Six Things To Know Before Building With Containers

6 Things You Must Know Before Building a Shipping Container Home Blog Cover

Updated On: October 8, 2022

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Constructing a shipping container home is an exciting and rewarding endeavor, but it can also be a challenging undertaking.

Shipping containers are unique as building materials go. As such, they have their own confounding issues as well as fascinating advantages.

This article addresses key things you need to know before you construct a container home and is supplementary information to the common mistakes to avoid article.

Not All Containers Are Equal

One of the first things you need to know when you begin to think about constructing a shipping container home is that these containers are not all the same. There are multiple types of shipping containers. The most common types used for buildings are high cube, standard, and refrigerated.

Old Rusty Shipping Containers

In addition to determining the type of shipping container that will be best in a given situation, you will have to decide on the condition of the container that will be most appropriate for your situation. Shipping containers are available to be purchased as new, used, and one-trip containers.

We interviewed shipping container homeowners, to ask them what is the primary thing they wish they had known before constructing their shipping container home. Surprisingly, an overwhelming number of people said that they wish they had known about high cube containers.

High cube containers have the same dimensions as standard containers except that they are an additional foot taller. The high cube containers are almost always more expensive than standard containers, sometimes even up to 50% more. Most agree, though, that this extra foot of height is indispensable, especially if you are insulating the floor of your container.

Read shipping container types for more information.

Research Local Planning Laws and Building Regulations

No matter whether building a shipping container home or a traditional building, it is always necessary to know the local regulations. Failing to do this research in advance can spell disaster. It is especially important when constructing shipping container homes since not all localities have addressed these issues before.

Not Researching Local Planning Regulations

Recently in England, Robert Fidler was forced to take down his $1.5 million house because he didn’t seek planning approval before building it. To avoid encountering a disastrous situation such as this, always start your project by researching your area. Investigate whether there are any nontraditional buildings already there. If so, someone before you has fought the battle.

If you don’t find a container home, it doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t construct one. Perhaps nobody has tried before!

Once you’ve planned your build, but before construction has begun, go to the local planning office. At this meeting, you can determine how receptive they are to the idea. Without prior experience with shipping container homes, some will need more persuasion than others.

The only time you don’t need planning permission is when you’re outside of your city’s zoning laws. In this case, you generally have the freedom to construct a container home, providing the structure is safe. We still recommend speaking your with your local planning office to confirm you are truly outside the zoning limits.

Don’t Change Your Design During Construction

One of the biggest reasons why all types of homes take longer to build and cost more than expected is because the design gets changed while the building is being constructed. The time to change your design is during the planning stage. It is important to commit to your final design before you begin construction.

Remember that when building with shipping containers, when you remove a wall from the container, it’s gone. It is incredibly expensive and time consuming to replace the wall again once you’ve cut it out.

Make sure you do as much research as possible and ideally, visit several container homes before you commit to your design. A good architect will not only produce the 2D elevations, but also they will produce 3D elevations. This will help give you a sense of the space in your new building.

A tip from one of our readers was to build a model with Lego blocks.

Don’t Cut or Modify The Containers Too Much

Like most building materials, shipping containers can be used to build anything from inexpensive homes through million-dollar homes, and everything in the middle. However, most people decide to use shipping containers because of the cost savings benefits.

Maintaining as much of the container’s structural integrity as possible will save money. Any time you cut steel out of your containers, it costs you both time and money. Not only do you have to pay someone to remove steel from your containers, you will also likely also need to pay for the opening to be reinforced with a steel beam.

If you look at the cheapest container homes built, one thing they have in common is that they have not modified the containers extensively. Of course, openings for doors and windows have been cut, but they haven’t removed large sections from the walls of the containers.

Choose Your Insulation Wisely

When constructing a shipping container home, not only do you want your insulation material to insulate your building, you also want it to create a vapor barrier to prevent moisture from entering your containers.

For this reason, the most popular choice of insulation for shipping container homes is spray foam insulation.

Not only is spray foam insulation thinner than insulation panels, if applied correctly, it also acts as a vapor barrier.

You would generally spray the interior walls and the exterior base of the container. These two layers combined generally offer more than enough insulation.

The only drawback of using spray foam insulation is that it is more expensive than some other types of insulation.

If your budget is extremely tight, you can still choose other insulation, remembering though that the others don’t provide the same vapor barrier that spray foam provides.

Finding Contractors Can Be Difficult

People use contractors because they don’t have either the time or the skills to construct the building themselves. This applies to traditional buildings as well as shipping container homes.

Since shipping container homes are still relatively new to the mainstream, the number of contractors who specialize in this type of construction is still somewhat limited.

