Kits and Mortar

If you’re looking for a quick build that’s a little different, why not live in a shipping container? Already waterproof, and able to be sited almost anywhere that’s flat - only the corners rest on the ground so you don’t need to lay lots of concrete - you can whip up a container house in no time. I had a look round an empty 20ft container on the Lendon Containers stand, and they are surprisingly large with a lot more headroom than I expected. A bit long and thin, perhaps, but join a few together and there’d be more than enough space. And they can easily be stacked - containers on ships are often piled up to 14 high - so there’s no problem if you want a two storey house.

Price-wise, they’re not all that expensive. The nice chap from Lendon said they went for £4k for a 20ft (if my memory serves) although you can probably get them on eBay cheaper if you want to fit and install them yourself. I’m not sure how much a whole build would cost, if you were to make an entire house out of them, but I suspect it’s much more affordable than bricks and mortar.

Indeed, GDL had three containers decked out as a bedroom, lounge and full bedsit, and stacked three high just to show you how easy it is. Sort of like giant, habitable lego. The beat-up exteriors look great in an urban setting, but if you’re out in the countryside do you really want a heap of rust in your garden? Well, that’s easily fixed - containers lend themselves well to being clad in whatever material you want, and you can even put a living roof on them to soften the angular look even further.

The bedroom container was bigger than our bedroom is here, and although it was a bit longer and narrower, they got more furniture in than we can, so a container wins in the “vs our flat” challenge. Standard width and height is 8ft by 8ft 6 ins, and length can be 10 ft, 20 ft or 40 ft. One day I’ll have to work out what our flat’s square footage is, so I can do a proper comparison.

The lounge container is probably smaller than our lounge, but then, ours has a kitchen in it too. Put two containers together and whip out the middle wall and you’d be laughing, though. Containers can be well insulated - although there’s a trade off as the thicker the insulation the more space you lose inside - and can have windows, doors, shelving and air-conditioning fitted, so they’re easy enough to turn into a useful space.

And if you want a speedy guest bedsit, or you want to live on-site whilst you’re building your house, there’s just enough room in a 20ft container to do that.

I was thinking the other night… ok, fantasising, if I’m honest… that what I’d do would be to have a container on-site to securely store all the materials that come early, to keep them dry and safe from acquisitive hands, and then once the build was done, move it to the back garden, clad it in cedar or something else that looks nice, bung a living roof on top, and bingo - instant garden shed!