How to insulate your Storage Container Home-

No doubt that you can save big bucks by using storage containers for a home or other.  In fact you help the environmental by being green by re purposing those storage containers.

One of the problems for the novice week end warrior is how to attached things such as insulation, drywall, electrical and other stuff like that.  The truth is, it is not much different from any other type of construction.

Storage Container Home- Insulation

There is two types of insulation I would recommend.  The first being a 1″ foil backed insulation board.  You can use an adhesive like liquid nails to apply it directly to the steel walls of the storage container.

This works extremely well.  After the board is applied to the container wall and is secured and dried you would ad furring to the face of the foam board.  What this does is create an air space between the foam board insulation and the back side of your finish wall material.

The second type of insulation I would recommend is liquid foam.  The thickness of the foam will be regulated by the thickness of your furring.  Using this method you first apply furring to the storage container walls via the liquid adhesive.  After the furring has had time to set up you would apply the foam.  Don’t forget that the foam expands so be sure to leave plenty of room.

 Storage Container Home- Ventilation

A consideration when you insulate your storage container home is ventilation. You will need to have a means to have fresh air into your container home.  With most conventional homes this is accomplished with windows or with the ac system. You will need to have 1cf of fresh air for every 100 s/f of floor space. (check your local code).

The tighter your Storage Container Home is from the elements the more crucial it is to have the ventilation.  Next time we will learn how to ad an opening to your Storage Container Home.

Shipping container Homes- Container Sizes

There is no doubt that shipping container homes are tough. Built tough from weathering corrugated steel, these incredible tough building blocks of international trade are designed to withstand stacking, stuffing and strapping and are reused over and over again. There is an estimate of over 18 million of these containers floating, riding and flying around the earth today, but the most recent sustainable design trend has found these containers revamped to contain a more delicate cargo: People.

A Shipping Container Homes-Think about it 

With the current economy and the threat of the world coming to an end, a shipping container home could very well make perfect sense.  There is a glut of used shipping containers also known as cargo containers and companies are more than glad to sell and deliver them cheap.  Below are the common sized shipping containers:

As you can see there is a multitude of sizes to choose from.  The way the containers are delivered is by a roller bed truck.  So as long as there is room for the container there is room.

Shipping Container Homes and floor plans 

You can find just about any style and shape of floor plan and exterior elevations for shipping container homes.  In the near future we will be offering a few “free” floor plans just to get you thinking.  Eventually I would like to have a whole community sharing Ideas on shipping container homes living.

A typical Shipping Container FloorPlan

Building a Shipping Container Home

If you have any skills in construction you should have no problem renovating the shipping container into a livable habitat.  The main structure is there and all of the interior is cosmetic.  In the future we will be posting steps to finishing off a shipping container home.

Shipping Container Homes

There are many benefits to living in a shipping container home , and more and more people are starting to realize this and take action. If you are already lucky enough to have built your own and/or already live in one, you’ll know these benefits first hand and will have experienced them for yourself.

Much cheaper than conventional building methods of timber-framed buildings, and brick and mortar buildings, used containers are modular, flexible in design (and can be made to look absolutely beautiful!), durable, eco-friendly, and just an all-round winner when it comes to building your own home.

Over the next few paragraphs I’m going to outline some of the benefits of living in used shipping containers homes.

Shipping Container Homes Economical to build…

Although the price of containers is currently on the rise (due to various factory closures inChinaduring 2009 and early 2010), you can still pick up a fairly good bargain. As the global recession starts to ebb and global trade routes begin to get busier again, the production of shipping containers will increase also. You’ll start to see container prices start to dip again, or at the very least remain stable.

You can currently pick up a used container for around $1,500USD. That’s a base price of $1,500USD for 305sq feet of floor space. Not bad when you compare it to the price of more traditional forms of construction.

So to conclude this point, used shipping container homes are much more economical to build than more conventional building methods.

Eco-Friendly (Green Living)

So how green can shipping container homes living be?

The answer: They can be as green as you want them to be.

If you want to go down the truly green route, then think of your home more as an ‘eco-pod’. You could produce your own energy by putting a few solar panels on the roof. You can use hydro if you’re close to a river or fast-flowing stream.

You can apply a ‘Green/Living Roof’ to the top of your containers which will aide in insulation and greatly reduce your heating costs (in the winter) and cooling costs (in the summer).

Shipping Container Homes are Durable and Weather-proof

Consider the fact that shipping containers are built to withstand the most unforgiving weather conditions, travelling hundreds of thousands of miles aboard open-top trans-oceanic shipping-container ships… Built to have a minimum working life of 20 years before being decommissioned. After that, these containers, placed in a fixed position and maintained, have an almost infinite lifespan.

Made of pre-fabricated steel and welded together, they are made to be rigid and strong, and very hard-wearing. This makes them hugely practical in areas of high geological activity, such as earthquake zones and hurricane hotspots.

Shipping container homes can easily hold out against wind speeds of up to 175mp/h (281km/h) when anchored with pylons…which is easily done. Every building should have suitable foundations whether it be from used shipping containers or a traditional build.

Conclusion

Above I’ve outlined the three main benefits most home-owners will immediately notice. They are in fact three of the main things many people look at when buying any type of home. It just goes to show the explosion in shipping container homes in the past few years is totally justifiable, and why so, so many people are turning to these containers to build their own dream homes.
Shipping Container Homes
Shipping Container Dimensions