Sell modular buildings
For schools and academy trusts, NHS estates, local authorities and main contractors clearing modular blocks. Send photographs and the block details and you get a figure, the same as on a single cabin. The sequence a block comes apart in decides both what it is worth and what it costs to take away, and the photographs are what tell us that.
Before anything is agreed
What the photographs need to cover
Two identical-looking six-bay blocks can differ by a wide margin depending on how they were put together and what has happened to them since, so the more the pictures show, the firmer the figure is. Nobody expects a photographic survey. Send what you can get to easily and we will ask if we need more.
These are the five things we are looking at when we open them.
- Construction
- How the bays are joined, whether the roof is an applied structure or integral, and how the block would come apart.
- Condition
- Roof, floor decks, joints between bays, corner posts, window seals, and any evidence of water tracking through the structure.
- Foundations
- Pads, strip footings, piles or a slab. What is under the building decides how it comes off and what is left behind.
- Access
- Gate widths, turning space, overhead cables, ground bearing capacity and where our HIAB can safely stand.
- Constraints
- Term dates, operating hours, live neighbouring buildings, pedestrian routes and anything that limits when work can happen.
Paperwork
Drawings help, but almost nobody has them
Most blocks arrive with nothing at all and are bought anyway. This list is only worth a look if the original project papers are somewhere obvious — do not go hunting through an archive for it, and do not hold up an enquiry over it.
Useful if it happens to exist
- Original manufacturer drawings, and any as-built revisions made during installation.
- Manufacturer name, model or system type, and the year the block was installed.
- Foundation details and any groundworks drawings for the base it sits on.
- Service drawings — electrical distribution, water, heating and drainage runs.
- Any electrical certification or inspection reports held for the block.
- Records of alterations, extensions, re-roofing or major repairs carried out since installation.
Why it changes the number
A block with drawings can be taken apart in the sequence it was built in, so the planning is quicker. Without them it comes apart cautiously instead, which is how most of the blocks we handle come apart, and it is not a reason to expect a poor figure.
Estates and facilities teams sometimes hold more of this than they expect, filed with the original capital project papers rather than with the building records. If a colleague knows where to look, it is worth asking. If not, send the photographs and leave it.
The honest distinction
Worth buying, or a disposal job
Both outcomes are normal and we will tell you which one you have got. Confusing the two is the single most common reason an estates budget for clearing a block turns out to be wrong.
A building worth buying
Structurally sound with a roof that has been maintained. Bays that separate along the joints they were built on. Floor decks that are dry and firm underfoot. Windows and doors that still operate. Access that lets it come off the base in whole sections rather than in pieces.
These blocks get a purchase price. Money moves towards you.
A disposal job
Long-term roof failure with water through the structure. Rotten or delaminated floor decks. Corroded frames and distorted bays that will not come apart cleanly. Extensive damage, vandalism or fire. Sometimes simply a system so old that nothing about it can be reused, whatever condition it is in.
These get a removal and disposal quote instead. Money moves away from you, and knowing that early is worth a great deal.
More detail on both routes: what we take and what we decline, modular building disposal and portable building removal. Clearing a mixed compound rather than a single block? See fleet and compound disposals.
Common questions
Disposing of a modular block
How do you price a multi-bay block?
From photographs, the same as everything else we buy. Each elevation from the outside, the joints between bays, a few inside, whatever you can get of the roof safely from the ground, and the way in from the road. With that, the number of bays, the rough size and the postcode, we can give you a figure. If something in the pictures needs a closer look we will ask you for more of them rather than book a survey and hold your programme up.
Do we need drawings or documentation to sell a block?
No. Most of the blocks we buy come with no paperwork at all and it does not stop us pricing them. If drawings, a manufacturer name or a year of installation happen to be filed somewhere with the original project papers they are useful for planning the dismantle, so send them if they turn up easily. If they do not exist, say so and nothing else changes.
How long does it take to dismantle a multi-bay block?
It depends on the number of bays, the roof arrangement, the access and how much of the site can be closed off. A small two or three bay block on open ground is a short operation. A large block wedged between live buildings with a single gate is planned across several visits and around your term dates or operational hours.
Can this be done during term time or while the site is operational?
Often, but it changes the plan rather than the price alone. Working alongside a live school, hospital or depot means segregation, banksmen, restricted hours and sometimes overnight or weekend lifts. Tell us the constraints at enquiry stage. A programme built around your operating pattern from the start is far cheaper than one revised halfway through.
What if the block turns out to be worth nothing?
Then we say so and quote to remove and dispose of it instead. Purchase pays you; removal costs you. A tired block with a failed roof and water through the floor deck is a disposal job however many bays it has, and pretending otherwise at the enquiry stage only wastes your time.
Send the block details and the photographs you have
Number of bays, approximate size, the site postcode and whatever pictures you can get to. That is enough for a figure, and we will ask for more if we need them.