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Charleston, SC

Shipping Containers for Sale in Charleston, SC

20ft, 40ft, high cube, modified, and refrigerated containers delivered to Charleston and the Charleston metro area and the Lowcountry, including Mount Pleasant, North Charleston, Summerville, Goose Creek, Hanahan. Price always includes delivery.

Get a Charleston Quote (330) 510-5817
the Charleston Lowcountry

Container Delivery Specialists for The Charleston metro area and the Lowcountry

Charleston is South Carolina's largest city, founded in 1670, the seat of Charleston County, and the center of a tri-county Lowcountry region that also reaches into Berkeley and Dorchester counties Deliveries reach Charleston, Berkeley, Dorchester, Colleton, Georgetown, Beaufort, Williamsburg, Orangeburg counties, and the practical questions change from one part of the area to the next. South of Broad, Harleston Village, Ansonborough, the French Quarter, Radcliffeborough, Cannonborough-Elliotborough, Mazyck-Wraggborough, the Eastside, the Westside, Hampton Park Terrace, Wagener Terrace, North Central, Byrnes Downs, Avondale, South Windermere, Riverland Terrace, Harbor View, Daniel Island, Cainhoy, Johns Island each bring their own access, placement, and ground-preparation considerations.

Charleston is a three-county city, and the rule that governs your container is the rule belonging to whoever issues your permit. Inside the city limits, the City of Charleston Zoning Ordinance treats a shipping container used for on-site storage in a residential district as a portable storage unit with its own size, count, placement and duration limits, and treats outdoor storage of three or more containers as a separate conditional land use restricted to the LI and HI industrial districts. In unincorporated Charleston County a container is reviewed under the county's Zoning and Land Development Regulations, which allow permanent storage units only in a named list of agricultural, rural, commercial and industrial districts and require a zoning permit and screening. Mount Pleasant, North Charleston, Summerville, Goose Creek, Hanahan and each island town set their own rules again.

We have delivered containers throughout the Charleston metro area and the Lowcountry and we know the local ground: Four corner castings carrying the entire load onto four genuinely different soils. South Carolina Department of Natural Resources describes four physiographic regions, and a container meets each of them differently than a house does, because a house spreads its weight along a continuous footing and a container puts all of it through four points. The Piedmont, roughly a third of the state and most of the Upstate market, is deep red Cecil and Appling clay that holds water and softens when saturated, with high shrink-swell Iredell soils mixed through the same ground. The Sandhills belt is sandy over eolian sand, where drainage is rarely the issue and bearing sometimes is, because loose sand under a point load wants to spread. The coastal plain, half the state, runs from well drained sandy soils to poorly drained ones with a high water table, and at the marsh edge it turns to soft tidal deposits. Slope compounds all of it, and a great deal of the Greenville and Spartanburg market is on slope., along with the access and clearance realities of the streets here. Tell us your address and your situation, and you get an honest assessment and an accurate delivery quote.

the Charleston Lowcountry Communities We Serve

Mount Pleasant North Charleston Summerville Goose Creek Hanahan Ladson James Island Folly Beach Isle of Palms Sullivan's Island Moncks Corner Kiawah Island Seabrook Island Ravenel Lincolnville Awendaw
Most Charleston area deliveries: 1-2 weeks. Charleston is served from the Savannah depot, about 109 miles down the coast, and it is still the lowest delivered price in South Carolina because that depot is fed by a port. Most deliveries land inside the standard window. The usual constraint here is the site rather than the distance: peninsula lanes, low live oak canopy, soft sandy ground and tidal approach roads on the islands.
Charleston Use Cases

How Charleston Customers Use Shipping Containers

Hurricane and Storm Season Readiness

Living on the coast means planning around hurricane season rather than reacting to it. A steel container is a plain, unglamorous way to do that. Wind and Water Tight and Cargo Worthy boxes keep records, generators, tools, equipment and the things you would hate to lose dry, locked and in one place you can reach quickly. One note specific to the city limits: Charleston's zoning ordinance requires portable storage units to be removed immediately when a tropical storm warning or hurricane watch is issued, so a temporary box on a driveway is not a storm plan. A permanent placement on ground zoned for it is a different conversation.

Port, Drayage and Transload Overflow

The trucking, transloading and warehousing that feeds the Charleston terminals runs on ground space it does not always control. An owned container gives a drayage or transload operation storage on its own yard, without per diem running on a steamship line's box. If you are stacking three or more containers outdoors, the city treats that as a defined land use with its own district and buffer rules, so plan the yard before the boxes arrive.

Manufacturing and Supplier Storage

The manufacturing corridor from Boeing in North Charleston out to Volvo in Ridgeville, Mercedes-Benz Vans, Bosch in Ladson and Nucor in Huger runs lean on floor space. Containers hold tooling, packaging, spare parts and staged material at the fence line rather than in rented warehouse across the county, and industrial-zoned ground is the easiest place in the Lowcountry to put one.

Renovation and Restoration Staging

Restoration crews working the peninsula and the older West Ashley and James Island neighborhoods have almost nowhere to stage material. A container keeps salvaged millwork, heart pine, cabinetry and new material out of the weather and out of the street. Inside the city limits the portable storage unit rules are specific about size, count, placement and duration, and the Old and Historic District adds Board of Architectural Review scrutiny on top, so this is a call to the Zoning Division before it is a delivery date.