Obviously, if you intend on self-building, this isn’t a problem.

Some have emailed us asking if we can suggest contractors to them. Our recommendation though is for you to try and manage the build yourself. Bring in separate contractors for the various tasks where you need help such as for welding and electrical work. This approach will help save you money and will give you experience plus an incredible amount of satisfaction.

Summary

After reading this article, you are now in good shape to begin your shipping container adventure.

Be sure to read how to plan your shipping container home as you go forward with your project.

As a reminder, not all shipping containers are equal. Like other products, different manufacturers produce different quality containers. Also, high cube containers are generally the first choice for building homes or offices.

There are multiple types of insulation material available, but we generally recommend closed-cell polyurethane spray foam for most applications.

Have you constructed a shipping container home?  What is the most important thing you think you need to know before you build a container home?  Leave a comment below. 

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24 Responses

    1. well I have a source that tells me 2,500 – 4,000 depending on size and if new, 40 foot long containers will also need a Truck that can fit the longer lenth to deliver to your property.

    1. Really depends on how complex you want to go. A local handyman or smaller general contractor could probably handle most of this work. You could find someone like that via personal references or websites like Angieslist that provide contractor ratings, or Nextdoor which lets you converse with people in your local area. For a more complex, turn-key build, you’d want to find a container home builder. We have a few listed on our professionals page (https://www.discovercontainers.com/professionals/), or you can email us with your location and we might have some others that aren’t yet added to the website.

  1. I’m thinking of a 10 ft. container that could be dropped anywhere by helicopter. Do you have any ideas on how this might be accomplished? I picked the 10 ft. for weight, but I’m not sure how much weight a helicopter can lift. I’m thinking of trucking as close to a site as possible, then lifting container to site from there.

    1. Probably doable. I’d look into heavy-lift helicopters in your area and see if you can find a company that does this. Sometimes large commercial HVAC companies use these types of helicopters to place large units on building roofs, etc.

    2. This will depend on a variety of factors. The type of helicopter, altitude of pick up and drop off points and the altitude of terrain in-between are factors as well as the weight of the container it’s self, which is more important than the length. Yes, when empty, longer is heavier. But if you load your 10 footer up with all the equipment you need to turn into a cabin, or pre-build it as a cabin, then it could weight more than an empty 40 footer. Also, the length of flight is a factor. I’d start by contracting an Arial lift /crane company and see what their capabilities and prices are. It’ll likely be cheaper to use a truck, if possible.
      A Chinook costs about $10k per hour to operate. And that was 5+ years ago.

  2. Hi, we actually sell & deliver shipping containers and the High Cubes should NOT be 50% more expensive…there should only be a $200-300 difference in cost from the standards. Also PLEASE be sure to use a reputable company, there are MANY many scammers out there saying they sell these boxes and take your money up front. DO NOT PREPAY! Most reputable companies take payment on delivery. Best of luck to you all doing builds, there’s incredibly fun to do.

    1. I am planning on building one in about a year, will you please share your business information.

  3. Thanks for the great information. We are planning to build one. My problem is that I need a shipping container floor design for 20 feet container 2 bedroom and 1 bath. Do you know where I can buy the plan?

    1. It would be pretty difficult to fit two bedrooms and one bathroom into a 20-foot container, there just isn’t enough room. Our container plans package (available in our store: https://www.discovercontainers.com/store/) has 50 different container home floorplans to inspire you. Perhaps one of these is close to what you want, just in a slightly bigger space.

  4. What brand of high top containers do you recommend? A friend that has a shipping container shed said to just make sure to get containers with flat bottoms, do you have an opinion on that? I am looking for flat living space without stairs inside and minimal out as I have minimal depth perception from a brain injury as a kid so I trip a lot.

      1. Not really there supposed to. If a private company owns the box and sent pipe in for a dozen times or so the the box floor could have developed a slight bend in it. Mostly due to carrying a max load to often.

  5. I see container home pictures where the interior looks like they completely removed the container walls to make larger rooms. I assume that they have to beam the entire span. Does it have to be steel or could a laminated wood beam be used? Or, if the home was 3 containers wide would it be more cost effective to stick frame the middle span?

    Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions. I have dozens!

    1. If you cut substantial portions of the container walls out to make wider rooms, additional material needs to be added to structurally reinforce the container. That extra material could theoretically be anything with sufficient strength (including a laminate wood beam), but metal is most commonly used because the rest of the container is metal, making it easy to attach via welding.

  6. A great informative article. If I had any concern on to build a container home, the article clarified most of them.

    1. Sounds great. If you have a specific question, we’ll be happy to assist. Just reach out to us via the ‘Contact Us’ button on the top menu. Best of luck with your project!

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