DIY Shipping Container Homes: Why and How to Build One

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Updated On: April 19, 2022

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Have you been wondering what all the fuss is about concerning DIY container homes? How does using a shipping container help with building a house? And if you were to use containers for a DIY home, how would you even get started?

We’re here to clear up the confusion and address all the questions you might have. A shipping container home DIY project can solve a lot of problems for the average hobbyist that looking to build an affordable home that’s still strong.

Why you should consider building your home with shipping containers

Many people’s first introduction to shipping container homes comes from searching for a cost-effective way to build their own homes. Sometimes, they own a piece of land and they’re ready to build their dream home or cabin. In other cases, it’s someone who is ready to stop renting and finally build their own place.

If you find yourself in this situation, you’re probably considering many alternatives. Kit homes, modular homes, barndominiums, converted sheds… many options lead to a liveable dwelling.

Some of these options seem realistic until you start to dig deeper. Maybe it’s a complicated foundation that’s required or mandated installation from company-provided contractors.

Perhaps it’s the realization that the savings you’re seeing are because of cut corners, and the home won’t be built to last. You can quickly become overwhelmed at the costs associated with building some of these options, or the sacrifices you’ll have to make in quality and durability.

Those searching for cheap ways to build their own home usually stumble onto using shipping containers eventually. And the benefits and advantages of building with shipping containers start to quickly add up.

For those with slightly larger budgets, you discover some of the amazing ways people have put containers together to create unique houses. Being modular means they can be combined and rearranged in almost infinite ways. And if your family grows and needs change over time, you can continue to add containers to your dream home.

Furthermore, a standard container has such strong construction from the factory that you’d spend a fortune trying to replicate anything half as strong. The massive steel beams and structural members are engineered for the toughest conditions and heaviest loads. But they’re produced in such huge quantities that they have become commodities, with prices that are surprisingly low considering everything you get.

If you choose to build with used shipping containers, you also have the added benefits of knowing you’re recycling in an eco-friendly way. With such harsh usage, containers have a finite service life before they must be retired from duty.

But they have plenty more life left in them for other pursuits. So if your way of thinking and lifestyle choices make you value a sustainable alternative to traditional construction, containers offer that benefit as well.

What qualities do you need to build a container house?

We don’t recommend building with shipping containers for everyone. It takes a special type of person, not just related to skills and experience, but also in vision and tenacity. What does that mean?

First is obviously being handy and having some general experience with construction. While that’s not absolutely required and you can certainly learn along the way, having a base set of building skills will make things faster and smoother with fewer mistakes.

As to experience, it is quite beneficial to have not only general construction knowledge but also a background in working with metal. However, remember that any gaps in technical ability can be overcome with training or just hired out to friends or specialists.

Very few DIY container home projects are 100% built by the owner. A project might have 70%, 80%, or even 90% of the work performed as a DIY effort, and yet that last little bit requires some help. That’s ok, and you’ll still get the vast majority of the benefits of a DIY container project.

Whether you choose to convert your container yourself without getting builders involved or simply do most of the easier work while outsourcing the rest, there’s the whole mental component to consider. Make no mistake, building a shipping container home, even a simplistic one, is a major undertaking.

You’ll undoubtedly encounter setbacks, frustrations, and feel defeated. Perhaps it’s weather that won’t let up, and access to your building site is difficult. Maybe you have friends and family that don’t believe in the project and slowly wear you down with negativity. For some, it will be technical challenges and construction mistakes that require time, money, and motivation to overcome.

Regardless of the obstacles you face (and you’ll 100% face some kind of obstacles), you have to maintain two things. First is the vision to imagine the finished project. Without this vision, it is likely that you’ll never even start your DIY project. The road will seem too long and the difficulties too many for those without vision.

Secondly, there is tenacity. As they say, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” A person who will successfully build a DIY container house must be able to move past the setbacks and continue marching forward.

Luckily, everything we’ve shared can be learned and improved over time. So if you don’t think these qualities describe you, work on being the type of person who could take on a project like this!

Furthermore, the best way to have a smooth DIY building project is to do thorough research and planning before you even start. Knowing what’s involved, expecting the time-consuming tasks, and having solutions in mind before problems even occur will only help you to be successful.

How much does it cost to build a DIY container home?

One of the first questions people ask is how much does a DIY container house cost. But’s it is an incomplete question, like asking how long is a piece of string.