Island, Marsh and Marina Property Storage

On Johns Island, Wadmalaw, Sullivan's, Isle of Palms, Folly and Kiawah, owners and marinas use containers for boat gear, outboards, crab traps, kayaks, mowers and hurricane shutters. Steel and a good lock handle salt air far better than a wood shed does, and the box does not blow apart in a squall. Each of those places is its own jurisdiction with its own rules, which is the first thing to check.

Farm, Timber and Rural Tract Storage

Colleton, Dorchester, Berkeley and the rural end of Charleston County are working land. Containers hold feed, seed, chemicals, irrigation parts, chainsaws, tractor implements and deer camp gear dry and rodent-resistant, out at the field rather than back at the house. Unincorporated Charleston County allows permanent storage units as an accessory use in its agricultural and several of its rural, commercial and industrial districts, subject to a zoning permit and screening.

Delivery Logistics

What to Know About Charleston Container Delivery

Charleston Delivery Considerations

A few things shape how a delivery goes in this area:

  • Lowcountry ground is sandy with a high water table, and low-lying lots hold water after heavy rain and on king tides. Setting the container on gravel, blocks or timbers keeps the floor out of standing water and the doors square.
  • The peninsula is the hardest delivery in South Carolina. Narrow one-way streets, live oaks with low canopy, on-street parking on both sides, and rear lanes that are often the only real route in. A tilt-bed delivery needs the bed to rise, so overhead clearance matters more than gate width. Walk the route with the driver before the appointment.
  • Island and marsh-edge properties on Johns, Wadmalaw, Sullivan's, Isle of Palms, Folly and Kiawah mean causeway routing, soft shoulders and occasional tidal flooding on the approach road. Confirm the delivery window against the tide.
  • Salt air is hard on steel. A Wind and Water Tight or Cargo Worthy box on the coast rewards a look at the roof and the door gaskets on arrival, and paint touch-up where the finish is thin.
  • Late summer and fall bring both named storms and port volume surges, and both compress trucking availability. Booking a week out beats booking a day out in September.
  • North Charleston, Ladson and the port corridor are industrial-friendly and generally the simplest sets in the region, with paved yards and room to maneuver.
  • Mount Pleasant, Daniel Island and the newer Summerville subdivisions carry HOA covenants that govern what can sit in view of the street. Read the covenant before the truck rolls.

For permit questions on a specific address, contact City of Charleston Department of Planning, Preservation and Sustainability, Zoning Division, 2 George Street, Suite 3100, Charleston SC 29401, phone (843) 724-3765, for zoning determinations. Building permits go through the City of Charleston Permit Center on the ground floor at 2 George Street, phone (843) 577-5550, permits@charleston-sc.gov. If the address is in unincorporated Charleston County rather than the city, call Charleston County Zoning and Planning at (843) 202-7200. Berkeley County Planning and Zoning is (843) 719-4095 and Dorchester County Planning and Zoning is (843) 563-0020..

Container Types Available in Charleston

Used wind and water tight and one-trip containers are both available. Every unit is inspected before delivery.

Get a Charleston Quote

Request a Container Quote for Charleston

Your information is private and is never shared or sold. Delivery is included in every quote.

Contact Us Directly

Call Us(330) 510-5817
Text Us(330) 510-5817
Emailinfo@southcarolinastoragecontainers.com
Also serving: Columbia, Greenville, Walterboro, St. George, Georgetown, Beaufort, Bonneau, Edisto Beach, and all of South Carolina.

Charleston Container Questions

It depends on where the line falls and what size you want. Inside the city limits, Charleston's zoning ordinance counts a shipping container used for on-site storage in a residential district as a portable storage unit. Those rules allow one unit per lot, cap the envelope at eight feet high by eight feet wide by sixteen feet long, allow it to stay no more than thirty calendar days in any calendar year with written extensions available from the Zoning Administrator, and require it on an approved parking area such as a driveway. A standard 20ft container is twenty feet long and eight feet six inches high, so it does not fit that envelope on paper. That is the exact question to put to the Zoning Division at (843) 724-3765 with your address before you order. In unincorporated Charleston County the path is different: permanent storage units are allowed as an accessory use in the RR, AGR, AG-8, AG-10, AG-15, RM, CC, RI and IN districts, in the rear yard, with a zoning permit and screening. Charleston County Zoning and Planning is (843) 202-7200.
It is built for exactly that. A shipping container spends its working life crossing oceans on an open deck in salt spray and weather. Corten steel forms a stable surface layer that slows corrosion. What matters is the grade you choose and how you set it. Wind and Water Tight carries a 5 year warranty, Cargo Worthy carries 5 years, and a 1-Trip container carries 10 years structural and no-leak. Set it level on blocks or gravel, keep the roof clear of standing debris, and touch up paint where the finish gets thin. Worth knowing for the city limits: Charleston's ordinance requires portable storage units to be removed immediately when a tropical storm warning or hurricane watch is issued, so a temporary box in a driveway is not a storm plan.
Because the depot serving Charleston sits in Savannah, and Savannah is a port. Containers come ashore there before they are repositioned inland. South Carolina pricing starts at $2,078 delivered for a 20ft Wind and Water Tight container in Charleston, with the depot about one hundred nine miles out. Greenville's depot in Charlotte is about one hundred twenty miles out, only sixteen miles farther, and the same box there is roughly four hundred eighty dollars more. The haul is nearly the same. What is behind the depot is not. Give us your ZIP and we will quote the real delivered number rather than a range.
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Ready to Get a Container Delivered in Charleston?

All-in pricing with delivery included. Call or text (330) 510-5817, or use the quote form above.