Questions we get before the deposit

A steel box can, and we would rather tell you that up front than have you find out in August. Warm humid air meeting a cold steel surface will condense — the same reason a glass of iced tea beads up on the porch. The cure is not to hope; it is to keep humid interior air away from the bare steel and to give the assembly a way to dry.

Every 320 is framed inside the corrugation with a vented cavity behind the interior panel, so any moisture that does reach the steel can move rather than sit. On the ceiling, where the risk is highest, our standard assembly is a one-inch closed-cell spray foam flash against the deck with fiberglass batt behind it and a one-inch insulation board under the batt — roughly R-25. That board matters more than it sounds: it keeps the 2×4s from pressing straight against the steel and carrying heat through.

The Sport ships with batt and no foam flash. That is an honest choice for a shaded site or seasonal use, and it is the reason we ask where the cabin is going before we quote it.

Same crew, same method, same materials — a shorter box. Both are framed inside the corrugation with a vented cavity behind the panel, both carry the exterior electrical panel, and both go out with the plumbing stubbed under the bath. Hot water is the one place they differ: the 320 gets a 30-gallon electric tank, the 160 an outdoor propane tankless, because two square feet of floor is worth more in a 160.

The one real difference is the entry. The 160 takes its door in the long wall rather than the end, so the full twenty feet stay inside and the porch is built outward instead of carved out of the room.

Yes, and that is how every 160 leaves here: a full bath with a molded shower surround at one end, a kitchenette along the wall, and the sleeping area at the entry. It is compact. A 160 is a cabin you sleep, wash and make coffee in — the 320 is the one you live in.

For camp and bunkhouse orders we also build the 160 with no plumbing at all, as a straight bunk room, when the site already has a bath house.

• Sport, either size — R-13 fiberglass batt in 2×4 wall framing, batt at the ceiling.
• Comfort, either size — R-19 fiberglass batt in the walls, mineral wool at the ceiling.
• Classic, either size — closed-cell spray foam flash over batt, walls and ceiling.

Two upgrades are available on any model: 2×6 wall framing on 24″ centers for a higher wall R-value, and the closed-cell flash added to a Sport or Comfort.

Yes, and a lot of ranch and hunting-lease owners do exactly that so the unit is not 120 degrees when they pull up. If that is your plan, we will steer you toward the closed-cell flash rather than batt alone: cooled interior air against uninsulated steel in a Texas summer is the one combination that reliably makes water.

Worth planning for the condensate line too. A mini split running unattended for weeks should drain somewhere you have looked at, not into a pan nobody is emptying.

A one-trip 40′ high-cube container — a box that has made a single ocean crossing, not a twenty-year-old unit with a history. Finished interior dimensions are about 8′3″ floor to ceiling and 7′ wall to wall, for 320 square feet.

Walls are framed in 2×4 inside the corrugation (2×6 on 24″ centers is an upgrade), insulated, and panelled. We do not use Sheetrock on the walls — panel products travel better on a trailer and stay put.

Vinyl plank laid over the original container decking. No other treatment as standard; we will seal the deck first on request.

Some municipalities prohibit shipping containers as dwellings or accessory structures inside city limits, and the rules differ from town to town. Where the ordinance is written about appearance, wrapping the container in wood or lap siding sometimes satisfies it. Where the ordinance names intermodal containers directly, siding will not change the answer.

Please talk to your local building official before you place a deposit — one phone call saves everyone a hard conversation later. Tell us what they say and we will build to what they will approve if we can.

No. We are not pursuing park model RV certification right now. The licensing process requires engineering and recurring inspections, and we are not big enough yet to carry those costs without putting them on your invoice.

That makes these cabins a good fit for land where a structure permit, an accessory building permit, or no permit at all is the path — and a poor fit anywhere that requires a certification label on the unit.

Where it applies, we are willing to build to IBC Section 3115, the section covering intermodal shipping containers. Send us what your inspector requires and we will tell you straight whether we can meet it.

Deliveries are in-state. Inside our service area around Goliad we install everything the cabin comes with, including the mini split on a Classic.

Outside it, some work is better done by someone near you, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise. Three things are always arranged locally:

• The electrical hookup. Your electrician ties the panel to your service and pulls the local permit.
• The plumbing tie-in. Plumbing terminates under the bath; your plumber vents it and connects to septic or sewer.
• The mini split, if you are far from us. The Classic can be ordered with it deleted for $31,200 — that credit is what the unit and the installation cost us, not a discount off the option price.

On that last one: a machine installed by someone two hundred miles away is a warranty two hundred miles away. A local installer who wants your maintenance work is worth more to you than we are. We would rather you have that than have us drive it out.

A third-party hauler brings it on an F-350 with a tilt-bed trailer, at current market rates for at-grade delivery. Deliveries are in-state.

Two numbers to check before you order: the truck needs about 65 feet to turn around, and overhead clearance along the route generally runs 11 to 15 feet. Above a certain finished size and weight the haul goes on a semi instead, which changes both of those.

Piers sunk in the ground with cement blocks and a metal tie-down work well and are what most of our customers do. Have it ready before the delivery date — the hauler sets the cabin on whatever is there if the truck can reach it without special ramps.

If your foundation is above grade — piers with real height, or a foundation wall — you will need to arrange a telehandler or a crane. Steps, the landing and the tie-down are on your side.

