Car storage

[simps]

Good Afternoon Chaps

I have a council rented garage, but it seems that it is going to be demolished at some point to make way for housing.

I was therefore looking at alternatives and noticed that the council is renting out small c1,000 sq ft indistrial units which got my mind ticking. the units are heated and secure and I could probably store 8 cars in there. I was thinking I could offer trickle charging, a quick roll to alleviate flat spots on tyres etc, monitor for leaks etc.

so the question is, does anyone think there might be a need for this, and whats a reaonsable price?

I know its probably location dependent so for the record I'm in Sleaford Lincolnshire, for context I pay £43 per month for an 8 x 15 concrete cassette garage with no electric or anything.

I'm open to comments and/or dismissal as a nutter!

Thanks

Simon

[littlepippin]

I run a self storage units company in Sussex. I do from time to time get enquiries for car or motorbike storage (we can not store vehicles due to insurance restrictions) but only one or two every couple of months. Also get quite a few enquiries for trailer rental so you could build that in (keep them inside at night as they are always getting nicked)

My boss owns all the industrial units on our business park, and one previously was used to store very high end cars for a wealthy arab customer, but the business has now moved on.

I would first of all look in to the monthly rent costs for your unit, and also most important are business rates as they can be very high, and will never go down only up....

You will need insurance to cover vehicle storage, and suitable fire protection, CCTV and intruder alarm systems to qualify for this, and customer reassurance.

Cheers, Sean.

[saabfast]

There is a demand - at the right price. Not sure the luxury of heating would be worth the cost although very nice to have.
My son rented a workshop which was awaiting demolition with a group of fellow Saab and MX5 enthusiasts (he runs both), although it was about a 50 mile run. Then he had to clear it for the demolition and now rents 3 council garages in his area. He is lucky in that they are available and not too expensive there, where I live the monthly cost is crazy even if you can find one. However, there is no power and no real room to work on the cars stored (Mini, Viva and a load of parts).

[simps]

Thanks for the input, plenty of food for thought

I'll report back if and when things progress

[scribe]

As long as the unit isn't too pricy there is usually call for this and you could leave a little space for your own projects, but make sure you factor in insurance, utilities and maintenance into your plan.

I was going to rent a 1500 square foot unit for my business, which was way more space than I needed so was going to offer to store cars. The landlord and their insurance company had big problems with that (in fact several different landlords had the same problems).

From what I could gather a lot of people want to start garage type businesses and that opens up problems for landlords due to hazardous waste, flammable materials, scrap parts, gas bottles etc... not to mention the look of the place with cars strewn all around. Every contract I read had clauses against almost everything you would need to run a garage. They see 'car storage' as a slippery slope towards that.

I did get one landlord to agree to amend the contract to allow no more than 3 cars, and also allow 'occasional' work on them (to cover basic servicing from time to time), but my what a pain to get that far and cost going back and forth with solicitors on the contract.

If you can overcome that, or better still you don't have those problems then good luck and hope it works out.

[simps]

coming back to this, I have finally (I think) found some space to rent which is able to accept cars but not on a business footing - i.e. storage of my own cars is OK but not renting out space to third parties, so that puts that idea to bed, Scribe was right not many landlords are keen on cars at all.

But at least I should have a reasonable space to work in with power, reading through some classic car mags it is apparent that a twin post lift is reasonably affordable these days - not much more than £1,250, I know that there is likely to be other work involved such as sorting the electrics and making sure there is sufficient footings.... but it is tempting.

it then got me thinking, would people be prepared to rent lift time to try to offset the cost, I have seen a few places offering the service including tools but not locally.

so the question is, how many of you would be prepared to pay, say, £10 per hour or £60 per day to rent time on a twin post lift?

thanks in advance for your input

[dursleyman]

I have owned a DHC for more than 10 years but since I bought a second TR7 (a FHC) about a year ago one of them has always had to live outside under a cover as I only have room for one in my garage. They have been swapped around while I was doing work on them but my old outdoor cover now needs replacing so a decision had to be made.

Since I plan to do more jobs on the "new" FHC, like fitting a Sprint engine, I have decided it will be best to put the DHC into winter storage. I have found a place about 15 minutes drive away that is warm and dry at a cost of £25 per week, but I will get two weeks free as its an old rallying friend. At least I won't have to worry about deterioration this winter.

[FI Spyder]

I owned a mini storage place years back. People would occasionally rent 10'X20' spaces to store their cars. Walking by I noticed the smell of gas and I knew there was a restored Camaro in one so I called the renter to come and check it out. There was a gas leak on a fuel connection that was dripping on a little volcano of ice. As the gas leaked and evaporated it cooled the air enough to freeze the water vapour in the air. I was surprised to see this as it rarely goes below freezing here in winter and is usually around 5 to 7C in daytime. Any way tightening a connection solved the problem but illustrates the reluctance to store cars.