We buy shipping containers for different reasons: storage, to build housing, a shed or to create additional living space but is always a good thing to think about insulating it. Even if it’s old or new, the climate will have his work and marks on the unit sooner or later, so why not make your home nice and warm or your valuable stored good will stay dry and warm over the winter.
If you live in a cold and rainy climate, rain and water can lead to condensation inside the shipping container without no insulation and can easily damage your goods inside the unit if you don’t take care of this important step of owning a shipping container storage unit or house.
One of the most often housing materials used for insulation of traditional homes is wool, cotton or fiberglass. While being effective in insulating a brick and mortar houses, the walls of the shipping container will start corroding if the insulation will allow moisture to get through. We do not recommend these types of insulation just because it can let moisture reach the steel walls and make them start corroding. The roll-on or blanket insulation, is a less expensive way to keep your container home warm, but it requires stud walls and contains rock wool so is the same story. You have to make sure that the material is used on the roll-on blankets is corrosion proof. Try to avoid these materials unless you have no other choice.
The spray-on method, that everyone agrees is the best option to insulate your shipping container and it is the recommended insulating method of most experts. Either will be warm or cold outside, will keep the inside temperature constant and dry. Not very cheap and a little bit difficult to apply, the spraying foam creates a solid vapor barrier throughout the shipping container that keeps mold and corrosion away.
The spray foam insulation can be sprayed directly onto both interior or exterior walls of the shipping container. That way it can cover the coat of the sometimes, toxic paint, of the shipping container. However, the spray foam insulation is an artificial product made by the petrochemical industry, which will not be a symbol of eco-friendly and sustainability. There has been identified a few health hazards related to the polyurethane spray foam insulation, including asthma, lung damage and other respiratory ailments.
Icynene – more eco friendly option – is a low-density, open-cell, water blown, polyurethane foam insulation that is made from petroleum-based plastics. Icynene LD-C-50 is a two-part, spray-applied product consisting of polymeric isocyanate and a proprietary resin. When foam is sprayed on a surface, a thin polymer film is produced. This plastic film works as an air barrier (air seal) and stops heat transfer through the movement of air (convection). This helps to prevent drafts and increases the performance of the conductive insulation. While many other types of polyurethane spray foams can off-gas chemicals into your home, the small amount of VOCs associated with Icynene insulation will most likely be completely undetectable between 2-3 weeks.
Cork insulation is another natural insulation alternative for shipping container homes. Cork is considered a green, renewable and biodegradable resource from trees. Amazingly, cork trees do not suffer while harvesting the cork. The bark from the trees is harvested every nine years. This harvesting process makes cork “carbon negative” since the cork forests (mostly in Portugal) capture carbon from the atmosphere. Another benefit of this type of insulation is the acoustic property of cork. This natural insulation material will form an acoustic buffer between your home and the metal walls of the container, which, left alone, would transmit sound easily.
Panels – another interesting and DIY method, it does require stud walls. The advantage of the panels is that they can be brought already sized up and cut to the right size to fit the inside of the box. Easy to install they tend to be a little more expensive than the spray on and roll-on method. The panels are thin and don’t take much from the interior space but they still deliver the same effective insulation.
If you really want to go green and want to have an environmental friendly insulation option. You can use recycled egg cartons on the walls and ceiling of the shipping container. Also if you live in a dry and not rainy or humid environment but tend to get hot during the day, you can do outside insulation using mud and hay packs around the unit. if the roof tends to “get on fire” then use a “living roof” – a garden on the roof that keeps you warm and might also feed you if planting small veggies.
If time is money and usually that is the situation for most of us, and you don’t like dealing with such DIY projects, you can either buy a refrigerated unit ( working or not working unit ) since they are already insulated or ask the company you buy it from and if they offer this option to bring it already insulated.
These are the most common shipping container insulation options but you might find some more if you search throughout the internet. Let us know below in the comments if you found something cool and interesting.
Before deciding on an insulation material for your container home, think about it first and determine how you want to build out the walls. If you are connecting several shipping containers for a multi-container home, adding space on the inside of the walls might not be an issue because of the extra square footage of the house. If you are opting for a tiny house from one or two shipping containers, space will be a premium. In this case, you might be better going for outside insulation and covering it with some exterior cladding. You can then choose to leave the metal walls bare on the inside or cover them with some thin panels or dry wall.
