Shipping Container Homes: All You Need To Know Before Buying & Building

 

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What Is a Shipping Container Home?

First things first, a container home is a small living space converted from one or more, new or repurposed shipping containers into a custom modern home. Since a standard high cube shipping container is typically 20 feet by 8 feet or 40 feet by 8 feet, shipping container homes have a minimum 160 or 320 square foot floor plan to work with, though depending on how many you stack together you can achieve considerable square footage quite easily.

Unlike traditional housing and other types of popular alternative living spaces like prefab or tiny houses, container dwellings have the added benefit of being easily scalable. And of course, the industrial aesthetic is truly unique, especially when set in a natural setting.

 

Advantages of a Shipping Container Home

Built of durable, weather-resistant steel that's made to take a beating during international travel, shipping containers are designed purely for function. As mentioned, modularity allows you to stack more than one high cube container to create a larger floor plan and overall living space within the scope of a larger container home design. Containers also have standard dimensions, which can make designing a home more straightforward.

Another advantage is price (more on this below). Shipping containers are relatively inexpensive with an average price of between $1,500 and $5,000 depending on size and whether it's new or used, making them much cheaper to build with than lumber and other building materials for a traditional house. A recycled shipping container is also an eco-friendly option because it utilizes existing materials rather than new.

Pro tip: aim to buy your container(s) in November or December, says Devon Loerop, owner and builder of The Pacific Bin, which in just one year has become the most followed home on Instagram. During the holidays there is usually a surplus of containers in North America, making it easier to find a deal and save money when buying used containers.

In the same vein as the increasingly popular Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU), building a shipping container house is another way to utilize alternative methods to create more livable space-be it a guest house, vacation home, or even a workspace. By design, container homes are a fairly low maintenance and even transportable home that can be a great investment for the DIY-minded homeowner.

 

Disadvantages of Building a Container Home

Like any dwelling, there are pros and cons here too, whether you're building and buying. One of the main disadvantages of shipping container homes is insulation and temperature control. Steel is an excellent conductor of heat, which means that without proper foam insulation, shipping container homes can become very hot in the summer and very cold in the winter. Insulating a shipping container effectively can be a challenge, and it often requires adding insulation to both the interior and exterior, which can increase construction costs and reduce interior space. More on this further below.

Another common disadvantage of building with shipping containers is navigating building code and zoning challenges. Depending on your location, there may be strict building codes and zoning regulations that govern the use of shipping containers as homes-or even disallow them. In many instances building regulations have been established decades before the advent of innovative building practices like prefabrication, so it's not uncommon to find local regulations (and town committees, code enforcers, and building permit issuers) to be rather outdated and uncompromising. As such, obtaining the necessary permits and approvals can be a complex and time-consuming process-you may need to seek a number of variances in order to be granted a certificate of occupancy (CO).

For these same reasons, finding home insurance and/or construction loans by conventional banks may be tough for shipping container home owners and builders, too. Or it all can be super simple. It all depends on where you want to build.

In terms of design limitations, you can stack multiple shipping containers to create a house, but the containers themselves are not endlessly customizable. Picking your living room, sleeping quarters, door locations, etc is easy, but unfortunately heavy modification can reduce the structural integrity of a container, so keep in mind you will have limited layout options when designing your dream container home.

 

What to Know About Stacking Containers

Shipping containers are designed to stack corner to corner, like you see on ships and in ports. If you want to stack containers in an unconventional way, or cut out big windows and doorways, it's important to note additional budget and work will be required. "If you're building a one-story container home, it's really a breeze. But the second you go up a floor, just know there's going be a lot of added costs and added structural reinforcement needed, especially if you're stacking in the non-conventional way," explains Washington State-based builder Devon Loerop.

"When you turn containers 90 degrees and they're not stacked on the corners, and that's when you have to look at some serious structural reinforcement. It makes for a really cool design, but it's going be a bit of a headache. So you really want to do your due diligence and dive into understanding structural steel, what it's going to take to make your home 100% rock solid, and how that is going to affect the inside of your design."

 

Insulating Your Container Home

Metal is inherently a bad insulator so condensation is quick to form when it's hot inside and cold outside or vice versa. For this reason, closed cell foam should be used for shipping container homes because it acts as vapor barrier as well as an insulator. If traditional insulation is used moisture in the form of condensation can cause corrosion, mold, and mildew to build up over time, which can be hazardous and dangerous.

Now, closed cell foam can be expensive, especially if you have to reach a specified thickness for R value to meet inspection (keep in mind building codes and requirements will vary by location and climate). "I paid something like $32,000 to do a closed cell spray foam," shares Loerop of his Pacific Bin build.

But in hindsight, this one clever technique could have saved him thousands: "A way to save a ton of money is to just apply a very thin layer of closed cell spray foam on the inside of your walls-like three quarter to an inch thick. That will add a little insulation but the main thing is it's creating a vapor barrier for you to then roll in typical batt installation. That alone will probably save you like $15,000 on insulating your home."