Before you enquire
What we take
We do not buy every building we are offered, and pretending otherwise would waste your time. This is the honest list: what we want, what we decline, and the reason behind each one.
The principle
Condition decides, not age
A twenty-year-old building that is straight, dry and lifts cleanly is worth money. A ten-year-old building with a failed floor and a rotten corner is a disposal job. Nothing else about the unit outranks those two facts.
The reason is simple. Everything we buy has to be worth refurbishing, transporting and reselling. Cosmetic work is cheap and predictable: paint, flooring, ceiling tiles, a new door. Structural work is neither. Once the frame is out of square or the floor deck has gone, the labour required exceeds what the finished building is worth, and no amount of goodwill changes the arithmetic.
That is why a scruffy building is often a better prospect than a smart-looking one. Interiors lie. Floors and frames do not.
Wanted
Buildings we want, and why
- Structurally sound buildings. Square frame, sound floor deck, chassis without significant corrosion. This is the whole test. Everything cosmetic can be put right in the yard for a known cost; structure cannot.
- Ex-hire stock. Built to be knocked about, maintained on a schedule and moved repeatedly, which means the lifting points are usually in good order and the construction is robust by design. Some of the most reliable stock in the trade. Most of it is jackleg cabins and anti-vandal units.
- Tired but straight units. Worn flooring, faded paint, marked walls and dated fit-out are all cheap to reverse. If the building underneath is sound, a poor interior often means a better buy for us and a fair figure for you.
- Toilet blocks, shower blocks and welfare units. Wanted in any condition, working or with the plumbing long since stripped out. Every site needs them, which is why they move quickly. There is more on selling a toilet or shower block and on welfare units and canteens.
- Site cabins, site offices and sleeper units. The everyday units off a compound — open plan and split offices, stores, gatehouses, and the sleeping cabins that turn up on farms, estates and remote depots. See site cabins and offices and sleeper units and sleepouts.
- Small cabins, stores and containers. 8ft and 9ft units, small site stores and short containers are in steady demand and straightforward to move, so nothing is too small to be worth a figure. Paperwork is not expected with any of it — almost nothing we buy comes with drawings and it makes no difference to whether we want it.
- Multi-bay modular with sound link detailing. Where the joints between bays are intact and the sealing arrangement has not been butchered, a block can be taken apart and rebuilt properly. Damaged or improvised link detailing is what makes multi-bay units leak after they are re-sited.
- Buildings with intact lifting points. Chassis lifting eyes, corner castings or reinforced frame points, undamaged and not previously bodged. Without them a building cannot be moved as it stands, which changes it from stock into a problem.
- Mixed-condition batches. Whole compounds where some units are good and some are finished. We assess them individually and give one figure for the site, which is nearly always better for you than selling the good ones and paying separately to clear the rest.
Declined
Buildings we usually decline, and why
- Severe fire damage. Heat distorts steel in ways that are not visible and not testable on a yard inspection. A building that has been in a serious fire cannot be certified as safe to lift or safe to occupy, so it has no resale route.
- Long-term water ingress with failed floors. The single most common decline. Once water has been in the deck for years it has taken the bottom of the studwork and often the chassis with it. Repairing that costs more than the finished building is worth.
- Stripped shells. Buildings with the windows, doors, electrics and internal linings already removed. There is no fit-out left to sell and re-fitting from bare frame is new-build economics. Only the steel has value, which is a scrap conversation rather than a purchase.
- Buildings with no safe lifting point. A corroded chassis, missing lifting eyes or earlier damage to the frame stops a unit being picked up safely. Frames are often repairable, so send a photograph of the corners before you write one off — but where the chassis itself has gone there is no way to get it onto a lorry.
- Anything outside mainland Great Britain. We work in England, Scotland and Wales. The Isle of Man and the Channel Islands are outside what we do, because a sea crossing changes the operation entirely.
- Anything we cannot legally or safely move. Buildings that exceed what can be taken on the public road without arrangements that make the job uneconomic, or that sit where no vehicle can reach them. Occasionally the honest answer is that it has to be dismantled in place by somebody else.
Grey areas
Where it depends
Most enquiries are not clear-cut. These are the situations where the answer genuinely cannot be given until we have seen photographs, and where guessing costs you either way.
Localised water damage
A leak around a rooflight or a corner that has been wet for one winter is usually repairable. The question is whether it reached the deck. A photograph of the floor in that corner, taken with the covering lifted if possible, answers it faster than any description.
Surface corrosion on the chassis
Rust is normal on a steel chassis and most of it is cosmetic. Section loss is not. If you can get a photograph underneath, do. If you cannot, say so and we will look at it rather than assume the worst.
Very large units
Buildings beyond a certain width bring road movement constraints, which changes what the move costs rather than whether we want the building. Not an automatic decline, but the dimensions are worth establishing early. Small units are a different matter — they are wanted.
Heavily customised fit-out
A unit converted for one specific purpose can be harder to resell than a plain office, because the next buyer wants something general. Sometimes the specification is an asset, sometimes it is work to undo. It depends entirely what was done.
Awkward access
A sound building that no vehicle can reach is a genuine problem rather than a formality. Occasionally a unit is worth buying and cannot be extracted at a sensible cost. Access photographs are as important as photographs of the building.
Part-dismantled buildings
A unit that has already had panels, doors or windows taken off sits somewhere between stock and scrap. Sometimes what is missing is easily replaced; sometimes it has been stripped far enough that only the steel is left. Photographs decide it.
If you are unsure which list your building belongs on, that is the normal position and not a problem. Send photographs of the roof, the floor, all four corners, the inside of every room and one shot of the whole building from a distance. We will tell you plainly, including when the answer is no.
Common questions
Criteria, asked and answered
Why publish a list of things you will not buy?
Because the alternative wastes your time and ours. Most firms take every enquiry, send a low figure and let you work out why. We would rather you read four minutes of criteria, recognise your building, and either send photographs with confidence or save yourself the effort entirely.
My building is tired. Is that the same as declined?
Not remotely. Tired is normal and expected. Faded paint, worn flooring, tatty ceiling tiles, dented cladding and a scruffy interior are all cosmetic and all fixable in the yard. What matters is whether the structure is straight, the floor is sound and the frame will take a lift. Tired but straight is exactly what we want.
What is the single most common reason you decline a building?
Water. Long-term ingress that has reached the floor deck and the frame is the one thing that cannot be economically undone. A leak fixed last month is nothing. A roof that has been letting water in for three winters has usually taken the floor and the bottom of the studwork with it.
Will you look at a batch where some units are poor?
Yes, and mixed batches are among the most useful enquiries we get. We assess unit by unit rather than pricing the whole lot at the worst one. Some get bought, some get cleared, and you receive one figure for the site that reflects both. Send everything, including the units you think are hopeless.
What if I am not sure which list mine belongs on?
Send photographs and let us decide. Roof, floor, all four corners, inside every room and one shot of the whole building from a distance. Nobody expects a customer to assess a chassis or judge whether a floor has gone. Guessing wrong in either direction costs you money, so it is not worth guessing.
Still not sure whether we want it
Send the photographs and let us decide. A no takes five minutes of your time and saves you from selling a good building for scrap or paying to dispose of one worth money.