Frequently Asked Questions

Containers arrive on a tilt-bed truck, which slides the container off the back. That means the truck needs a straight, level run at the drop point:

• 20ft container: about 70 feet of straight clearance from the drop point
• 40ft container: about 100 feet of straight clearance from the drop point

It also needs roughly 10 to 12 ft of width and clear air above. Low utility lines, tree limbs and roof overhangs stop a delivery more often than anything on the ground does. If you are unsure, describe the approach when you ask for a quote and we will tell you before anything is scheduled.

Watch a delivery: container delivery video.

Price moves with three things: the size, the grade, and how far your address sits from the depot holding the unit. That last one is why we do not publish a single statewide number. The starting prices on this site name the grade and the city they were captured in, so you can see the floor rather than a marketing figure. For your address, the quote form or a phone call gets you a real number, delivery included.

Warranty runs by grade: one-trip units carry a 10 year structural and no-leak warranty, cargo worthy and wind and water tight units carry 5 years, and economy units carry a 1 year no-roof-leak warranty. The warranty travels with the grade you buy, so if warranty length matters to you it is worth comparing grades before you compare prices.

Yes. We sell containers outright, and we work with financing partners who offer rent-to-own, which spreads the payments and leaves you owning the container at the end. We do not do short-term rentals. If you want the full comparison, our rent vs buy guide walks through when each path makes sense.

Alabama pricing starts at $2,279 for a 20ft Wind and Water Tight container delivered in Mobile, captured from Container One on 6 August 2026. The same 20ft Wind and Water Tight unit is $2,669 delivered in Huntsville and $2,836 delivered in Birmingham. Price moves with size, grade, what is in stock and how far the truck runs, so the number that matters is the one quoted to your ZIP code. Delivery is included in every figure above.

Because supply matters more than mileage here. Mobile sits 149 miles from the New Orleans depot, Birmingham 147 miles from the Atlanta depot and Huntsville 115 miles from the Tennessee depot, so the three hauls are close together while the delivered prices are not. Containers come ashore at the ports, so a box sold near the water has not been repositioned inland before you buy it. It does not run one way in every grade either: on a 40ft standard One-Trip, Birmingham currently prices lowest of the three Alabama cities. Tell us the grade and the ZIP and we will quote the real delivered number.

There is no statewide answer, because Alabama leaves land use entirely to local government. Inside a city limit the city's ordinance decides. Outside it, the county decides, and some Alabama counties have no zoning at all. All three cities we cover name containers in their own code and each sets different limits: Birmingham's temporary storage provision caps at 150 square feet and 90 days, Huntsville's portable storage structure permit caps at 160 square feet and 10 feet of height, runs 30 days and is limited to three permits per lot per year, and Mobile allows up to 400 square feet on a residential lot but only 60 days in a calendar year across two occasions. A 20ft container is about 160 square feet and a 40ft is about 320. Call your zoning office with your parcel address, ask what is allowed and for how long, and get the answer in writing before you schedule delivery.

Typically 1 to 2 weeks for north Alabama, the Birmingham metro, east Alabama and the coast, and 2 to 3 weeks for west Alabama, the Black Belt, the River Region and the Wiregrass. The reason is geometry rather than effort. There is no Container One depot inside Alabama, so every delivery is a run in from Tennessee, Atlanta or New Orleans, and the middle and southeast of the state sit in the hollow center of that triangle. We would rather quote you the honest window and beat it than promise a date we would have to walk back.

Three things, and all three are worth checking a week early rather than on delivery day. First, a straight, level run: a tilt bed truck needs roughly 100 feet to slide a 40ft container off, and closer to 70 feet for a 20ft. Second, clear height overhead, because the bed has to rise well above the container itself, which is why low limbs over a driveway in Forest Park, Old Dauphin Way or Twickenham decide more deliveries than gate width does. Third, firm ground and something solid under the four corner castings. Gravel, crushed stone, treated timbers or blocks keep the box level and the doors square. If the last quarter mile is soft sand, gumbo or fresh subdivision backfill, tell us when you book and we will plan around it.

Four, and the warranty is set by the grade rather than by the seller. One-Trip containers have made a single loaded voyage and carry a 10 year structural and no-leak warranty. Cargo Worthy containers still meet the standard for international shipping and carry a 5 year warranty. Wind and Water Tight containers are retired from shipping service but are dry and lockable, carry a 5 year warranty, and are the grade most Alabama storage buyers choose. Economy containers carry a 1 year warranty against roof leaks only, and are the right answer when the box is going behind a barn rather than in front of a house. Refrigerated units are sold inspected and tested, with any service history we hold, and carry no separate refrigeration warranty.

It is built for worse. A shipping container spends its working life crossing oceans in salt spray, and the Corten steel it is made from forms a stable surface layer that slows corrosion. The problem Alabama owners actually meet is not rust on the outside, it is condensation on the inside, because the entire state sits in a moist climate regime and a steel roof that radiates heat to a clear night sky can fall below the dew point of the air under it. The fixes are ordinary: set it level and off the ground so air moves underneath, add passive vents, keep the roof clear of leaves and limbs, and touch up the paint wherever the finish gets thin. On the coast add a yearly rinse.

Do the arithmetic with your own numbers rather than a rule of thumb. Take the delivered purchase price for the size and grade you want at your address, take the monthly rental quote for the same box at the same address, and divide the first by the second. That month count is your crossover: below it renting costs less and above it buying costs less, and the delivery and pickup charges on a rental pull the real crossover a little earlier than the raw division suggests. Rent-to-own sits between the two, where the monthly payment builds toward ownership instead of ending when you hand the box back. Ask for all three numbers on the same call.

