Turning a shipping container into garden shed

 

So this whole story starts with us needing a shed. We had a shed at our old house and I didn't realize how much we used it until we were without it in the new house. I really wanted to be able to park my car in the garage over the winter so I started researching sheds. 

Now when shed shopping you typically have three options:

1. Wood Shed- The most expensive per square foot but also the most attractive and most sturdy. 

2. Metal Shed- Typically the cheapest per square foot. Cons: typically don't come with a floor so you have to either deal with dirt floor, lay concrete or build some sort of wooden platform. Also not a great option if you live somewhere with hurricanes/winds ( I don't but I thought I'd mention it)

3. Plastic Sheds- middle of the road price per square foot. These can be fairly sturdy and semi attractive but I just wasn't finding any that I liked. 

I had originally decided to go with metal and we would build a wood platform. I was looking for either DIY sheds or shed kits that we could put together. All of the kits that I had found all had terrible reviews and took many many frustrating hours. I could just picture myself pulling all my hair out with my husband as we attempt to construct this ridiculous puzzle of a shed.  And I was majorly dreading it.

Then one day I was casually browsing pinterest and I stumbled upon shipping container tiny homes. Then the thought occurred to me: if someone can live in a shipping container than surely I can put my lawn mower in one! And down the rabbit hole I went.  The good news is that we live very close to a major port city. 

I found a local shipping container company and we went down to the yard and essentially went shopping. It was literally a city of shipping containers stacked 5-6 high like sky scrapers. 

                                        

Basic information about shipping containers: 

-Shipping containers come in typically either 20' or 40' long and are roughly 8ft tall. You can find taller ones but obviously you will pay more for them 

- You can buy them either "new" (its been across the ocean once or twice) or "used" (multiple trips across the ocean). Obviously the used ones are cheaper- but if I was doing a tiny house or something then I would probably consider a newer one. 

- We didn't need a permit for ours but you may want to check with your local people 

-It is recommended that you put your shipping container on some sort of level surface- either concrete or railroad ties of some sort. If you put it straight on the ground then over time the ground will sink unevenly and the door will not open and you will be sad. 

- The container is delivered on a truck- so when considering placement your container has to be some place the truck can get to and has enough space to dump your container. 

Building a base for the container 

So the previous owners of our house built a random platform- we never figured out their plan for it (perhaps a shed). It was right in the way of where we wanted to put the container so first we deconstructed it. 

Luckily for us they had used outdoor treated 2x4s and 4x4s to create the random platform. The people at the shipping yard just recommended laying 2-3 4x4s and leveling them for the container to sit on. We decided to use 2x4s to connect the 4x4s because we wanted to avoid things getting underneath the container (tennis balls, cats, random stuff etc). 

While creating the frame we constantly used a level to make sure all the sides were levelled. Take your time doing this. If the structure is not level when you put the container on it the door will eventually not open.

Our completed frame 

Getting and Maintaining the Container 

After we completed the frame we ordered the container from our local port. It was delivered to our house and they slowly lowered it onto the frame. We accidentally made our frame slightly too wide but that's ok.

As I write this it is December and rainy season in Washington so I am waiting until Spring/Summer to do this but these are my plans for keeping the container from leaking and making it look prettier. I will update this post once I actually do this. 

1. Get on the roof and spray the edges of the roof with flex seal. This is to prevent any leaking into the container. I plan on using black flex seal for two reasons A. No one will actually see it from the ground. B. When we do a yearly check it is easy to identify areas that need to be re-coated. In order to do this the roof needs to be completely dry and stay completely dry for 48 hours- which in December in Washington you will never be guaranteed to happen. 

2. Clear caulk around the edges of the inside of the container.- Ok this one I could probably do now but I haven't gotten around to it and its been getting down into the 30s at night which isn't great for caulk drying. This is again to prevent any leaks or bugs. 

3. Remove the rust from the container- The people at the port recommended using a wire brush attachment for our angle grinder. We plan on purchasing this and scrubbing all the rust off before moving on to step 4

4. Paint the container to match the house. I plan on painting around the numbers because I feel it gives the container some character. Our goal is to make it less of an eyesore because it is right next to our house. They recommend using outdoor acrylic paint for the best results. 

5. We are discussing building shelves to go in the container and potentially installing battery powered lights. This will be a next summer project. :)

Overall

We so far are very pleased with our purchase- the construction time was minimal (we had to build the frame). We are able to put items in it this Winter and I can park my car in the garage during these cold months. 

We also like that we can lock the container- with the amount of stuff that were are putting in this container we really want to make sure that no one can just randomly open it while we were at work.

I will update as we do projects to improve our shipping container shed!