Before asking this question, you need to be clear on things like where you want to build, how big your home will be, and how well it will be outfitted. These variables have tremendous sway on the overall cost of your project.

If cost was of paramount concern, we still believe you could build a bare-bones shipping container home out of a single 40-foot container for under $10,000. And you might even be able to trim that further by using a 20-foot container if a truly tiny home is part of your plan.

On the upper end, there is basically no limit. There are large container homes that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Obviously, most containers homes cost somewhere in the middle.

To get more detailed information, we recommend using our Container Home Cost Calculator, a free tool that takes your input on several c0st drivers and calculates a range of projected costs. Furthermore, make sure you understand the truth about container home affordability as you start to make design decisions.

How can you minimize costs while building your own container home?

As we said at the beginning, many DIYers find container houses especially attractive due to the potential for lower construction costs. But how does one actually achieve a lower-priced build? Just like anything in life, it’s often driven by many small decisions that cumulatively add up to big numbers!

Below are a few things to consider as you plan, design, and build a DIY container house. Keeping these factors in mind will definitely help you keep your costs under control.

How the Size of your DIY Container Home Affects the Cost

The biggest factor affecting your build is size. Every additional container, and square foot, adds directly to the costs incurred.

To that, we say, if you’re on a tight budget, only build as big as necessary. Try to make most of the rooms in the container dual purpose, and focus on larger open spaces instead of multiple, smaller rooms.

How the Foundation of your DIY Container Home Affects the Cost

The foundation of your container home can greatly add to the cost if you go overboard. Remember that containers are engineered to be supported at their four corners. Adding a slab foundation under a container is overkill and a waste of money.

Instead, focus on a pier foundation that provides the necessary support without excess materials and labor.

How the Layout and Appearance of your DIY Container Home Affects the Cost

If you want to think small on costs, you need to think big on outside-the-box ideas. To be blunt, what is the least amount of work you can do to make something habitable?

For the container itself, save money by purchasing a container that is used but still weathertight and structurally sound. Some minimal rust removal and repainting won’t cost you much in materials but can save you serious money.

With the layout of the floorplan, try to minimize interior walls and have as many things placed on the sides of the container as possible. For most people, a bathroom is the only interior room needed; everything else can be open.

A huge cost-cutting measure is minimizing the number and size of container cutouts for windows and doors. Each cut requires:

  • The time and equipment to make the cut
  • Reinforcing and framing around the cut
  • Purchasing and installing the window or door to fill in the opening
  • Sealing and trim work on the inside and outside of the door or window

Trust us, each of these adds a lot to your cost. Given that your container already has an opening on one end, focus your efforts there for maximum cost savings.

Framing in a wall just inset behind the container’s metal doors will seal off the interior even when those doors are open. And that will give you a place to add a door, window, and even utility items like a water heater and AC unit.

How the Materials in your DIY Container Home Affects the Cost

Remember that quality is not necessarily synonymous with aesthetics. In other words, you can use high-quality materials that are resilient and built to last, but they may not necessarily be the most en vogue look.

Be strategic with what materials you use where, and how much of them you use. Something can appear nice while actually being cheap.

You often see this with furniture made with wood veneers on top of particle board for example. Instead, focus on materials that are resilient and built to last

In addition to choosing the right materials, you can choose where to source them. Finding materials that are lightly used, excess, odd-sized, or factory-seconds can save you an enormous amount of money. Staying flexible will allow you to take advantage of materials that don’t neatly fit in other cookie-cutter designs.

How the Siting of your DIY Container Home Affects the Cost

Where you place your container will have an upsized effect on your total cost. A few of the reasons are:

  • Easier/cheaper access to utilities needed to build and operate the home (off-grid is always an option, but this usually has high upfront costs!)
  • Less transit time is required when coming to the home site to work (for you and potentially helpers as well)
  • Reduced site work required to both access the building site and place the containers

How long does it take to build a container home yourself?

Building a shipping container home with your own two hands is going to take a large investment of time. Unless you have numerous people (friends/family or contractors) helping you, it’s going to be very hard to get even the simplest of container homes built in less than one month.

For most people, it will take at least three to four months of consistent work to finish a DIY container home, more if you’re trying to fit in the work on nights and weekends after a full-time job. And keep in mind that changes you make along the way will continue to add to your timeline.

So, while their modularity makes container homes easy to add onto, if you want to have a reasonable project duration, it’s best to finish the original home first. Then afterward you can start to explore additions.

