Americans are more mobile than ever before, and that mobility often translates to the more personal aspects of their lives. It’s more likely than ever that someone has gone to school in portable classrooms, lived in a mobile or modular home — they may have even spent a few nights in portable cabins. There are many advantages to portable buildings — and some disadvantages as well.
When a building is portable, it can be moved around, which is a huge advantage. When a school needs a portable classroom, it can have it moved on site and then have it moved away when it no longer needs it. With a mobile home or portable camper, you can have a place to live wherever you go, meaning you don’t need to spend money on lodging.
When a building is portable, it can usually be delivered to the site where it is needed quickly. That’s the No. 1 reason that schools choose to use portable classrooms. Being able to get a building delivered quickly can be very important.
There are a number of other uses for portable buildings. Churches that are growing very fast may need portable buildings to accommodate parishioners until they can raise the money to expand facilities on a more permanent basis. There also is a market for portable cabins. These can provide better facilities and more comfort than a tent while not requiring the investment or infrastructure of a permanent cabin.
If you want something that’s a little more permanent but still somewhat portable, you can go with a modular building. Most modular buildings are built and assembled almost completely at the factory, with anywhere from 60% to 90% of the work done there and the rest done on the construction site. This differs drastically from most buildings, where most of the construction is done on the building site. That makes the building somewhat portable.
Portable buildings give you flexibility when you need to get buildings to a site quickly. However, portable buildings aren’t constructed as well as permanent buildings, so that is something that you have to consider when you are making a choice between the two.