i am looking to do some research on those shipping type homes i have seen onlne. anyone know any details about them. looking for something to move into cheap i hope and dont need tons of room. but not sure where to start looking for deatials and costs of them.
Are you looking for something ready made? Or ideas to convert one for yourself?
I've heard condensation can be an issue. I think Svrex knows a bit about them. There's lots of websites on the topic. BTW - happy birthday.
For anything more habitable than a shed, I think they're a silly option.. because all the (necessary) insulation, plumbing, wiring and water tightness work means you're basically stick framing another box inside the container shell.
Cutting windows and doors also compromises the structural integrity of the steel shell.
IMHO, a used motor home makes much more sense.
We seem to have this discussion every few months.
Bottom line- they are VERY expensive to make into residences legally.
Unless you live in Vietnam.
They are useful for temporary commercial spaces, particularly "buildings" that need to relocate frequently and be sturdy and secure. My company has several.
They are also useful for high density housing in areas that have no building code (not the US).
And, they can be highly modified (with significant cost and re-engineering) to make stunning expensive high end residences and commercial spaces. These are for people who have no financial limits at all (like the PUMA store).
Here's 25 different ones- all of them are really nice.
Digital Trends container houses
Note, only a couple of those are in the US. They are just too tough to make meet the building code in the US. All of the prices mentioned start in excess of $150 per square foot, and some get up to $800 per square foot.
A co-worker had a business making these, under a large government contract. Business went belly-up.
We had a customer that specialized in converting them into living spaces for man camps and putting oil drilling testing equipment in them. The containers themselves are cheap used ($2000-$3000), but not easy to convert without plasma cutters and some sophisticated skills. The main advantage to them is that they can be easily moved without damage, not that they make great living quarters. They tend to be cramped and dark. If you are looking for cheap lodging, the traditional trailer home is hard to beat.
If you want the look, it's easier to build a rectangular box and put metal siding on it. If you want the mobility you need to be prepared to do without amenities like doors and window and stuff.
There was somebody a while ago who was trying a similar thing for cheap housing. At the time you could buy the bottom half of a steel truss electrical transmission tower from the USDE for something well under $2000 each. The idea was to buy these, bolt them up, and enclose them with a non-load-bearing envelope to build your house in. That was way cheaper and easier to do on paper than it was in real life.
They also aren't very well insulated. Insulating them properly is either very, expensive, cuts down on your interior volume, or both.
In reply to calteg:
Insulation is not their only problem.
Basically, there are NO systems that are adequate for a residence. Minimum square footage, insulation, ventilation, egress, lighting, draft sealing, electrical, electrical grounding, plumbing venting without wall cavities or roof penetrations, foundation anchoring, structural (after modification), life safety, NOTHING.
There is nothing about a shipping container that is suitable for use as a residence, or in keeping with the building code. EVERYTHING needs to be engineered.
To that extent, they are just as suitable as a refrigerator carton, an old septic tank, or a used car. I guess if you really wanted to, you could convert any of those into a house too.
BUT, they look cool on the internet.
How would they work as a semi-permanent "shed"? i.e., just put one on your land to use for boat/car/lawnmower/etc. storage?
"they look cool on the internet."
That about sums it up.
mtn wrote: How would they work as a semi-permanent "shed"? i.e., just put one on your land to use for boat/car/lawnmower/etc. storage?
No problem at all. We use them all the time.
The problem is once you convert them to a residence, you are creating a myriad of issues regarding building science, human health and safety, and property value which are all what the building code is theoretically designed to address.
Nobody cares what you store your lawnmower in (except, perhaps, if you have a neighborhood association, covenant, etc).
It matters when people are sleeping inside and the fire fighters are not able to get in, when the entire shell of the structure is conducting electricity, when the "building" is filling with toxic mold, or when the lender can't protect his investment because the structure is a piece of crap that was intended to ship toxic chemicals from China, recycled cardboard, and rats.
mtn wrote: How would they work as a semi-permanent "shed"? i.e., just put one on your land to use for boat/car/lawnmower/etc. storage?
They seem like they would be great for this but shipping containers seem to defy logic. On a 20 degree day they inside of a shipping container is 10 degrees. On a 90 degree day the inside is 120+!
I had to purchase 3 40' containers for storage at the glue factory. The cheapest we could find was $2500 each and trucking them to us (120 mile straight shot) was ~800 per unit. Luckily we had a legion of large fork lifts to move them so we didn't need to rent a crane. All three needed new floors and had leaky roofs. We had lift trucks falling through the floors the first day.
Since the products we were storing in them were hot melt adhesive ingredients they all melted the first week of summer. We cut holes in the roofs and added vent fans, which helped bring the inside temps down into the 90's on 75 degree days.
They are expensive and terrible things. They have lived their entire lives loaded to capacity, scraping against each other in harsh salty wet environments. They are typically painted dark, flat colors. They are used until they need too much repair to be viable and it is cheaper to buy a new unit than to actually fix them and then they pull a fast one and sell them to optimistic folks like us who think "this will be awesome!" and 6 grand later have an eyesore that will hold your stuff that you don't care enough about to keep anywhere else.
In reply to Jumper K. Balls:
It's about time we had a sense of humor about these things!
thanks guys, just tyring to figure some stuff out. and thanks for the birthday wishs.
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