Container Bunkies,An Insulated Sleeping Cabin, Delivered Finished.

A bunkie is a small, insulated sleeping cabin — a guest room, a bunk room for the kids, or an extra bedroom on a lake lot or an acreage — built as its own little building instead of an addition. Ours starts as a shipping container: we cut in a steel door and sliding windows, frame, insulate and line it, and finish the inside in our Kamloops yard, then deliver it finished. The electrical rough-in is done there by a licensed electrician we contract.

It is quoted per design. A 20' with a door, two windows, insulation, a lining and power is not the same job as a 40' with a washroom, so instead of a starting price you get one itemized quote: the container, every modification from our published price list, finishing, delivery and the set. Send a layout and an address and you see every line before you commit.

Ask your municipality or regional district before you order one. Anything with a bed in it is occupied space, and whether yours is classed as an accessory building, a sleeping cabin or a second dwelling unit decides the permit, the drawings and whether an engineer's seal is required. Adding a washroom or a kitchen is the change most likely to move it from one category to another. Tell us the civic address and the real use, and we lay it out to what applies there.

Same family of build, smaller scope. A garden suite or ADU is a self-contained dwelling with a kitchen, a bathroom and its own services. A container home, or modular home, is a full house and often more than one container. A bunkie is a room to sleep in — often no kitchen, sometimes no plumbing at all — so it is a shorter list of work and a shorter list of rules. All three are occupied space, which is why all three are quoted per design rather than priced from a menu.

That comes down to the insulation, and we spec it for your site and the season you plan to use it rather than from a default. Closed-cell spray foam air-seals a steel shell; rock wool and rigid foam are options where the use or the budget is different; undercarriage foam keeps the floor off cold ground. A mini-split on the pre-wired circuit heats and cools it if the bunkie is a year-round room.

Yes. The Container Studio is our 3D configurator: pick a size and condition, drag the door and the windows along the walls, choose framing and insulation, and look at the shell from every side before anyone cuts steel. Priced modifications move the estimate as you add them, and the parts of a bunkie that depend on a design — the washroom, the finishes, anything engineered — are listed on your build and quoted instead of priced.

Usually. A straight, clear run down the side of the house and our tilt-deck backs it in; no run, and a crane lifts it over. We check the access before we quote and price the delivery to what it actually is. A bunkie can be lifted and moved again later, though a new site means new approvals.

A 20ft is the usual bunkie, and a 40ft high cube makes sense when it has to hold two beds or a washroom and still feel like a room. Inside, a 20ft has about 150 square feet of floor and a 40ft about 300. A standard 20ft is about 7ft 10in high inside before insulation, and once insulated and lined the ceiling can end up under 7ft 6in, while a high cube starts at about 8ft 10in. Valleyview tells you which one your layout needs.

Either can work: the base is chosen for the layout and confirmed in your itemized quote. A bunkie can start from an inspected used container or a new one-trip unit; choose new when you want clean steel and a floor nobody has loaded. Container floors are factory-treated plywood, which should be properly covered or replaced in a room people sleep in, so ask how your floor finish handles that.

Yes, as a partitioned washroom with a toilet, vanity and shower, plus a mechanical space behind it for fresh-water and waste tanks, a water heater and a pump. It is quoted per design because how it is serviced depends entirely on your property, and it usually points to a 40ft high cube so the room still fits a bed. Adding a washroom is the change most likely to move a bunkie into a different building category, so ask your local government first. A licensed plumber makes the final connections.

Yes. As a sleeping cabin it can stay simple, with no kitchen and sometimes no plumbing. The electrical rough-in is built for your electrician to connect to whatever the property has, whether that’s the grid, a generator or a solar setup. If you want heat from a mini-split on the pre-wired circuit, ask your electrician to size the generator or solar setup for it. Describe the road in when you ask for a quote, including gates, grades and seasonal access, so the delivery can be planned.

Close it up dry before winter: keep the roof, vents and drainage clear, don’t leave wet items inside, and ask your plumber how to protect any washroom tanks, water heater and pump from freezing. Take the highest-value items home rather than relying on the lock. In spring, check the door seals, the roof and whether the bunkie is still level after the thaw. If you are still ordering, tell Valleyview it will be a seasonal cabin, because the insulation spec follows the season you plan to use it.

It can, so plan the insulation for it. When warm, damp air inside meets cold steel, the moisture drops onto the steel whether or not the shell leaks, and heating on and off is harder on a container than no heat at all. Closed-cell spray foam seals the steel so that air never reaches it, and the insulation has to be continuous, because any gap leaves cold steel exposed. Between stays, keep the vents clear and use desiccant; an extractor fan can be added, quoted per design.

Start with the steel it already has. The 36-inch steel entry door comes with a commercial lockset and the sliding windows have security bars, both from Valleyview’s published modification list. If the cargo doors stay in your layout, ask about a welded lock box over a puck lock as a modification. Face the entry toward the house or main cabin where you can, keep brush trimmed and add a motion light, photograph the unit number, and ask your insurer what cover applies to the bunkie and its contents.

