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: 110 feet of straight clearance from the drop point
• 40ft container: 130 feet of straight clearance from the drop point

The truck needs at least 15 ft of height to drive, at least 22 ft of height along the entire unloading path, and at least 10 ft of width. Low utility lines, tree limbs and roof overhangs can stop a delivery. If you are unsure, describe the approach when you ask for a quote so it can be reviewed before anything is scheduled.

Watch a delivery: container delivery video.

Price depends on the size, grade and condition you choose, on what is in stock, and on the distance and access to your address, so there is no single statewide number. The starting prices on this site name the grade and the city they apply to. For your address, the quote form or a phone call gets you a written quote with delivery details.

Warranty runs by grade: one-trip units carry a 10 year structural and 10 year no-leak warranty, cargo worthy and wind and water tight units carry a 5 year structural and 5 year no-leak warranty, and economy units carry a 1 year 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.

We sell containers. We do not rent them. Rent-to-own runs through a third-party partner, My Container Rental, and spreads the payments until you own the container. Our rent vs buy guide walks through when each path makes sense.

South Carolina pricing starts at $2,078 for a 20ft Wind and Water Tight container delivered in Charleston. The same 20ft Wind and Water Tight unit is $2,097 delivered in Columbia and $2,559 delivered in Greenville. 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.

Haul distance is only one input in a delivered price. Charleston is served from the Savannah depot, about 109 miles down the coast. Greenville is served from the Charlotte depot, about 120 miles up Interstate 85. The two hauls are eleven miles apart, and on a 20ft Wind and Water Tight container Greenville runs roughly four hundred eighty dollars more. The quote is tied to your ZIP code for that reason.

South Carolina splits this into two questions answered by two different offices. The building code is settled statewide: Section 6-9-50 of the South Carolina Code names the mandatory codes, the Building Codes Council adopts the editions, and local governments enforce that set rather than writing their own. Zoning, which decides whether a container is an allowed thing on your particular lot, is entirely local and the answers differ. Charleston treats a container in a residential district as a portable storage unit with a size and duration limit, and restricts outdoor storage of three or more containers to the LI and HI industrial districts. Columbia handles it as a temporary use with a thirty day clock and a construction site exception. Greenville permits containers for outdoor storage only in three business and industrial districts, BH, IX and IG. Start with one call to whoever issues your permit, with your parcel address.

A mailing address and a jurisdiction are not the same thing, and many addresses in this state are not inside the city they name. The City of Charleston spans three counties, with Daniel Island and Cainhoy in Berkeley County and part of the West Ashley corridor in Dorchester County, while Mount Pleasant, North Charleston, Summerville, Goose Creek and each island town are separate jurisdictions. Around Greenville, Taylors, Berea, Wade Hampton, Five Forks, Welcome, Parker and Gantt lie in unincorporated Greenville County, and Greer, Simpsonville, Mauldin, Fountain Inn and Travelers Rest are their own municipalities. Your property tax bill names the jurisdiction that has your address, and that jurisdiction's zoning office is the one to call first. In Charleston, Columbia and Greenville the county and the city each have their own rulebook, so the answer for one address can differ from the answer next door.

A container needs firm, level bearing at the four corner castings, because that is where the entire weight goes. The ground under those corners differs across South Carolina. Upstate red clay holds water and softens when saturated, and much of the Upstate sits on slope, so blocking on the downhill corners keeps the doors swinging true. Sandhills and Midlands sand drains well and can still spread under a point load. Lowcountry ground is sand over a high water table, and at the marsh edge it is pluff mud, so a box set straight onto turf will settle unevenly. Pressure treated timbers, concrete blocks or a compacted gravel pad under each corner work on any of these grounds, and grading so water runs away from the corners rather than under them protects those supports.

Delivery timing depends on location, payment, weather, container availability and site access. Container One's Delivery/Dispatch department schedules the date after payment is received and the site is reviewed.

Each grade carries its own warranty, and the grade decides both what the box looks like and what it is warranted for. One-trip containers are near new, having made a single loaded voyage, and carry a 10 year structural and no-leak warranty. Cargo worthy containers are certified fit for ocean shipping and carry a 5 year warranty. Wind and water tight containers are retired from shipping but still dry inside, and carry a 5 year warranty. Economy containers are the working grade with cosmetic age on them, and carry a 1 year warranty covering roof leaks only. For dry storage on a South Carolina site, wind and water tight is the grade to start with. One-trip suits a box that will be visible, painted or converted.

