Has anybody ever worked with 8′ w x 9.5′ h x 40′ l steel shipping containers as temporary dwellings? I have a friend that got 7 of them delivered to his 80 acre tree farm in north Mississippi. He wants to make guest houses out of them.
Any suggestions for foundations? He wants to just leave them where they were unloaded, but that seems wrong.
Sprayed on icynene insulation to control condensation on the inside?
What about plumbing one for a bathroom? Would you raise it up so you could do plumbing underneath?
Seems like a lot of issues to deal with. I don’t think I’d want to sleep in a steel box, but I’d sure like to have one full of shelves to keep all my tools organized and sealed away from mice!
Here’s the link to where he got them if anybody is interested. $2100 each.
http://www.cgini.com/
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I would definitely get them up off the ground, to keep the snakes out if nothing else.
;0)
Treat the box as a frame.You just need a cutting torch instead of a sawzall to install doors and windows and AC ports.
Ramset sleepers to both sides of the shell and build it out from there with standard finish materials. Insulate for sure, cause if you don't it'll be like living in the belfry of an out-of-tune church. Spray foam would be good for damping out vibration and cutting down on the noise.
Plumb and wire under the floor, for sure.
Dinosaur
How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not brought
low by this? For thine evil pales before that which
foolish men call Justice....
I would think a Plasma torch would be the ideal tool for these boxes.
Go big or go home....
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Dinosaur
How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not broughtlow by this? For thine evil pales before that whichfoolish men call Justice....
customer recently bought 250k of desks from us. spring of 08'. They were knocked down and boxed. put them in 9 containers, supposedly weather/pest proof. 6 of the overhead desks from 2 different containers had sizable nests when we unwrapped them in August. (stunk like heck) One container had a signifigant leak, that cost them 6 metal drawer units, would have been worse but the water hit the boxed drawer, drained down, and then drained out.
the containers are cheap for a reason. SEAL them if you want to use them. the ones my customer had were "quality" rental units, not retired ones.
Just a note of precaution.
That's a good warning. Thanks! Sorry you had to find out the hard way. I appreciate all these second opinions that confirm what I thought. Anything that sounds too easy probably has a catch.
Let's get real here ....
I simply can't see a way to build a home using only one container ... a short term, temporary, cabin with extremely reduced facilities, yes. A proper home, no.
The problem is that the trailer is too narrow. Given any reasonable amount of insulation in the walls, and the inside wold give you a sleeping area just large enough for a twin bed. The long, thin layout also means that you have to walk through one room to reach another.
So, you're left with two choices: either using more than one trailer for each home, or doing it 'commune style,' with different trailers used for different functions. You know, a cooking trailer, a bath-house trailer, a trailer with multiple sleeping compartments, etc.
You're going to want to raise these at least 3ft. off the ground, to allow access to the plumbing, etc. You're also going to want some form of roof, to keep both the sun, and hail, from beating down on you.
The very tightness of the shell means you will have to pay an extraordinary amount of attention to your ventilation requirements, or the place will become mildew heaven. Indeed, you should go as far as finding any low, or blind spots on the floor, and putting 1/8" weep holes there.
With any plan, the devil is in the details. Re-using one of thoes shipping containers for anything besides freight is rife with little complications.