My Tiny House Ideas — Shipping Container #1

Welcome to a new “segment”. Well, it’s not really a segment rather a type of post that you will see fairly regularly from now on. It’s called “My Tiny House Ideas”. These won’t necessarily be unique ideas that I have thought up, rather, ideas I am considering for my own tiny house. Sort of a place for my to scrapbook what’s going on in my noggin. Without further…

I’m considering going down the shipping container route with my tiny house. I haven’t done a thorough pro/con analysis as yet, and will, but what I have read and seen so far has really encouraged me. For a start, the shipping container is a lot of the house done with little effort. It’s the structure, floor, walls and ceiling all in one. If one chooses to line it, they can get away with using a smaller gauge timber frame than they would if they were building a structure–if they choose to line it at all. (I certainly will from an insulation point-of-view.) The size is right–I’d go a 20 footer, I reckon–and I think they look pretty snazzy. Not to mention the environmental side of the equation–practically your entire house is salvaged. Shipping containers are also pretty cheap–a 20 footer tends to sell for $1800-$3000 secondhand here in Australia. There are obvious downsides like the fact that metal conducts heat very well–not a great thing during a hot, Australian summer. But that can be overcome with how you line it and other measures.

As I said, I haven’t given it super deep consideration yet. It’s just an idea I am throwing up and it will depend on many factors.