Would you live in a house built from shipping containers ?

yesterday i was thinking about what would be the cheapest way possible to build a house, and shipping containers come to mind after doing some research i found that others all over the world have already done it and some look pretty cool.




on further research i found that you can buy a shipping container second hand for around £2000 each so with £20.000 you could build a mansion lol and all you need is an angle grinder and welding skills.

Great idea!

I wouldn't mind living in shipping containers, but something tells me my wife would.

I have been researching this for a while as well as other uses for them. I am currently getting a lot of work done in my back yard and plan on putting in a shipping container pool and poolhouse. Very cheap and can stack 9 high with no other support as they are built to do just that for actual shipping. There are TONS of sites out there on this. Great thing about it is how cheap they are and the abundance of them. You can even get ceramic spray for insulation inside prior to putting up any wall materials inside.

reply to post by Vasa Croe


lol you could have a very deep swimming pool indeed

I have looked into this pretty extensively and I don't think it's an economical way to go at all. You will still need to finish the interior and insulate the inside very, very well. As well as building a strong foundation for the containers to sit on. You'll also need to use a huge ac and heating unit because that steel will get super hot in the summer and super cold in the winter.
The cheapest way to build a house is find an area without building codes and inspections and stick-build your house. You can build a very livable home for $20-$30,000 or less depending on location and your own abilities. Stick-building is using milled lumber. For what you pay to get a container delivered and finish the inside of it, you can build something twice as big and finish the exterior with vinyl siding.

reply to post by TruthSeekerMike


but you wont have the benefits of a fire proof building or an earth quake proof building one slight rumble in a stick house and its all coming down on top of you.

I get a lot of lightning at my house. I'm not sure I would want to live in a metal faraday cage. What if it is lightning outside? You have to wait till it quits before entering your home? Opening the door as lightning hits the building is a little to enlightening for me.

haha i've actually thought of doing this.. every time i watch a movie or tv show where the cops are chasing the bad guys at the shipping yard haha i usually always think.. hmm i bet those would make an awesome house if i could somehow get them deep up in the mountains! haha

people are very creative and adaptive and make things adapt to them.. the human condition is amazing, individually they are wonderful and truly amazing the only problem lies in when they gather in a crowd then they become monsters.

haha by saying "they" i'm being objective and not implying i'm not human.

Not such a bad idea since a lot of us are being forced into a nomadic lifestyle. Just because you don't realize it doesn't make it not so.

A shipping container can be anchored with the hardware attached to it very securely to the ground, a simple pole barn with a roof, a long carport, would keep it out of the sun, the sides are sturdy enough to attach insulation and other finishing materials onto, and it costs less to move than it does to move a house.

I was considering buying one of these to store my stuff inside of in Florida, $3000.00 for the biggest one they offered, delivered right to where you want it.

I wouldn't feel secure living in one, because of storms. I think it would really depend on how the weather. I live in tornado alley. I can't see myself facing a tornado like conditions in that. I would feel more secure in a building with a deep basement that is specifically made to be lived in than a cargo box.

reply to post by MyHappyDogShiner


Hmmm. wish they delivered up here for that price, I could use about ten of those critters. Maybe then the wife could park in the garage.

Originally posted by ghostingmiranda
I wouldn't feel secure living in one, because of storms. I think it would really depend on how the weather. I live in tornado alley. I can't see myself facing a tornado like conditions in that.

I would feel more secure in a building with a deep basement that is specifically made to be lived in than a cargo box.

These are very secure, though nothing is really tornado proof. You can always build the basement with them...just dig a hole, put the first couple in and build up from there...voila....a basement.

These things are in such abundance they are cheap and you basically have a pre-fab framework for a house. There are tons of sites showing how to build them and just how sturdy they are compared to stick-homes once they are built.

If I might make a slight suggestion to consider in refining this plan? I'd spent and passed many an afternoon driving hundreds of miles in the truck, while considering this very idea, if I got myself some acreage out where building inspectors are still a future concept. (plenty of areas exist..lol)

In making living space, I'd consider using Refrigerated Trailers. 18 wheeler truck type.

