Reuse ledger, year to date: 41,200 totes diverted from Texas landfills this year. 2,060k lb of HDPE kept in service. 1,772k lb of steel cage recovered. 3,140 tons of CO₂e avoided. 92% of our wash water recycled on site. 68 Texas counties served from one Austin yard. Full methodology at /sustainability/reuse-ledger.

Service · fabrication

A saw, a welder
and a yard full
of raw material.

Not every job is served by a tote in its factory shape. We cut, plumb, frame, port and mark them — usually in two days, usually from stock that would otherwise have been granulated.

Warehouse interior with double-stacked IBC totes carrying hazard placards on steel racking

The short answer

We fabricate open-top conversions, horizontal and vertical splits, lid and agitator ports, plumbed multi-tote assemblies, skid and stand frames, grounding lugs and fleet marking. Standard cuts turn around in two business days; plumbed assemblies in three to five. We'll work on your own totes if you prefer.

From the yard

Wide view of a warehouse hall filled with reconditioned IBC totes on polished concrete — Covered inventory. What you see on the rack is what goes on your truck.

Close-up of a single 275 gallon IBC tote showing its capacity label, UN placard and blue ball valve — A 275 with the plate, the capacity label and a standard 2-inch ball valve.

Capabilities

Eight things we build

FAB-01

Open-top conversions

The most requested job on the yard. Spent grain, waste collection, washout containment and anything that has to be loaded from above rather than filled through a 6-inch lid.

Cut below the gasket line · deburred · edge-capped

FAB-02

Horizontal & vertical splits

Raised beds, wicking planters and trellis frames. Drainage drilled, edges finished, pallet feet retained so a forklift can still move them.

Two beds per tote · cage retained

FAB-03

Lid and agitator ports

Cut ports for air stones, paddle agitators, dip tubes, level sensors and hydroseed mixers. Reinforced so the opening doesn't propagate a crack.

Custom diameter · reinforced

FAB-04

Plumbed assemblies

Multi-tote manifolds, sight glasses, secondary outlets, float valve installations and hose reel mounts — assembled and leak-tested before it ships.

Valves · manifolds · sight tubes

FAB-05

Skid & stand frames

Elevated stands for gravity feed, transport skids for multi-tote sets, and bunded frames where containment is required.

Welded steel · forkable

FAB-06

Grounding & bonding

Grounding lugs welded to the cage and continuity verified, for flammable transfer applications where static is a genuine hazard.

Lugs · straps · continuity tested

FAB-07

Fleet marking

Durable identification so nobody puts caustic in a food tote. The cheapest risk control available to any operation running mixed fleets.

Tags · plates · colour coding · stencil

FAB-08

From a sketch

Describe it or draw it. If it can be built from a tote, a cage and a welder, we'll quote it or tell you honestly that it can't.

Napkin drawings accepted

Turnaround

What each job takes

Lead times assume the material is on the yard, which it usually is. Jobs on your own totes add collection time.

Fabrication lead times
Job	Typical turnaround	On your totes?	Notes
Open-top conversion	2 business days	Yes	Prior contents required before we cut
Horizontal split (2 beds)	2 business days	Yes	Food growing requires F-grade stock
Wicking planter build	3 business days	Yes	Supplied barriered and drilled, not filled
Lid / agitator port	1–2 business days	Yes	Specify diameter and position
Plumbed assembly	3–5 business days	Yes	Leak-tested before dispatch
Skid or stand frame	3–5 business days	Yes	Welded steel, forkable
Grounding lug + continuity test	1–2 business days	Yes	Certificate of continuity supplied
Fleet marking	Same day on small batches	Yes	Tags, plates, stencil, colour coding

Safety

The edge nobody thinks about

HDPE cut with a jigsaw or a hot knife leaves an edge that behaves like a serrated blade — worse, because it looks like plastic and people reach over it without thinking. It is the reason we deburr and cap every edge we cut, and the main reason we suggest letting us do the cutting.

Standard finish on every cut job:

Mechanically deburred along the full cut line
Edge trim or capping fitted where hands will go
Cage members cut back and dressed where they cross the cut
Any sharp cage stub ground flush

Limits

What we won't fabricate

Pressure vessels
A modified IBC is not a pressure vessel and no amount of welding makes it one.
Structurally certified assemblies
Anything needing an engineer's stamp needs a shop that can provide one.
Occupied structures
People build sheds and pools from totes. We won't help — the material isn't rated for it.
Food beds from unknown totes
Prior contents or no cut. Not negotiable.
Fuel transport modifications
Totes are not DOT-approved for fuel on public roads, modified or otherwise.

Why fabrication is part of a reuse business

A meaningful share of what arrives here is structurally sound but commercially unsellable — heavily stained bottles, cosmetically rough cages, sizes the used market does not want. Under the old model, those units went straight to granulation.

