Shipping Container Housing

[Player 3]

http://dornob.com/boring-or-brilliant-simple-shipping-container-house-plans/

Sure, these have been popular in third world countries as housing, but why not crank the style-o-meter to eleven and use them for modern architecture? Being inexpensive ($3000 for a used one sometimes and fetching less on other sizes), it leaves the designer more budget room to fabricate and furbish how they want their new hobo-I mean home to look like.

Examples:




Since land is cheaper in the US due to its size, why not buy a lot somewhere and build one of these? They almost look like they could be good anti-storm material, sans really high winds. I always wanted to design my own.

[ark_ader]

Yeah I can just see the container truck getting up my narrow driveway and leaving it behind.  Containers belong in a port.

Building a outside office or garage sounds like a better proposition.


Minus the Mac.

[SavannahLion]

Shipping containers are pretty popular here, and there are a few locations I now of where they're being used as offices, homes*, etc.

It's a perfectly viable option. The first time I got the idea was from a Jacki Chan movie. When I got snubbed on the ordinances trying to build a cinder block workspace for my wife, we started looking into a shipping container option. The ordinances aren't as bad but my wife doesn't feel comfortable working with molten glass on a floating "foundation". I'm OK with it for my own work space, but my wife doesn't like the idea of spending $3k give or take for a big steel box.  Go figure.


* In case the link is dead, it is a news article of a family adding a second story to their home in Tulare, CA.

[ChadTower]

You'd spend more insulating those in a wintery climate than it would save.

...and the land sure as hell ain't cheap here.

[Yenome]

skip houseing time to build a shipping container arcade woot. I know a guy that if there is enough room for the truck to get in he can back any trailer up to where you need it long as it will fit width wise.

[Samstag]

I've heard the lining on those things is a bit toxic and that it's a lot of work to clean them out before you can start building them up.

If you want cheap housing you're probably better off using salvage wood.  We used to sometimes get enormous (wide load permit) wooden containers at work and we had a guy make a nice hunting cabin out of them.

[Howard_Casto]

I've heard the lining on those things is a bit toxic and that it's a lot of work to clean them out before you can start building them up.

If you want cheap housing you're probably better off using salvage wood.  We used to sometimes get enormous (wide load permit) wooden containers at work and we had a guy make a nice hunting cabin out of them.

Yup, wood is cheaper and easier to build with.  2x4's generally run about $2.50 a stud in most areas.  So you can build a 12'  long 2x4 wall for around 30 bucks.  I built a 12x12 work building a few years back for well under 1000 bucks.  It's nicely finished, up on blocks, and has beefy 2x12 floor joists too.  And because it's wood you can do things like hang something on the wall or attach shelves ect... without any effort.  If your structure is made out of realitively thin steel you woudln't be able to do any of that.

[drventure]

My brother's in San francisco, living on a yacht (well, that's what he calls it anyway) in the bay. He picked up one to serve as an office for a vinyl printing business he has, and it worked out so well, he picked up a second and connected them for more space.

However, he spent a few $$ putting framing, some insulation and drywall on the inside (so you can hang stuff on the walls and run AC or heat reasonably well.

Being in SF, he got the boxes for almost free, though.

[CCM]

Metal is toxic?   

Right, all shipping containers are bare metal... none of them have been treated with any kind of waterproof/mold resistant coatings that may be harmful if you lived in one...   

[SavannahLion]

Metal is toxic?   

Right, all shipping containers are bare metal... none of them have been treated with any kind of waterproof/mold resistant coatings that may be harmful if you lived in one...   

Are they not painted inside and out? Maybe that is what he means?

[Louis Tully]

.

[HaRuMaN]

Yeah, you can't bury those without doing a lot of reinforcing.

[Louis Tully]

.

[ChadTower]

And because it's wood you can do things like hang something on the wall or attach shelves ect... without any effort.  If your structure is made out of realitively thin steel you woudln't be able to do any of that.

Magnets.

[Samstag]

Metal is toxic?   

Seriously?

But apparently the problem is the pesticide-heavy wood floors used in most containers.

[Samstag]

Shipping containers aren't made out of lead or mercury.

Wooden floors can be replaced.  Did you even read that thread you linked?

  x 10,000

You don't need to be such a ---pinballjim--- about it.

[ChadTower]

You don't need to be such a ---pinballjim--- about it.

Are you new here?   

[ChadTower]

Contrast that with a saw, hammer, and pile of 2x4s.

Here you can't build anything over 120sqft without a foundation.  Not even a shed.

[danny_galaga]

Also, shipping containers look ugly. Someone has one set up around the corner from a friends. I think they are using it as a shed. My sister and boyfriend thought about getting one to use as a sound studio. I reckon by the time they filled it with sound proofing and heat insulation, there'd be no room left...

[Howard_Casto]

Also, shipping containers look ugly. Someone has one set up around the corner from a friends. I think they are using it as a shed. My sister and boyfriend thought about getting one to use as a sound studio. I reckon by the time they filled it with sound proofing and heat insulation, there'd be no room left...

Yeah that's sort of what I was getting at in my post. 

It's just metal so you'll have to insulate it... and since it's metal you'll have to build 2x4 stud walls....which could just as easily be the exterior walls.  So you've essentially made your cramped space even smaller and on the inside you've built a shed anyway, so why not just build the shed?  Essentially you are using the box as exterior sheeting, and that's silly because you can get metal or wood exterior sheeting for as little as 10 bucks for a 4'x8' sheet!

[SavannahLion]

Contrast that with a saw, hammer, and pile of 2x4s.

Here you can't build anything over 120sqft without a foundation.  Not even a shed.

Around here, you're limited to 100sqft (or 120, can't quite remember) for your shed. That means ,I can build one 10x10 shed or two 7x7 sheds but not a 10x10 and another shed of any size. Shipping containers however..... Of course there is that annoying "visible from the street" nonsense.