If youre thinking of building a shipping container home, you likely have a few questions about costs.
Architect Adam Kalkin, for example, has designed a 2,000 sq. ft. homemade out of six shipping containers. The two-story home features, three bedrooms, two and a half baths, a laundry room, a pantry, and other amenities.
You can build a shipping container home just like Kalkins Quik House, but doing so will set you back around $184,000. Or you can go another route and pay around $86,000. Lets see how.
$184,000 sounds like a lot of money to pay for a home made from shipping containers, so lets take a look at how that price breaks down.
Your greatest expense will be the cost of the shipping containers. Kalkins design calls for six factory-modified containers that come in at roughly $19,833 each. So, six of those sets you back $119,000.
The next highest costs on your shopping list is site preparation (add $14,000), and assembly of the containers on the site (add $2,500).
Now all you that you have is six shipping containers, assembled on your lot. But those containers are bare inside. To turn your containers into a home, you need to spend the rest of your budget. Expect to pay something like the following:
Heating, cooling, plumbing, and electrical: $21,000
Roofing and insulation: $8,500
Doors and windows: $6,000
Flooring: $5,000
Painting and wall finishes: $6,000
Shelves and closets: $2,000
TOTAL: $65,000
Another way to figure out your cost of building a home out of shipping containers is to build using used shipping containers.
Start by figuring out how many square feet of home you want, then calculate the number of containers you need. Shipping containers come in two standard sizes: 20ft long and 40ft long. Both of these containers are eight feet wide and eight feet tall. They just come in different lengths.
The 20ft container gives you 160 sq. ft. The 40ft container gives you 320 sq. ft. If you want a 2,000 sq. ft. home, you will need to buy 12 20-footers, or 6 40-footers.
If you are buying your shipping containers used, expect to pay anywhere from $4,000 $6,000 for a 20-footer and $5,500 $8,500 for a 40-footer.
Buying your shipping containers used and as-is (not factory modified) might save you up to $98,000.
You can also save money on your foundation. Pouring a concrete slab foundation is the most expensive option. Cheaper still is a strip (trench) foundation, followed by the least expensive option, a pier foundation.
Your results will vary. When building a shipping container home, you can spend a lot, or spend a little. Youll see from these two scenarios above that you can buy a shipping container home designed by an architect, and pay $184,000. Or you can buy used shipping containers, do it yourself, and pay around $86,000.
Shipping container homes are becoming trendy for a reason. The cost of housing is going through the roof and shipping containers provide a fast affordable way to build a home.
Without any modifications, shipping containers provide much better shelter than tents. Add a front door and a couple of windows, drop it on your raw land, and youve got an instant hunting cabin.
Add insulation and a wood stove, and youre practically ready to list it on Airbnb. The point is that it doesnt take much to turn a shipping container into a suitable dwelling.
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And with a little imagination, you could turn shipping containers into your dream home!
This guide provides everything you need to build a shipping container home - designs, ideas, floor plans and cost.
Lets get into it
Prefabricated (prefab) shipping container homes offer a streamlined process. Prefab container home builders handle design, construction, and delivery. They provide a quicker turnaround and professional quality control.
However, customization options are limited, and the cost reflects their convenience. Prefab shipping container homes cost around the same as manufactured mobile homes which are typically 14-feet wide versus 8-foot wide container homes.
Prefab container home models are also usually limited to just single container designs instead of a complex design with multiple containers. So if you want a larger home, youll likely have to build it yourself or hire a shipping container home builder.
Building your own container home allows maximum personalization and cost savings because you can buy cheap used shipping containers. You can choose the container condition, layout, and finishing touches to perfectly suit your taste and budget.
Ultimately, the choice hinges on your priorities. Prefab offers speed and ease, while DIY allows for ultimate control and potentially lower costs
Ceilings of 9.5 feet make High Cube containers desirable because they allow room for insulation and running utilities above a drop ceiling and still make your home feel larger.
Standard 40-foot containerswith 8.5 ft roofs are also suitable for home ceilings but they may feel more cramped.
In either case, 320 square feet is plenty of room for a comfortable living space. Think of luxury 40-foot RVs and how attractive they can be. And 40 ft shipping container homes are the same amount of space but with taller ceilings.
Not only that, you can put a rooftop patio on a shipping container home like the Airbnb rental above.
Below are a couple of floor plans for 40 ft shipping container homes. The first is for a 1 bedroom home and the following design has 2 bedrooms.
The short answer is, Yes. But in most jurisdictions in the United States, structures under 200 sq ft do not need a permit - especially if you dont connect to public utilities.
So using a 20 foot container to build a cabin, guest house or man cave may not require a permit because it is only 160 square feet. Check with your local building authority for more details.
In addition to normal construction tools, you will need a good angle grinder with metal cutting disks to be able to cut holes in the containers.
You will also need a welder in order to weld in framing for doors, windows, AC units etc. And finally, you may need to rent a large tractor or crane to move your containers around.
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