Shipping Containers Delivered to Washington

Ask around a job site anywhere between Bellingham and Walla Walla and nobody says “intermodal container.” They say sea can. The vocabulary is honest here: Seattle and Tacoma pool their marine cargo terminals into the Northwest Seaport Alliance, one of the country's larger container gateways, and boxes off those docks have been ending up in Washington yards and farms for decades.

The regulatory picture is unusual too, and worth getting straight before you buy. RCW 19.27.031 puts the state building code — the International Building Code, International Residential Code, International Mechanical Code, International Fire Code and Uniform Plumbing Code, adopted by reference — in effect “in all counties and cities.” There is no county-by-county opt-out from the code itself. But the state amendment at WAC 51-51-0301 hands the design numbers straight back down: additional criteria “shall be established by the local jurisdiction and set forth in Table R301.2.” One code everywhere, and the wind, snow, seismic and frost figures that decide how your box is bedded and tied are set at the counter nearest you.

Two Washingtons, Separated by a Mountain Range

Almost every practical decision about a sea can in this state follows from which side of the Cascades it is going on. The rain shadow is not a nuance; it is a different climate.

A container in Ritzville and a container in Renton are solving different problems. The east-side box worries about summer heat, dust and a colder winter; the west-side box worries about staying dry inside and about what saturated ground does to a delivery truck.

Condensation, and Why the West Side Talks About It Constantly

Statewide, Washington's total annual precipitation has ranged between 26.0 inches in 1929 and 55.0 inches in 1996. West of the crest, though, the number that matters is not the total but the persistence: measurable rain on 150 days a year and January humidity that stays between roughly 78 and 87 percent around the clock. Air that damp gets sealed into the box every time you close the doors.

What follows is the drip. On a clear night the roof steel radiates heat away, its underside falls below the dew point of the trapped air, and moisture beads along the corrugations and falls. Nothing leaked. It came in as vapour.

Practical controls, roughly in order of value

Keep air moving. The two factory end vents are a minimum; adding vents high on both ends, or a powered vent, does more than anything else. Get the contents off the steel floor onto pallets or battens so air circulates underneath. Add desiccant for a sealed store of anything valuable, and replace it on a schedule rather than when you remember. If the unit will hold tools, upholstery, paper or anything electronic long term, closed-cell foam sprayed on the inside of the roof and walls removes the cold surface altogether and is the only fix that actually ends the problem.

Then look at the box itself. On any second-hand unit, check the roof for dents that hold standing water, look along the top rail welds, and press the door gaskets — perished seals are the common reason a supposedly watertight unit is wet inside. Our inspection walkthrough lists what to look at in order. A one-trip unit from the new container range starts with sound seals and a flat roof, which is worth more in this climate than it is in a dry one. And if the unit lives under conifers, plan to sweep needles and moss off the roof, because organic debris holds water against the paint.

Seismic: Three Different Earthquake Sources

Washington DNR describes three distinct threats, and they behave differently. The Cascadia megathrust last ruptured in 1700 at an estimated magnitude near 9; full-margin ruptures average every 400 to 500 years, though the intervals cluster and have ranged from 50 to 850 years. The Seattle Fault is a shallow crustal fault running beneath Bremerton, West Seattle and Bellevue that last broke about 1,100 years ago, around 900 AD, at magnitude 7.0 to 7.5. And the subducting Juan de Fuca plate produces deep intraslab earthquakes — the 2001 Nisqually event was magnitude 6.8 at 52 km depth — more than one damaging M5-plus per century.

DNR's 50-year probabilities for the Puget Sound region: 85 percent for at least a magnitude 6.5 deep earthquake, 17 percent for a magnitude 6.5 shallow crustal earthquake, and 15 percent for a magnitude 9 megathrust. The state's own residential amendment assumes this environment — WAC 51-51-0301 writes requirements for Seismic Design Categories D₀, D₁ and D₂ as ordinary Washington conditions.

