Building With Shipping Containers

Shipping containers are an instant, strong, secure, weathertight storage solution that come in at a great value. In fact, I don't think it's possible to build 480 square feet of shed space for what a shipping container costs. Does this mean thought that it's a good idea to transform a shipping container from a metal storage box into something else?

Our first experience building with shipping containers involved transforming a 40 foot high cube (9.5' tall exterior height) into a tiny house. All said and done we were able to build a nice comfortable home that served our needs well, but it wasn't without challenges and I don't think we'd do it again. The layout was a challenge due to the narrow space. Insulating, interior finishes, heating, air conditioning, and windows were all significantly more difficult than they would have been in traditional building techniques. In the end, I don't think we saved any money, but one huge advantage was that we were able to sell it and easily move it to a new home.

The shipping container we used as our structure for our off-grid power system is another story. I definitely think it was worth using a shipping container. We were able to drag it in place with the excavator, glue in some crude insulation, and boom: instant freeze proof shed. Since we aren't living or cooking in it, we aren't concerned with condensation build up and so far it hasn't been an issue.

When it came time to add more covered space to our property to house all of our equipment for winter, we immediately found ourselves gravitating towards containers. Rather than trying to transform the containers into something new like we did with our tiny house, we are embracing the containers for what they are. They've become sealed indoor storage and the foundation system for the roof structure above. We used 24 foot trusses because that's what we had space for (and that's what we found as a good deal on Craigslist). Now for roughly $15,000 and a quick and easy build process we have a 40x40 covered space.

In my opinion building with containers is well worth it if they are left to be what they were meant to be: simple secure storage. If the goal is to transform them into conditioned living space it's probably better in both value and function to go with more traditional building methods.