Pre-fabricated Shipping Container Home Additions
If buying a shipping container, transporting it to your property and converting it to livable space sounds overwhelming, you'll be glad to hear that there are several options for ordering prefabricated shipping container home additions. Expect to pay around $100 per square foot for a finished unit (excluding electrical, plumbing, and HVAC), a price that is competitive with or cheaper than traditional building methods.
- Architect Adam Kalkin designed The Quik House, a prefabricated container house kit. Although the standard set up is the size of a full home—2,000 square feet including three bedrooms and two and one-half baths—the kit can be customized depending on your needs. The shell assembles in one day onsite and the structure can be completed within three months.
- New Zealand-based Atelier Workshop's version, the Port-a-Bach, is touted as a holiday home but its design is very flexible. This container can be connected to municipal services, though it is designed to be "power, water and sewer independent." You'll forget that it's a shipping container with built-in millwork, a stainless steel kitchen and bathroom complete with composting toilet.
- Ecopods, created by a company in Toronto, operate on solar panels. A large sliding glass door with glass side panels provides plenty of natural light. The walls are filled with environmentally friendly soya insulation.
- California-based IC Green sells units complete with eco-friendly interior and exterior finishes and upgrades such as radiant flooring. Units are fully customizable and can be stacked to create multi-story structures. You can even add a green roof!
- Cutting edge NYC architecture firm LOT-EK developed a Container Home Kit (CHK) that is easily adaptable to existing conditions. Based on the container's module, choose from configurations with 640 square feet up to 2,560 square feet. Not only is electrical, plumbing and HVAC taken care of, these units also contain built-in closets and wood floors.
- If you prefer for someone to hold your hand through the entire process, SG Blocks provides architectural and engineering services, assists in selecting a builder and obtaining permits and provides project management. You may choose the "finish" level of your container addition, from a container with empty window and door openings to a fully modular system that is nearly ready to occupy.