Old Shipping Container House design

Many years ago when I was first dabbling with the idea of building a cabin, I took a serious look at using shipping containers. I drew up many layouts and finally came down to the design I’ll attach to this post.

It used two 40’ containers on the sides with two 20’ containers enclosing the front and back. Then I planned to cover the structure with conventional wood rafters and roofing that would create a 20’ x 20’ main living area in the middle of the containers. Cut doors and windows into the containers and I thought this gave a maximum amount of space for the least cost.

I looked into sealing the outer three sides of the containers to about 4’ high and berming dirt against them for better insulation. If done right, rust and corrosion might not have been an issue - but I considered it an extra feature to the design.

In the end, I built my cabin out of Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) and I couldn’t be happier with the results. I found out later that I was lucky not to use the container home design as my overbearing county government specifically outlaws containers on any non-commercial property! Always check with Codes first!!!

I’m posting this here just to have it here for anyone who might think the design has some merits - it may have none at all. But I’ve never seen a container home quite like this in my studies so here it is. The individual rooms are what I thought I’d need but obviously anything goes.

Container Plans