Grade moves the price more than size does, and it is the decision people spend the least time on. Here is what the three words mean in practice, and how to tell which one you actually need.
Built for a single loaded voyage from the factory and sold at the other end. Sealed, unmarked, straight doors, clean floor, factory paint. It is the most expensive option and there is nothing to inspect, because there is nothing wrong with it.
Worth the money when the container is going to be seen — a business frontage, a conversion, anything visible from a house — or when it will be lined and fitted out and you do not want to start that job by repairing steel. Also the sensible choice on a coastal block, because factory paint with no scratches through it is a much better starting point in salt air.
A used container certified as fit for international shipping. This is the working grade and it is the one most people should buy.
What it means concretely: every cargo-worthy unit is checked wind and watertight before it goes on a truck. The roof does not leak, the corners do not show daylight, the door seals seat. Structurally sound, doors that close and lock properly, a floor that is intact.
What it does not mean is cosmetically perfect. A cargo-worthy container is a used industrial object. It will have surface rust, dents, patch repairs, faded paint and the shipping line's markings on it. None of that affects whether it keeps rain off your gear.
If the contents have to stay dry, this is the minimum grade to buy. That covers almost everything: tools, furniture, stock, feed, machinery, anything you would be annoyed to find wet.
Cheaper again, and sold exactly as the name says. As-is units are not sold watertight. One may have a patched repair that is not fully sealed, a soft section in the floor, a perished door seal that no longer seats, or a dent that has opened a corner.
What we undertake to do is tell you exactly what is wrong with a particular unit before you buy it, rather than after. Nobody at this end benefits from a customer discovering a hole in the roof a fortnight later.
As-is is honest value when the job does not need a seal. A box for fencing wire, star pickets, a mower and some drums. A site store for materials that do not care about weather. A shell that is going to be cut up or heavily modified anyway. It is the wrong buy for anything that needs to stay dry, and it is a poor buy on a coastal block, where existing weak points get worse faster.
Two things worth stating, because they come up constantly in this district.
Condensation is not a leak. Warm humid air inside a sealed steel box meets a roof that has cooled overnight, and moisture forms on the ceiling and drips. That happens in a brand new container as readily as an old one. Vents help, keeping goods off the floor on pallets helps, and lining or insulation is the proper fix for anything moisture-sensitive.
Watertight is about rain, not rising water. No grade of container is sealed against water coming up from below — that reaches the bottom of the door seals and gets in. There is a full explanation of that in our guide on containers and flood risk on the Richmond, and it is worth reading if you are anywhere on the low country.
We are a service-area business rather than a walk-in yard, so inspection here works by photograph. Ask and we will send pictures of the specific container allocated to your job, on request and before delivery — including the marks and the repairs, rather than photographed around them.
Ring 02 6622 1322 and tell us what is going inside. The grade conversation takes about three minutes and it saves more money than haggling over the price does.
The honest answer to the question we are asked most often on the Northern Rivers: what watertight actually means, why an empty container floats, and what a container genuinely offers on low ground.
What a delivery truck actually needs: run-in length, bearing ground and clear air above the spot. Written for Northern Rivers driveways, river flats, sand and hinterland tracks.
Why a sealed container drips on the inside, what salt air does to steel between Evans Head and Byron, and the cheap things that fix both.
One call, one delivered number, cartage included.