Guide · Building
Shipping Container Garage
Yuri Kan Updated
A shipping container works as a garage, with one caveat measured in centimetres: the end-door opening is 2.340 m (7′8″) wide and the inside 2.352 m (7′8½″), per 16 of 18 sheets, so a typical mid-size car, about 2.00–2.15 m across its mirrors, has 10–17 cm a side — one careful line, and more with the mirrors folded. A 20 ft box (5.898 m inside) garages one car up to 5.4 m long; a 40 ft (12.032 m) takes two cars nose-to-tail or one car plus a 6.1 m workshop; two 40 ft boxes set 5–6 m apart with a spanning roof make a genuine double garage with the cars in the covered bay. Budget $1,700–2,800 for a used 20 ft box, $300–1,500 for a gravel base and, by builders’ typical figures, $1,000–3,500 for a roll-up door — a fraction of the $20,000–40,000 builders quote for a stick-built single garage.
The garage question is really three questions: does the car physically fit (yes, barely — the numbers below), how do you get in and out daily (the standard cargo doors are the wrong answer), and what does it sit on. All three have exact figures.
The base dimensions: a 20 ft container offers 5.898 × 2.352 × 2.393 m inside behind a 2.340 × 2.280 m door opening, as most published sheets print them; a 40 ft is identical in section at 12.032 m long. Those four numbers decide everything on this page.
The numbers in this chart
| Container | Internal dimensions: Length × Width, m | Sedans |
|---|---|---|
| 20 ft container | 5.898 × 2.352 | 1 |
| 40 ft container | 12.032 × 2.352 | 2 |
Checked : outside sizes set by ISO 668, read in IS 6566:2001, GOST R 51876-2008 and GOST R 53350-2009; every other figure against 23 published sheets of 19 lines, lessors and makers. A sheet agrees within ±5 mm, or ±2 % for a mass and ±1 % for a volume; a maximum gross is a rating and must be the same. Every figure and its sources
The numbers in this chart
| Size | m² | ft² |
|---|---|---|
| 10 ft container | 6.7 | 72 |
| 20 ft container | 13.9 | 149 |
| 40 ft container | 28.3 | 305 |
| 40 ft high cube container | 28.3 | 305 |
| 45 ft high cube container | 31.9 | 343 |
| 48 ft container | 36.2 | 390 |
| 53 ft container | 40.3 | 434 |
Checked : the figures in this chart against 41 of 88 published sheets from 26 lines, lessors, makers and rail and road operators: those that print these figures. A sheet agrees within ±5 mm, or ±2 % for a mass and ±1 % for a volume; a maximum gross is a rating and must be the same. Every figure and its sources
Does a car actually fit?
Width is the whole game, and the 2.340 m door opening, not the interior, is the gate. A mid-size sedan is typically about 1.80–1.90 m across the body but 2.00–2.15 m across its mirrors (your own car’s maker’s sheet gives both). A full-size pickup is about as wide across the body as that sedan is across its mirrors, and well over the opening mirrors-out.
Against the 2.340 m door opening, that means:
- sedans and crossovers pass the door opening with 19–34 cm of total side clearance mirrors-out, and with them folded up to 44–54 cm, counted from the body;
- full-size trucks clear only with mirrors folded;
- anything still wider than the opening with its mirrors folded is a no.
The diagram above shows the clearances, and the car in a container guide tabulates them model class by model class.
Once inside, length and doors take over. In a 20 ft box a 4.8 m sedan leaves 1.1 m of total nose-to-tail slack. Park hard forward in the 20 ft box and the driver’s door of a 1.85 m-wide body still only opens onto 25 cm of wall gap.
So the practised routine is:
- fold the mirrors;
- drive in centred;
- exit through a part-open door.
Height is the non-issue: at 2.280 m the opening clears every car and SUV. Only vans and lifted trucks over 2.280 m need a high cube with its 2.585 m opening.
Configurations: one car, two cars, double garage
One car — 20 ft. The minimum viable garage: a car up to 5.4 m long (the 5.898 m inside less 0.5 m to walk round it), plus wall hooks for tyres and tools in the remaining sliver. Nothing else fits beside the car; storage lives above the bonnet or on the end wall.
Long garage — 40 ft. The versatile format holds two cars nose-to-tail (2 × 5.4 m with 1.2 m spare). Far more common is one car in a first bay as long as a 20 ft’s inside and a 6.1 m workshop behind it, with bench, compressor and racking at full standing height. One box, one delivery, one permit conversation.
Double garage — 2 × 40 ft plus roof span. Set two boxes parallel, 5–6 m apart, and span a steel or timber roof between the top rails. The containers become secure workshop/storage wings, and the covered bay between them parks two cars side by side with full door swing: the layout the 2.352 m interior can never offer.
The roof structure of the double garage needs engineering: the top side rails are not designed for heavy point loads mid-span, so posts or a properly sized beam carry the span into the corner posts. The result is a 9.9–10.9 × 12.192 m building, two boxes’ outside width plus the bay by a 40 ft’s outside length, for the price of two used boxes and a roof kit.
Doors: why a roll-up beats the cargo doors
Factory cargo doors are the wrong daily-driver interface:
- two leaves, each about 1.2 m wide (half the box’s outside width), that must swing right round to the side walls;
- four vertical lock rods;
- no operation from inside;
- gaskets that stiffen with age.
Cargo doors are fine for a monthly airing and miserable twice a day in the rain (full hardware anatomy in the door dimensions guide).
