Awesome shipping container homes

Maybe you’re new to the whole idea of living in a shipping container and want to learn a little bit more before you consider it in more detail or better yet, before you pitch the idea to your partner! Either way, we’ve put together six awesome reasons why we think living in such a home is amazing and why we know you’ll love it too.

Eco Friendly

So you want to do your part for the planet and become more environmentally friendly, but when we talk about environmentally friendly homes this normally costs the earth, take for example the million dollar green homes The Washington Post reported. Most of us have the willingness but not the commanding price tag, so what else can you do?

Most people turn to shipping container. There are an estimated 17 million of these throughout the world at the moment, with around 6 million currently in use; this means there are literally millions of these containers that aren’t in use that could be recycled and put towards a better use. Recycling shipping containers into homes is one of the more eco-friendly approaches as it avoids the energy intensive process of melting the steel back down whilst it’s being recycled.

Another eco-friendly solution people are venturing to is log cabin or timber homes. Whilst these warrant attention, and are certainly a viable solution, shipping containers offer several distinct advantages over them. Firstly, they aren’t susceptible to dry rot and other fungus infections. Secondly, wood is predisposed to mould which steel isn’t. Finally water leakage is much more common in log cabs when compared to the steel roofs on container homes.

Aesthetics

Whether or not you want to live in a container home aside, nobody can argue that they aren’t aesthetics stunning! Some of the ‘Cargotecture’ we have seen over the past several years has been stunning. Blending the rawness of the steel containers with 21st century style has resulted in some of the most icon houses of our times.

© Depositphotos.com / gubgibgift

We would normally associate design and aesthetics like this will a million dollar price tag however this isn’t the case here.

If the Cottage in the Woods isn’t entirely you then how about Sven and Anna Pirkl’s container home in California, designed by architect Peter DeMaria, which literally caused two car crashes whilst people were crowding around the house to take a glimpse and admire it.

Speed

Another fantastic reason people decide to build their houses from cargo containers is that they can be built with incredible speed. The typical container is over eight foot high and 40 foot long and these can be stacked side by side and on top of each other like massive Lego blocks! It’s common that once the foundation’s laid the ground floor can be constructed in under a day; imagine how long it would take a traditional bricklayer to build the equivalent size wall.

The 2012 Census Bureau’s survey on construction found that the average length of time it takes to build a family home is 7 months after they have acquired planning permission. The majority of shipping container homes can be built far quicker than this, with even complex container homes being built within six months. For example Todd and Di Miller, a Brisbane couple, who managed to build their dream home in less than six months and this included losing weeks of time due to floods and storms whilst they were building.