Container Homes: Build Your Home One Box at a Time

People drive by Magoline Hazelton’s house just to take a look in North Charleston, South Carolina. From the outside, her home doesn't seem much different from the rest of the neighborhood. But the big difference is that her house is made from cargo shipping containers. Using containers to build homes has increasingly become a trend in the past several years because it can be cheaper and faster than using traditional construction methods. About 18 million containers are used worldwide to transport a variety of everyday products, such as cars, toys and food. And because the United States imports more than it exports, many containers end up stacked at ports. SG Blocks, whose name stands for safe and green blocks, has made a business from the container overflow.

The containers are designed for hostile dynamic life at sea. With minor modification, they can easily become a multi-family living system. Modifying containers into homes uses significantly less energy than melting them down. These containers weigh about 9,000 pounds, and it takes about 9,000 kilowatt hours of energy to melt down 9,000 pounds of steel. You can modify that existing piece of steel with approximately 400 kilowatt hours of energy input. That's a 95 percent energy reduction. The energy saved by transforming a single container into a home, rather than melting it down, can power a standard 70-watt light bulb for up to 15 years.

Ms. Hazelton's home took 10 weeks to build. Generally, SG Blocks has found that recycled homes cut construction time in half. Typical homes can take four to eight months to build. For container homes, it usually takes two to four months. The cost of building a single family container home is comparable to a traditional home, but you get steel home instead of a wood home, which is more durable and has a lower carbon footprint. It's also water resistant and termite resistant.

Companies around the world are using shipping containers as building materials to create offices, army barracks, dorms and even designer homes. They can make them look like anything you want. If you want it minimalistic, so you can see the container walls, they can do that. If you want stucco or brick or siding, they can do that as well.

While each container has its own roof, when multiple containers are put together side by side, there are gaps between the boxes. Therefore, a traditional roof is put on top of the entire home, providing additional safety in inclement weather. When the boxes are joined together, the gaps are sealed, so even if you lose your roof above, you'd have protection. The second roof also provides another benefit. Ms. Hazelton finds she can't even hear the rain hitting her home when it's pouring outside.

Her house has been almost maintenance free since she moved in. The only thing she has to do in the last five years is exchanged the hot water heater.