Now that you’re familiar with the advantages of building your container home with a new or one trip container, it’s time to consider the square footage that makes sense for your needs.
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Before we dive into the different shipping container options available for a home build, it’s important to lay out the difference between a “standard” and “high-cube” container. While standard containers have an external height of 8’6’’, their internal height is actually only 8’ and finished internal height can be closer to 7’6’’.
This is an important consideration in choosing containers for your build if interior space and a feeling of openness is a primary concern. At Stackhouse, we almost exclusively recommend using high cube containers for our client builds. That said, there are ways to stack standard containers and avoid a feeling of claustrophobia.
If you’re set on using standard containers in your build, our container home experts are happy to answer your questions and explain your options. Contact our experts today.
While some dealers offer a 15 ft shipping container for sale, we do not recommend building with these containers. At the end of the day, they are only offered by a small handful of specialty suppliers and typically are more expensive to buy than their more widely-available 20 foot and 50 foot counterparts.
Designed to fit perfectly within the space of a standard parking spot with only 140 square feet of interior space, you should only consider a 15 foot shipping container for your build if space constraints leave you with no other option.
Along the same lines, a search of all of the shipping containers available in your area will likely return a few 30 foot and 53 foot containers for sale.
While a 53 foot container might seem like a great way to squeeze some extra living space out of a single container home build, one 53 footer often costs more than two 40’ containers in similar condition. Factoring in the added difficulty and costs of transporting and moving a 53 footer, it’s typically more cost effective to stick to building with 20 and 40 foot containers.
For similar reasons, we also typically recommend avoiding 30 foot containers for your container home build. Despite being no more difficult to transport as their 20 and 40 foot counterparts, 30 footers are not a standard-sized container and tend to be more expensive to buy.
Adding to the argument against using 30 foot containers is the fact that they’re actually just a “cut and shut” 40 foot container. To make a 30ft shipping container, a fabricator cuts 10 feet off the end of a standard 40ft container and welds the end panel holding its doors back on to its new end.
After the fabrication is done, 30 foot containers are typically re-sprayed with a protective coating to minimize the risk of corrosion. Unfortunately, even a small mistake in fabrication or recoating can lead to big headaches down the line. Because 30’ containers are much more likely to have issues with sealing and corrosion, it’s important to make sure the supplier you’re buying from has a good reputation for quality work and backing their products.
Similar to their 40’ counterparts, 45 footers are also relatively easy to find and carry the added advantage of more living space than some of the smaller alternatives. In fact, one of the more popular models Stackhouse sells uses two 45s to create enough space for an extra bedroom.
One problem with 45’ containers is that there are not many one trippers available.Similarly hard to find are the 24’ and 10’ varieties. That said, we typically do not recommend building with these containers as the interior space they provide is far less than the average person needs to live comfortably.
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As always, if you have information that runs counter to the advice we’ve outlined above, we welcome it. No matter how much experience we own, being the best container home builder in Texas requires a commitment to learning and innovating.
Please feel free to reach out directly with any suggestions or advice you might have by sending us an email.
Depending on its interior finish, a standard 20 foot container offers around 160 sq. feet of living space and a standard 40 foot container offers around 320 sq. ft.
Named for their high ceilings, high cube containers sit one foot higher than their standard height counterparts. While high cube containers have the same footprint as their standard counterparts, their extra foot of height increases the overall interior volume.
While you may wonder how much of a difference 12 inches can really make, we always advise our clients to use high cube containers in their container home builds.
Accounting for the space consumed by insulation and interior finishes, high cube containers are often the only way of building a shipping container house that ‘feels’ like a traditional house. To avoid a building container home that feels claustrophobic, it’s important to plan construction in a way that maximizes ceiling height.
Considering the average ceiling height of a traditional home ranges between 8-9 feet, the extra foot of clearance offered by a high cube container can spell the difference between a happy transition to container home living and regret.
The following shipping container dimension table is designed to help a shipping container home builder or buyer weigh their desired square footage against their build budget.
In this week's video, Channing will take you around our Container Yard to show you what to look for, and what to avoid while looking to buy or rent a shipping container!
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