Container cabin

What the system works out

You enter the container size and number, use, insulation, windows and doors, cladding, canopy and deck. The system works out:

- steel frames for the openings, windows and doors;

- insulation for the walls and ceiling less openings, battens or framing, vapour barrier and inner lining;

- outer battens and cladding boards;

- canopy posts, beams, rafters and steel sheet;

- deck joists, boards and screw piles.

Two containers

Two containers can be joined end to end (a long cabin) or side by side (a wider space). Side by side, the inner long walls are cut out, so the containers need an engineer's design. When joined end to end, the joint must be sealed and tied through the corner castings.

Condensation and headroom

Steel sweats on the inside, so continuous insulation is needed: closed-cell foam, or wool in a frame with a vapour barrier. Ventilation is needed too. After insulation the inside height is about 2.3 m in a 20 or 40 ft container and about 2.6 m in an HC. No minimum room height norm was found in this research, so it is shown as an unverified rule.

Shelving and two storeys

Shelves of 1–5 levels can be added along one or both long walls. Brackets go every 1 m on the corrugation ridges; each level has two 45 × 95 beams and 18 mm plywood. 300 mm is left at the ends. Only the bracket manufacturer sets the shelf load, so the system does not calculate it. Stacked containers (a two-storey house) are outside the generator's scope: corner fixing, foundations and wall cut-outs must be designed by a structural engineer.

Permits

- A garden house in an allotment can only be Group I (up to 50 m² and 5 m). A larger one is a non-special structure.

- A workshop up to 80 m² and 8.5 m is Group I or II.

- A residential building always needs a permit (Construction Law art. 27).

- The area includes the canopy over the deck (conservatively).

- An opening wider than 1.2 m weakens the container — an engineer sizes the frame.