Shipping containers house - built costs

mikelata

I just read this article in the Irish times that I found fascinating:
http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/homes-and-property/interiors/seven-shipping-containers-become-a-family-home-1.2983804

An Irish couple built their house using 7 shipping containers in Ringsend. I still cannot get my head around the costs though: "To complete the ground work and the two floors to date has cost the Kelleys €300,000"

Do you think that that could be because the ground conditions were poor? IF that house was in a different location with easy access could it cost that much to build using containers?

Thanks

Gumbo

mikelata wrote: »

I just read this article in the Irish times that I found fascinating:
http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/homes-and-property/interiors/seven-shipping-containers-become-a-family-home-1.2983804

An Irish couple built their house using 7 shipping containers in Ringsend. I still cannot get my head around the costs though: "To complete the ground work and the two floors to date has cost the Kelleys €300,000"

Do you think that that could be because the ground conditions were poor? IF that house was in a different location with easy access could it cost that much to build using containers?

Thanks

Ground conditions were perfect. The higher costs are due to the fact that Certification for the shipping containers is expensive, they were brand new and had to be for the Engineer to know the strength of them. This was the first one been built and it complies with out Building Regulations.

The next one may be cheaper as the contractor is aware of what's required and the certifiers are aware of what's ahead of them, but not much cheaper.

Also bespoke engineering solutions had to be done on site. He still has another floor to construct. It would have been way cheaper to build a traditional house but site constraints (shape) allowed for containers to fit perfectly.

mikelata

I see. thanks for the explanation