A place to live while building your primary home

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A place to live while building your primary home

Generally speaking, while building a home, most people will not complain if you have a shipping container on your property. Contractors routinely put shipping containers on a property where they are actively building. Living in one is not the same, but many do it and take the legal risks. We recommend permitting the structure, which will cost you significantly more money, and we leave this decision up to you. We are not responsible for any bldg violations you might encounter doing this without permits. Please call us to discuss this in greater detail. We offer a single container structure that is legal and permitable. In fact, one of our clients received her permit for a single 40’ container home in April 2008 because of our draftsmen and Architect walking everything through the County. We can do the same for you. Folks going it alone have generally been shot down. Some folks do not believe this. If you want, you can try it and see for yourself.

This is what we recommend:

Single 40’ 1-trip "new" Hi-cube container with-

Elastomeric ceramic paint to reflect heat.

3 windows- 6' x 4' vinyl sliders and a 6' glass sliding door.

Basic 36” x 36” shower stall, toilet, sink and basic bathroom hardware/accessories.

Efficiency kitchen with single counter top and lower cabinets, sink.

Overhead fluorescent lighting (4 lights), 8 electrical outlets. (We are not wild about fluorescent lighting, but it is very economical. We can install other lighting if desired.) Going with no insulation and drywall will save you quite a bit of money, but it can get very cold at night. We can insulate, install drywall and paint for about $6k. It is a big job which starts with light gauge steel studs welded through out the interior walls and ceiling. Wiring on insulated models is all inside of the drywall and looks much nicer, plus the corrugated walls are now covered up and completely flat, and square to the floor, making it much easier to clean the floor. This economy model’s flooring is the wood floors that come with the container, sealed and painted with oil-based floor enamel coating.

Total cost as outlined above is about $20k with bath and kitchenette, and without ceramic coating. If you want the coating, add $1-2k. You can get away with just coating the roof and west facing wall for about $1k. Shipping and trucking is additional. This would be without insulation and drywall, using conduit for wiring. Price is an estimate and does not include a shed roof structure. Once delivered on-site via forklift onto concrete blocks, we hook-up to electrical and septic using our licensed professionals, and can install the shed roof if desired for about $3k additional. These costs quoted here do not include any permits or drafting. A shed roof structure does shade the structure, and that is a good thing, but costs more and is not absolutely necessary unless you wish to permit your structure.

The final choices are made by you after meeting with us and kicking around the various options and costs. After your main home is ready to occupy, we can sell your temporary container home for you, hopefully recouping most of your investment, or you could permit it as a workshop or office from the get-go and keep it on your property with your main house. Call us to discuss your options.

Our legal & permittable single 40’ container home

Our customer has been issued, as of mid-april 2008, a legal bldg permit for our single 40’ hi-cube shipping container home. It is a legal home. There are not a lot of built-ins or counter tops etc. This is because there is a law which states that there is a minimum number of unencumbered square feet to qualify as a legal home, so we have designed it to meet the legal minimums. From this, you can add-on later with another container structure that connects to it, and have a small efficiency apartment with bathroom and kitchen to live in while building your dream home or future addition connected to this single container home base. With our legal single container home, you have an instant roof over your head with bathroom, shower, kitchen, living area and secure storage the minute you put this single 40’ container on your property. Don’t forget- you could permit this as an office or workroom and forgo the kitchen so you would also be able to build your dream home on the same lot and be able to keep this shipping container structure on your lot permanently. We presently build these homes at our Kalaeloa Oahu facility and ship out to every Hawaiian Island We can also build it on your lot- cost depends on options and which island your property is on. This saves shipping costs, but on-site labor is higher, so the cost should be pretty close when all is said and done. Delivery, shipping and set-up need to be quoted on an individual basis. We are available to discuss all of your particular requirements, the various options and costs.