About Sell Portable Cabins
We trade in used modular and portable buildings. Buildings come in from sites that have finished with them, and go back out to people who need accommodation without paying for new.
What the business actually is
Trading in both directions
The name says selling, which only describes half the work. We buy used modular and portable buildings from organisations and individuals who no longer need them, and we sell buildings to people who do. The two halves feed each other. A block bought off a finished contract in March is often the block that solves somebody else's classroom problem in June.
Where a building has value we would rather buy it than see it broken up. Where it has none, we say so and quote to take it away instead. Both answers are useful. Only one of them is the one people hope for.
What is standing in the yard changes from week to week. Buildings arrive off finished contracts and go out again once they have been put right, so the quickest route to a straight answer is to describe what you need and let us tell you what we can supply for it.
Why people use us
Three things that make the difference
None of this is complicated. It is mostly about controlling the parts of the job that decide whether it runs to plan.
We own the transport
The lorries are ours, so the date is ours to give. Nothing waits on a haulier's diary, nobody turns up with the wrong lift, and the transport cost is inside the figure we quote rather than added afterwards.
We work both sides
Buying and selling in the same market means we price from what buildings actually move for, not from a wish. It also means a part exchange is straightforward, because the building coming back to us has somewhere to go.
We give a plain answer
If a building is not worth buying we will tell you and explain why. If what you have described is not right for the job, we will say that too, rather than keeping an enquiry warm while you wait on something that was never going to suit.
Manchester, working nationally
Where we are and where we go
We are based in Manchester, which puts most of England and a good part of Wales and southern Scotland inside a comfortable day. The yard is where buildings are stored, checked and refurbished between one owner and the next.
Coverage is England, Scotland and Wales. Distance changes what a move costs; it does not usually decide whether we will do it.
Running our own vehicles matters more than it sounds. Subcontracted haulage is where dates slip, where the wrong lifting equipment appears, and where a job that was quoted at one price quietly becomes another. Keeping it in-house removes that whole category of problem.
The honest bit
Condition decides, not enthusiasm
We do not take every building we are offered, and that is worth knowing before you send photographs.
A building we buy has to be worth putting back into service. Sound frame and floor, a roof that has not been leaking for two winters, panels that are dented rather than rotten, glazing and doors that can be made good without replacing everything. Refurbishment is normal. Rebuilding from a shell rarely adds up.
The things that usually stop a purchase are structural rot, long-term water ingress, fire damage, and buildings so heavily modified that nobody else can use them.
A building we decline is not necessarily a dead loss. Ask about disposal and you at least get the ground back and the liability off your books.
- What we buy
- Used modular buildings, portable buildings, portable offices, temporary and prefabricated accommodation, and relocatable units.
- Who we buy from
- Contractors, fleet operators, schools and academy trusts, NHS estates, local authorities, farms and private individuals.
- How many at once
- A single portable office in a farmyard, or an entire compound cleared bay by bay in a planned sequence.
- Coverage
- England, Scotland and Wales, worked from a Manchester base.
- What we need to quote
- Photographs, rough dimensions, the postcode the building is standing on and an honest word about condition.
- Payment for buildings we buy
- Bank transfer on collection, unless something different is agreed in writing beforehand.
Who we deal with
Organisations and private sellers, the same way
The paperwork differs. The answer you get does not.
Organisations
Contractors clearing a compound at the end of a contract, fleet operators rotating older stock out, schools and academy trusts replacing temporary classrooms, NHS estates teams closing a decant, local authorities disposing of surplus accommodation.
Where a purchase order, an approved supplier form or a site induction is needed, that is normal and we will work to it. Larger clearances are usually planned in sequence so the site stays workable while the buildings come out.
Private sellers
Farmers with a building left over from a diversification that ended, small businesses that have outgrown a portable office, people who inherited something with a plot of land and want the ground back.
One building is worth a conversation. You do not need to know the make, the year or the specification. Photographs and a postcode are enough for us to tell you whether it is worth money, worth nothing, or worth a removal quote instead.
We work from photographs, whether it is one cabin or a multi-bay block. Send what you have and we will ask for more if something needs a closer look. Nobody benefits from a number that changes on the day.
Buying, selling or clearing — start with the same form
Send photographs and a postcode if you are selling, or the size and layout if you are buying. We will come back with a straight answer, usually the same working day.