Shipping Containers for Sale in Austin, TX

Austin is about 243 road miles from the Mariner Containers depot at 153 FM 1564, Greenville, TX 75402, roughly four and a half hours by road. Carriers run south west to Dallas, then straight down I-35 through Waco, Temple and Georgetown. It is a single-day haul and falls inside our normal 3 to 10 business day delivery window.

Central Texas delivery notes

The distance is the easy part; Austin’s geography is the awkward part. Sites west of MoPac and out into the hill country toward Dripping Springs, Lakeway and Bee Cave sit on narrow, winding, sloping approaches with limestone underneath and tree cover overhead. Those are the three things a tilt-bed delivery is least tolerant of. East of I-35, out toward Manor, Elgin and Del Valle, the ground is flatter and the lots are bigger, and deliveries are usually simple.

If your approach is a single-track drive, a switchback, or has any grade in it, measure it before you order. A tilt-bed needs a straight, level run of roughly 60 ft for a 20 ft container and roughly 100 ft for a 40 ft, with about 12 ft of width and 15 ft of overhead clearance. On a constrained hill-country lot, two 20 ft units will often place where one 40 ft cannot.

Which container suits an Austin project

• 20 ft standard or high cube is the default for Austin: it fits more sites, and it is the size most residential and small commercial lots can actually take.
• 40 ft high cube works on the larger east-side and Round Rock / Pflugerville industrial sites, and for anyone staging materials on a big build.
• High cube over standard, if you are converting. A conversion loses height fast: a levelled subfloor, insulation and a ceiling can take six to eight inches out of the internal 7 ft 10 in of a standard unit. Starting from a high cube’s 8 ft 10 in leaves a room that still feels like a room.
• Modular cabins for site offices, studios and welfare units, which is a steady Austin use case.

Browse 20 ft containers, 40 ft containers and modular cabins.

Permits in the City of Austin

Austin does allow container structures, and there are permitted container builds across the city. The distinction that matters is use. A container placed on private land as a locked storage box is the simple case, handled under the zoning rules for accessory structures. A container used as habitable or occupied space is reviewed as a building: it needs a permit, engineered drawings showing the structural modifications, and inspection against the adopted building and energy codes, including insulation requirements that an uninsulated steel box will not meet on its own. Sites in the Drinking Water Protection Zone and on slopes carry additional impervious-cover and site-development conditions.

Check with Austin Development Services, or with Travis, Williamson or Hays County if you are outside the city limits, before you order. We can describe what is usually required, but the permitting decision is the buyer’s responsibility.