Would you live in a house built from shipping containers ?

I would love to do something like this, But my local zoning laws won't allow it...


Yet they allow "Manufactured Homes" (ie, trailers),
that dissolve into sawdust when they get the slightest bit wet!

I think I could live in a container house, if the house will look like this



or this

< br /> Images from www.prefabcontainerhomes.org...

Container homes are protected from earthquakes and these homes can be delivered by helicopter anywhere.

if i live alone, or with one of my friend.
i doesnt have any problem at all.

but if i have a family, ill probably gonna find other house

btw, im also want to know how strong does this container house is.

can it stand wind, quake and some other things.

You know..I've been looking into cheaper alternatives for building myself a home on some property,and I just don't think this is the way for me to go.
The sad part is I have a used shipping container place a couple of blocks from me,but in the midwest we have plenty of tornados and earth tremors, and I just can't see those holding up to mother nature.What I have been looking into is earthship homes or cob houses.I'll post a link in case someone hasn't seen them before,but I'm sure most of you have.You just build with what you have at hand and some are down right beautiful.
www.youtube.com...
There are many many other videos on this out there.

reply to post by SupersonicSerpent


What a brilliant idea. I could quite happily live in the one built in the woods

Another concept that could be used is train carriages. Once all the seats have been stripped out they can be quite spacious.

In emergencies where large areas have been damaged and homes destroyed why don't they utilize these various items to replace housing quickly and efficiently and get people back on their feet asap

Originally posted by rickymouse
I get a lot of lightning at my house. I'm not sure I would want to live in a metal faraday cage. What if it is lightning outside? You have to wait till it quits before entering your home? Opening the door as lightning hits the building is a little to enlightening for me.

I hope you stay away from the plumbing and telephone line of your regular home in that case. They can be just as hazardous.

it is a good idea. my advice would be to "bury" them underground, which would provide nice insulation against heat and cold.

hopefully non of the "informal settlers" here read this. next thing you know i will see a "container apartment building", 9 high and split up into good sized houses with about 3 families each container. and hey when they are "evicted" they would be easy to move and set up somewhere else.

I've often imagined old ones being recycled [Sand blasted and cleaned] then shipped to third world countries as shelters.

Beats a dilapidated wooden hut that easily gets blown over in winds or collapse due to Earth tremors.

imho

Originally posted by TruthSeekerMike
I have looked into this pretty extensively and I don't think it's an economical way to go at all. You will still need to finish the interior and insulate the inside very, very well. As well as building a strong foundation for the containers to sit on. You'll also need to use a huge ac and heating unit because that steel will get super hot in the summer and super cold in the winter.

Your points are valid but there are methods to reduce these issues and still get the benefits of modularity, portability and up front structure.

First off, the structure needs to be supported at the four bearing corners and at any additional reinforced crosspoints for off stacked additions. A full slab is not necessary if the structure is engineered correctly.

A full slab or full pier and beam is necessary for a standard stick built home.

Second,
Insulation is not difficult. Metal studs welded in and staggered off of the exterior corrugations for thermal breaks work for supporting interior finish. Sprayed in closed cell foam is very effective for insulating and sealing.

As an example, reefer containers can easily support a subfreezing environment in desert conditions. The full load amps are 35 at 240 during start up and less than 10 during operation. It is more efficient than a standard home air conditioning system while supporting three times the temperature differential.
A properly insulated container will easily handle the maintenance of a human habitation when the AC is sized accordingly.

Of course, containers are not a fix-all and other building methods have their strong points but that's no reason to dismiss containers entirely. There are a lot of nice container homes out there. I actually lived in a container in the desert for several months. It was very comfortable and better sealed and insulated from a hostile environment than most stick built homes could be.

It just needs to be done correctly.

Pretty darn cool to be able to do somethin' like that! ... Or have somebody build you something like that.

reply to post by hiddenF


Yeah, hope it comes with the girl, too.

Well this is a really neat idea. Never considered using shipping containers for a house.

OK damn-it! YES...I would live in shipping containers as long as the interior of my new home is perfect. And perfect is every surface being tiled, all the furniture is made of cement and the middle of each room has a drain...like a shower. That way, when people are coming over, all I have to do is hose out my house.

Originally posted by stormcell

Originally posted by rickymouse
I get a lot of lightning at my house. I'm not sure I would want to live in a metal faraday cage. What if it is lightning outside? You have to wait till it quits before entering your home? Opening the door as lightning hits the building is a little to enlightening for me.

