rather than ventilation.
Another option for getting multiple storage bays out of a single container is to utilize
40' double-door containers or 20' double-door containers, and have a partition wall in the center.
So here behind me, I have two that are going to the same customer, and they have a partition wall in the middle.
So these are 40' high-cube double-door [containers], and they're going to have two 8 by 20 storage
So we'll jump inside and show you how these look.
These here are our stocked partition walls, we carry them for both standards and high cubes.
What's different about these is that they are a four-piece design.
They install the same way as the partition wall kit shown previously, except for these,
the middle section can be removed and our Dual Swinger Man Door can be installed in its place.
Because it's lined up in an upper roof corrugation, we add foam tape to fill the gap at the ceiling.
All in all, these partition wall kits seal up very well.
They don't let [in] much for light or dust through, and they're just such a time saver
for us compared to the way that we used to do it.
And so, here you can see these are one-time-use container[s].
They're super clean, and it's a super durable construction that's going to last forever.
Another nice thing about new containers is you can get them with a coated flooring.
So if one client, I guess, spills oil or whatever, it's relatively easy to clean up rather than
use containers with the teak flooring.
So if you get new containers with the eco bamboo floor or the polyurethane coated flooring,
you can really prevent spills and difficult clean up with these one-time-use shipping containers.
So here again, the same partition wall kit that we have that's super modular, can be
moved around very easily and installed by yourself.
So, say, if you're down way far away from us and you want to buy these partition wall
kits, we can palletize them and ship them anywhere, so.
Check us out tcg.ca, or email parts@thecontainerguy.ca, and we do have these kits available for sale.
That right there is how you partition off shipping containers to create a storage facility.
Storage is a great source of retirement income, and it's a good idea if you have land already
and you're able to plunk these containers on it.
If you enjoyed this video, or found the information and the advice helpful, please like the video.
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And, as always, check us out at tcg.ca.
