With shipping container homes, seeing is often believing. You may know what container houses are, but you’ll never have a full picture of what is possible until you see the incredible designs others have come up with.
It’s why we love inspiring people with shipping container architecture examples. So many people don’t realise the number of ways they can use containers to create unique, sturdy, and affordable structures.
This article is our chance to brag a little bit on container cargo boxes as a building medium and highlight the ingenuity and craftsmanship of some of the best container homes in the world. Below, we showcase a wide variety of custom homes built with containers: from cabins to mansions, homemade to professionally designed, and everything in between.
There’s something for everyone, regardless of your budget and design preferences. And, we’ve been sure to include houses from a variety of locations across the globe, proving that container construction can work almost anywhere.
Plan
Planning is the most important step for building your own shipping container home or extension. Create a budget and leave a small contingency, so you are prepared if anything unexpected happens. Also, research planning regulations in your local area before you begin to build.
It is important to decide exactly how big or small you want your home or extension to be because it will save you time and money in the long run. No matter the project, planning is the initial and most crucial stage to fulfilling it properly. In the case of building a shipping container home, your outcomes are highly dependent on how efficiently you make your plans.
Before starting, you plan every component and detail of building a shipping container home.
Avoid Mistakes
First, do not remove too much of the steel on your containers. You are wasting materials you already paid for, and if a mistake is made, there is no way to undo what was already done. Another mistake people have made is using the wrong type of insulation for their local climate. Typically spray foam acts as the best form of insulation, but for warmer areas, insulation can vary, do not wait until the last minute to find out.
Which Containers To Buy
First, you need to decide if you want to buy a new or used shipping container for your home. If you buy a used container, make sure you see it in person because it could be more worn and rugged than the pictures show. Also, make sure the containers you plan to use are all the same brand. Some manufacturers measure the containers differently, and some are made with different materials. If your containers are inconsistent, your home will be inconsistent.
Where To Spend Your Money
Good budgeting is knowing where to spend and where to make cuts with any self-build or extension project. Purchase the best containers that you can afford because you cannot replace them at a later date, and they are there permanently. When it comes to the paint, floors, or kitchen design, remember that you can upgrade or replace them years after your construction has been completed.
Budget is an important aspect of planning the construction of shipping container homes. Depending on your budget, you will be able to plan the type of container you should buy and the other interior and exterior design elements.
Thus, the budget should be based on your financial position and affordability.
Decide The Best Type Of Container For You
The container’s type, size, quality, and condition depends on the kind of house you’ll build and the purpose behind building the house. For example, if you’re building the house to make a home where you want to live forever with your family, the stakes are high.
So opt for high-quality large shipping containers in such cases.
Don’t Waste All Your Money On Unnecessary Additions.
Building a shipping container home can be very cost-effective, and you already know that you will be able to save a substantial amount of money. So, don’t waste the money adding extravagant elements to your plan.
Your job isn’t done just with building the house; maintaining a large house is very difficult and costly.
Spend More For A Better Quality Container
If you want to spend your money wisely while building a shipping container home, spend it on getting a better-quality container. Good quality is the game’s name when you want your shipping container home to serve you forever like all other houses.
Therefore, always go for better-quality shipping containers even if they cost more than the lower quality ones.
Minimise The Welding
You might consider building a luxurious house with several welding plans, but is it worth it? Welding is very time-consuming and expensive.
Adding more welding to a shipping container house costs almost as much as a concrete house and takes a similar length of time to build. Thus, the main purpose of building a container house isn’t served with more welding. Instead, it is ideal for keeping welding to a minimum.
Don’t Go For Cheap To Save More.
When you opt for making a shipping container house, the reason is mostly a tight budget. So, to save more money, you may feel like going for cheap items for your container home.
Always remember that cheap items will serve you poorly. Hence, it would help if you always stuck to standard options.
Decide Your Home Square Footage
Before purchasing the shipping containers, you must decide how much square footage you want your home to be to map out the number of shipping containers you’ll need for the project.
Inspect Before Buying
It is your responsibility to check the shipping containers before buying. Check the licences and other legal papers before purchasing. Most importantly, check the materials the shipping containers are made with.
Many shipping containers are built with extremely toxic chemicals that can be hazardous to human health if they stay in contact for a long time. So stay away from buying such unhealthy shipping containers.