For a container that means three things. A box resting free on blocks can walk or slide off them, so fix it positively to its piers rather than trusting friction. If you stack, lock the corner castings with twistlocks or bridge fittings rather than relying on weight — the container terminology glossary covers the hardware names you will be quoting to a supplier. And site it so that a unit that did move would not land on a house, a propane tank or a driveway you need.

Permit Thresholds Are Local, and They Really Do Differ

Because the code is statewide but administered locally, the exemption thresholds are where the real variation lives. Two published examples, one from each side of the mountains.

Seattle

SDCI exempts a detached accessory structure from a building permit when its projected roof area is less than 120 square feet and it sits on a slab on ground. The shed guidance adds the rest of the conditions: 120 square feet or less, single storey, simple foundation, not attached to another building, not in an environmentally critical area, and no more than 12 feet tall. In neighbourhood residential zones the combined footprint of all structures is held to roughly 50–60 percent of the lot.

Yakima County

The county's permit exemption list allows detached accessory structures up to 200 square feet each, no more than two per lot, one storey with a maximum 10-foot wall height, non-habitable, at least 6 feet from other structures, and with no heat, plumbing or mechanical systems. It also says plainly that even when a structure is exempt from a building permit, other approvals — land use, zoning, utilities — may still be required.

Now the arithmetic that matters: a 20ft sea can covers about 160 square feet. That is over Seattle's line and under Yakima County's. A 40ft, at roughly 320 square feet, clears neither. Height is rarely the binding constraint for a standard unit, but a high-cube at 9'6" sits a foot taller and is worth checking against a 10- or 12-foot cap. Whatever the county says, if the parcel is inside city limits the city ordinance governs.

One Seattle-specific trap: if the container will sit on the street rather than on your own land, that is not a building department matter at all. SDOT handles it as a Street Use right-of-way maintenance permit, with a stated duration in calendar days and a right-of-way impact plan showing effects on sidewalks, bike lanes, travel lanes and parking.

Ground, Access and When the Truck Can Come

West-side soil from October through May is saturated, and a tilt-bed carrying a loaded 40ft will cut ruts through a lawn and can bog on a gravel drive that felt solid in August. A compacted crushed-rock pad with the container bearing on piers or blocks keeps the underside out of standing water and lets it dry. East of the mountains the soils are largely silty loess — excellent bearing when dry, greasy when wet — and spring thaw brings its own limits.

Heavy loads also have to obey the road. WSDOT publishes current commercial vehicle restrictions alongside its oversize and overweight permit rules, and county and city road authorities post their own seasonal limits, so a delivery scheduled into a thaw window on a rural east-side road may need to wait. Ask your local road department before you fix a date.

Then walk the approach with a tape: run-out length of roughly twice the container plus tractor room, gate and bridge widths, overhead limbs and service drops, and where the driver turns around. Delivery is a flat $500 per order anywhere in Washington and is normally scheduled 5 to 10 business days after payment clears. If you are still choosing between configurations, our frequently asked questions and the full container range are the places to start, and double-door units are worth a look where the drop position gives you access at only one end.

Washington Container Questions

Where This Information Comes From

Permit and building rules change, and the authority that applies to your parcel is local. Verify anything below with your county or municipal building department before you order.

• RCW 19.27.031 — Washington State Building Code, codes adopted by reference
• WAC 51-51-0301 — Washington amendment to IRC Section R301, design criteria
• Washington State Building Code Council — State Building Code
• Washington Dept. of Natural Resources — Earthquakes and Faults
• Seattle SDCI — Do You Need a Permit? (work exempt from permit)
• Seattle SDCI — Sheds and detached accessory structures
• Yakima County, WA — Exemptions to Permits
• Western Regional Climate Center — Climate of Washington narrative
• NOAA NCEI — State Climate Summary: Washington
• WSDOT — Route and commercial vehicle restrictions
• The Northwest Seaport Alliance — Port of Seattle and Port of Tacoma marine cargo partnership