Used sleeper units for sale
Second hand sleeper units and portable sleeping accommodation, for jobs where the workforce cannot reasonably travel home at the end of the day. Sourced to what you need and delivered on our own Hiab.
What it is
A cabin fitted out for sleeping rather than working
Most portable cabins are built around people being awake in them for eight hours. A sleeper unit is built around the opposite, and the differences are not cosmetic. Beds or bunks instead of desks, storage for belongings rather than paperwork, and a great deal more thought needed about heat and moisture.
You will hear the same product called a sleepout, a sleeper cabin, portable accommodation or site accommodation depending on who is talking. They describe the same thing: a liftable unit somebody can spend the night in.
The jobs that need them tend to be the same few. Remote sites where the nearest bed is an hour's drive away. Long-running contracts where a travelling crew is cheaper accommodated than put in hotels. Seasonal work. Security cover on a site that has to be manned overnight.
Getting the specification right
What decides which unit suits you
Four questions settle almost every sleeper enquiry. Answer them before you start looking and the shortlist gets very short.
| Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| How many people, at the busiest point? | Size the unit on the peak headcount, not the average. Accommodation that is tight at peak gets resented quickly. |
| For how long? | A fortnight and a nine-month contract are different problems. The longer the job, the more the heating, ventilation and washing arrangements matter. |
| What is already on site? | If there is a welfare unit or a toilet and shower block already, the sleeper unit only has to do the sleeping. |
| Where will it stand? | Firm, level, drained ground the lorry can reach. This is what stops more deliveries than anything to do with the cabin itself. |
Sizes broadly follow the rest of the cabin range — 10, 12, 16, 20, 24 and 32ft — but how a particular unit is laid out inside varies enormously with its age and who fitted it out. We will describe the actual cabin rather than working from a standard specification, because there is not really such a thing in used accommodation.
Before you commit
What we would check on a used sleeper unit
Ventilation, first not last
Several people sleeping in a small sealed space put a remarkable amount of moisture into the air overnight. Check the vents are clear rather than taped over against a draught, because that is the single most common thing wrong with a used accommodation unit.
Signs of past condensation
Staining at the top of the walls, black spotting in the corners, linings that have gone soft. It tells you how the unit was lived in and whether the ventilation was ever used.
The heater and the electrics
What heating is fitted, whether it works, and what test certification exists. Everything we sell is electrically tested and certified with the paperwork supplied — elsewhere, ask, because working and certified are not the same thing.
The floor at the door
Where wet boots land every night. Soft flooring at the threshold is the earliest warning of a bigger problem.
Locks, windows and privacy
Every door and window opened and closed. On a unit people sleep in, a window that will not shut properly is not a snag, it is the reason nobody uses it.
Whether it can be lifted
Corner castings or welded lifting eyes, undistorted. You will move it again when the job ends, and a unit that cannot be lifted safely becomes a disposal cost instead of an asset.
Building the compound
Sleeper units rarely go in on their own
Accommodation on its own is half a compound. People sleeping on site need somewhere to wash, somewhere to eat and a toilet, and the usual way to arrange that is a sleeper unit alongside a welfare unit or a separate toilet and shower block.
Where security is a concern, and on an overnight-manned site it usually is, anti-vandal units are worth considering for anything holding tools or equipment nearby.
Because our lorries carry their own crane, all of it lands and gets placed by the same vehicle rather than needing a separate crane booked in. There is more on how that works on the Hiab collection page.
No catalogue — a conversation
Tell us what you are looking for
Used stock turns over too fast for a price list to be honest for long. Give us the shape of what you need and we will tell you what we can put our hands on, what condition it is in and what it costs, with the transport priced separately.
If you have a unit to trade in against it, tick the box — part exchange usually improves the number in both directions.
- We will say if we cannot source it, rather than string you along
- Cabin and transport priced separately, so you can see both figures
- Refurbishment to your spec is usually possible before delivery
Questions about sleeper units
What is a sleeper unit?
A portable cabin fitted out for people to sleep in rather than work in, so it has beds or bunks, somewhere to put belongings, heating and lighting. In this trade you will also hear them called sleepouts, sleeper cabins or portable accommodation, and they all mean broadly the same thing.
How many people does one unit sleep?
It depends entirely on the size and the way the particular unit was fitted out, which is why we would rather show you a specific cabin than quote a number here. Tell us how many people you need to bed down and we will tell you honestly what fits and whether one unit does it or two.
Are sleeper units insulated?
That depends on the age and original specification of the unit, so we will describe the actual cabin rather than making a promise about all of them. It is worth asking specifically if the unit is going to be slept in through a winter, and worth thinking about condensation and ventilation in any unit where people are sleeping.
Is there heating?
Units are wired to 240V with lighting, sockets and usually a heater. Heating only — there is no cooling of any kind in these units and we do not fit any. If a unit is going to sit in full sun through a summer, plan for ventilation rather than expecting the cabin to solve it.
Do they come with washing and toilet facilities?
Some do and some do not. Where they do not, the usual arrangement is a sleeper unit alongside a separate toilet and shower block or a welfare unit, which is often the more flexible way to build a compound anyway.
Can you deliver one to a remote site?
Mainland Great Britain, and remote is normal work. What decides it is not the distance but where the lorry can stand and what the ground is like when it gets there. Send a photograph from the approach looking in and we will tell you whether it works.
Do you buy used sleeper units as well?
Yes. If you have accommodation units coming off a finished job, send photographs, sizes and a postcode. We buy singles and multiples, and we will price the unit and the haulage as two separate figures.
Need to bed a crew down on site?
Tell us the headcount, how long the job runs and the postcode, and we will tell you what we can source and what it will take to get it there.