Guides / Shipping & Site Delivery
A prefab building does not travel as a building. It travels as a set of packed components inside a shipping container, and everything a buyer worries about on delivery day — the crane, the truck, the crew, the ground it sits on — is decided long before the container is sealed. This page sets out how the packing works, what is actually in the container when it opens, and what has to be ready at your end before the vehicle arrives.
The house is packed into a shipping container at the factory, the container is shipped as a container, and the unit is assembled or unfolded at your site. Which of those two endings you get depends on the model you bought, not on the mode of transport. A flat-pack unit arrives as panels and frames stacked flat and is assembled on site with hand tools. A folding unit arrives with its hinged panels folded flat and unfolds on site. An expandable unit ships at container footprint and expands sideways once it is standing on your base.
The second half of the answer is the part first-time buyers under-plan. Unloading is not a service that happens to you. The container has to be released by customs, carried to your plot by a vehicle that can physically reach it, lifted or unpacked with equipment somebody arranged in advance, and set down on ground that is level and prepared. Our own product pages compress that into one line — the time depends on the model and the site access — and the rest of this page is that line opened up.
Start with the object that moves. The shipping container is not a loose description of how your order travels; it is the outer packaging, and its dimensions set the limits for everything inside it. Our detachable container units are listed at 6058×2438×2591mm for the 20ft build and 12192×2438×2591mm for the 40ft build, which are standard container sizes rather than a house measurement. The flat-pack range lists 5950×3000×2800mm and 6055×2438×2896mm. Those numbers look almost interchangeable on a web page and are not interchangeable in a port, which is why the loading plan is a document rather than an assumption.
Two consequences follow from the container being the package. The first is that the cost of moving the goods is largely the cost of moving the container, whether it is full or not, which is what makes the packing method a commercial decision rather than a packing preference. The second is that the container is one fixed shape while your order is not, so the packing plan has to be built to fill it properly. That is why our product pages quote container loading as per project per 40HQ rather than as a number of units, and why the quotation should come with a loading plan attached.
Inside the container, what the unit looks like depends on the family it belongs to. The detachable range uses a bolted steel frame with sandwich panel infill, fully detachable for flat-pack shipping, with panels bolting to a galvanized frame so that no welding happens on site. The flat-pack range packs panels and frames flat to keep freight cost down. Both are the same idea applied at different points: the building is taken apart in the factory, where taking it apart is easy, so that it does not have to be taken apart on a plot with no workshop.
These are the packing behaviours published on our own product pages. The right question to ask a supplier is which one applies to the unit being quoted, because the answer decides what your site has to do on arrival.
| Packing method | How it leaves the factory | What happens on site |
|---|---|---|
| Detachable flat-pack | Panels and frames shipped flat and stacked, bolted frame fully detachable | Assembled on site with hand tools; panels bolt to a galvanized steel frame, no welding on site |
| Delivered assembled | Standard single unit shipped whole, as a detachable container house | Set down and connected, or delivered knocked down for local re-assembly where the route requires it |
| Folding | Hinged panels folded flat for transport, and slide-folding panels that cut transport volume | Unfolded on site; the slide-folding build avoids splitting the floor to achieve the same saving |
| Expandable | Shipped at container footprint | Expands sideways on site for double the floor area; the trailer-mounted variant is relocatable without a crane |
The pattern to notice is that the more a unit is packed down, the more of the assembly moves to your site. There is no universally better option, only a trade between what you pay to move the goods and what you arrange on the ground.
A full container load is the standard way these buildings move, and our product pages say so directly: both are possible, FCL is standard, and LCL consolidation is available on request. The distinction matters to a buyer because it changes the container from yours to shared.
On a full container load, the container is packed at our facility, sealed, and stays sealed until it reaches the destination. Nothing is added or removed in between, which keeps the damage risk on a known set of movements and makes the packing list the definitive record of what is inside. On an LCL consolidation, your units share space with other cargo, so the goods are handled at a consolidation point at each end, and the packing has to survive being grouped and regrouped. Both are legitimate for a first or small order. The one thing to avoid is discovering which one you bought after the container has left.
