Building a Shipping Container Home

Episode 1: We will go over the basic considerations for buying shipping containers, explain how we got building permits for a shipping container house and show how we constructed the concrete foundations.

In Episode 2 of How to Build a Shipping Container House, we will go over how to move shipping containers with a crane and place them onto the concrete foundation. I will show how I cut openings for doors and windows in the shipping containers and then welded in different types of steel reinforcement.

We started the process of installing the plumbing in the floor of the container and show how we had to cut away some of the steel beams to make room for the pipes. I will also talk about how the structural requirements for reinforcing shipping containers and outline the wood structural system we installed in the container.

In episode 3 we will show how we installed doors, windows, and insulation in a shipping container home. We experimented with different ways of reinforcing the openings we cut in the corrugated metal of the shipping containers and show how impacted the installation of the doors and trim pieces to cover gaps between the door frames and the containers. The star of this episode is the pair of JELD-WEN Bi-folding doors that we installed parallel to each other.

Building an above ground septic system is the focus of this episode of how to build a shipping container home. I wasn’t originally planning on devoting an entire episode to septic tanks, leach fields, and above ground concrete planters that can remediate sewage but I had so many set backs trying to do a conventional septic system I thought this topic deserved it.

I expect a lot of questions about the bioremediation and am currently looking for an expert in grey and black water systems to interview. If you know of anyone please let me know in the comments. I have not seen composting toilets that I feel are convenient enough but I welcome recommendations and insights that might have escaped me.

This system is an experiment. It seems to work for now but I wont endorse until I have seen it work for a few years.

In this episode of Building a Shipping Container Home I will start by going over to connect a shipping container to water and electricity. I will also show how I added mechanical systems to heat and cool the shipping containers with mini split ductless heat pumps.

This is going to be a technical episode covering some boring but really important topics.

The first few minutes of this video has some screwy camera "action", but what a neat house!!!

Interior and exterior video tour of shipping container home designs. Compilation video tour of 10 modern architecture design masterpieces.Compilation of 5 amazing shipping container homes design ideas. Grand design walk through of 1 and 2 story shipping container homes to give you interior and exterior design ideas whether building for families or for rent, homeless etc.