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Quick and easy deployment, in a sturdy carrying case - that's the easiest way to describe a portable office built inside of a shipping container. Container offices have been used for several years, and made more popular during the shale oil boom. However, there are several things to think about before you rush out and buy one, or have one built for you.
The first thing you'll need to ask yourself is if a prebuilt solution will work for you, or if you need to have one custom built to your specifications. Some companies produce several container offices at a time to a similar standard. It can save on costs, but it can also be difficult to predict exactly what features a customer will want. Having one custom built means you can either go with the bare necessities, or create an elaborate structure with every feature you could need.
Not all doors and windows are created equal, and neither are the frames. Door and window frames on a shipping container structure ideally won't be wood. Wood can shift when the container in moved and cause the window to fall out of square and leak in bad weather, or worse yet it could crack. Steel frames made from angle iron or steel tubing are the best solution as they'll keep the window or door locked into place with little chance of shifting when the container is moved. | ![]() |
The actual doors and windows should be heavy duty, exterior quality. They're going to be exposed to the elements of nature and will need to withstand hash conditions and general heavy use and abuse.
Interior walls can be tricky, as they need to be fastened to the steel walls of the container somehow to keep them in place. The base is easily secured to the wood floors, but the sides and/or top also need to be connected somehow. The best solution that we have seen and used is to nail the base to the floor, and put a lag bolt through the roof of the container and into the top section of the wood frame. It's important to use some type of sealant on the lag bolt to prevent leaking and rust.
Doors and windows can be locked, but thieves can be persistent when it comes to getting at the object of their desire, or if nothing is in plain sight they may decide that there is enough of a chance that something inside the container might be worth their time. With that in mind, it's better to opt for doors without windows and apply bars or shutters to the windows that will limit access to the inside of the container office. | ![]() |
ContainerAuction.com and the listed sellers provide services to build and customize all types of shipping, storage, and container offices throughout the United States. If you have any questions about office containers, or shipping containers in general, feel free to contact any of the sellers listed on the site, or the ContainerAuction.com staff directly.