Ground-Level Storage Containers in Philadelphia

For anything on wheels, a short steel ramp at the door takes the step out entirely. Hand trucks stacked with boxes, a pallet jack on a firm surface, a mower, a cart of tools or a dolly with a cabinet on it roll straight in. Ask for a ramp on the quote if the load is heavy or comes in and out every day; a crew carrying tools in by hand usually doesn't need one.

Ground-level access is the reason most people rent a container instead of a storage unit across town. It puts the storage on the site, where the work is.

Ground level only works if the ground is right. The container needs a firm, level spot so it sits square, the doors open and close easily, and water runs away from it instead of pooling under the door. Asphalt, concrete and packed gravel are ideal. On soft ground, grass or a slope, the container goes on cribbing blocks under the corners to keep it level and dry, which raises the floor a little and makes the ramp more useful.

On a city lot, a ground-level container usually goes in the driveway, on a rear parking pad off the alley, in a business's lot or inside the construction fence. The delivery truck tilts its bed and slides the container off, so it needs a straight path to the spot and room overhead clear of wires and branches. Doors usually face toward where the load is coming from, the house or the building, so every trip is short.

A container on the sidewalk or the street sits in the city's right-of-way, which brings Streets Department rules with it. Most ground-level containers go on private property for that reason. See storage container delivery & pickup for what the truck needs on delivery day.

Every size is ground level. The size comes down to how much you're storing and how much room you have:

Once it's easy to get into, a container is easy to use well. Keep daily items by the doors and long-term storage at the back, leave an aisle so nobody climbs over the load, and add shelving and lighting if people will be in and out every day. A lock box over the padlock keeps the doors as hard to get into for a thief as they are easy for you.

The alternative to a container on your lot is a self-storage unit somewhere else, and on a renovation or a job site, the difference adds up fast. A storage unit means loading a truck, driving it across town, unloading it, and doing the same in reverse every time something is needed. A ground-level container on the lot means walking twenty feet with a dolly.

For a homeowner refinishing floors, that's furniture out of the living room and into the driveway in an afternoon, with no rented truck. For a contractor, it's tools out in the morning and back at night without loading the van. For a business, it's stock on a hand truck from the container to the shelf.

A container that sits on the ground has its door at the ground, which is where rain and snow collect. Placement fixes most of it: not in the low spot of the lot, not where the gutter downspout lands, and with the ground sloping away from the doors if it slopes at all. On soft ground, cribbing blocks under the corners lift the container just enough to keep water from pooling at the door sill.

In winter, keep the area in front of the doors shoveled and salted. Ice frozen against the bottom of the door can keep it from swinging open, and a door that won't open is a container nobody can use.

Most heavy items go into a ground-level container on wheels. A few tips for the big ones:

Homeowners use ground-level containers most during a renovation or a move, and in both cases it's the access that matters. A kitchen remodel in a rowhome with no garage needs somewhere for the dining room furniture and the boxes of dishes, and the driveway or parking pad is the only place close enough. A family between closings needs somewhere to put a house's contents for a few weeks, and a container they can walk into is easier than a storage unit they have to drive to.

Load the way a mover would: heavy furniture first against the back wall, mattresses and long items on edge along the sides, boxes stacked on top and in the gaps, and the things you'll need first right by the door. A container loaded like that empties back into the house in an afternoon.

Furniture, electronics and anything that doesn't like humidity should sit off the steel floor on a pallet or a sheet of plywood, with a little air space between the load and the walls. On a dry afternoon, open the doors for an hour to air it out.