- The topic of affordable housing will never be deprived of public attention.
- The topic of fashionable inexpensive housing will be a subject of desire, heated discussions and excitement for a long time.
- The topic “how to build fashionable inexpensive housing with your own hands and save a LOT OF MONEY” will blow up the Internet, acquire a mass of viral videos, their clones, ideas on how to reduce the cost to the point of handicraft, or improve it to the point of profitability, equip it for luxury-style, add exclusive concepts, etc... This is exactly the topic today that is “Houses from shipping containers”. Let's think about the practical implementation of the fashion trend and consider the moments that escape our attention when we first get acquainted with the idea of living in a sea container.

Why build a house from a shipping container?

Option one - summer container house as an element of landscape design

If, by a lucky chance, you got “almost for nothing” (for example, you bought a plot on which it was already standing), a decommissioned shipping container, then making it a highlight of the landscape design or finding a functional use for it in the yard is a good idea! By ordering some finishing materials, glass modules, and equipment, you can arrange a summer house, a shower and a bathroom, a cozy area with a terrace near the barbecue, or just a small office or studio, there are many options. It will look and cost exactly as much as the creativity, money, and skillful hands you are willing to invest in it.

Option two - container mobile office

Often, in large warehouse areas that are allocated for bulk materials, rolled metal, raw materials, or for the agro-industrial complex, there may be small private logistics or wholesale and retail companies. These are mobile offices that either accompany or redistribute goods or raw materials into smaller lots. When the work of this location ends, the mobile office moves to where the next front of work awaits them. In such conditions, it is very beneficial to have mobile office modules that can be transported without directly removing the furniture from them. For such purposes, it is very convenient to use 6-meter containers. (More details about sizes and types below)

Option three - Order a ready-made "residential" container, priced from 15,000 conventional for a summer cottage or tourist center...

If for some reason you need to equip one or more modules for overnight accommodation, or seasonal housing, for example, a roadside hostel, or a camp site near a nature reserve where capital construction is prohibited, or you want to have a mobile residential house that is not considered a permanent structure (in some Western European countries do not levy land taxes if the structure is not recognized as capital), then a house made from a sea container can also be considered as one of the options...

However, assuming the use of containers as residential modules, it is worth noting that such buildings have certain features, and the desired functions often affect the price of a particular option. (for example, m2 of a mobile office is much cheaper than m2 of a container house for year-round use).

In any of the above cases, the price per square meter of a house made from 12-meter containers starts from 500$/m2, and for 6-meter containers from 600$/m2. To find out more about what is included in the basic package and how much the desired package will cost, contact the sales department via messengers or by phone!

Technical nuances that future drivers need to know about boats from sea containers

High thermal conductivity - how to get rid of itThe metal body of the container quickly transfers temperature. In summer, the iron surface of the container can heat up in direct sunlight above 100°C, and in winter the metal freezes to street temperatures. The container is not a refrigerator, so the first thing they do inside so that people can stay there is insulation. Foam plastic - insulation based on polystyrene foam (PPS) is relatively cheap, effective against cold, but is not suitable everywhere, since this material does not tolerate high temperatures. If an iron container is left in an open place in the heat, then very soon the surface temperature under the direct sun will become very hot and the PPS insulation will begin to lose volume and melt. Also, polystyrene foam is not an environmentally friendly insulation option; it is not recommended for use in residential modules.

Polyurethane foam. Applying polyurethane foam (PPU) insulation is a better solution than PCS, as foam is afraid not so much of temperature as of solar ultraviolet. Being indoors, it is protected from the effects of UV rays, so its efficiency and physical qualities are higher than that of foam. There are quite a lot of types of PPU composition, and you can choose different versions of it according to density and required qualities.

Mineral wool or wood chip matis another insulation option that is used to insulate container houses. This type of insulation is quite effective and versatile, but only in a well-thought-out insulation scheme and with the correct selection of its components (layers). If the thickness of the mineral wool mat is insufficient, then either the living room will be hot in the summer and cold in the winter, or, when using air conditioners and heaters, condensation will form in the middle of the mats and the insulation will lose its effectiveness.

Narrow and low space. Since containers were originally designed for transporting goods by road, rail and sea, their dimensions are optimized for convenient transportation and storage on various platforms or decks. In addition, they must correspond to the number of Euro pallets (EUR 120 cm wide) and the parameters of loading and unloading mechanisms, for which they are unified according to international requirements.

