How To Do Maintenance On A Shipping Container Home in Costa Rica.

The maintenance of shipping containers and shipping container homes is very minimal.

There are a few things to pay attention to when monitoring your shipping container home over the course of the years.

Special attention is required if you live near the ocean and the salt air becomes a concern. The ocean dwellers must inspect their container homes a few times a year and in most cases are required to de-rust and paint more often.

The first area of shipping container maintenance is the roof. There are usually many dents on the roof due to the loading of other standard ISO shipping containers on top. When these containers are being shipped overseas they are traditionally stacked a high as nine units. The process of stacking containers traditionally causes dents in the corners of most units. These dents hold rainwater and begin to corrode. On most shipping container roofs there seems to be a natural sloping in some areas also caused be dents and damage in the loading and unloading of the containers. These slopes also maintain rainwater. These slopes are much easier to bang out and repair vs. the corners. The banging out of dents on the shipping containers should be done in the beginning of construction.

The next step is to examine any new rust spots and treat them with rust and corrosion prevention paint.

Then examine the shipping container doors and door handles need to be inspected and most likely greased.

Then examine all the holes that have been cut in order for electricity cables and or the water hook ups. These holes should have been sprayed with an expansive insulated foam so you will need to have an extra bottle of the foam in storage in case there are any new leaks.

More to come on the maintenance of shipping containers……

BOOK on Container Home Construction. 

“Learn about the step by step process” “Includes designs and floor plans”