I hope you stay away from the plumbing and telephone line of your regular home in that case. They can be just as hazardous.

A lot of the pines, oaks, and poplar here are over a hundred feet tall. The soils are mineral rich which makes a good electrolytic tree. As long as the trees are here, they take the strikes. I have lost many trees to lightning. I wouldn't feel safe here without the trees, I would have to build a big lightning tower if they weren't here, it would have to be higher than the house.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000
A tractor Trailer???
Sturdy??


Sorry Wrabbit,. not so much
Ive seen plenty of these things fall apart on the freeway when they tip over
and have seen what is left of them when a tornado plays with them,.

They are made of wood, aluminum and rivits and some have plastic panels
may as well be a Winnebago

I have seen shipping containers survive a 50 foot drop from a crane
and survive a tornado also.
Bolt a shipping container to a cement footing and it is hurricane proof
(Of course, providing there is no sea wall coming at you)

Civilian Contractors in Afghanistan live in these things. I won't say they ARE shipping containers, but they look pretty damn close. They can be pretty damn plush. However I wouldn't say they are ideal for raising a family. They are more suited for the Bachelor(ette) life.

I personally wouldn't mind living in a collection of these.

reply to post by SupersonicSerpent


As another has stated the largest downside I see to this is insulation. Without proper insulation this baby would be an icicle in winter and a sauna in the summer, and no way to efficiently regular temperature, even with central HVAC or window units (depending on climate). Plus, there is very little breathing to the establishment should humidity, etc, occur. And then, there's a viable foundation on which to secure it, both so it's anchored and at least above ground enough to not get saturated and flooded. Not to mention echoes should you have neighbors to hear your midnight sounds.

While the concept certainly is cool as hell (and i can imagine arranging these babies in an elaborate and very awesome way (with a welder and structural engineer's help)), it just doesn't seem economical to me.

Originally posted by SupersonicSerpent
you would just need a lighting conductor and earth the building and it would be very safe

Yep.

Electricity always takes the path of least resistance. You just have to design it so that the current will have an easier path to ground from the containers than through you.

reply to post by SupersonicSerpent


The military and various governments have been using CHU's (Container Housing Units) for decades. Quick easy peasy housing solution that is durable and long lasting as long as it is properly maintained. Just like a house.

Originally posted by Lil Drummerboy
reply to post by Wrabbit2000

 

A tractor Trailer???
Sturdy??

Sorry Wrabbit,. not so much
Ive seen plenty of these things fall apart on the freeway when they tip over
and have seen what is left of them when a tornado plays with them,.

They are made of wood, aluminum and rivits and some have plastic panels
may as well be a Winnebago

I have seen shipping containers survive a 50 foot drop from a crane
and survive a tornado also.
Bolt a shipping container to a cement footing and it is hurricane proof
(Of course, providing there is no sea wall coming at you

)

Well, I'm glad you 'saw' them in major accidents. I worked in them, around them and on them for 15 years. I have a different opinion than you and from first hand and direct experience. I do appreciate the contrary opinion though...

..and as noted, in the case of dry van trailers, you'd be right. They appear the same from the outside to a passing motorist but the two trailer types are VERY different. In one example, in using ratcheting/incremental load locks that I bought for produce, I could easily punch those right through the paper thin walls of a dry van trailer (a good kick with steel toe boots on some might have the same effect, actually). On a produce trailer? I've cracked the inner plastic/fiberglass wall panel a couple times....but they were sturdy enough to literally build a stairway out of load locks with 3-4 and each being a bit higher than the last, so I could work on the air chute in the ceiling.

It's no small thing by any stretch to have a horizontal load lock support over 200 lbs of moving weight, roughly dead center in the span ..and stands as a decent practical example of the strength differences and overall performance of those trailers.

If you get a rail configured reefer, you have the benefits of the above plus the hard steel frame going around the outer leading edges for strength. Those are picked up from the ground by the 4 reinforced corners, with full loaded weight as often as not, and then stacked as many as 4 high in rail yards as I've seen them before. They're a whole lot more stable than major accidents with 45,000lbs of flying dead weight inside them during the wreck might indicate.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Trailers are specifically built for transport over highway
while shipping containers are built for shipping AND stacking
Lots of weight pressure.
the rigidity of a shipping container is truly not comparison to a standard
over the road transport trailer.
I do understand the rail version tho
the ones which are fitted with axles for transport