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20ft Shipping Container — Kansas City
One parking space of footprint, one household of capacity, and the easiest delivery in the metro. The default KC container for a reason.
The Size That Fits KC Suburbia
Most metro properties can't stage a 100-foot truck approach — but nearly all of them can manage 65 feet, and that single fact makes the 20-footer the best-selling box from Raytown to Shawnee. It occupies one parking space, clears a standard gate with planning, and swallows an entire household or trade operation behind a padlock. When customers ask "which size?", the honest first question back is "how much straight approach do you have?" — and 20ft is usually the answer that survives it.
Dimensions & Capacity
- Outside: 20' long × 8' wide × 8'6" tall (High Cube variant: 9'6")
- Inside: roughly 19'4" × 7'8" × 7'10" — ~160 sq ft, ~1,170 cu ft
- Doors: double cargo doors opening ~7'8" wide × 7'6" high
- Weight: ~4,800 lbs empty — heavier than most cars, which is why straight-line winds don't move them
- Floor: forklift-rated marine plywood over steel crossmembers
What KC Puts in a 20
Renovation households load furniture and staging boxes. Contractors rack one side with tools and stack material down the other. Acreage owners in Basehor and Grain Valley keep mowers, attachments, and feed dry. Small e-commerce sellers stage inventory a forklift's reach from the garage. And a steady stream of hunters, bikers, and classic-car folks discover a 20 holds the toys the garage can't — a full-size car fits with the mirrors folded.
Condition Options and the Money
A used cargo-worthy 20 is the metro's cheapest secure square footage — typically $1,900–$3,000 delivered depending on the week. A new one-trip 20 adds $1,500–$2,500 for showroom paint and maximum remaining life; worth it for front-of-property placement or a future build-out. Both carry the same lifetime watertight and 10-year frame warranties. Compare grades on the grades page, get your ZIP's exact figure from the calculator, and if there's any chance you'll stand inside it working, read the High Cube page before deciding on height.
20ft Questions
How much room does a 20ft container really give me?
About 160 sq ft of floor and 1,170 cu ft of volume behind a 7'8"-wide double door — in practice, the contents of a three-bedroom house packed sensibly, or a full trade's tools plus material stock with wall shelving.
Will the delivery truck fit on a suburban KC lot?
Usually — the 20ft rides a shorter trailer needing about 60–75 ft of straight approach, which most Olathe, Raytown, and Liberty driveways can offer. Send photos and we'll confirm before you order.
Concrete pad or gravel for a 20ft in this climate?
Gravel wins for the money: it drains our clay soils, keeps the underside dry, and costs a fraction of a pour. Railroad ties under the corner castings on top of gravel is the local gold standard.
A 20's Working Life in the Metro
Follow a typical unit through its KC decade: year one, renovation storage in a Gladstone driveway. Years two through five, garage overflow on the same property — the pickup that never got scheduled because the box earned its spot. Year six, sold to a neighbor for most of its purchase price (used 20s barely depreciate here), it becomes a Grain Valley acreage's mower shed. Years seven onward: tie-footed, turbine-vented, and quietly outlasting every stick-built alternative on the property. That lifecycle — useful, liquid, durable — is why the 20 is the metro's default recommendation and why 'just get the 20' ends more sizing calls than any spec sheet.