Fabrication gives them a fourth option. A tote that nobody will buy for chemical storage is a perfectly good raised bed, spent-grain bin or washout container, and cutting it costs a fraction of the energy that granulating and re-moulding it would. It is the third rung of the reuse hierarchy, and it is where a surprising amount of our volume ends up.

Standard builds we keep in stock

Open-top bins, split beds and wicking planters move often enough that we cut them ahead of demand. Those are listed with dimensions on the second-life builds page. Everything else is made to order.

Working from a drawing

Send dimensions, a photograph of something similar, or a sketch. We will come back with a price, a lead time and — where it matters — a note about what the modification does to the container's structural limits. That last part is not upselling; it is the difference between a build that lasts a decade and one that folds in a season.

Questions people actually ask

+What's the turnaround on a fabrication job?

Standard cuts — open tops, horizontal splits, lid ports — are usually two business days. Plumbed assemblies and skid frames run three to five days. Anything involving a drawing, we'll give you a date when we quote it.

+Can you work on totes I already own?

Yes, and it's usually cheaper because you skip buying the material. Send them in or we'll collect on a route. The one condition is that we need to know the prior contents before we cut anything.

+Is a cut tote still structurally sound?

Sound enough for its new job, not for its old one. Removing the top removes the structural top frame, so a cut tote must never be stacked under load or used as a platform. We build to that limit and tell you where it is.

+Do you weld the steel cages?

Yes — cage repair, member replacement, skid frames, grounding lugs and mounting brackets. We do not fabricate pressure-rated or structurally certified assemblies; that needs an engineer's stamp and a different shop.

+Can you brand or label cages?

We can fit tags, plates and colour-coded markers, and apply durable stencilling for fleet identification. It costs very little and it's the cheapest way to keep a chemical fleet and a product fleet from being confused on a busy dock.

Quick reference

Numbers worth having open in another tab

The figures that come up in almost every conversation, whichever page you arrived on.

275 gallon · 1040 L

48×40×46

Tare: 130 lb
Gross, water: 2,425 lb
Stack full: 2 high
Stock: Always in stock

330 gallon · 1250 L

48×40×53

Tare: 160 lb
Gross, water: 2,915 lb
Stack full: 2 high
Stock: Always in stock

264 gallon · 1000 L

48×40×46

Tare: 125 lb
Gross, water: 2,325 lb
Stack full: 2 high
Stock: Usually in stock

350 gallon · 1325 L

48×40×56

Tare: 175 lb
Gross, water: 3,095 lb
Stack full: 2 high
Stock: Order in

Outlet thread

S60x6 — 60 mm coarse buttress. Not 2" NPT.

Grades published

N, R, F, A, B, C, X — applied at the wash bay.

Wash standards

W1 rinse through W4 caustic CIP at 160°F.

UN retest

Leakproofness 2.5 yrs, requalification 5 yrs.

From the yard notes

Longer reading on this

32 articles written by the people who wash, grade, weld and dispatch. No marketing copy in any of them.

All 32 articles

On the yard this week

IBC totes staged on a port terminal apron beside stacked shipping containers and gantry cranes — Gulf Coast staging. The densest source of recoverable totes in North America.

Tote wash line under a canopy with a recycling sign reading clean, recondition, reuse, spraying a used IBC tote — The wash pad. Every unit gets a named standard, and the water goes back round.

While you're here

Pulled from the full FAQ, which runs to forty-plus answers across buying, grades, food safety, sizes, selling, compliance, delivery and care.

Read the full FAQ

Where we are: 3505 Montopolis Dr, Austin, TX 78744
Yard hours: Mon–Thu 7:30a–5p · Fri 7:30a–4p · Sat 8a–12p · Sun closed (Central Time)
Email: sales@ibctotestexas.com
Coverage: 68 Texas counties on scheduled routes, from one Austin yard.

+Can I put drinking water in a used tote?

For genuine potable storage, use a rebottled unit — the bottle is new, so prior contents are not a question. Documented food-grade stock is acceptable for short-term non-potable-rated use. General Grade A stock is not.

+Which grade should I buy?

The cheapest one that genuinely does the job. For water and general industrial duty that's usually B. For anything edible it's F or rebottled. For regulated chemical shipping it's rebottled with valid UN marking. For washout containment and cutting projects it's C.

+Can I buy a single tote?

Yes. Plenty of customers buy one for a garden, a workshop or a wash station. Pickup at the yard is the cheapest route for a single unit.

+How long does an IBC tote last?

The steel cage runs 15 to 25 years. The bottle depends entirely on contents — one to three fills of aggressive chemistry, or five to ten years of benign service. That asymmetry is why rebottling exists.

+Can I pick up at the yard?

Yes, and it's the cheapest option. Bring a truck that takes a 48 × 40 pallet, ratchet straps and closed-toe shoes. We load with a forklift at no charge.

Describe it in three lines.

What it needs to do, roughly what size, and how many. That's enough for a price and a lead time — drawings optional.

Get a quote See standard builds

A saw, a welder
and a yard full
of raw material.

Quote a fabrication job