A shipping container might only make a single trip overseas, deeming it new. They could make a few trips, but they typically don’t spend their entire life at sea. More people search for new or used options to design homes, office spaces, garages, or a construction site Conex.

Even farmers across the US are discovering the containers’ value, such as optimal cost-efficiency, portability, and optimum security. They can be used for barns, farmer’s office space, storage, or for growing flowers and greens. 

The steel structures are a useful, versatile and durable addition to a farm, one that saves time and expenses. Constructing a barn involves substantial costs for materials, design, transport, and labor. 

Setting up a shipping container is relatively straightforward with less work. Please check out more information on transforming your shipping containers.

Reasons To Use Shipping Containers as Barns

Barns are a staple of the rural landscape and have been for centuries. The reason farmers rely on these structures is to provide shelter for their animals, add much-needed storage, to perform farming projects, and countless other uses. That isn’t to say they should be vintage stick-built buildings. 

While these structures are beautiful to look at as a passerby, they don’t offer the efficiency and functionality farming requires. A stick-built barn is typically drafty, not only high maintenance, but also costly for farmers to maintain, and inefficient. 

Containers are considered an upgrade to an affordable upgrade to a stable, secure, and highly durable structure that’s relatively easy to install and can be readily moved when it becomes necessary. 

With a few modifications, a storage container can be aesthetically appealing, eco-friendly, and provide optimum form and function. Visit – Shipping Container as Barn: An Inexpensive and Imaginative Reuse – to learn about transforming a container into a barn. Consider a few reasons for incorporating a container into your farm to serve as a barn.

Strong and stable

These steel structures offer incredible durability and stability, making them capable of surviving overseas journeys in stacks under harsh weather conditions. Despite the tough exterior, the simple rectangular frame allows farmers to make their own distinct modifications.

The unique barns offer a shortcut to crop growing year-round without worrying about inclement weather including frost damage, high winds, and heavy rains.  When planning the barn design, farmers can include environmental controls for optimal management of temperature, watering, lighting, and humidity.

Further pests can be kept from produce, which can also be protected with secure locks.

Sustainability

Most farmers strive to reduce their carbon footprint, and a storage container offers the ideal design for doing so. By purchasing and setting these structures, you upcycle an existing resource instead of using new materials. This also saves from used containers being dumped in the landfill.

Farm workers can modify the space to improve its green credentials. The rectangular and compact body enables the simple addition of solar panels, rainwater harvesting, and passive cooling and heating. You can further cover the steel container with a green roof or climbing plants.

The versatility 

Farm operations require balancing a host of demands, such as time, space, finances, and seasonal changes. These structures are valuable as flexible and versatile indoor spaces. These are portable and can be refit or repurposed to satisfy your needs and purposes.

You can leave it relatively minimal to serve as storage for farm equipment or tools or perform a few modifications to help regulate temperature and control humidity levels. It can also become a greenhouse or plant nursery with the addition of electricity and plumbing.

Cost-efficiency

Shipping containers are cost-efficient compared to traditional building where you must pay for materials and labor. These structures can be installed at minimal costs regardless of the space that you require. The size-to-cost ration is favorable for the container.

Being modular structures ensures the containers stay cost-efficient long-term. If you need to scale down or up, it’s a matter of either taking away or adding containers. This is cheap and easy compared to adding an extension to a stick-built barn.

Go here for one person’s perspective on using multiple storage containers to develop the ideal barn.

Secure and safe

Containers come with multiple security features because shipping companies are stringent about safety with their structures. The walls are thick steel, and farmers are encouraged to add heavy locks to protect their valued items stored inside. For extra peace of mind, you can implement security cameras.

Final Thought

Shipping containers are an invaluable addition to a working farm when serving as a barn. In this capacity, the structure can shelter animals, store heavy equipment, secure valuable tools, enable farmers to have extra workspace, and so much more.

Modern farmers are thinking outside the box to design barns uniquely capable of satisfying their distinct needs and purposes. There is an array of basic containers that can be modified and customized; however, you want to be aware of local planning permissions.

Reach out to shipping company experts to help determine the appropriate size and arrange for delivery of your container. Then you can create the barn you want it to be.