Why You Should Use A Shipping Container for Your Next Construction Project


 

Shipping container

Every day, shipping containers and conex containers are used to move goods all over the world. These enormous containers, which could be used for generator enclosure, as job site offices, or even as modular home space, are typically discarded after use. Here are some good reasons we should be re-purposing containers instead of discarding them.

Re-purpose to Reduce Waste

Estimates say that there are about 24 million retired shipping containers floating around Earth. Most of them are retired only halfway through their usable life, at about 10 to 15 years.

Using containers of this sort to build housing, generator enclosures, or office space takes 1/5 the amount of time and generates 35-40% less waste than site-built units from scratch. And since a 40-foot container has an average of 3500kg of usable steel, re-using it saves the energy necessary to have that steel melted down.

Re-purpose to Save Money

A shipping container has a 25-year lifespan, with care and maintenance, and some estimates suggest that building with a container is 40% cheaper than using traditional construction methods.

40% is nothing to sneeze at, and when you consider that the average job site trailer, for example, lasts only five years, making that trailer out of a re-purposed shipping container instead of more vulnerable wood and vinyl only makes good sense.

It also takes only two to three weeks to make housing structures from re-purposed shipping containers, too, where it takes four to six months to build one from more traditional materials. That’s not only a material savings, but also a huge savings in time and manpower costs. The same rings true whether you’re making office space, a generator enclosure, modular housing, or anything else.

Re-purpose to Save Space

Shipping containers are probably bigger than you think. A 20-foot container could hold, for example, approximately 3,596 shoe boxes. A 40 foot container could hold more than twice that many.

The 40-foot shipping containers are eight feet wide and over eight feet tall, providing around 300 feet of living space, office space, generator enclosure area, or storage. Four containers side-by-side could give you a 1,200sq home!

Re-purpose for Safety<3>
Shipping containers are strong. If you need a generator enclosure to protect your power source, or a modular home in an area with storms, shipping containers could be the answer. Even when connected in multiple units, if they are on foundations shipping containers can stand against 100mph winds.

Connect them to pylons and they can withstand 175mph winds. This makes container homes, generator enclosures, or office space far more solid in tornadoes and hurricanes than equivalently cheap plywood and vinyl structures.

For durability, cost-effectiveness, strength, and size, little can beat the humble steel industrial shipping container. If you’re looking to build housing, a generator enclosure, or an on-site office, shipping containers should be high on your list of material choices.