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Updated over 5 years ago, 08/26/2019
Container home in pierce county
I am looking to build a home out of shipping containers in unincorporated pierce county. What time of restrictions are we facing. Has anyone in the forum ever done it in Pierce county Washington?
Wow!! That is very interesting. I would like updates on how things go. I would guess the best place to start would be with the Pierce Co planning dept to get any code requirements. Very interesting.
To your success,
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Why? A 40' shipping container in good shape, not new is a few thousand. Then, you've got all the BS of trying to reinvent the wheel to get something built out of them, then you've got an odd ball, quirky structure, that might have some odd appeal to a very small crowd.
Good luck! I, too, am interested in the tiny house trend.
We rented out a 20' shipping container home to guests on Airbnb in Florida.
Based on the feedback, the appeal was to a larger and more diverse crowd than you might think.
Originally posted by @Sterling Cox:
We rented out a 20' shipping container home to guests on Airbnb in Florida.
Based on the feedback, the appeal was to a larger and more diverse crowd than you might think.
Do you still have it rented out? I'm curious about what type of location you had it at, and what process you had to go through with any permits, etc.
No, unfortunately we don't have it rented out at this time. It had been rented out in the backyard of a house about a mile from the beach in Jacksonville, FL. The container was in violation of a zoning ordinance and a complaint had been filed. We believe the next door neighbor, who was not on good terms with the host of the container, was who had filed the complaint. Though the container wasn't visible from the street, it was visible from his upper story window. We moved the container back to it's storage site where it currently sits.
Since we started this container home project almost 3 years ago, it has been my experience that the most difficult part by far is finding a place to put it. I believe the interest is already in place. We had nearly 70% occupancy (1-2 night rentals) with no advertising or marketing.
a buddy of mine built two container homes in Atlanta. I was surprised at the amount of metal work that was needed to get approved. I learned that cutting holes for windows caused weakness in overall strength, stacking units needed even more metal work. But worth it! Beautiful homes and so cool. (Headroom was my only negative)
Good luck
@Sterling Cox I could see that being an easy target for complaints. The container is hard to miss! Well hopefully you get some traction soon with finding a location that better suits the use.
How were you able to finance the container home?
@Dalton Osmanski, I just paid for it all out of pocket. I had been saving for a while. It was about $12K all said and done.