Container homes are a rage these days. Every social media channel is full of photographs of container homes or people talking about them.
These are the main reasons why these types of homes are a good or a bad idea.
Pros
| Shipping containers look chic and create an industrial look |
| Shipping containers may have been recycled. This goes some way in recycling and even upcycling these containers. |
| Shipping container homes can be cheap to build. Due to this, they might play an important role in solving the housing crisis that confounds many cities throughout the world. |
| Shipping containers are small modules and fall in line with the architecture of modular homes. |
Cons
| Shipping containers may pose a health risk. A shipping container may have carried dangerous chemicals in them. Some of these chemicals might leach into the surface. Due to the extended use of the shipping container, these may not have been cleaned or removed from the container for a variety of reasons. |
| They can be expensive to transport inland. Usually, a new one is to be ordered as it is difficult to find a used one but in a good condition to reuse as a shipping container. |
| A lot of additions have to be added to make the container livable. This takes away quite a bit of height from the available height of a standard shipping container which is 8.5 feet tall. The length of these containers may vary between 40 and 20 feet long, with the width being 8 feet. Additional insulation added to the sides of these standard containers can reduce available living space after their addition. |
| Custom-built 9.5 feet containers are available now. However, as with anything custom-built in the real estate industry, these things can be a tad more expensive. |
| Shipping containers are usually altered to make adjustments to them. This means the default structure of a closed box is changed to make way for holes in windows, outlets, inlets, ventilation ducts, etc.. These holes make the structure weaker in the long run. In order to keep the overall strength of the structure, the container is reinforced with additional support. This adds to the overall cost of the system. |
| Steel is a good conductor of both heat and cold. That means that any sunlight or snow outside the container tends to make the inside either hot or cold. There is no real insulation which means that the exterior has to be insulated from the elements as well. |
| Another point to consider is that moisture may collect inside the container due to temperature differences in an insulated container. This can cause moisture to collect and drop from the ceiling leading to mold and fungal infection inside the structure. One resolution to this issue is to insulate the exterior as well. This may increase the overall cost of construction. |
