Shipping Container Homes
Shipping container homes have been gradually growing in popularity over the past few years, and with good reason. What was once a novel concept and a niche market for adventurous homebuyers looking to build their own home is now a mainstream idea due to the practicality and lower expense of using shipping containers for home construction. Often, shipping containers lend themselves to modern home design and a modular feel, since the containers themselves are uniform in size and construction; think of building a house out of Legos or building blocks.
Not only are they aesthetically pleasing in most cases, but the benefits extend much further: shipping container homes are more fire resistant, structurally sound, and environmentally friendly than other designs, and are also cheaper when compared to homes of similar size.
Price, beyond design, is usually the most appealing factor to most homebuyers regarding shipping container homes. Shipping containers are plentiful with relatively low demand, and homes built from them cost between $70 and $90 per square foot, which is less than half of what it usually costs per square foot using conventional materials. Even transporting the containers themselves is unlikely to contribute enough to their overall cost to make conventional materials comparable in price per square foot.
Durability is another huge plus. Shipping containers come pre-made and reasonable sealed (although they’re not entirely watertight), so pest control is made much easier. Even when they’re cut to allow assembly into a home, their structural integrity is much greater than stick-frame construction. Corrugated steel is, for obvious reasons, much stronger than brick, vinyl siding, or wood.
Additionally, another great advantage of a shipping container home is that it can be built off-site and then delivered to your land, ready for you to move in. This is helpful because sometimes a plot of land isn’t suitable to build on. For example, if you’re building a mountain home or cabin there may not be electricity routed there yet. In this case, you can convert the shipping container at a local workshop and then deliver the finished shipping container home to your plot of land. Another great advantage of modifying your shipping container at a local workshop is that you don’t need to make your container water tight straight away. If you were converting the container outside, you’d want it water tight straight away so no rain gets inside the container. However converting the container inside means you don’t need to worry about making the container water tight instantly.
These advantages are all well and good, but there are a few caveats to consider before diving in. When you’re building a new home here in the US, you will be subjected to your local Department of Building Inspection, and shipping container homes aren’t exempt from such scrutiny and you too will need to make sure that your shipping container home meets your various local codes. This certainly can be one of the hardest parts of building a shipping container home, but it’s important to remember that this issue isn’t just unique to shipping container homes. You’d need a permit one way or another, but at the same time the unique nature of shipping container homes may not fly with local ordinances, so always check. A permit can take time to be approved, so you need to make sure this time is properly budgeted for in your construction plans.
You’ll also want to hire a qualified contractor to put your dream home together. Not everyone has the required experience or equipment to build a shipping container home, and you definitely don’t want to hire someone for whom your home is their first rodeo, so to speak. Of particular importance is not hiring someone who promises a discount because of their lack of experience; if you think it’s expensive to hire a professional, wait until you hire an amateur.
Finally, financing may work much differently than with conventional homes. Some lenders may categorize shipping container homes as mobile homes (especially if they’re constructed off-site), so they may have different lending requirements or flat-out refuse to finance them altogether. That you might qualify for a mortgage under normal circumstances is no guarantee that the same will hold true if you’re financing a shipping container home.
Building a shipping container home can be one of the most rewarding experiences of your life, provided you plan everything out properly and do your homework. One of the biggest advantages of building your home using shipping containers is the cost saving aspects, also, they can be built with incredible speed. Not only are they cheap and quick to build, but they are also environmentally friendly; for every shipping container upcycled, nearly a ton of steel is saved from disposal. However, just like with traditional home building, shipping container homes still have their drawbacks. The biggest one being that you still require a building permit to construct a shipping container home. Make sure you apply early for your permit to avoid any delays.
For more information on real estate and market trends, be sure to sign up for our Priority Access List, and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
- Get It Right Solutions