Between 18,000 and 20,000 pounds finished, depending on model and options. Worth knowing if your access crosses a cattle guard, a culvert or soft ground.

The cabin ships with the exterior electrical panel only — no cord and no feeder — so your electrician makes the final hookup to your service and pulls the local permit. On the 160 the panel is mounted on the back wall, which keeps every run inside the cabin short. Battery-powered smoke and CO detectors are included.

A 160 leaves here wired on seven circuits:

• Two 20A kitchen counter circuits, GFCI protected
• One 20A dedicated for an air fryer or convection oven
• One 15A dedicated for the refrigerator — deliberately not shared with a counter GFCI, so a nuisance trip while you are away does not cost you a freezer full of food
• One 20A for general lighting and receptacles: a pair either side of the futon, a pair on the opposite wall under the window and by the door, and one in the loft
• One 20A dedicated for the bathroom receptacle, GFCI protected
• One 20A dedicated for air conditioning

Two of those are code rather than preference: bathroom receptacles have to sit on their own circuit, and a kitchen counter needs two. We build to it whether or not anyone inspects your site.

Plumbing terminates under the cabin beneath the bathroom, for your plumber to vent and tie into the on-site septic.

On the Classic 160 a mini split heat-and-air unit is standard, with the head mounted high on the kitchen end wall so it throws the length of the cabin.

On the Sport and Comfort the cabin arrives with a dedicated 20A circuit and a receptacle at the window sized for a unit, so you can install your own. A mini split is $2,900 installed on either one if you would rather have it done before delivery.

We steer people toward a mini split rather than a window or through-wall unit for a reason worth knowing. The smallest window units are still oversized for 160 square feet, so they cool fast, shut off, and never run long enough to pull water out of the air. You end up with a clammy cabin — and humid air against insulated steel is the one thing this whole building envelope is designed to prevent. An inverter mini split runs long and low and actually dries the room.

A ceiling cassette is not an option here, in case you were wondering: it needs a foot of space above the ceiling and there isn't any. The ceiling assembly sits tight against the container deck.

Sprayed, in three grades:

• Sport — dewaxed shellac, two coats. Warm on plywood, repairs invisibly because a fresh coat melts into the old one. Sealed rather than finished, and priced that way.
• Comfort — waterborne satin polyurethane, two coats. Washable, and it will not amber the pine over time.
• Classic — waterborne satin, three coats with a sanding pass between, plus sprayed acrylic-alkyd enamel on the chair rail, casing and lower panel. The painted work is where the hours go.

We do not use penetrating oil, and it is a production decision rather than a preference. Oil cures slowly, and a cabin is closed up and on a trailer within days — it would still be off-gassing when you opened the door.

It depends on the size, and for a good reason.

Every 320 gets a 30-gallon tall electric heater — a double-element 4500W unit with a six-year warranty. Electric is simpler to install and, once it is in, it is a thing you never have to think about again: no gas line, no venting, no seasonal service.

Every 160 gets an outdoor propane tankless instead, mounted on the back wall behind the bathroom, rated 5.3 GPM at 130,000 BTU. A 30-gallon tank takes about two square feet of floor, and in a 160 square-foot cabin that is more than one percent of the whole building spent on something that can hang outside. Tankless also has no standby loss, which matters on a cabin that sits empty between hunting weekends.

The same tankless is the same size on all three 160s. Hot water is not a place we think it makes sense to economize — a cold shower is the thing people remember.

Two things to plan for with propane: you will need a tank sized to the burner (a 100 lb bottle will not keep up with a 130,000 BTU appliance in cold weather — a 120-gallon tank or a leased 250 is the right call), and the unit needs 110V power for its freeze protection, so leave the breaker on through the winter or drain it at the valve we install for that purpose.

The Comfort and Classic get a pantry built into the wall between the refrigerator and the bathroom — two stacked pull-outs running floor to ceiling, on full-extension slides, faced to match the kitchen. We build them here rather than buying a cart, so they match the cabinets, survive the trip and survive a humid summer.

The Classic adds narrow open shelves in the bath between the shower and the window.

Furniture is not included on any model. It is the one thing buyers want to pick themselves, it is easy to source locally, and it travels badly. The futon you see in the photographs is there to show the room, not the invoice.

The Comfort comes with a contractor-quality package and the Classic with an upgraded one. The Sport comes with none, on purpose — buyers at that level usually have their own plan. We will tell you exactly what fits: a 20″ electric range and a roughly 7 cubic-foot refrigerator no more than 21 to 23 inches deep keep the walkway clear.

Yes — a ceiling vent fan wired to run whenever the bathroom light is on. There is no separate switch to forget.

Eight to ten weeks once the unit is in the shop. What moves a date is almost never the carpentry — it is the pre-order items (the container itself, mineral wool, some doors, cabinets) and getting the third-party electrician on the calendar.

Payment is made in installments ahead of the work at each stage. The warranty is one year.

We do sell them. A recent one went out with two side windows, an entry door and the wall framed three feet inside the cargo door area — framing only — to a retired coach who is finishing it with friends as a hunting cabin. Tell us how far you want us to take it and we will price that point.

Yes. Alongside the 160 and the 320 we build 480 square-foot cabins, and we build to other footprints entirely — including small site offices and guard shacks down to 8×10 with steel framing, spray foam, commercial-grade flooring and HVAC. If you have a use that does not fit a 40-foot box, describe it and we will tell you what it takes.