What this compound is

Saved layouts

The acre you are working on saves itself. Keep a copy here when you want to come back to it, or try something without losing it.

What the drawing is telling you

• Blue — a glazed aperture: the container's factory door end, where the glass and the entry door go. Nothing is cut into a wall.
• Even dash, blue-gray — a utility run from a wet unit to the core, and the 30 ft ring around the core itself.
• Long dash, red — a code finding. Every one is also written out under Code findings in the summary.
• Red hatching — the gap between two units that sit 1–9 ft apart, which needs a fire-resistance-rated wall on each facing side (VRC R302.1).
• Dash-dot — the property line. The lighter dashed square inside it is the setback envelope.
• Green block — the septic drainfield. Keep units, the drive and the well clear of it.

Designed within Virginia limits

• The 256 sq ft exemption is about use, not size. VCC 108.2 / VRC R105.2 exempt detached accessory structures "used as tool and storage sheds, playhouses and similar uses". A sleeping, kitchen, bath, dining, living or office unit is none of those, so no size gets it out of a building permit — this tool only applies the 256 sq ft test to storage units and decks. Exemption from a permit is also never exemption from the code (USBC 108.2), and an accessory structure assumes a principal dwelling already on the parcel.
• Butting units together sums their area into one structure. That is why the drawing outlines a joined storage cluster once it passes 256 sq ft — the exemption is read per structure, not per box.
• “Rated” on the drawing means a fire-resistance-rated wall. Two buildings on one lot that sit 1–9 ft apart each need a rated wall on the facing side and are limited in glazing (VRC R302.1); at 10 ft or more, neither does. Butting them together avoids it entirely, which is why the drawing suggests either. Note the same rule is measured to the property line as well, which this tool does not model — a glazed door end close to a boundary may be allowed no openings at all.
• A “wet unit” is any unit with plumbing — the kitchen, the bathhouse, the baths and the laundry. The utility core is the laundry / utility unit that carries the water supply and drain; the drawing rings it at 30 ft and flags any wet unit outside that ring, because longer runs mean more trench, more fall to hold and more to freeze.
• Plumbed and electrified units (kitchen, baths, laundry) still need trade permits and inspections, and any unit used for sleeping or dwelling can trigger full residential code compliance — talk to your county building department early.
• High cube (9′6″) containers leave roughly an 8′ finished ceiling after closed-cell spray foam — comfortably above the 7′0″ habitable-space minimum (VRC R305).
• Habitable rooms need 70 sq ft and a 7′ minimum dimension (VRC R304). So every habitable unit — sleeping, kitchen, dining, living, office — rides a 20′ box (~135 sq ft interior), and wall build-up is capped at 3½″ per side to land interior width near 7′2″, clear of the minimum. The 10′ minis are reserved for non-habitable roles: bath, laundry, hobby/storage.
• The sleeping unit is a tunnel container: two independent glazed egress doors in the factory apertures (VRC R310) — no cut openings.
• Habitable units carry interconnected smoke + CO alarms (VRC R314/R315), and every wet room gets mechanical exhaust (R303.3) ducted through the floor.
• Containers sit on pier foundations with footings below frost depth (18–24″ across most of Virginia).
• Zoning, setbacks, and well/septic rules vary by county and are not modeled here.

Fabrication rules

• No field cuts to walls or roof. Every opening is a factory aperture: container door ends, or the factory side doors of an open-side box. This skips most cutting and welding and keeps the box's structure and warranty-grade weather envelope intact.
• The original cargo doors stay on their hinges as operable storm/security shutters, parked open against the walls; an insulated glazed wall with an outswing entry door sits just inside each aperture.
• Utilities enter through the wood floor (already non-structural to drill): supply, drains, and electrical all rise from below. The one wall exception is a single ~3″ lineset sleeve per mini-split.
• Every 20′ box is a tunnel (sleeping, kitchen, bathhouse, bath + laundry) or an open-side (dining, living, office) — no single-door 20-footers. The 10′ minis are the only standard one-door boxes.
• All door end and open-side glazing is tempered safety glass (VRC R308), and every aperture gets a fitted insect-screen panel for open-wall season.
• Heat is all-electric (mini-splits, panel heaters, an electric fireplace in the living unit) — no flues, so the no-cut rule holds for the roof too.
• Wet units want to sit inside the utility core's 30′ ring (shown on the ground) to keep plumbing trenches short; the bathhouse carries its own tankless water heater.