Corten steel forms a stable surface layer that slows corrosion, and these boxes spend their working lives crossing oceans in salt spray on an open deck. The other concern in South Carolina is condensation on the inside. The State Climatology Office notes that humidity here peaks around sunrise, which is when a steel roof that has radiated heat to a clear sky is at its coldest. Warm wet air meeting cold steel is why containers sweat. Ventilation, leveling the box on blocks and separating it from the ground all reduce it. On the coast and the sea islands, add a yearly rinse and touch up paint wherever the finish gets thin, and check the roof seams and door gaskets when the truck arrives.

It depends on the access. Fields, pack houses, equipment yards and timber tracts have room to work, and a straight pull off a county road is a plain delivery. What matters most is what the last quarter mile is made of. Sandhills sugar sand and sandy Pee Dee loam can carry a pickup and still soften under a loaded rig after a wet week, so tell the Container One sales representative whether it is sand, clay or gravel and whether a tractor is nearby to help if a truck bogs down. In the Upstate foothills the question changes to grade and width, because a tilt bed truck cannot back a 40ft container up a switchback it cannot see over. Two 20ft containers can suit a site that will not take a 40ft.

Yes. There are three ways to hold a container and they suit different lengths of need. Renting is the right answer for a short, defined project, because you hand it back when you are done. Buying is the right answer when the need runs long, because a container is a durable steel asset rather than a consumable and you can sell it later. Rent-to-own, which runs through a third-party partner, sits between the two: the monthly payment builds toward ownership instead of ending when the box goes back. Divide the delivered purchase price by a monthly rental quote from a rental company, and the month count that falls out is your crossover point.

• 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, 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 10 year no-leak warranty is the longest available. 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. Insulation and HVAC choices depend on the climate the box will sit in: South Carolina's main energy load is cooling in most of the state. The energy code puts all 46 counties in one climate zone, 3A, although the state runs from barrier islands to the Blue Ridge escarpment. Twelve coastal plain counties are also marked warm-humid, and the R-values are the same in every county. Conditions differ within that one zone. The Lowcountry is warm and wet with vapor driving inward most of the year. The Midlands and the Sandhills run hotter than the coast in high summer because there is no sea breeze, with big day to night swings that cool a roof hard overnight. The Upstate has winter nights and occasional ice. In all three, the insulation plan starts with moisture control and then addresses R-value.

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.

A container rests its entire load on four corner castings, and the ground under those corners changes across South Carolina. The Piedmont is deep red clay that holds water and softens when wet, with patches of soil that swell when wet and shrink when dry mixed through the same ground. The Sandhills belt is loose sand that drains well but can shift and spread under a point load.

For temporary placement: Set the container on solid bearing at the four corner castings rather than straight onto turf. Pressure treated timbers, concrete blocks or a compacted gravel pad under each corner keeps the box level, keeps the doors square and keeps 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: Use poured piers or footings under each corner casting, bearing on undisturbed soil and sized for the load, rather than a loose block set on the ground. The International Residential Code, 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 Piedmont clay, loose Sandhills sand and coastal deposits, a soil test costs little next to repairing a settled corner. Any structural build needs the foundation and the anchoring designed by a South Carolina licensed engineer. In the Lowcountry, the connection between container and foundation needs particular attention, because the sandy coastal plain liquefied in places during the 1886 earthquake and a container carries its whole weight on four points.

Frost depth: Shallow throughout South Carolina, 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 Table R301.2 is filled in locally, so ask your building department for their number.

Slab on grade and shallow crawl space construction suit South Carolina. What governs instead of frost is water and slope: where the water goes, how fast the soil sheds it, whether the ground under the corners stays firm through a wet week, and on the sea islands what the flood mapping says your finished floor elevation has to be.

At a minimum, make the placement area level and firm, and clear debris, rocks and brush out of the way. Confirm the straight run the truck needs, and look up for lines and limbs. Soft ground can delay a delivery: a loaded truck can sink, so the driver may wait for the ground to dry. Describe the site in your quote request so it can be reviewed before delivery is scheduled.

The box itself is corrugated Corten steel. The lock is the weak point, so use a hidden shackle lock, sometimes called a puck lock, inside a lockbox welded over the handle. Ask whether the selected unit has 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 verifiable business identity or contact route, and pressure to decide today. A real dealer will give you a phone number, answer questions before payment, and put the quote in writing.