Bought outright · England, Scotland & Wales
Sell welfare units and canteens
Static welfare units, canteen and messing cabins, drying rooms and changing rooms, bought as they stand. Send a photograph or two and a postcode and you will get a figure.
What we take
Welfare is the part of a compound that always finds a buyer
Every site has to provide it, fleets run short of it, and a welfare unit that is sound underneath goes straight back into service. That is why we would rather buy one off you than watch it stand another winter behind a yard.
They come from contractors closing compounds, from fleet operators replacing older stock, and from farms, depots and sports grounds where a unit has quietly stopped being used. Condition sets the figure.
- Types
- Static welfare units, canteen and messing cabins, drying rooms, changing rooms, first aid and rest cabins, combined welfare and WC units.
- Sizes
- From a 12ft messing cabin up to a 32ft welfare unit split into a canteen, a drying area and a WC compartment.
- Fit-out
- Intact, part stripped or bare. All three are bought, at different figures.
- Numbers
- One unit, or the whole welfare block off a compound alongside the offices and containers.
Toilet or shower compartment the main part of it? See toilet and shower blocks.
What decides the figure
What we are looking at in the photographs
Two or three pictures are enough to start. These are the ones that save the most going back and forth.
The outside, from a corner
Two elevations and the roof line in one frame, far enough back to show how the unit sits on its base and where the doors are.
The canteen end
Worktops, sink, water heater and whatever seating is left. It is the part of a welfare unit that carries most of the value when it is intact.
The floor by the door
Welfare units take more foot traffic in wet boots than anything else on a compound, so the floor goes at the threshold and under the drying racks first.
The drying area
Racks, benches, the heater position and the state of the linings. Steam and wet kit are hard on a unit and it shows here.
The WC compartment
If there is one. Pan, basin, cistern and whatever is visible of the pipework and the tank.
The way in
From the road looking towards the unit, showing the gateway, the ground the lorry stands on and anything overhead.
Useful if you can get it, not a requirement. Send what you have and we will ask if we need more.
How the collection runs
Our own vehicles, so the date is one we control. The unit is lifted off its base and taken away whole, on our own HIAB where the ground and the overhead clearance allow it and a tilt bed where they do not. Awkward access is worth asking about. Send a photograph from where a lorry would have to sit and we will tell you how we would reach it.
Before the date, the water needs turning off and draining down, the drainage disconnecting and the supply isolating. Your plumber and electrician rather than ours. Say at enquiry stage if that has not been arranged and we will plan the date around it.
Welfare standing alongside offices and containers we are already buying prices better than a single unit on its own, so send the whole compound rather than one item at a time.
Payment is by bank transfer on collection, against a figure agreed beforehand.
Past saving
When it is a disposal job instead
A welfare unit with a floor that has gone soft the length of the drying area, a failed roof and a frame that will not lift cleanly is a disposal job rather than a purchase.
Where that is the case we say so and quote to clear it away instead. Mixed results across one compound are normal, and units are separated as we work through them rather than the whole lot being priced at the worst one.
Alongside the rest of the compound
Welfare rarely stands on its own
If yours is next to site offices, containers or a toilet block, all of it can be handled as one job.
Site cabins and offices
Site offices, stores and gatehouses, bought in service, tired or stripped back.
See details →Containers
Shipping and storage containers, plain or converted, 6ft through to 40ft.
What we pay for containers →Toilet and shower blocks
Bought working, tired or with the plumbing long since stripped out.
See details →Buying rather than selling? We also have used welfare units for sale and all used cabins.
Common questions
Welfare units, asked and answered
What kinds of welfare unit do you buy?
Static welfare units, canteen and messing cabins, drying rooms, changing rooms, combined units with a canteen at one end and a WC at the other, and first aid or rest cabins. One unit or the whole welfare block off a compound.
Do you buy towable welfare units?
Only occasionally. Our work is static units that travel on a lorry and are set into position. If you have a towable, ask by all means, but static is what we are set up for and what we pay best for.
Does the kitchen fit-out have to be there?
No. Units come to us with the sink gone, the water heater removed and the worktops stripped out, and they are still bought. An intact fit-out is worth more because it shortens the work, so leave it in unless you want it.
What about the drying room heaters?
Tell us what is in there and we will price what is there. Heating gets replaced as a matter of course on anything that goes back out, so a seized or missing heater does not stop a unit being worth buying.
Does it need cleaning first?
Emptied and reasonably clean, with any waste or chemical tank emptied and the contents disposed of by you. Beyond that, do not worry about it. Photographs of the unit in the state it is actually in are more use than a tidied version.
Do the services have to be disconnected before collection?
Yes. Water off and drained down, drainage disconnected and the electrical supply isolated before the collection date. That is your own plumber and electrician rather than ours, and it is the thing that most often moves a date, so it is worth starting early.
How are we paid?
Bank transfer on collection. The figure is agreed before the lorry is booked and it is not renegotiated on your yard.
Welfare unit standing empty on a finished compound?
A photograph or two and the postcode it is standing on. That is enough for a figure, and the figure is what you are paid on collection.