20ft Expandable Container House with Walnut-Grain Panels, Black Frame and Glass Slider

A 20ft expandable container house finished in walnut-grain wall panels with a black structural frame and a full-height glass sliding door at the front. It ships folded to 2200 mm wide, opens to a 38.2 m² floor, and arrives with the kitchen run, the bathroom pod and the interior linings already fitted at the factory in Suzhou, China.

Expandable container house means the module travels closed and opens on site by sliding the roof sections up and pushing the side walls out. Nothing is cut, welded or built up on site. For a buyer comparing this with a flat pack or a detachable unit, the difference is not the look — it is how many units fit in a container, and how much labour the site has to supply. Both are covered below.

• What is it? A 20ft expandable container house: a steel-framed modular building that unfolds from a 2200 mm transport width into a 38.2 m² room.
• How big is it open? 5900 x 6480 x 2480 mm once both sides are extended.
• How big is it closed? 5900 x 2200 x 2480 mm, which is what ships.
• How many fit in a container? Two sets per 40HQ; the 10ft version takes four.
• How heavy? About 3.4 tons for the 20ft unit.
• Does it need a crane? No. A forklift or telehandler lifts it off the truck; the opening is manual and tool-assisted.
• Can it be moved again? Yes — it closes back down in the reverse sequence and ships the way it arrived.
• Who makes it? Global Container (Suzhou) Co., Ltd., in our own plant in Suzhou, Jiangsu, China — no subcontracting, factory inspection welcome.

Four lengths are built in this system. The 20ft is the middle of the range and the one most buyers choose for a single-room unit with a bathroom: big enough for a bedroom and a kitchen corner, small enough to ship two at a time.

Figures are for the standard configuration without furniture. Internal layout, wet room position and cladding choice change the weight, so the packing list is confirmed on the drawing for each order.

1. Set the base. Screw piles, concrete piers or a slab — flat and level within tolerance, with the service entry points marked.
2. Land the module. The folded unit comes off the truck on its own corner castings and sits on the base.
3. Open the roof. The two roof panels are raised and locked, which frees the side walls.
4. Push out the walls and lock. Both side modules slide out on their tracks, the floor panels fold down into place, the joints are sealed and the services are connected.

The interior arrives finished. Because the wet room, the wiring and the wall linings are all installed and tested in the plant, the site work is the base, the lift, the opening, the connections and the deck — not construction.

The structural frame is Q235 hot-dip galvanised steel, 2.5-3.0 mm, with 6 mm liner plates at the corner castings. External walls are 75 mm EPS sandwich panels as standard, with rock wool available where a fire rating is required. Internal partitions are 50 mm EPS. The roof is 0.35 mm corrugated colour steel over 50 mm EPS with a 200-type ceiling panel; the floor is 18 mm fireproof magnesite board with 2.0 mm PVC as standard, upgradeable to 4.0 mm SPC.

Windows are PVC sliding units in this build, with the option to upgrade to aluminium. Because the front of this unit is glass, the specification that matters most is the door and the glazing: the slider is a full-height aluminium unit in the same black as the frame, so the opening reads as one continuous plane with the wall.

The kitchen is a straight run of base units with a counter top, a tall cabinet and a sink cut-out, delivered wrapped and ready for the buyer's own tap, hob and appliances. The bathroom pod is a complete wet room: shower tray and glass enclosure, thermostatic mixer and rain head, WC, vanity basin with mirror cabinet, electric water heater and an extractor. Waterproofing is done in the plant, which removes the single most schedule-sensitive trade from the site programme.

Kitchen and bathroom door as delivered — cabinets still in protective film.

Walnut-grain panels either side of a full-height glass slider, all held in a black frame that also forms the corner posts and the roof edge. The grain is printed on a steel-faced composite panel, not timber: it will not need oiling, will not check or split, and the panel is the weather surface itself. If a planning authority needs a sample, we can send a cut piece before the order is placed.

Front elevation: walnut-grain panels, black frame, full-height glass slider.

These three names get used interchangeably in enquiries, and they are not the same product. The short version:

If freight is the constraint, flat pack ships more units per container because the volume is panels rather than a folded room. If site labour is the constraint, expandable wins because the room arrives built. If a crane is available and the unit will never move again, detachable is the simplest. We build all three, so the recommendation follows the project rather than the catalogue.

• Garden studio, annexe or home office at the end of a lawn
• Guest room or holiday cabin on a site with power and water
• Site office, sales suite or welfare room on a construction job
• Staff accommodation and small clinic rooms on a remote project
• Café or kiosk where the service counter faces the glass front

Bathroom pod: shower enclosure, mixer and rain head, WC, vanity and electric water heater.

Send the site country, the room schedule, the access route, the foundation intention and your compliance route. You get a drawing, a specification sheet and a price — not a range. Production runs in our own plant in Suzhou: the frames, panels and fit-out are made on the same lines for unit 1 and unit 400, which is the point of not subcontracting. Buyers are welcome to inspect the factory or appoint a third-party inspector before shipment.