What are the steps required to build your home out of shipping containers?

The process of building a container home is, surprisingly to most people, not all that different from building a traditional home. While each project this different (and larger, customer projects often have their own special requirements), there’s a general set of steps that need to be followed by everyone trying to fit out a container as a home:

  1. Site prep and foundation construction
  2. Utility provisioning from service providers
  3. Select, purchase, deliver, and place containers
  4. Structural modifications to the containers
  5. Roof work, if required/desired
  6. Interior wall framing inside the containers
  7. Electrical, plumbing, and mechanical work
  8. Insulation inside the containers
  9. Interior wall/ceiling finishing and trim
  10. Flooring
  11. Equipment and appliances
  12. Final touches
  13. Furnishing

How can you insulate the containers?

Save for the people who are lucky to live in locations with mild weather year-round, most of us will require some type of active climate control to make a container home more livable. The efficiency of both heating and cooling is greatly aided by having your container insulated. And because of some horror stories out there of insulation done wrong, it’s one of the most common concerns DIY builders have.

While some people choose to start with surplus refrigerated containers, most get regular containers and add insulation. There are a number of options in both the placement and material choice for your container’s thermal insulation.

While most people insulate inside the container with spray foam, there are other choices that can work well. However, keep in mind the climate throughout the year. Certain design choices, seasonal climates, and insulation types can contribute to the formation of condensation. And you don’t want condensation in your walls!

Examples of DIY Container Houses

Sure, you could read our tips and recommendations to better understand building a container house. But seeing other people who have actually done it can make the idea feel real.

Below, we’re shared a few of our favorite DIY container builds. Be inspired by the designs and the initiative it took these DIYers to build their dream homes. We’ll start with small homes, then share several large ones as well.

Kelly Tiny Container Home

This DIY container cabin is about all small as you can go: 108 square feet. However, the owner and her father did all but the metalwork herself and saved a bundle while avoiding the New Zealand council approvals thanks to the small size.

Kelly Tiny Container Home

Kargarilla Container Home

Built from a single 40-foot cargo box, this DIY container home nonetheless feels spacious thanks to its windows, open design, and warm wooden walls. And it was all created by a husband/wife team who did almost everything themselves.

Kangarilla Container Home

Sea Casa Samara Container Homes

A collection of three container homes on the same property, Sea Casa Samara includes a 640 square feet main house and two 320 square feet cabins. All three container homes were DIY projects, built in Costa Rica.

Sea Casa Samara Container Homes

Foster Container Home

A 3000SF container home that was primarily a DIY build. However, before you get too excited, know that the owner had a lot of professional building experience prior to starting this project.

Foster Container Home

Hamilton Container Home

Another large DIY container home, with over 2500 square feet of floor area. To our knowledge, this home is still being completed on the inside. That’s a possibility with container homes since they are weatherproof and structurally sound on day one.

Hamilton Container House

Prince Road Container House

Despite using nine shipping containers, this DIY container house only has 1600 square feet of living space. The balance is porches, double-height spaces, and ground-floor storage.

Prince Road Container House

Utah Cantilevered Container House

Take six containers on two levels with a slightly shifted placement between levels, and you end up with a 1900 square feet home that quickly catches your attention. The owner Jarad did most of the work himself on this container house and the results are impressive.

Utah Cantilevered Container House

Summary

After reading this overview, we hope you’re clear on both the work required and the benefits gained from building your own container home. It’s not going to be easy, but it’s certainly worthwhile as the example homes we shared demonstrate.

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9 Responses

  1. All of this was everything I needed. A friend and I are starting a property company and these seem like the most cost efficient way of getting started. Thank you so much for your time in doing this!!

    1. Hey Net, I have been working with this idea myself. Specifically with designing containers homes in a way that makes it easy to efficiently install and get all the requirements for “Habitable”.

      I’d be interested in comparing notes. I have done a lot of research and have some good ideas you may be interested in.

  2. I am thinking about building a container home with the help of a contractor. I would appreciate any help you can give me on this subject.

  3. Great advice! Building a shipping container home can turn into a VERY expensive project if you don’t know what to look out for.

    1. The best place to start is calling and asking what rules you’re required to abide by in your county. For an un-occupied shed, the requirements should be fairly minimal and if anything may be more related to property line setback distances and exterior finish/appearance. Best of luck!

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