Used portable offices for sale
Looking for a portable office for sale, second hand rather than new? Used portable office buildings for sale, from single-desk units up to partitioned blocks. A portable office is one of the most specified buildings we handle and the one where price varies most, because you are not really buying a steel box. You are buying the fit-out inside it. Tell us how many people need to work in it and how long for, and we will tell you what to look for. Most go onto construction sites and contractors’ yards, where the office has to arrive finished and be working the morning after it lands.
Where the money sits
The fit-out is what you are paying for
Two twenty-foot offices standing side by side can differ in value by a wide margin, and from the outside they look identical. The shell is the cheap part. Everything that makes the building usable on a Monday morning is the expensive part, and it is the part worth inspecting.
- Flooring — carpet tiles or vinyl over a sound deck. Soft spots underfoot usually mean water has been getting in for a while.
- Sockets and circuits — how many, where they are, and whether the consumer unit has anything left in it.
- Lighting — LED panels on some units and fluorescent battens on others. Worth asking what is in the one you are looking at, and whether every fitting actually works.
- Glazing and doors — double glazed units that have not blown, and a door that shuts and locks properly.
None of that is difficult to put right, and much of it we can put right before delivery. What matters is knowing which you are buying, so the price you compare is a price for the same thing.
Sizing
How many people actually fit
These are working numbers from what we see in use, not a standard. They assume a normal desk, a chair that can push back, and a walkway that two people can pass in. Density beyond this is possible, but nobody enjoys it by week three.
| Nominal size | Approx. floor area | Comfortable desks | Typical fit-out |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12ft x 8ft | 9 sq m | One | Single room, one heater, a handful of sockets. Gatehouse, site supervisor, weighbridge office. |
| 16ft x 8ft | 12 sq m | Two | Single open room. Occasionally split with a small store or a sink at one end. |
| 20ft x 8ft | 15 sq m | Three | Open office, or office with a partitioned corner for a printer, coats and a kettle. |
| 24ft x 10ft | 22 sq m | Four to five | Commonly two rooms — open office plus a meeting room, store or WC compartment. |
| 32ft x 10ft | 30 sq m | Six to eight | Usually partitioned into two or three rooms, often with a WC and a small kitchenette. |
Need more floor area than a single unit gives you? Two offices can be set side by side and linked into one space, or stacked with an external stair where the plot is tight. Both are cheaper decided before delivery than after, so say at enquiry stage which you have in mind. See how single, linked and stacked units compare.
Before it leaves the yard
Partitioning, heating and power
Partition to your layout
Stud walls, door positions, window openings and additional sockets are all yard work. Doing it before the building goes on a lorry saves you a second visit from a joiner and an electrician, and saves the mess landing on your site.
Send a rough sketch. It does not need to be a drawing — a marked-up photograph and a couple of dimensions is enough to price from.
Heating and the seasonal problem
A steel-skinned, well-glazed building loses heat quickly in winter and gains it just as quickly in summer. Sound glazing, a door that shuts properly and shading on the sunny elevation all do more than a bigger heater.
If people will sit still in it all day, look at the glazing and which way the building faces first, and expect to add cooling yourself if it takes the afternoon sun. If it is a shelter for someone in and out all shift, a wall heater is generally enough.
Power supply
We can tell you what is in the building: consumer unit rating, circuit count, heating load, socket positions.
What we do not do is size your incoming supply or make the final connection. That is work for your own electrician, who will want the figures above before they specify anything.
A note on comparing quotes. Ask every supplier what is in the price and what is not, and what the internal specification actually is, so the figures you are holding are figures for the same thing.
Related
If an office is not quite what you need
The categories overlap in everyday use. Start wherever seems closest and we will work out what actually suits the job.
Portable buildings
Single self-contained units that lift and move whole, fitted out for stores, welfare, drying rooms and workshops as well as offices.
See the range →Temporary buildings
Short-term accommodation for decants, expansions and works, bought outright rather than paid for by the month over a period that keeps extending.
See the range →Prefab buildings
Prefabricated classrooms, offices and clinics, frequently ex-education or ex-healthcare stock with a solid fit-out already in place.
See the range →Also worth a look: used containers, and how delivery and collection work across England, Scotland and Wales.
What are you looking for?
What is standing in the yard changes from week to week, so the useful conversation starts with what you need rather than with a list. Describe the size, the layout and where it is going, and we will tell you what we can supply, in what condition, and what the building and the transport each cost.
Have something to trade in? Tick the part exchange box. A building coming the other way usually improves the arithmetic in both directions.
- Two figures — the building and the haulage — so you can see what you are paying for
- Refurbishment to your specification before delivery is usually possible
- Part exchange welcome — a building coming the other way is part of the deal
Common questions
Used portable offices
What is normally included in a used portable office?
A sound shell, windows and a door, internal lining, floor covering, lighting, sockets and usually a wall heater. Beyond that it varies. Nothing leaves us stripped back to bare board and trunking; the fit-out is put right in our own yard first. We describe what is actually in the unit you are looking at rather than what the category implies.
Can you change the internal layout before it is delivered?
Usually, and it is far cheaper done in the yard than on your site. Moving or adding a stud partition, changing a door swing, cutting in an extra window, adding sockets or moving a light fitting are all straightforward while the building is standing on hard ground with power to hand. Tell us the layout you want at enquiry stage and it gets priced properly.
Do used portable offices come with heating?
Most have a wall-mounted electric heater. Whether the heating that is fitted suits the way you intend to use the building is a separate question. A unit that kept a site office warm for two people in short bursts may not hold temperature for eight people sitting still all day in January.
What power supply will I need?
That depends on the fit-out, the heating and what you plug in, and it is a question for your own electrician. What we can give you is the information they need: the consumer unit rating, the number of circuits, the heating load and the incoming connection type. Sizing the supply and the final connection are always the customer's responsibility.
Are steel-skinned offices cold in winter and hot in summer?
They can be, and it is the single most common complaint from people who bought on price alone. Glazing, roof condition and shading make the difference, and how much of each a particular building has depends on its age and original specification. A thin, tired one with a south-facing wall of single glazing will be uncomfortable whatever heater you bolt to the wall.
Can I see a building before I commit to it?
Yes. We would rather you did, particularly on anything above about twenty feet where the fit-out is the bulk of the value. Viewings are by arrangement at the yard the building is standing in. If travelling is impractical we will send detailed photographs of the specific unit, not stock images of something similar.
Tell us how many people need to work in it
Size, layout, how long you need it for and the postcode it is going to. We will come back with what we can supply, what condition it is in, and what the building and the transport each cost.