Home ground
Modular buildings and portable cabins, Manchester
This is where the business runs from. Buildings bought, sold, removed and cleared across Greater Manchester and the wider North West, on our own transport, from a Manchester base.
Local, in the way that actually matters
Plenty of firms claim a Manchester presence and run the work from somewhere else. Ours is the other way round: the base and the vehicles are here, and everywhere else in England, Scotland and Wales is served from this yard.
In practice that means the North West is where we are most flexible. A single unit standing in a yard in Bury is easier to fit into a working week than the same unit in Devon. Buildings can be looked at properly, sites can be visited before a date is committed, and a compound clearance can be walked rather than assessed from photographs alone.
We work across Salford, Trafford, Stockport, Tameside, Oldham, Rochdale, Bury, Bolton and Wigan, out into Warrington and Cheshire, up through Lancashire and across to Merseyside. No response times are promised anywhere, because they would depend on where the vehicles are that week, but proximity gives us options that distance takes away.
The local market
Where North West buildings come from
Greater Manchester generates a steady flow of used modular accommodation in both directions, and most of it comes from the same handful of places.
Construction and infrastructure
The region has had a long run of large sites, from city centre residential towers to distribution parks along the motorway corridors and the highways work that connects them. Every one of those sites has a compound, and every compound eventually finishes.
Contractor stock is a large part of what we buy. It is usually well specified, often only a few years old, and needs to be gone by a fixed date, which suits an operation that owns its own transport.
Education
Schools, academy trusts and colleges across Greater Manchester use temporary classroom accommodation constantly, whether for a rebuild, a bulge year or a decant. When the permanent block opens, the temporary one stands empty and starts costing money.
Those buildings are frequently in good order, having been maintained to a standard that construction site accommodation rarely sees. They are among the better units we handle.
Healthcare and public estates
NHS estates and local authorities across the region hold temporary accommodation that reaches the end of its purpose on a schedule set by capital programmes rather than by condition. Some of it is very good, some of it is finished, and the two often stand side by side on the same site.
Farms, yards and private sellers
Ex-site offices and stores bought years ago for a specific purpose, then left standing. Cheshire and Lancashire produce a steady stream of these. Condition varies enormously, which is why every single one comes down to photographs rather than a description.
Buying
Portable cabins in Manchester, and every other category we handle
Portable cabins Manchester, site cabins Manchester, anti-vandal offices, welfare units and multi-bay modular blocks — the labels overlap in everyday use. Start wherever seems closest and we will work out what you actually need for the job.
Portable buildings
Self-contained units that lift and move whole. The most common option by a distance.
See details →Portable offices
Flooring, heating, lighting and enough power to work in properly all day.
See details →Temporary buildings
Decants, expansions and works accommodation, bought outright rather than paid for by the month.
See details →Prefab buildings
Prefabricated classrooms, offices and clinics, often ex-education stock.
See details →Containers
Used shipping and storage containers, side-opening and double-door units, workshops and lined stores.
See details →Portable accommodation
Sleeping, messing and welfare accommodation for sites, farms and events.
See details →Relocatable buildings
Built to be moved repeatedly without losing their integrity.
See details →Modular buildings
Factory-built bays that join on site. Single blocks up to large multi-bay complexes.
See details →Selling or clearing
If you have buildings standing in the North West
Buildings left after a contract finishes occupy ground, attract damage and eventually become a bill. Selling while they are still sound is nearly always better than waiting until they are not.
Sell modular buildings
Multi-bay blocks coming off a school, a hospital site or a finished contract.
Start here →Removal
Lifted off the base and taken away, whether or not we are buying the building.
How it works →Disposal
End-of-life buildings broken down and separated into materials properly.
How it works →Local questions
Manchester and the North West
Are you actually based in Manchester?
Yes. The business runs from Manchester and the vehicles are based here, which is why the North West is the area we work most. Nothing on this site claims depots we do not have, and everywhere else in England, Scotland and Wales is served from the same base rather than from a network of branches.
Can I come and look at a building before buying it?
Where a building is standing in the yard rather than on a customer site, yes, by arrangement. It is worth doing for anything you will be working in every day, because photographs never quite convey the ceiling height or how a partition layout feels. Contact us first so the unit is accessible when you arrive.
Do you buy from schools and academy trusts in Greater Manchester?
Regularly. Temporary classroom accommodation is put in for an expansion or a rebuild and then stands unused when the permanent block opens. Those buildings are often straight, dry and well maintained, which makes them some of the better stock we handle. Estates teams and trust surveyors are the usual point of contact.
We are a contractor with units on a finished site. What now?
Send photographs, the site postcode, rough dimensions and your end date. Contractor stock coming off a completed job is a large part of what we buy, and the deadline is usually the tightest part. Tell us the date the compound has to be clear and the collection is planned backwards from it.
Do you handle single buildings in the North West or only larger jobs?
Both. One portable office standing in a yard in Bolton is worth a conversation just as much as a fourteen-bay block coming off a site in Warrington. Being close to home means a single unit in the North West is easier to fit into a week than the same unit three hundred miles away.
How quickly can something be collected locally?
We do not publish response times because they depend on where the vehicles are that week. What we can say is that being local means fewer constraints on planning, and when we give you a date it is one we have allocated a vehicle and a driver to rather than an estimate we hope to meet.
Buying or clearing in Greater Manchester
The base is here and so are the vehicles. Tell us what you need, or what you are getting rid of, and you will get a straight answer rather than a brochure.