Secure Your Land
Generally, it’s better to purchase your land before planning because you might not always find land that completely matches your plan. And then, it requires planning all over again or making major amendments.
Thus, you should purchase your land first and plan to prevent such situations.
Know Your Local Rules
Since shipping container homes are a new concept of homing, not every state or city allows it. And that’s why it’s important to find out if your local government allows it or not beforehand to avoid permit issues in the future.
Select The Correct Contractor
Discuss it with a trustworthy contractor once you’re done pulling off a plan. Before handing over such a huge responsibility to them, make sure they can fulfil it properly.
Design With Natural Light In Mind
While designing the structure of your container home, make sure you have a proper strategy to let the natural light from the sun during daytime and the moon during full moon nights enter the house.
There’s nothing as effective as natural light to make your home feel bright.
Make Sure Of Sufficient Ventilation
Ventilation is undoubtedly one of the most important factors to consider while constructing a shipping container house. A shipping container is designed for shipping goods from one country to another safely in a sealed way. That’s why it is designed in a zero-ventilation way.
Thus, it is essential to redesign the shipping containers with sufficient ventilation while constructing the container home.
Plan The Plumbing And Electrical Wiring Beforehand
Installing plumbing and electrical wiring in a container home isn’t as easy as concrete houses. Most plumbers or electricians aren’t experienced installing container homes.
So you need to plan them ahead of time and share the plan with experienced plumbers and electricians for assurance.
Pros Of Shipping-Container Homes
Shipping container homes are becoming increasingly popular for homeowners and landlords as an affordable alternative to traditional rental housing. However, while there are a lot of pros to shipping-container properties, there are cons that come with this alternative housing design.
Durable
Steel is extremely durable, and container homes can be designed and constructed as permanent, low-cost homes. Certain design elements — like positioning large windows or sliding glass doors to face the proper sun exposure while utilising special flooring materials and including proper insulation in the walls and ceiling — will help keep cooling and heating costs down in the home. Most steel container homes can last a lifetime if designed and constructed well.
Sustainable
For most shipping companies, returning an empty container after shipment exceeds the cost of building a new container, leading to millions of old shipping containers sitting unused. Creating container homes from upcycled shipping containers is a perfect way to reduce waste, use recycled products, and provide a sustainable alternative for home construction.
Cost-Effective
New or used containers can be purchased for as little as a few thousand dollars, making shipping-container homes an affordable option, especially for homes at the most basic level. For example, a 20-foot shipping container runs between $1,500 and $3,000 per unit, while a 40-foot container costs $3,500 to $4,500. If you’re looking to create a tiny home using this structure, your container cost can be a few thousand dollars. But if you’re looking to build a more sizable house, shipping-container homes are over 2,000 square feet now, and you could be looking at closer to $25,000 for the containers. While this may seem like a huge jump compared to building a traditional wood home of the same size, the cost of materials is still nominal.
Customizable
A container-home build is extremely customizable. Designers are beginning to specialise in container construction, providing innovative container architecture designs that allow owners to add their personalised touches, like using recycled materials, adding a full wall of sliding glass doors, or installing off-grid components like solar panels, for example.
Durable & Weather Resistant
Shipping container homes are proven to be more durable and longer-lasting than conventional housing. A shipping container’s original purpose was to ship delicate items across the ocean, making them extremely tough and super weather resistant. They are even tough enough to withstand 100 miles per hour wind!
Design Flexibility
When building your perfect home, your project needs to have flexibility. So who can modify each steel box to adjust to your specific needs and tastes while also giving you the option of stacking multiple containers to create unique designs?
It Was Cheap!
Due to many unused shipping containers and the low demand, buying one has become much cheaper than purchasing other building materials such as wood, brick, or stone. Construction time is also incredibly quick! The walls, floor, and roof are already installed in each shipping container; all that is needed is proper insulation. You will be ready to live in your shipping container home in just a short time!
It’s Sustainable
Recycling used containers is also very sustainable. With shipping yards overflowing with unused shipping containers, you are doing your part to help clean up the environment by reusing them. Each container can be remodelled, cut, or have items added to them to your bespoke design. How about this one below, clad in timber?
Cons Of Shipping-Container Homes
Environmentally Harmful
Surprisingly, many shipping-container homes are less eco-friendly than people think. Because a container’s original use was for shipping goods, they aren’t a suitable structure for living in their current condition.