The standard retrofit is a roll-up door in the end frame, $1,000–3,500 fitted by builders’ estimates. The cargo doors are removed or welded open, and a roll-up sheet door sized to the 2.340 m opening mounts into the existing structural opening, with no new cutting. Its coil headbox is about 300 mm, a builders’ typical figure.
Note the headroom trade: the coil drops clear passage to about 2.0 m in a standard box. That is why garage conversions favour high cubes: the 2.585 m opening leaves about 2.3 m under the coil.
A side-entry roll-up, an opening cut into the corrugated side wall, allows drive-through layouts and wider doors. But a side cut removes structural wall and needs a welded steel frame and header sized for the span.
Foundation: what a garage box sits on
The loads are modest: the box (2,230 kg for a 20 ft, sheets print 2,080–2,570 kg; 3,700 kg for a 40 ft, per 9 of 16 sheets) plus a car of typically about 2 tonnes. The box must sit dead level, or the retrofit door racks in its frame.
The economical base is a compacted gravel pad ($300–1,500) or concrete piers under the corner castings ($1,500–6,000). A full slab ($3,000–12,000) is the premium option that also gives a clean apron at the threshold.
But a garage adds one requirement storage doesn’t: the floor must take a car’s wheel loads (about 500 kg per tyre, a quarter of the car) repeatedly. The plywood floor is 28 mm thick, as 3 independent documents print it (Dongguan Southern CIMC Logistics Equipment Manufacture Co., Ltd., National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR), Ministry of Earth Sciences, India and Shipped.com Corporation). ISO 1496-1 tests it with a wheel of 2,730 kg in its 1990 text and 3,630 kg since its Amendment 3, per IS 13288 (Part 1):1993 and ISO 1496-1:1990.
So the plywood floor handles car wheels as long as its steel cross-members are supported, which on soft ground means pads under the rails, not just the corners. Full options are in the foundation guide.
Cost: container garage vs stick-built
| Item | Container (20 ft) | Stick-built 1-car |
|---|---|---|
| Structure | $1,700–2,800 used box | $20,000–40,000 built |
| Base | $300–1,500 gravel pad | |
| Roll-up door | $1,000–3,500 fitted | |
| Delivery | $400–800 | |
| Total | $3,400–8,600 | $20,000–40,000 |
The container wins on price, speed (secure the week it arrives) and relocatability, and it is steel-secure from day one. The stick-built garage wins on three counts:
- width: a single bay is typically built about 3.6 m wide, a car plus an open door on each side, and swallows any vehicle with doors flung open;
- unconditional permitting;
- resale integration with the house.
The honest summary: a container is a superb secure vehicle shelter and workshop. It is a tight fit as a daily garage for anything wider than a mid-size car. Prices for the boxes themselves are in the prices guide.
Frequently asked questions
Can you use a shipping container as a garage?
Yes — a 20 ft box garages one car up to 5.4 m (17′8½″) long and a 40 ft takes two nose-to-tail or a car plus workshop. The constraint is width: the 2.340 m (7′8″) door opening, per 16 of 18 sheets, means mirrors folded and careful entry for most cars, and full-size trucks barely clear. Most owners retrofit a roll-up door for daily use.
Will a full-size pickup fit in a container?
Marginally — an F-150-class truck is typically about 2.0 m (6′6½″) across the body and, mirrors out, wider than the 2.340 m (7′8″) door opening, so it enters only with mirrors folded and centimetres per side. A crew-cab long-bed can also be longer than the 5.898 m inside of a 20 ft and need a 40 ft box. For trucks, the two-boxes-plus-roof-span layout is the practical answer.
Is a container garage cheaper than building one?
Substantially: $3,400–8,600 all-in for a used 20 ft with a gravel base, roll-up door and delivery, versus the $20,000–40,000 builders quote for a stick-built single garage. The trade is width — 2.352 m inside versus a built bay typically about 3.6 m wide — and permitting, which is simpler for a placed container in most rural areas but stricter in some suburbs.
Does a container garage need a foundation?
It needs a level, drained base, not necessarily concrete: a compacted gravel pad or piers under the corner castings is structurally sufficient. Dead-level matters more than material — a twisted box racks its retrofit door — and soft ground needs support under the side rails, not just corners, for car wheel loads.
Will my car get condensation damage inside a container?
It can — a warm, rain-wet car parked in a sealed steel box releases litres of moisture that condense on the cold shell and drip back, the classic “container rain”. The fixes are airflow and dry entry: fitted vents (four or more), a dehumidifier for classic cars, and never sealing a wet car in. Details in the ventilation guide.
What size container do I need for two cars?
In one box only nose-to-tail: a 40 ft holds two 5.4 m (17′8½″) cars in line. Side-by-side is impossible in any container (2.352 m inside width). The double-garage solution is two 40 ft boxes set 5–6 m apart with an engineered roof spanning between — cars park in the covered centre bay, and the boxes become storage wings.
Can I cut a garage door into the side of a container?
Yes, with engineering. The corrugated side wall is load-bearing shear structure, so a 2.4–3 m opening needs a welded steel frame with a header sized for the roof-rail load — by builders’ estimates $2,100–3,400 fabricated, on top of the door. End-frame installations avoid the structural work by using the existing door opening.
Is a container tall enough for a car lift?
No — the inside height is 2.393 m (7′10″) in a standard box, per 15 of 18 sheets, and 2.698 m (8′10″) in a high cube, per 13 of 19 sheets, while a two-post lift needs room for a car’s own height above a person standing under it, well over 3 m. Container workshops use pits, low-rise scissor lifts or wheel ramps instead.