Riparian and floodplain rules can add to the usual ones, so ask your local government before you choose the spot. Ask for the setback from the water or the top of the bank, whether a floodplain elevation applies, whether the lot is in a development permit area, and how sewage from any washroom would be handled. Get the distances in writing, then send them to Valleyview with the civic address so the bunkie is laid out and placed to suit.

Valleyview can build one: bunk space from the same steel it delivers for farm and ranch storage, finished for sleeping. Whether it can go on your land is your local government’s call, because people sleep in it, so ask how it would be classified before you order. If the land is in the Agricultural Land Reserve, say so on your first call, because it can change which offices you deal with. Beds for a work crew are closer to camp housing, which Valleyview builds from 40ft high cubes.

Tell Valleyview and your local government the real use before anything is drawn. A backyard office, art studio or gym with a bed in it is a mix that can change what your municipality or regional district calls the building, and that decides the permit and what goes on the drawings. If nobody will sleep in it, a container office is a simpler build priced from the published modification menu. If someone will, it is planned and quoted as a bunkie.

A level, firm foundation that is ready before delivery day, chosen for your site and for what your municipality requires. Where the building department asks for engineered drawings, the foundation and anchoring details are on them. Level matters, because a container that settles or racks won’t close its doors squarely. The bunkie package covers delivering it and setting it on your foundation, and your quote shows which site work is and isn’t included.

Permit fees set by your local government, plus any septic design or connection fees, which are outside Valleyview’s quote. Budget too for the foundation and any other site work, unless your quote lists them. Your electrician’s final hookup and electrical permit are separate, and so is a plumber’s work if the bunkie has a washroom. Ask whether the engineer’s fees, and any energy advisor your municipality requires, are in your quote or billed separately. A sleeping cabin with no plumbing is a shorter itemized list.

Wherever the bed isn’t. In a room this small, the openings decide where a bed fits and where the light comes in, so they are laid out on the floor plan before anything is cut. The 36-inch steel entry door and sliding windows with screens and security bars come from Valleyview’s published modification list. Because people sleep in it, ask your building department whether a bedroom window has to meet an emergency-exit size before the drawings are final.

Ask your local government first, because adding a kitchen is one of the changes most likely to move a bunkie into a different building category, such as a second dwelling unit. Any sink needs water in and a drain out, from tanks or a tie-in to your services, and that is quoted per design. Once a bunkie has its own kitchen, bathroom and services, Valleyview plans and quotes it as a garden suite.

Address and use first, then the layout, then drawings and one itemized quote, and nothing is cut until you have both. Where your municipality asks for engineered drawings, Valleyview coordinates permit-ready ones and you apply for the permit. The bunkie is built in Kamloops, and you can walk through it before it ships. The build runs to a committed date in your quote, approval timing depends on your municipality, and delivery is by tilt-deck or, with no straight run in, by crane.

A standard container has a pair of steel cargo doors at one end, with the hinges welded to the frame, and both doors should swing and lock cleanly. The door opening is about five inches lower than the interior ceiling. If you need access from both ends or along the side, look at a double-door or side-door container, or ask about cutting in a man door or roll-up door as a modification.

Each container is checked against a set list before sale: the doors and seals, looking for daylight around the gaskets; the roof and seams for pinholes; the floor for soft, swollen or soaked boards; the corner castings for bends or impact damage; exterior rust; and the CSC plate and unit number. Valleyview then gives an accurate condition description, so ask for the notes on any unit you’re quoted. You can run the same checks yourself when you look at a unit.

Walk the route from the road to the drop spot and clear it. Confirm gate width and overhead space, move parked vehicles, mark utility lines, and clear the drop area of debris, vehicles and other obstructions. Make sure the spot itself is firm, dry and level. On the day, keep children, pets and everyone else back while the operator works.

Call Valleyview before delivery day. The drop spot and the path to it need to be firm and load-bearing, for the truck and for the container, and soft or muddy ground may need firming up or a gravel pad before the drop can go ahead. Delivery dates are agreed when you order, and weather or site-access problems can delay a delivery.

There is no fixed number of years. How long a container lasts depends on its foundation and drainage, how much weather and salt air it sees, whether it was new or used when you bought it, and how well it is maintained. A solid, level, well-drained base is the biggest single factor. After that, keep the roof clear, treat rust as it appears and look after the door seals.

Yes. Get the setbacks, coverage limit and any height limit for your lot first, then choose the size. Mark the footprint on the ground where the container will sit, check it against those numbers, and leave room for the doors to swing open and for the delivery truck to line up and back in. If a 20ft will not fit the space the rules leave you, a 10ft has half the footprint.

No. Open the Valleyview Container Studio and start designing, with no sign-up. Your name, email and phone are asked only when you send the design for a quote, download the build summary or save the tour video, and that browser remembers them for next time. Valleyview uses them only to follow up on your design. The studio is free to use, and nothing is ordered or paid for inside it.

It can work, once the floor is dealt with. Container plywood floors are treated with insecticide and fungicide at the factory as a quarantine requirement, so for food, feed or animals the deck should be covered properly or replaced, and never dry-sanded. Valleyview can overlay or replace the deck in its yard before delivery. Keep bags on shelving or pallets and control condensation with vents or desiccant. Perishables need refrigeration: a reefer, or a converted container fitted with a refrigeration unit.