According to Ship Technology, 20% of shipping containers have concentrations of harmful chemicals or dangerous gases that exceed occupational hygiene limit values. It can also be difficult to measure what gases are present in a specific container, so having a container tested before purchasing is important for making it a safe living environment.
Limited Space
Custom container living embraces the concept of minimal living, with most homes having 320 square feet or less of living space in the most basic models. While you can create a much larger space, around 1,000 square feet or more, by combining multiple containers, this increases costs and reduces the project’s sustainability through the conversion process. Those who embrace container living should be comfortable with tiny living or living in a more restricted space.
Expensive To Customise And Transport
While it doesn’t cost much to purchase a storage container, transporting and making it habitable can be expensive. Getting the container to you can cost several thousand dollars; you’ll need to own the land where you plan to place the home. Don’t forget to account for permitting and getting the site ready to build a home, including having public utilities added to the property.
Proper spray-foam insulation, reinforcing walls, removing walls, adding openings, installing glass doors, and basic home finishings like flooring, plumbing, and roofing add up. While container homes can still be assembled and built for less than typical framed homes in most instances, they can also cost quite a bit more depending on the building’s features, size, or design. Professional labour to install and build a container home will cost an average of $75-$150 per hour, depending on your market. Therefore, the total cost will ultimately depend on the total square footage and how elaborate the finished build is. You will likely be looking at a minimum of $15,000 in labour but more likely closer to $30,000 per container.
You Can’t Use Any Old Builder
Making this a DIY project is hard because you need to find a contractor familiar with this building method and who knows how to work with these materials. In addition, meeting all of the requirements for building control will also pose a problem if your contractor is not experienced with this process.
Removing Chemicals
Shipping containers are originally used for shipping goods across the ocean, so they were constructed with various harmful chemicals to make them water-resistant. Some of these chemicals include chromate, prosperous, and lead-based paints. As a result, you’ll need to spend some of your budget getting them removed.
It’s A Lot Of Work!
Surprisingly, a large amount of energy is required to make a shipping container habitable. Everything needs to be sandblasted, the floors need to be replaced, and who must cut openings throughout the structure. All of the modifications of each container use a lot of unnecessary energy.
Room Sizes
The dimensions of a shipping container can create awkward living and working spaces in shipping container homes. Once the insulation is added, the rooms are very narrow. Therefore, additional shipping containers need to be added with low ceilings, requiring more time and energy.
Conclusion
So, you’ve decided to build a container home. Congratulations! It’s an exciting project that can result in a beautiful and sturdy home. But where do you start? This article will guide you to build a container home from scratch. We’ll go over the basics of what you need to know before starting construction, provide tips for planning and designing your new home, and offer some advice on making the process run smoothly. By the time you finish this article, you should have all the information you need to get started on your very own shipping container house.
Faqs
What Is A Shipping Container House?
A shipping container house is a housing structure made from recycled shipping containers like a storage container or cargo container. These modular steel boxes, which typically come in two sizes — 20 feet by 8 feet or 40 feet by 8 feet — can be assembled to create a permanent or mobile living space that varies in design, square feet, and cost. A shipping container home can be one container by itself or multiple containers combined to create a more traditional housing structure by removing walls.
Are Shipping Container Homes Safe?
It’s often impossible to know what has been shipped in a used container – anything from harmless consumer goods to hazardous industrial materials – or what the container has been through. The paints and finishes used on containers are industrial and intended for shipping across the ocean, not residential homes so that they could contain lead and toxic pesticides.
What Is The Standard Size Of A Shipping Container Home?
The size of shipping containers is quite limiting and can quickly be consumed by plumbing, HVAC, insulation, and other systems. In addition, a container was designed to fit on a train, which means it’s narrow, and ordinary furniture doesn’t fit right. A standard container is also only 8ft wide and 8 ft 6 in high, which doesn’t leave much headroom after insulation and wiring are installed.
How Long Will Container Homes Last?
Shipping container homes should last at least 25 years but will last much longer if they are well maintained or if you use siding to protect the exterior. Unfortunately, rust is the single most common issue that can reduce the lifespan of a shipping container home.
Do Container Homes Hold Value?
Container homes maintain a very high resale value (100 percent and up), and being able to load them on a truck and deliver them anywhere makes them very attractive.