Living in a Shipping Container - Printable Version

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Living in a Shipping Container - Atlantic - 08-01-2013





I have always liked the look and idea of living in a house made out of shipping containers.

Its a cheap construction method and results is an unique living space.

Does anyone have any experience with building these?

A little research shows that a brand new 40x8 ft container can be bought close to where I live for around $5,000.

Its something I have been looking into as a project for next year.

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Living in a Shipping Container - Laner - 08-01-2013

I worked on some of them. They were a bit of a fad a few years back, but the lack of knowledge among the "Green Intelligentsia" made them fairly expensive for what you could get.

If you have the skills to cut, weld and outfit one, they can be good. But for most people its cheaper to buy the lumber to build one out of wood.

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Living in a Shipping Container - T and A Man - 08-01-2013

I looked into it as well. $5,000 isn't that cheap for the material you are offered.

You may as well go to a salvage yard and buy ~400ft of your own SHS and weld your own frame.

With that taken care of, you can then probably put on better cladding (in terms of insulation) than the steel walls of a container.

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Living in a Shipping Container - iknowexactly - 08-01-2013

zoning can be a big problem with anything not mainstream

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Living in a Shipping Container - DLZ - 08-01-2013

First one is cool as hell.

What are the heating options?

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Living in a Shipping Container - Aliblahba - 08-01-2013

I lived in one for a year, and modified versions other times.

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Living in a Shipping Container - Beyond Borders - 08-01-2013

They've got plans for these online. If you're going to live in one though, might as well keep it portable so you can actually covert it back to ship and move around the world without jumping through too many additional hoops.

For something stationary, I'd rather go with an underground house or a treehouse. I'm actually planning to build the former someday when I'm ready to retire. I kind of have a thing for unique housing and have done a bit of reading up on different options. Underground housing is my favorite so far.

Here's a cool do-it-yourself book about cheap underground housing: http://www.amazon.com/The-50-underground...B0006X2WUW

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Living in a Shipping Container - Aliblahba - 08-01-2013

Shipping container housing is the hipster version of these:


   

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Living in a Shipping Container - Acute Angle - 08-01-2013

Hot as hell in summer and freezing cold in winter.

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Living in a Shipping Container - el mechanico - 08-01-2013

I built about 100 rooms out of 40ft shipping containers not for living but for concrete factories to mix hardeners automatically controlled by camera from a remote location. So, I was cutting the containers in four pieces then framing them, installing power, cameras and all that other mixing stuff.

First. Most of containers for sale are not seaworthy anymore. They rust from being at sea so the price has to do with condition. I was paying about 2k each for them but was buying two a month plus I live near major ports. So inspect the fuck out of it..

All the strength is in the corners where you see those eyelets where they either pick them up from the top or drag them up by the bottom. If you cut an end off you need to make a very heavy frame or else the thing will fold up like a lawn chair. But, once you do you can make it sized for whatever kind of doors you want to put in but best to leave it intact or for more rooms buy smaller containers to add on..

The sides are corrugated and can be cut easy with oxy acetylene torches but if you don't have experience with them buy a plasma cutter or hire a welder with one. After you'll need to frame out whatever you cut.

The first one will be the hardest but after it's a breeze. I would probably put a small garage door on one end for utility and sliding glass on the other. The pictures you posted had a shitload of work and money poured into them.

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Living in a Shipping Container - Aliblahba - 08-01-2013

I built up about a dozen or more to live in, and a little less that were turned into advanced structures for offshore operations. You have to be creative with such and ungiving little amount of space.

Europeans were doing it as an alternative to high housing costs. It's not economically viable in the U.S., never mind zoning or inspection laws. Much easier to buy a camper.

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Living in a Shipping Container - el mechanico - 08-01-2013

Quote: (08-01-2013 08:51 AM)Aliblahba Wrote:  

I built up about a dozen or more to live in, and a little less that were turned into advanced structures for offshore operations. You have to be creative with such and ungiving little amount of space.

Europeans were doing it as an alternative to high housing costs. It's not economically viable in the U.S., never mind zoning or inspection laws. Much easier to buy a camper.

The upside is cool factor and you can make it as sick as you want. Trailers are just giant hunks of shit.

Have you ever seen an RV/camper after a bad accident? It looks like someone unloaded 50 dumpsters on the highway.

The more I think about it the plasma cutter really made this shit easy.

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Living in a Shipping Container - Vaun - 08-01-2013

stranger things have happened. A buddy of mine runs one of the most successful physical therapy practices in San Francisco out of a shipping container, behind a retail store in a parking lot. He works on some of the most successful people in the Bay Area out of that thing, and his wife and kids redecorated it and it looks amazing.

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Living in a Shipping Container - Laner - 08-01-2013

Quote: (08-01-2013 08:34 AM)el mechanico Wrote:  

I built about 100 rooms out of 40ft shipping containers not for living but for concrete factories to mix hardeners automatically controlled by camera from a remote location. So, I was cutting the containers in four pieces then framing them, installing power, cameras and all that other mixing stuff.

First. Most of containers for sale are not seaworthy anymore. They rust from being at sea so the price has to do with condition. I was paying about 2k each for them but was buying two a month plus I live near major ports. So inspect the fuck out of it..

