Shipping Container Home for Challenging Behaviour

Thistle

Hello,

Has anyone on this forum heard of shipping container homes (or perhaps other kinds of prefabricated homes) being used, or even considered, for people with challeging behviour? We have discovered shipping container homes are being adapted for physical disabilities but haven't found anything for challenging behaviour yet.

We have a 23 year old son with challenging behaviours who lives in his own home with 24/7 carers. We are investigating the possibilities of moving him to a tougher home more resistant to damage and also away from neighbours who would be disturbed by the noise he makes. Shipping container homes might offer the possibility of being tougher and perhaps more flexible over their location compared to conventional buildings, but we expect there are downsides to them as well, so are hoping to find out if anyone else has considered these before we put a lot of effort into research.

Many thanks.

Geoark

Hello @Thistle and welcome to the community.

I did look at these a few years back with the idea of finding funding to provide a small number of flats with some shared facilities on our estate. Though the target customers was young people leaving care with no where else to go, and a way of helping them to adapt to indepent living and showing they can maintain a tenancy.

While they had a lot of advantages I was not fully happy and dropped the idea.

As bespoke one of homes they can look awesome, but their transition into a cheap housing option leaves a lot to be desired. Insulation and sound proofing can be easily built in, at some some cost to space, nor do they provide the kind of space I would be happy spending much time in. Plus they are metal cages, I am not sure I would  have wanted to be living in one during the recent hot weather.

Just to point out these type of developments are aimed at the homeless and students and designed really as short term options.

In terms of destruction I am not sure that they would meet your needs. Internal walls are going to be plasterboard.

A lot of the concerns I had can be overcome and these can make them very desirable and as you mentioned can be easily adapted to meet different needs, though these can add to costs, but still cheaper than traditional buildings. The biggest drawback for me was the space we had available meant the homes would have little natural light.

Thistle

Hi Geoark,

Thanks for your comments, it's great to hear about the things you had to consider. Your observation about the plaster board hit the nail on the head, repairing holes in plaster board in his current home is a never ending task. I'm not sure of the feasibility yet, but was thinking that if the internal walls could be left as the original metal container walls and the insulation etc put on the outside, that would be a robust enough solution.