Author Archives: Thales of Miletus

There’s an old saying, “Texas has four seasons. Drought, Flooding, Blizzard and Twister.” Which isn’t far from the truth. Texas is best described simply as the extreme ends of bad weather. So before we consider thinking about building a home using a shipping container I thought it might be a good idea to see how they do in the Texas heat. I had already bought the red 40′ high cube container for storage so I had something to run tests on. So shortly after we had our first day of 90+ degree temps with no clouds I decided to brave the heat at midday with an instant digital food thermometer and a pair of oven mits.

It’s not the worst idea I’ve ever heard, building your home from a shipping container, but it’s certainly not the norm. Or is it? Some companies, like ContainerHomes.net (containerhomes.net/) and Honomobo (honomobo.com) in Canada, are using shipping containers as the “bones” for building modular, easily shipable, prefabricated homes. After all, they fit on existing trailers and are only as wide as the semi truck trailer is normally. But more and more, have you noticed companies are striking out in new ways to build tiny homes, modular homes, minimalist layouts, all with the same construction techniques they already know? Reinventing the shipping container’s “bones” instead of starting with a container in the first place.