All the strength is in the corners where you see those eyelets where they either pick them up from the top or drag them up by the bottom. If you cut an end off you need to make a very heavy frame or else the thing will fold up like a lawn chair. But, once you do you can make it sized for whatever kind of doors you want to put in but best to leave it intact or for more rooms buy smaller containers to add on..

The sides are corrugated and can be cut easy with oxy acetylene torches but if you don't have experience with them buy a plasma cutter or hire a welder with one. After you'll need to frame out whatever you cut.

The first one will be the hardest but after it's a breeze. I would probably put a small garage door on one end for utility and sliding glass on the other. The pictures you posted had a shitload of work and money poured into them.

Yeah watch those corners when cutting. I was called in to help brace and cut a container after a professor was smacked 20ft when his container sprang on him. He was ok, but very lucky.

Corten (the steel used for these) has a massive amount of spring back. Put a piece in a press brake and watch how much it moves back. A lot.

Plasma is definitely the way to go. The high carbon content of the steel make friction grinding/cutting a nightmare.

In the end the university went with an aluminum container. The budget of a "Cheap, cost effective solution to homelessness and high real estate" ended up being over $100,000. Ha.

In the end the marketing of it went towards an "All terrain cabin".

Here it is, in all its overpriced glory.

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Living in a Shipping Container - Sylvester - 08-01-2013

Here is a cool house from a container. I like the idea very much but as Laner wrote, "If you have the skills to cut, weld and outfit one, they can be good. But for most people its cheaper to buy the lumber to build one out of wood."

http://terjephoto.blogspot.com/2013/04/t...house.html

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Living in a Shipping Container - Aliblahba - 08-01-2013

It's a lot cheaper to fold back the doors and frame the opening for a HVAC unit and wooden door. Insulate if you want, but stacking sandbags on top keeps the sun off.

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Living in a Shipping Container - Laner - 08-01-2013

Quote: (08-01-2013 12:12 PM)Sylvester Wrote:  

Here is a cool house from a container. I like the idea very much but as Laner wrote, "If you have the skills to cut, weld and outfit one, they can be good. But for most people its cheaper to buy the lumber to build one out of wood."

http://terjephoto.blogspot.com/2013/04/t...house.html

The difference between that and the trailer that Ali posted are negligible. The trailer would even have insulation built in.

The loss of square footage doing traditional insulation adds up. Maybe spray insulation?

So far the best idea for shipping containers: Bury them on a farm. Grow weed.

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Living in a Shipping Container - DVY - 08-01-2013

Underground weed shipping container grow houses!!! Genius!

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Living in a Shipping Container - Sp5 - 08-02-2013

Been there, done that. In Iraq.

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Living in a Shipping Container - samsamsam - 01-17-2016

This guy on reddit built one.

https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/4...iner_home/

So I googled a bit. http://www.containerhomeplans.org/2015/0...ver-built/

I think if you had the land and were reasonably capable or smart enough to learn you could buy yourself your own home pretty cheaply.

Yes, maybe not as sexy an apartment in NYC with amazing views but could be a step toward independence if you have a location independent job or near an airport and travel abroad a lot. This could be a nice, cheap temporary landing spot.

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Living in a Shipping Container - one-two - 01-20-2016

Quote: (08-01-2013 04:08 AM)iknowexactly Wrote:  

zoning can be a big problem with anything not mainstream

Isn't it too small to qualify as a house? Hence the tiny house movement popularity (i.e., you can build one anywhere you want for cheap). Maybe this only applies when it's on a trailer, I could be wrong.

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Living in a Shipping Container - debeguiled - 01-20-2016

Quote: (01-20-2016 12:49 AM)one-two Wrote:  

Quote: (08-01-2013 04:08 AM)iknowexactly Wrote:  

zoning can be a big problem with anything not mainstream

Isn't it too small to qualify as a house? Hence the tiny house movement popularity (i.e., you can build one anywhere you want for cheap). Maybe this only applies when it's on a trailer, I could be wrong.

If you go to off grid or survivalist websites, you know that the last thing localities want is citizens who are self sufficient, or free of a mortgage. They want you to have a piece of shit house that falls down on the day the mortgage is paid. Now they are actually retroactively changing codes in Colorado to get people tied back into the grid:

Colorado: Off-Gridders Forced back on the Grid, Camping on own land Illegal

If I remember correctly, you can finesse the issues by trying to pass it off as a shed, and hiding the fact you are living in it.

I think that it would depend on where you lived, since living in a shipping container would mean basically living in a metal box, and this would roast you in the summer, even if you insulated it, I think.

The basic best practice for building since time immemorial is walls, roof, foundation, with an emphasis on the foundation and the roof, which can be summed up as "good hat, good boots."

I would steer clear of this design, cool as it is, because even if you insulated it, where would the moisture go, coming up hard against the metal and condensing? I am not an architect or a carpenter, but it seems tailor made for mold problems without walls that breathe.

And the steel top would keep the water out, but roofs are pitched for a reason, and if the thing is used and in the process of rusting through, well, it is possible to retrofit one and turn it into a house, but I would be much more inclined, cool as these things are aesthetically mind you, to go for something that was designed to be a house from the ground up, and there are many cheap solutions for this out there.

One resource is the website I linked to.

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