Understand Building Code Requirements and Tradeoffs Before Starting a Shipping Container Home

Many people are considering modular construction when starting a new home or light commercial construction project. Modular construction has evolved in leaps and bounds over the last few decades, gone are the days when modular construction was just another name for trailers. Today, when a modular construction project is completed, most people find it difficult to tell the difference between a modular building and a “stick built” building.

Modular construction offers many benefits over traditional construction, including an accelerated construction schedule; traditional construction requires that the foundations be installed first before the building can be constructed. Using modular construction, you would be building the building on the ground floor at the same time the foundation is being installed in the field; once the building modules are delivered, the main structure is completed in a matter of days compared to weeks for traditional construction. Other benefits include reduced weather delays, site vandalism, and theft, to name a few.

Those who take the modular concept one step further and decide to use shipping containers as the basis for their modular can find even greater advantages, if they are careful.

Modular Container Buildings use 40′ x 8′ and 20′ x 8′ shipping container architecture as the basic building blocks for your project. While standard modular building modules can be built to almost any desired dimension and modules can be linked together for a complete structure of any dimension, modular container buildings are somewhat limited to 20-foot and 8-foot increments.

The other considerations are building codes. Local building officials should be consulted early in the design portion of your project and involved throughout the process. It’s your job to know that you’re building a safe building that meets all applicable building codes. Some of these codes can be problematic in your design process. For example, in most northern climates, the International Building Code (IBC) adopted by most states will require an R-19 insulation package on exterior walls, meaning you need 5 ½” of insulation of fiberglass plus ½” of sheathing or plaster to achieve R 19 R value. Removing 6″ from an 8 foot wide room can start to add up to a lot of valuable real estate when you consider standard mattress sizes and the distances you must walk around the sides of your bed.

Another potential problem area is the height of standard shipping containers. Shipping containers have an outside dimension of 8 feet and tall cube containers have a height of 9 feet 6 inches. Once you calculate the required roof insulation package based on local codes and a suitable cover, you can lose up to 12 inches in roof height, bringing the final roof height down to 7 feet above the finished floor. This may or may not be accepted by the local building official, otherwise you will need to purchase the more expensive “high cube” shipping containers to meet the energy code.

Shipping containers will make a great foundation for a modular construction project, but you need to start the process with the understanding that you will have to consider some trade-offs. You and your design professional will need to understand the building codes and have discussions with any building authority that will inspect and approve the final product.