Regularly, and the placement is usually the easy part, because a field, a pond levee, a pack shed or an equipment yard has room to work and most drops are a straight pull off a county road. The one question we ask every time is what the last quarter mile is made of. Chert and gravel are fine. Wiregrass sugar sand will bog a loaded truck that a pickup crosses without noticing, and Black Belt gumbo sticks when wet and cracks open in August. Tell us which one it is, tell us whether a tractor is nearby, and we will plan the approach rather than discover it.

There is no statewide ban and no statewide permission either. A container home in Alabama is judged as a house, which is better news than most people expect and also more work. You will be held to the residential code your jurisdiction enforces, the foundation and the anchoring are engineering work for an Alabama licensed engineer, and the zoning question is separate and local. Ground matters here more than usual: Black Belt prairie clay moves with moisture and has to be designed for movement, limestone country rewards a question about sinkhole history, and the coast will hand you a higher design wind speed. Our guide walks the whole sequence. What we sell is the container and the delivery, not the build.

• One-trip: made one loaded ocean crossing. Clean floors, intact paint, close to new.
• Cargo worthy: certified fit to carry cargo at sea. Structurally sound, cosmetically used.
• Wind and water tight (WWT): inspected to confirm the doors seal, there are no holes, and the interior stays dry. Surface rust, paint wear and minor dents are normal.
• Economy: the lowest grade we sell. Weathered, and priced accordingly.

For a grade-by-grade walkthrough with photographs, see the container condition guide.

It depends on what the container is for. If it is going to be seen, lived in, or converted, the clean interior and intact paint save real work later and the 10 year structural and no-leak warranty is the longest we carry. If it is going behind a shed to hold equipment, a wind and water tight unit does the same job for less.

We offer 20ft standard, 40ft standard and 40ft high cube containers, plus modified containers and refrigerated units in 20ft and 40ft.

Personnel doors, roll-up doors, windows, vents, skylights, electrical wiring and a panel, LED lighting, insulation, spray foam, HVAC, shelving, workbenches and exterior paint. Which of those matter depends on the climate the box will sit in: Alabama is a cooling led state from the Tennessee line to the beach, and the energy code map is simpler here than in most southern states. Mobile and Baldwin counties sit in climate zone 2, hot and humid. Every other county in Alabama sits in climate zone 3, with a warm humid band across the southern tier that the state tables mark with an asterisk. What does not change anywhere is the moisture regime: the entire state is designated moist, with no dry corner and no marine corner. That is why insulation guidance written for a dry or a mixed climate does not transfer here, and why the plan for an Alabama container is a moisture plan before it is an R-value plan..

A reefer has a refrigeration unit built into one end. It runs on a 460V 3-phase supply, or a compatible generator where 3-phase power is not available, and holds anywhere from -25 degrees F to +70 degrees F. The walls are insulated as part of the original build, not retrofitted.

Start with the ground you actually have. In Alabama, Alabama hands you two different ground problems in one state, and the line between them is roughly the Fall Line. North and central Alabama is red clay over carbonate bedrock, so the questions are grade, karst and clay that is firm when dry and slick when wet. The Geological Survey of Alabama documents sinkhole and subsidence activity in that karst terrain across Jefferson, Shelby, Madison and the limestone valley counties. Through the middle of the state the Black Belt is different again: Alabama Cooperative Extension describes the clayey Wilcox, Mayhew and Vaiden soils of that belt as high in smectitic clays that shrink and crack when dry and swell when wet, which is movement rather than simple bearing. South of that, the coastal plain and the coast turn to sand over a high water table and the question becomes drainage and settlement. All of it matters more for a container than for a house, because a container puts essentially its whole weight through four corner castings rather than spreading it along a footing.

For temporary placement: Set the container on solid bearing at the four corner castings rather than straight onto turf. Gravel, crushed stone, pressure treated timbers or solid blocks under each corner keep the box level, keep the doors square and keep the wood floor out of standing water. Grade so surface water runs away from the corners rather than under them.

For permanent placement or a conversion: A compacted gravel pad, or poured piers or footings under each corner casting bearing on undisturbed soil, with drainage that carries water away. IRC Section R403.1.4 requires exterior footings at least 12 inches below the undisturbed ground surface, and below the frost line where one applies. On Black Belt prairie clay the foundation has to be designed for movement rather than only for bearing, which is engineering work for an Alabama licensed engineer rather than a rule of thumb.

Frost depth: Shallow throughout Alabama, and rarely the governing factor. The IRC minimum of 12 inches below undisturbed grade is the practical floor. There is no single statewide figure to look up, because IRC Table R301.2 is filled in locally, so ask your building department for their number. Anything meant to be permanent needs its bearing points below that line, or the whole assembly moves with the first hard freeze.

Slab on grade and shallow crawl space construction are the Alabama norm, because frost depths here are shallow and the frost line is rarely the governing factor. What governs instead is water and movement: where the water goes, how fast the soil sheds it, and whether the ground under the four corners stays put through a wet week and an August drought.

At a minimum, make the placement area level and firm, and clear debris, rocks and brush out of the way. Confirm the straight run above, and look up for lines and limbs. Soft ground is the single most common cause of a delayed delivery: a loaded flatbed will sink, so a driver will wait for the ground to dry rather than tear up your property. Send photos of the site with your quote request and we will tell you if anything needs doing first.

The box itself is 14-gauge Corten steel and is very hard to cut. The lock is the weak point, so use a hidden shackle lock, sometimes called a puck lock, inside a lockbox welded over the handle. Many of our units already have a lockbox fitted.

The recurring signs are a price far under the market, a seller who will not let the container be seen or photographed, payment demanded by wire transfer or crypto, no physical business address, and pressure to decide today. A real dealer will give you a phone number, answer questions before payment, and put the quote in writing.