Container Homes! The Most Affordable Way Of Living On The Market!
The fact is, in recent years, storage container homes have become very popular and in demand. Especially to the younger generations.
Shipping container homes are very cost effective to build, and they are very durable. More so, the one of the more desirable parts to us is that you can simply move the home at anytime if you wish to move. No packing required.
Shipping container homes are also extremely cost effective to live in. If insulated properly with spray foam, these units cost almost NOTHING to heat and cool.Since the cost is only around $30,000 dollars to build the 40 foot model container homes, they are becoming one of the most popular tiny home designs in society today!
We were in fact so interested in this category of housing, that we took it upon ourselves to build one! I hope you are ready for an interesting ready! Within this article, and person experience guide, if you would like to call it that, I will explain in great detail the hardest challenges that we faced along the way on our journey to building our beautiful container home! We plan to build many more of these units!
We are encouraging everyone to look into our project, Tetra Housing! Our goal is to use these container to create VERY affordable housing that offers all bills included with the rent payment.
The idea sparked after my business partner and I, Aaron, took a trip out to Denver Colorado to take a look at a few, already finished homes. We were led to a man who encouraged us to take a look at one of these units that he had built personally and was now renting to tenants, explaining that he had many more people willing to rent units similar to it, due to the fact that the cost of living in Colorado is so high. He was saving people $400 dollars or more per month in bills. Long story short... we loved his idea and what we saw.
Below you will see multiple pictures that have descriptions on the container home that we built. We built our home in the aspect of affordability, so that all may know what it take both money wise, and commitment to labor wise. We personally hope to hear your feed back in the comments section below! Please share this article and our video posted below on Facebook!
Also! Keep a look out for July 25th, when we will be allowing minimum investments on purchases of single rental units! $25000 dollars!
Enjoy the video below! And the pictures with descriptions! If you have any questions, feel free to get a hold of me on Facebook at the Box Houses 101 page.
The Framing
It will be used to support plumbing lines, wire, insulation, drywall, etc.
We have use multiple different designs when it comes to framing the units. The layout you choose to use can be found through multiple vendors online, or you may consult with us for a design packet.
Our standard design is a single 10 foot bathroom with a 50 gallon hot water heater, washer and dryer setup, tub shower, toilet, and small vanity.
The living room / kitchen area is 20 foot. Leaving 10 foot of the unit for a bedroom.
The kitchen area has a mini fridge, a 2 stage cook top, microwave, upper cabinets and lower cabinets, and a small single bowl kitchen sink, and a set of drawers above the lower cabinets. We also provide a small 2 chain kitchen table when we rent the units out. It fits very well. It does not take up to much of the walking room.
We have seen many different designs, but for our rentals, we keep them as simplistic as possible as to the means of being able to rent them out for the lowest amount of money possible. Our goal is to make affordable housing that can be used for anyone. If it be they just need a place to live for a few months while working on the road, or it is because they are trying to save money for a while so they want to cut down on bills, the container homes are an option for everyone!
Some people just simply want to cut down on all expenses in life, and live in tiny homes so they can both save money, and not have the eager pressure of high monthly living at the end of each month.
That being said.
Keep in mind what people like when your are building your container home! These homes are very enjoyable, and with the right truck and trailer, can be moved at anytime to another location! That alone is very desirable to some people. It is also larger than a camper and much more comfortable to live in. But also.
Design is sometimes everything to people. Often times, location can determine design factors. Keep that in mind when building your unit!
When you fishing your unit, and when you are currently building your unit, please send us your first and last name with pictures of your build! We will post it on our blog and give you your own dedicated page with pictures of the start and finish of your container house build! Everyone always has a brilliant idea, and sharing those ideas with each other is helpful to anyone and everyone who may be considering a transition into a tiny home.
The Wiring
Getting you container home wired is not all bad. It is our recommendation that you wire the containers to electrical code that applies to your jurisdiction.
If you have every personally wired a new concept home or other residential style homes, than you can easily wire the shipping container.
We purchased a 500ft roll of 12/2 Romex, and we have a decent 200 foot or so left over from our first project.
For our service entrance, we used a simple, 20 breaker space 100 amp service panel. We are not running a ridiculous amount of wattage in a unit like this. Our lighting is all LED and uses very little power. And most appliances within the unit do not consume much power.
The hot water heater, and the dryer, do most of the consuming of power within the unit.
Cooling the unit
To cool the unit, we use just one simple window air conditioner with the rating of 10,000 BTUs. This little air conditioner will literally FREEZE you out of the unit. It works very well to keep the unit cold, and it also does not use much power at all. The estimated yearly cost in power using a unit like this, at a rate of $0.13 cents per kilowatt hours, is around 63 dollars a year.
Providing that you only use the unit in the summer, you get a general idea of what it costs to keep your unit cold.
Each container we have personally been in or built has had very clean are and a very nice 64-68 degrees F temperature that hold steady in even 100 degree F weather.
