Container House Building Guide Building a container house seems to be a fashionable choice for various purposes, but one had better learn some basic and important tips before deciding to build such houses. The following are 11 tips summarized from a variety of suggestions and building examples. Let’s check them out! 1. Why do you need to build container houses? Container houses can used for different purposes. For example, many people build them as their homes to experience a unique lifestyle. Some build them into shops, cafes, or stands to sell different kinds of products on the streets. And still a large number of people build them for their construction workers when they work in the wild without real houses to live in. So, now are you clear of your purpose? Build a home, a shop or a living space for special purposes? Now, make a decision. 2. Check out the local laws that regulate container house building. Nowadays no matter what kind of building you are going to build, you need permissions from the law. Make clear of this before you build. Otherwise, you may get into trouble even without your realization. Land using is an important part of it, and please take special attention to it. 3. Find out the basic and important information about containers, container houses as well as container house building. You may search Google to get information about containers, container houses and container house building, or consult those who have built houses like this before. The trick is you had better pay more attention to container houses such as their usual sizes, their specific functions, their advantages and shortcomings and so on, and to how to build them, such as the process of building a common container home, the process of building a prefab house for construction sites, and the requirements of building a street shop with shipping containers. 4. Specify the container house type you want to build. After learning your essential purpose, the requirements of the law and the basic and important information about container houses, you can decide the type of container house you want to build. There are two situations about this. One is you should know whether you buy containers to build a home, a shop or a mobile home at a construction site. Different houses need different materials. For example, building a common home needs shipping containers, and building mobile houses needs prefab containers. Two is you had better be sure of the size and style of the building made of containers, because different materials have different prices. 5. Take notice of the budget you can afford. Building any house needs your attention of the budget you prepare. Generally speaking, building a container home is usually cheaper than building a steel and
cement house. However, your special requirements and decorations will cost your money. Besides, the size of a home will also cost you much money too. In addition, building rows of prefab container houses needs lots of expense too although building each small room is not expensive. Thus, being clear of the budget you can afford is very necessary. 6. Consider buying containers from the builder near the coast. If you decide to buy containers from overseas, you had better choose a container house builder near the coast, because if it is not, the shipping cost will be higher, and you will have to pay more for the shipment. Besides this, if you live near the coast, you will save shipping cost too. 7. Design your own container house. First, make a general plan about the container house or container houses you want to build. Usually the supplier and manufacturer will ask for a design plan from you, so that they can do their best to accurately meet your demand. During this process you need to know the number of containers you want to use according to container type and size you require. Second, you may tell the supplier the detailed information about the containers you need. The more detailed, the better. The backup option is, when you don’t have plans, you may ask the supplier to design a house for you. Some may charge extra fees, others may not. It depends. 8. Contact the seller by phone or email. The best way to get the detailed and accurate information is to call the seller. You may clearly describe your condition to the seller, who will answer your questions one by one in detail at once. As for pricing, you can also directly negotiate with each other. Or you may email the seller, but you cannot expect the response immediately. The more practical way is to call the seller first and learn the basic information and then exchange detailed information through email. By email, you may visit the site to check its containers and the sample pictures the site displays. 9. Choose the most suitable location to install the house. Before you make the final decision, you had better choose an area which is flat, convenient for the installation, far away from the foot of a mountain in case of landslides, without too many rocks, and more importantly, most suitable for your taste and other concerns. 10. Consult an expert for installation. Although you have enough workers and machines like cranes and bulldozers, you still need at least one expert to guide you to do the job. In average conditions, each container seller will be able to help you do that as long as you need this help. “Tiandi Color Steel’s flat pack containers settle in Kenya” is a typical example of expert guide commercial container house installation. Or if you can find a local expert, that will be much more convenient. The bottom line is you had better support your container
houses with some specially made seats if your area rains often and has so much moisture. 11. Never ignore pluming and piping, and water proofing. Pluming and piping is always very important but very challenging for each to-be-built container house. Never belittle this part of housing! It is suggested that you ask for pluming and piping experts to do the job. Apart from this issue, the other problem is you should make sure your container house is always dry. So, you need to make each of your containers waterproof. If cracks are found, you had better deal with them using special methods immediately. 12. Consider buying container houses from China. Although China is not the most outstanding container house manufacturing nation, it is a country which builds containers with cheap labor, excellent technology with lower price, enough raw materials, and many container house manufacturers for you to choose from. Also, it is a country famous for manufacturing flat pack and prefabricated container houses. Conclusion Apart from these 12 tips, you may need to take notice of many other elements that influence your house building. These elements may appear trivial, while they will finally contribute to a comfortable container house you really want. And, ask as many questions as you can think of if you can reach experts easily.
Learn why you need to build a container house Learn the features of the some container houses Make a budget/your financial limitations Location and cost: coast or urban center---cheap Container types: container functions: shipping, housing conversions, and general storage Contact the seller by phone or email, specifically describe what you need Check the samples if you can, but always you cannot do so Needs and budget------make an offer Check out the laws regulations Understand the limitations of container houses Considering consulting an expert for installation Consider hiring professional pluming and piping experts: always challenging