Ben Gotti's finished shipping-container home in Fort Pierce, Florida — black steel containers, red railings, wraparound porch and rooftop deck
Gotti Container Homes
Fort Pierce, Florida

Gotti
Container Homes

I built it. Now I'll teach you.

This is my house — shipping containers, steel stem walls, and a concrete roof deck, built by my own hands in Fort Pierce. If you're serious about building a container home of your own, I'll walk you through how it's actually done.

Book a Consultation See the Build
01 — The House

Not a concept. A home.

Most container-home advice comes from people who've never set a container. This one is different: it's the house I live in — designed, permitted, and built right here in Fort Pierce, Florida.

The containers don't sit on a slab and hope for the best. They stand on steel-reinforced stem walls — the front wall alone weighs about 198,000 lbs, the rear about 245,000 — they're welded together into a single piece with #5 rebar along the full length of every container, and the whole structure is anchored with Nelson stud plates and continuous angle iron. On top sits a poured concrete roof deck — nearly eighty thousand pounds of cured concrete — with a rooftop deck above it for the view.

Black steel. Red rails. Built like it means it — because it has to stand up to Florida weather and Florida building code.

Front elevation of the Gotti container home — wide stone steps, red porch railings, glass double doors and rooftop deck railing
Front elevation — twin glass entries, wraparound porch, and the rooftop deck railing above.
32 × 32 ft Concrete roof deck — 8 inches thick, poured over the containers
~77,000 lbs 19 yards of 4,000 PSI fiber-reinforced concrete in the roof pour
198k / 245k lbs Front and rear stem walls — 32 ft long, 9 ft tall, 3 ft wide, steel-reinforced concrete
30 days Cure time on the roof deck before it carried a load
Stem Walls
Concrete stem walls 32 ft long, 9 ft tall — 6 ft out of the ground, 3 ft in it — and 3 ft wide, with continuous 5/8″ (#5) rebar run in eight rows in each wall. Front wall ≈ 198,000 lbs; rear wall ≈ 245,000 lbs.
One Piece of Steel
The containers are welded together with #5 rebar along the full 40 ft of each container — the entire house is one welded piece, nothing separate.
Anchoring
8×8 Nelson stud plates set 36 inches down into the wall and tied into the rebar. A continuous 4×4×½″ angle runs the full 32 ft along the wall top, welded to the studs and bolted to the concrete — the containers sit between the angles and are continuously welded to them.
Roof Deck
Standing beams inside the house, every 3 ft, shored the roof for the pour. 3×3×¼″ angle iron is welded all the way around the roof base; 32 rows of #4 bar run each way — a 1 ft × 1 ft grid — held up on 2-inch stands inside the 8-inch slab, with 6-gauge highway mesh on top.
02 — The Build

How it went up, in order

Every container build lives or dies on sequence. Here's the order this one was built in — no shortcuts, no skipped steps.

01

Permitting & Plans

Before any steel moved: engineered plans, permits, and a design the county would actually approve. This is where most container dreams stall — and where this build started.

02

Stem Walls

Concrete stem walls went in first — 32 ft long, 9 ft tall, 3 ft wide — reinforced with continuous 5/8″ rebar in eight rows per wall. The front wall runs about 198,000 lbs and the rear about 245,000: a raised, engineered foundation instead of a flat slab.

03

Setting the Containers

The containers were set down between continuous 4×4×½″ angle iron running the full length of each wall — the angle welded to 8×8 Nelson stud plates sunk 36 inches into the wall and bolted to the concrete. Then the containers were continuously welded to the angle and the walls. They will never move.

04

Welding It Into One Piece

Every container was welded to the next with #5 rebar along its full 40 feet — separate boxes became a single piece of steel, and the welds had to be precise, because the welds are the skeleton.

05

The Roof Deck

First, standing beams went in inside the house every 3 ft to shore the roof up. Then 3×3×¼″ angle iron was welded around the roof base, 32 rows of #4 bar ran each way on 2-inch stands — a 1×1 ft grid — with 6-gauge highway mesh on top. Over it: 19 yards of 4,000 PSI fiber-reinforced concrete, about 77,000 lbs, poured 8 inches thick and cured a full 30 days. The rooftop deck sits on top of it.

06

Sweating, Insulation & Cold AC

Steel sweats in Florida heat if you let it. The build finished with the insulation and air-conditioning strategy that keeps a steel house dry inside and cold on demand.

The full build, on camera

The whole process is being documented episode by episode on Ben's upcoming YouTube channel — the permits, the pour, the welds, and the mistakes you'd rather learn from than repeat. Follow along, then bring your questions to a consultation.

Ask Ben Directly
03 — Consulting

Building your own? Talk to someone who's done it.

  • Permitting Guidance

    What inspectors and building departments actually want to see from a container project, and how to get your plans in front of them in approvable shape.

  • Plans Review

    A builder's read on your drawings before you spend real money — where the design fights the steel, and where the steel wins.

  • Structure & Welding Approach

    Foundations, anchoring, and how to join containers so the finished house behaves like one structure — the stem-wall and weld approach used on this build.

  • Insulation & AC Strategy

    Condensation is the silent killer of container homes. How to insulate and cool a steel house so it stays dry, comfortable, and mold-free.

A consultation is a straight conversation with Ben — your land, your plans, your questions — answered by the man who permitted, welded, and poured his own container home and now lives in it.

No sales pitch and no theory. If a container build is the wrong move for your situation, he'll tell you that too.

Call 772-275-8595 Email Ben
04 — About Ben

Ben Gotti — builder, owner, operator

Ben Gotti is a hands-on builder based in Fort Pierce, Florida. He didn't hire out his container home and he didn't learn it from videos — he engineered the approach, pulled the permits, set the steel, and stood on the deck while 19 yards of concrete went down.

He also co-runs Ben Mark Hangar Maintenance with his business partner Mark — an aircraft hangar maintenance business where steel, structure, and doing the job right aren't decoration, they're the whole job. That background is all over this house: the stem walls, the anchoring, the welds. Ben is a steel-and-structure guy, not a theorist.

Gotti Container Homes is Ben taking what he learned building his own place and putting it to work for the next person who wants to do it right.

05 — Contact

Let's talk about your build

Call or email to book a consultation. Tell Ben where your land is, where you are in the process, and what you're stuck on — he'll take it from there.

Phone 772-275-8595

Call to book a consultation or talk through your project.

Email bengotti@gottiproductions.com

Send your plans, your lot details, or just your questions.

Based In Fort Pierce, Florida

Consulting for container-home builders, wherever your land is.