Greetings from Texas! 🙂

As usual, we at Container Home Hub try to get you, the readers, as much information as possible on a shipping container home that we decide to feature. So when we called the number on the Encinal Apartment’s website looking to see if all the units were still booked up, you can imagine our surprise when David Monnich answered the phone. Dave, as he told us to call him, is the owner/ designer/ developer and has been in the business for 45 years.

Located in the Eagle Ford Shale region of Texas, the Encinal Apartments are modern in design and innovative in their approach to family housing. San Antonio-based retail developer David Monnich is using old freight containers to help remedy the growing housing shortage brought on by the oil and gas boom of the region.

Dave told us:

“We use the same structural building units (like legos) every time as the base. The apartments are 960 sq. ft., and we build significantly cheaper than normal apartments due to time savings and economies of scale as we fab in our yard in Houston. Prefab basic carpentry, metal stud work, and insulation -while always designed to make sure all trades can be inspected properly per cod, all work is per code. All apartments are sprinklered and we have designed multiple houses 1280 sq. ft. up to 1600. We are going to assemble first prototypes here in San Antonio. As well as have some planned development of apartments with basically the same design as in Encinal for here in San Antonio.”

The shipping container apartments are pretty eye-catching, painted in orange and yellow and are enclosed by a prefabricated framework that adds stairs, patios, and additional rear sections. The interiors of the homes measure between 480 sq ft (44.5 sq m) and 960 sq ft (89 sq m), and come in both one bedroom/one bathroom and two bedroom/two bathroom configurations. Rent costs US$800 per month for the larger two bedroom unit and $600 for the smaller one bedroom units.

Each apartment features high-density closed cell spray foam insulation, double-glazed windows, insulated doors, and energy-efficient HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) systems. In addition, a secondary roof offers shade. The average electricity bill comes in around $70 per month for an occupied larger unit.

Having filled the initial phase of the development with tenants, another 69 container-based apartments are said to be planned very soon.