They are 53 feet long, approx 9 feet high for interior space and 8+ feet wide inside. The wheels literally slide off the trailer once the rear blocks are removed that prevent it from happening on the highway. Most just have two steel blocks and the bumper, so it's easy enough to ground them. The landing gear (Forward supports when parked) is nothing but bolts and some welds as well, when it comes down to it.


Why those? Well, they are already built with the requirement to insulate well enough to hold frozen meat in the Mojave desert in mid August without fail. They do and I did it, countless times. The attached Heater/Cooler unit could, if someone wanted to be real industrious, even work as the HVAC system. They cool to -20 and lower or heat well beyond what someone would call comfy on a summer day. So, they are protected from the elements.

Also VERY important ...they are designed, like the cargo containers but much bigger per unit, to withstand stresses and forces far beyond anything a normal structure could or would. Imagine 50 mph cross winds down a typical interstate (bumpy-bump-bump) while going 60-75mph forward. Sticks for any mortal building. An average windy day for a truck trailer. (There are rail versions that are designed to stack, too. JB Hunt uses them, as one example)

Prices for used trailers

Those are road worthy. No one says that's required for this purpose, so cheaper would certainly be possible I'd think. NORMAL trailers have walls like sheet metal...BTW. Reefers are inches thick with reinforcing.

The BBC studios inside the Olympic Park for London 2012 were constructed from ISO/Shipping Containers - and they looked pretty cool (had huge air con units on the outside too.

I got up close to them and would have to say was pretty impressed by them.

i had some shipping containers before, not for livin'in.
i was using them for shop space/ storage.
they weld a box over the lock area and that makes them pretty secure 'specialy with those round padlocks.
iwas paranoid about getting locked inside tho!
containers 20' long or less can be delivered by a flat-bed tow-truck, so those might make it into remote areas, except the total height is like 9' plus the bed is almost 5' tall so you check your delivery route for clearance!

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Just a note - need to make sure you take care of ventilation - not so long ago a number of attempted illegal immigrants to this country suffocated and nearly suffocated in just such a trailer.

It seems like a good way to recycle used man made objects and put them to use in another productive way but there are many cons to this that aren't offered in the videos. These containers contain many chemicals such as chromate, phosphorus, and lead based paints. The floors contain chemical pesticides like arsenic for pest protection while they are shipping goods over seas. Moving these from port would also be costly and adding to that the crane that you would have to have to put them into the proper place would be pricey as well. On the surface it seems like a wonderful way to put to use something that has been pushed to the side and is taking up unneeded space for a cheap price. The reality is much different, however.

reply to post by Silk


You do make a good point if someone reads my note and doesn't consider everything about those. There are 4 natural openings to the outside in one of those trailers and all have the same thing. Each corner of the floor has a circular opening about twice the diameter of a broomstick and a few inches long to vent outside. It's to drain water from ice loads of produce and often gets clogged. Aside from those 4 little points, you're right. It is air tight, by design of course. The reefer is blowing air in a closed system.

Of course, for the thread idea, they'd just be forming the base of structure to join by doors and cut windows in. The house I'm in is 1800 or so sq feet and 50 feet long by about 30 feet wide, not counting the carport. The space would add up quick using 53ft x 9ft building blocks, anyway.

reply to post by rickymouse

you would just need a lighting conductor and earth the building and it would be very safe

they got good delivery systems for them, if you can use a flat-bed tow-truck (20' container max) they just tilit the bed and slide it off.
i'm not sure how they do the bigger ones, there's usually details on most of the sites that rent them or sell them so you can figure out how to do it.
i've seen people move them around with jacks, the 5 ton auto ones that are pretty common, if they are on asphalt/ cement.
you can use a big forklift too.

also, those refrigerated trailers really stink! condensation gets mixed in with the dirt from the pallets/ forklift tires. that smells is gross, you can taste it on frozen vegtables. yuk!