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Shipping Container Home Additions – Your Ultimate Guide

Shipping Container Home Additions – Your Ultimate Guide

When the time comes to expand your home and get some more square footage, you have many options. Whether you want to get more space for gatherings or your family is getting bigger, an addition is a great choice. If you have the room in your yard, you can utilize it and get all your needs met. Shipping container home additions are a fantastic way to make the most of your property. 

Shipping container home additions can get you the extra room you need at very little expense. With the right design and planning, you can create a whole new structure on your property. Before you start, making sure this is the right choice is essential. Knowing everything you can about shipping container home additions can help. 

 
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What Are Shipping Container Home Additions? 

Often, when people want to add a structure to their home, they will build an ADU. ADUs, or accessory dwelling units, are essentially guest houses. They have all the same structure and design elements as a second home. Because of this, they can be quite pricey once everything has been designed and built. They may not be your best option if you are working with a budget. 

Shipping Container Home Additions

For those who want to save some money, shipping container home additions are a great choice. By using the pre-built structure of a container, you can save a lot of money on materials and labor. In some cases, you can get shipping container home additions built in a matter of weeks. This way, you can start enjoying your addition right away instead of waiting for months. 

Why Build Shipping Container Home Additions?

Shipping container home additions are a great alternative to traditional ADUs. With a container, you can simply place the structure where you want it to be and start modifying it. In many cases, you may not even need a foundation or other things that could cost a lot with an ADU. Depending on your local building codes, the regulations may be much laxer for shipping container home additions. 

Shipping container home additions can also be built in much less time than a traditional ADU. With minimal modification, you can create your addition and get the perfect extra dwelling. If you live in a mild climate, you may not even need to insulate it. This is especially true if you need something like a pool house that won’t be lived in full time. 

Types of Shipping Container Home Additions 

Shipping container home additions are great for all kinds of applications. Whether you need a guest house, pool house, or storage space, you can easily create it with a container. You can also put multiple containers together for a larger structure to suit your needs. However, this may be subject to more stringent building codes and zoning laws. 

Shipping Container Home Additions

One of the things that people often do with shipping container home additions is create vacation space. If you live in a desirable area with a lot of tourism, this could be a great investment opportunity. By creating a guest house, you can rent out the space daily. This is a great option for renting to vacationers or people passing through the area while visiting. 

Benefits of Shipping Container Home Additions 

Perhaps the most important benefit of shipping container home additions is their cost. These additions are very cheap and require very little in the way of labor. If you need an extra structure but don’t want to go through the whole process of design and construction, this is a great option. The ease with which you can build an addition makes shipping containers good for most homeowners. 

One of the other benefits of shipping container home additions is their sustainability. When you build a traditional ADU, you have to go through a lot of materials to build it from scratch. If you are looking to reduce your carbon footprint, recycled containers can help. You don’t have to use up much timber, and you can reuse something that would otherwise be thrown out. 

Downsides of Shipping Container Home Additions 

One of the downsides of shipping container additions is the fact that containers can be hard to come by. Since container homes are getting more popular, the containers themselves are in higher demand. This means that you may have a hard time sourcing the actual containers you need. Depending on where you live, there may not be any available containers, and you might have to special order them. 

Shipping Container Home Additions

When building shipping container home additions, you are also somewhat limited. Shipping containers come as 8x8x20 or 8x8x40, depending on their previous use. Because of this, you will have to work with the size and shape they are already in. You won’t be able to create something entirely custom like you could with a traditional ADU. 

Cost of Shipping Container Home Additions 

When building a traditional ADU, one of the most prohibitive things about it is the cost. You can end up spending anywhere from $120 to $250 per square foot to build it. This is around the same price as a traditional home. The only difference is that the ADU will be much smaller once it is built. 

Shipping container home additions, on the other hand, are much less expensive. You can usually buy a container for around $1,200. From there, you can upgrade it as much as you want to or make it as simple as possible. This opens up the project to a much wider range of people who are working with different budgets. 

Conclusion

Shipping container home additions are a great option for all kinds of homeowners looking for extra space. If you want to utilize your yard or property, you can create a whole new structure for very little money. Plus, they are a unique addition that can give some character to your home. 

If you would like more guides like this one, be sure to check out the rest of ContainerHomeHub.com. There, you will find all kinds of tips and tricks from the pros. You will also find featured container homes to help get you inspired for your own amazing shipping container project. 

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Container Home Hub is not a shipping container home construction company. While we do our best to make sure our information is accurate, please contact a professional shipping container home builder for information. Container Home Hub is also a blog and does not independently sell shipping container houses and/or shipping container house plans. Container Home Hub currently uses advertisements from a third-party advertising site in addition to occasional affiliate links.