The third variant is the one buyers often choose without noticing they have chosen it. Combining a modular order with another package from the same supply base, such as an aluminium ceiling system, can improve the freight cost and does make the departure date the later of two production schedules rather than the earlier. Consolidation is a planning decision, and it should be made because the arithmetic works, not because it happened.
Buyers who have only seen finished photographs are often unprepared for the contents, and that gap is where site plans go wrong. A flat-packed order opens onto stacked panels, frames and the loose components that hold them together, not onto a room. The unit exists as a sequence of steps on a drawing, and the drawing is the thing to have on site when it opens.
Practical items that travel with the building and are easy to lose track of: the bolts and connections that hold the frame together, the door and window units, the electrical fittings and distribution box, and the documentation pack that customs and the buyer both need. Our flat-pack specification lists the door at 900×2000mm, aluminium sliding windows with insulated glass, and wiring, sockets, lighting and a distribution box as standard items — all of which arrive as components in the container rather than fitted to a standing building. The inspection process page on this site describes what is checked in-line during production, which is the stage that catches a missing component before it becomes a missing component in a foreign country.
One design point is worth knowing before the container opens, because it changes the plan for every move afterwards. The bolted frame is built for disassembly, restacking and reshipping, so a detachable unit can be taken down and used again at a second site rather than being consumed at the first. If the project is a work camp, a temporary school or a compound that will move, that property is part of what is being bought, and it is easier to plan for when it is understood as a packing method rather than a slogan.
Unloading itself takes an afternoon. The arrangements that make it possible take planning, and every one of them belongs to a short conversation held weeks earlier. Work through these five with whoever is handling your import.
Sequence these before production, not after. Each of the five has a version that costs money to fix and a version that costs a phone call.
Five things let us confirm the packing method, the loading plan and the delivery sequence in the same reply:
The reply states the packing method, the loading plan, what the site has to have ready and by when, and the price, on the same document.
Request a loading plan and site preparation list
The flat-pack range carries the packing behaviour for each sub-model and the standard sizes, the detachable container range publishes the bolted frame specification and the loading and lead time sequence, and the inspection process explains what is checked in-line during production rather than only before loading. If your question is about the container itself rather than the house inside it, the MOQ guide explains how one container sets the floor on an order, and the lead time guide sets out the five stages either side of the sea leg.
Packed into a shipping container at the factory and delivered as a container, with the building itself arriving as panels, frames and loose components. The packing method varies by model: flat-pack units ship as stacked panels and frames, folding units ship with hinged panels folded flat, and expandable units ship at container footprint and open out on site.
No. Our flat-pack range describes panels and frames shipped flat and stacked, assembled on site with hand tools. A standard single detachable unit can also be delivered assembled, or knocked down for local re-assembly, so the answer is a specification choice to make before the quotation rather than something to discover at the port.
With its hinged panels folded flat for transport and unfolded again on site. Our slide-folding variant reduces transport volume without splitting the floor to do it, which matters because a folded unit only delivers its saving if the whole build folds rather than one part of it.
We quote it per project per 40HQ depending on folded height, and we do not publish a fixed unit count. The number is a function of the model, the folded height and the packing layout, which is why the loading plan is prepared against your order rather than taken from a table.
Both are possible, FCL is standard, and LCL consolidation is available on request. A full container load stays sealed from our facility to your destination, which keeps handling to a known set of movements. Consolidation reduces freight on a small order and adds a handling point at each end, so it is a deliberate choice on cost.
By making the arrangements before the vehicle arrives: access for the delivery vehicle, a level prepared base, the lifting arrangement appropriate to the unit, a small crew for the bolted frame, and customs release so the container can be moved at all. Our product pages put the assembly question in one line, that the time depends on the model and the site access, and both of those are settled on site before the order ships.
A level, prepared base, power, and access for the delivery vehicle and any lifting equipment, plus a small crew for the bolted frame. Because the frame is bolted rather than welded, no fabricator and no welding set are needed on site. The base being finished on time is the dependency that most often decides whether unloading and assembly happen in one visit.
Yes for the detachable build, which is designed for disassembly, restacking and reshipping across multiple project sites, and for the trailer-mounted expandable unit, which is relocatable without a crane. If the project is a camp, a temporary facility or a compound that will relocate, that re-use belongs in the enquiry so the packing method and the loading plan are chosen for it from the start.