Building out a self storage facility

Gareth Williams of askactive.com specialises in building out the inside of self storage facilities; from self storage partitions, mezzanine flooring, fire rating, electrics and CCTV to signage, lifts and everything in between.

His company concentrates on helping self storage operators from the moment they begin to think of opening a facility, all the way through the construction process and throughout the buildings operation to ensure that the operators have guidance and advice from a single point of contact both throughout the self storage development and beyond.

I met Gareth at the European Self Storage Annual Conference where he was exhibiting alongside his main competition, Steel Storage.  Everything suggests his business will be around for the long term – AskActive have been building self storage units for  nearly 20 years and several of their customers were at the conference, not only speaking well of AskActive but making plans to build more facilities with them.

Gareth also likes to engage with his customers: “We like to work with them through all of the various stages of the project and will help in any way we can with any aspect of the business.  It is important that the self storage operator spends his or her time concentrating on selling the space that we create, so we ensure that the construction and development of their facility goes smoothly, with minimal input needed from the client, to enable them to do that.   I think that is the best way to do business”, says Gareth.

Self storage facilities: Converted warehouse or purpose-built?

AskActive, whose full title is “Active Supply and Design” convert warehouses as well as build new facilities throughout Europe. In the UK they have completed the majority of storage build-outs for Safestore, the largest UK self-store operator.  They have also carried out projects in the UK for StorageKing and  Pickfords .

Increasingly, as Europe takes up the self storage idea, they are operating overseas and have completed works in The Czech Republic, Spain, Sweden, Norway, France, Denmark, Italy, Germany, Netherlands and Poland to name just a few.

“We’ve also been receiving enquiries from as far afield as Russia and Turkey recently”, adds Gareth.

Feasibility of converting to become a storage depot

If you have a warehouse and are thinking of converting it to self storage, a specialist contractor like this can help from feasibility through design to the actual build-out.  As long as you already have permission for class B2 or B8 use then extra planning permission should not be needed.

Whoever is fitting out your units will work with you to maximise the space you can use.  A 20,000 sq ft shed might allow the building of a single tier mezzanine floor giving 40,000 square feet of gross area which, with corridors, lifts and fire escapes might allow the creation of 30,000 sq ft of lettable storage rooms.  You are unlikely to want to build all at once and a phased project is quite possible and shouldn’t significantly increase your cost per square foot.

Gareth Williams, as Operations  Director, suggests that  the cost per sq foot  for the self storage partitions is around £4.30 plus VAT, but if you are creating lots of smaller units it will cost a  little bit more.  Gareth explains that “a standard mix of sizes would create units which are typically 50 to 75 sq feet, or the equivalent in sq metres on the continent.”

Disabled storage and fire risks

Building a facility isn’t just about throwing in an extra floor, partitions and doors.  You will want a comfortable reception area, CCTV, lifts and fire rating work such as stair enclosures.  Relative to a retail outlet, the fire standards are a bit more relaxed for self storage because of the lower footfall.  Building control is also more relaxed on disabled access – the owner’s disability access statement will say that the operator has wheelchair access on the ground floor, and will make units available there for customers who can’t easily conquer the stairs.

AskActive, Steel Storage, S&L, and dbci

The two largest self store companies have traditionally each used one fit-out contractor, with Big Yellow using Steel Storage and Safestore using AskActive, but competition is serious and there are other very competent operators such as S&L United Storage Solutions based in Takeley, Essex (where Sam Chapman is the one to talk to).  A newer entrant to the market is Philip Pouncey of dbci.co.uk based in Wellingborogh, Northamptonshire.

3 Responses to “Building out a self storage facility”

1. Kim on Storage Facilities says:

   October 22, 2010 at 11:03 pm

   Thanks for sharing this article, a great help for those self storage operators that want to open a facility.

2. Antony says:

   December 7, 2010 at 1:21 pm

   We have received this update from DBCi / Kuboid, mentioned at the end of the article above:

   “DBCi Ltd was formed in June 2007 to provide a complete self storage construction service, to include storage partitions (walls & doors), mezzanine floors, fire protection, receptions etc. We formed an agreement with DBCI Inc of the USA to supply their partitions and doors to the European market and to use their trademarks. Whilst this relationship has been very successful, there were too many obstacles that neither party could control including shipping companies & times, the weather and the Dollar:Pound exchange rate. For these reasons we recently took the decision to supply our own UK manufactured partitions and doors and to sever our agreement with DBCI Inc; although we have maintained the right to supply existing customers . This, coupled with the fact that we feel the name DBCi is not recognised as being a supplier of a ‘turnkey’ self storage construction project has led us to make the decision to change our company name and to totally rebrand ourselves.

   From Monday 6th December our company name will be Kuboid Ltd. We look forward to designing & building your next self storage facility, with self storage ‘Kuboids’ (rooms).”

3. Debbie Clark says:

   January 31, 2011 at 1:53 pm

   Antony, I am surprised that Cavale was not mentioned in your article as we are one of the few manufacturers of Self Storage Systems: 2011 will see the opening of our new 190,000ft2 state of the art manufacturing facility which I believe makes us the largest manufacturer of Self Storage Systems in Europe. Shurgard, Europe’s largest Self Storage operator has used Cavale as a supplier since 1994, we also acted as main contractor for construction of 3 of their new build sites in London. We are pleased to offer consultation and design services (free of charge) as well as fit out services.