Side Access Bunded Chemical Store for MOD in North Wales
In 2023 we were approached by the MOD who were in need of a chemical store for paint storage. As they planned on storing paints, they needed a container with a bunded floor and vents for airflow in case of any spills. We supplied the site with a side access chemical store, complete with bunded floor and louvre vents.
Side Access Chemical Store
The MOD initially wanted a standard end opening 20ft container to be converted into a chemical store. However, as our team worked with the customer to provide a container that suited their needs, we found a more cost effective option.
We have limited stock of 20ft Open Sided Chemical Storage Container in our Felixstowe depot. While the customer did not need to have side access this unit offered better value than adding a bunded floor to a 20ft one trip container.
Bunded Flooring
The side opening container came with factory built bunded floor. A bunded floor is designed to catch and hold any hazardous chemicals that may spill or leak. A bunded floor is fitted with a suspended floor grate and release valves to drain our any caught spills. This chemical store can hold up to a staggering bunded capacity of 1.74m³ (1740 litres).
As this container is being used as a paint store, a bunded floor is ideal. If a tin of paint is knocked over and the contents spills it will pass through the grate and be caught in the bund. The release valve will help drain out any paint allowing for easy clean up. A grated floor also means that the paint won’t just be sitting on the floor of your container that you risk stepping in to clean up.
Louvre Vents
While the container didn’t come with factory fitted louvre vents, they are a popular addition for chemical stores. We took the container into our London conversion yard to fit the vents. For this unit, the customer opted to have four 350mm vents (one of our most popular sizes!). Two vents were fitted at high level and two were low level.
Louvre vents are made from an aluminium alloy with 38mm pitched slimline blade. This means that the vent is resistant to rain while also maintaining 50% free air space. There is also a wire bird mesh that keeps out any unwanted guests.
We offer louvre vents in a range of sizes, which can be fitted in depot or you can fit yourself on site. The vents offer extra air flow to your container. They are popular with welfare units, boiler rooms and office conversions.
They are also ideal for chemical stores as gases can escape. This prevents the build up of any hazardous or flammable gasses if there is a leak. In this case, the high and low level vents allow any fumes from any potential spilt paint to escape.
Side Access
Containers with full side access are incredibly popular for storing large pallets or large items that wouldn’t fit through end cargo doors. More recently they are also becoming very popular with conversions into exhibition stand, food stalls and retail pods.
While the MOD did not originally require a container with full side access, this option was the most cost effective. Having a side opening container also allows them the opportunity to change how they use their container easily if needed in the future.
Delivering the Container
We will always try our best to site a container where our customer would like. Sometimes, this can be tricky and we need to look a bit further into access to get the container sited.
For this delivery, the customer wanted the container to be sited across some grass. The difficulty with this is that our trucks will not drive over grass. The trucks are heavy and likely to sink into the soft grass and get stuck. Most often, a driver will not risk their truck like this. We do request that all our trucks stay on hard standing ground at all times for a delivery.
Generally, we will deliver a 20ft container on a rigid truck. However, when the customer explained where they would like the container, we knew that a rigid crane would not have the stretch needed to deliver over the grass.
As the customer had let us know in advance, we got to work on a plan. Working with our hauliers, it was decided that by sending an artic hiab the crane would be able to reach across the grass to site the container on the premade concrete base.
Contact Us
Budgetshippingcontainers.co.uk offer the UK’s largest online range of shipping containers for sale with a nationwide network of storage and conversion yards and crane equipped delivery vehicles.
If you need a shipping container feel free to browse our online range of shipping containers for sale. You can also call us on freephone 0808 1234 215 any time 9am – 5pm weekdays and our team will be happy to discuss your requirements. Alternatively, you can use our online shipping container quote form or request a telephone callback. In both cases we aim to get back to you within 1-2 working hours (may take longer for more detailed quotes).