Which container is better to choose for your home

There are about 6 types of containers in total, but for the residential module they usually use a sea 40-foot HC (High Cube) container, since it is the tallest. Its internal dimensions: length 6 or 12 m, width 2.33 m, height 2.69 m. In order to accommodate a residential module, the container is insulated with medium-density mats 100 mm thick, which is too small in the temperate climate zone. This often leads to increased energy consumption. To make living in temperate latitudes comfortable, it is necessary to reduce the thermal conductivity of the external wall to 0.16-0.2 W/m*K and increase the thickness of the mineral insulation to at least 200 mm thickness. However, such a layer of insulation reduces the internal area from 27.6 m2 to 22.4 m2, and the height of the room from 2.69 to 2.3 m. It is not advisable to insulate the container from the outside, since the dimensions of the module in length, width and height will increase by approximately 500mm, extra external finishing will be added to the total cost and the solution will lose its price attractiveness. Changing the external dimensions also entails inconvenient transportation (the module will require oversized transportation and a special permit).

To avoid such problems, instead of mineral wool, polyurethane foam is often used to insulate the container; its price is more expensive, but its thermal conductivity is lower (i.e., better than 0.05 - 0.07 W/m*K versus 0.019 - 0.028 for mineral wool). Its thickness of 10-15mm medium-density polyurethane foam is sufficient for wall insulation. However, the temperature limit of endurance of high values of polyurethane foam, although better than that of polystyrene foam, is still quite low, and amounts to 150 ° C, that is, it cannot be heated to such a temperature. Therefore, if a container is insulated with polyurethane foam foam, then the module on top, for reinsurance, is often equipped with structural elements that perform not only a decorative role, but also the role of a thermal barrier.

Availability of utilities and equipment. Despite the mobility of a residential module from a container, it also requires the presence of utilities and electrical wiring. Here, as in any frame house, they are carried out in the floor and walls. When assembling several modules into a single structure, it is necessary to provide mechanisms for connecting communications into a single network. Electrical connections must be protected from oxidation and overheating and reliably grounded, since the building is made of iron and insufficient safety measures will lead to fire hazards. Therefore, the requirements for electrical wiring are increased here.

Equipping containers with window and door modules. To embed them in the container, it is necessary to mount a separate frame, since the thickness of the container wall is not enough to attach either doors or windows. This is not a problem, but if the owner decided to install sliding glass blocks here, then the price of such a solution can greatly increase the cost of the container house. Also, for convenience, terraces, canopies, pergolas are often attached to a modular house, wells, water supply, sewerage, etc. are installed. Upon completion of the landscaping work, the owner must be 100% sure that he will not be disappointed in the feasibility of investing in a specific house with long narrow rooms , because the cost of modification and modernization of container solutions is not such a cheap option, and at some stage you may realize that for your budget it would be quite possible to afford a capital frame house with wooden finishing, any layout, not limited in height, width or form.

Instead of withdrawal. Houses made from sea containers can be used as a summer house, tea house, or as an entertainment area without much inconvenience. They are also successfully used for a mobile office, retail sites, temporary housing or camp site. Modular residential buildings can be assembled not only from containers but also using wooden frame technology with timber cross-sections of 200x200, 150x200, 100x200. They can be lighter and more energy efficient than container options. The walls and roof of a wooden frame already contain insulation and do not take up space inside, so there may be more space and volume in them. A wooden frame can be insulated with more energy-efficient and thin insulation, since external cladding can be done with materials that are less thermally conductive and not as heavy as sheet metal. By assembling the frame of the house from scratch, the customer can increase the height of the module to increase the internal volume of the premises. And finally, houses made from containers are still a durable mobile option, if there is no need for frequent or periodic movement of your house, you do not need to comply with the transport dimensions in width (no more than 2.3-2.5 m), and as a result the owner will receive a comfort class home higher than that of a sea container and the price per m2 may be lower, depending on the equipment of the house. After weighing all the pros and cons, you can calculate the difference in the cost of solutions using ready-made containers, taking into account your functional extensions or assembling the same premises using a wooden frame and make a choice in favor of the option you like. And we wish you a successful choice of technology, material and design for the house in which you plan to live.