What is a man camp?
Reviewed 2026-10-19 by the Workforce Housing Direct team
A man camp is temporary or semi-permanent crew housing near a remote job site, usually rows of factory-built units with private or shared rooms, plus laundry, dining, and parking. They are common in oilfields, pipelines, mines, and now data center builds. The industry increasingly calls them crew camps or workforce lodges.
What a typical Texas camp includes
- Housing units: 16×76 crew units with 4–7 private rooms and baths, or sleepers without kitchens
- Support buildings: dining hall or shared kitchens, laundry, recreation, office
- Site: gravel pads, parking for work trucks, lighting, security gate
- Utilities: water (municipal, well, or hauled), septic or sewer, 3-phase or service-drop power
Who runs them
Some employers buy units and run the camp themselves. Others pay a camp operator per bed per night. Independent landowners also build camps and rent to contractors. See units for camp operators.
Skid houses, bunkhouses, and crew units
These are mostly the same thing with different frames. Skid houses sit on steel skids. Bunkhouses and crew units sit on a steel chassis and move like a manufactured home. See our floor plans.
Related questions
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