What is great about using the units we mentioned above is the cost is very minimal, and they work extremely well. We have seen some individuals using indoor AC systems or swamp coolers, which work equally well, but also take space. We like the idea of not utilizing the space on the floor for the swamp cooler, but instead, putting the air conditioner in the window. In our defense, traditionally, the old high-low pressure system A/Cs are king when it comes to cold air. So a windows A/C, or even a top-side camper style A/C, is a must in our eyes. What are your thoughts? Please post below on anything you have seen us mention if you have better or more effective ideas! We love to hear everyone input. Everyone always has a great idea! And we love to hear and share them with each other!
Heating the unit
To heat the unit, we also keep thing very simplistic yet effective. To heat our units, we use two simple 1500 watt coil heaters, These heaters work very well and two of them have plenty of square-footage rating for the 40 foot single wide units!
As for the heaters, they are much like the air conditioning units. They use very little power and are extremely effective.
We have 2 dedicated circuits for the heaters that are on GFCIs and have their own breaker in the panel. It is strongly recommended that you do the same within your unit or any unit you are building as well.
Protection for every units electrical circuit, especially the ones running the heaters, is a must. Wiring all of this up properly is not hard, and can be done in an easy manner. Just ensure that your wiring is SAFE!
The Plumbing
Plumbing the single wide forty-foot units is actually a very easy to accomplish task. Although, their are some things you have to keep in mind when doing so.
We set our bathrooms up with 10 foot of space in the unit. We install a full commercial washer and dryer, along with a full tub shower, toilet, and bathroom vanity with a mirror cabinet. above the vanity.
The best way to come about making your container in the simplest manner when it comes to plumbing is to put your kitchen area right next to your bathroom. This is how we centralized all of our plumbing to one area is our units. It is best to keep things as simple as possible in the unit when is comes to both water and drainage systems.
The units we build have a centralized plumbing system. Meaning we can stack more units beside or on top of it, and easily hook in to the existing plumbing from the original build.
We have a cabinet in the bathroom area that is recessed into the wall, so we may access the main water and drainage hookups at any time.
You may use 3 inch drain pipe within the unit for drainage systems. Just be sure to adapt to 4 inch as soon as you exit the container with the 3 inch run.
For our drainage to be ran properly, we framed a 2x6 floor to elevate the bathroom floor. This allows us to run the draining and water pipes easily under our 2x6 floor framing.
QUICK NOTE
After we built out first unit, we could not believe the amount of interest it sparked!
We had individuals lining up to rent the unit.
This particular complex is comprise of 20 foot units. Each unit is rented out for $300 dollars per month, utilities included.
As you can see, this is basically a collage dormitory. These units are great for people struggling, so we can get them off of the streets! They are also perfect for the young individual who needs a place to live during collage or if working on the road. Or... one may be just trying to live as economically as possible so that they may save as much money as possible for the first 20 years of their lives.
Whatever the reason may be, we know that these units have been a hit for the individual that built them! We have personally gone to tour this complex, and it is by far one of the best economic housing strategies that we have ever seen!
PLEASE! Feel free to contact is anytime! We want to create pages for people currently building container homes on our blog here! We will share them with the world! Lets get this amazing idea out their for the ones who truthfully need economic housing to stay floating in this wild world!
We love to see new ideas, and we LOVE to share the enthusiasm of other builders to the world!
Insulation
We have never tried any other methods of insulation on the units. We have however seen other individuals whom have tried other methods, and have realized that it was a bad idea.
The closed-cell spray foam is a very dense material with a very high R-Insulation value
This is exactly what you need in order for the container to survive all climate conditions. The container is comprised of thick 12 gauge corrugated steel. It will retain heat and it will retain cool on the outside. So it is important to use 3 inches of closed-cell spray foam.
No other method of insulation is recommended by us. The cost to get the spray foam done is roughly $4000 dollars. It is also worth every penny in the time that it will save you. As you can see in the picture above, the unit is very well insulated. It retains good heat in the winter and good cold in the summers. The inside air LITERALLY has no where to escape. The foam is a seal-tight for the inside of the container.
You can buy closed cell spray foam kits at Menards, as well as other hardware and construction stores. It may save you money on the over all build to spray it yourself! And if you want it to be your build, make it your build by doing it yourself!
The picture posted above it what one of the hardware store spray foam kits looks like after its applied. It works very well, and holds a good high R-Insulation value.
Have a look at this amazing video, brought to you by TumbleWeed Tees. This guy has an amazing 20 foot unit setup! He has taken two 20 foot units and made an amazing tiny home! it literally cost almost nothing monthly in expenses, and has an extremely small carbon footprint when it comes to power consumption, etc.
As you can see, he has got this unit setup for himself and his wife just perfectly. They have everything they need to live, and they actually make LOTS of money. They love the idea of easy, tidy living. No need to live above your means, regardless of the amount of money you have.
Please leave us your input! Show us your ideas! If we left anything out, please feel free to comment on this post with any questions!
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