shipping container house - insulated, cheap and quick!

**paul wheaton** · 01-05-2010, 07:56 PM

I visited this place last summer and I finally got the video clips and pics mashed into one youtube video: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csNeFYs8qpg"]YouTube- shipping container house - insulated, cheap and super quick[/ame]

**Libby** · 01-05-2010, 08:57 PM

Interesting but I dont think I could do it permanently. Part time visit during spring-fall, sure why not but full time...I dont think I could do it. Plus the bathroom is accessed by going outside...can't imagine that in the cold snow stormy winter!

**frugalwarrior2** · 01-05-2010, 10:12 PM

My DH and I are fascinated. What climate do you think this would work best in. How hard would in be to double it by putting 2 side by side.

**frugalfranny** · 01-06-2010, 01:26 AM

A 'little toasty' in the summer........maybe??

**Mummy2** · 01-06-2010, 08:42 AM

I have the answer!! My office in the Virgin Islands (Caribbean) is two 40ftcontainers placed side by side. The inside is drywalled and the floors are the original wood floors of the container nice and smooth with a pretty dark patina. We have a bathroom inside the office, its the width of one container, sorry no shower. We also have upstairs neighbours ther are staggered back 6 feet so there is an over hang behind us which makes great storage and if it was a real home a nice shaded porch area.
When the power goes out the A/C is not working but the heat does not become unbearble, and when we have hurricanes the office is our go to safe place.

This is how I will be building my home when I return to the states but it will be insulating the walls for the northern climate!

**monkeywrangler71** · 01-06-2010, 10:01 AM

I can't play the link, but I saw a place made out of several containers on a show one time. It was a big luxury cottage. They weren't side by side, but all came out from a central middle area. It was in a cold climate (Maine I think) but was only a summer home.

**wwe11** · 01-06-2010, 10:34 AM

That was interesting.

**paul wheaton** · 01-06-2010, 11:35 AM

Originally Posted by frugalwarrior2

My DH and I are fascinated. What climate do you think this would work best in. How hard would in be to double it by putting 2 side by side.

I think it would do great in most climates. The only issue I can think of is snow load. R-35 is really awesome insulation.

**paul wheaton** · 01-06-2010, 11:36 AM

Originally Posted by frugalfranny

A 'little toasty' in the summer........maybe??

I think the R-35 would help a lot during the summer. And, you could plant trees right next to it - no foundation for roots to mess up. Imagine something like this in a forest of deciduous trees in the summer.

**stinkbug** · 01-06-2010, 11:37 AM

When dd was deployed to Iraq, their housing was a CHU, which is basically HALF of a shipping container. I can tell you what she thought of living in that for a year....

**frugalwarrior2** · 01-06-2010, 11:54 AM

Our house is too big and is getting to be too much bother. We spend a lot of time in our 700 sq. foot MIL and 1/2 of that is a pantry . If you had 2 people and 2 side by side you could have a kitchen,bedroom and bath in one half and living area,bathroom and pantry or pantry,living room and small office in the other. Seroiusly will look into this when the pets pare down and the kids leave. No outer maintainence,no mortgage, and lots less to clean. ???? hmmm.

**Lady_V** · 01-06-2010, 01:05 PM

Good idea, but... I am wondering what problems would go along with trying to get the okay to put this on your land.

Even mobile homes have 'special rules' in some places. You can build a house on your land, but you can't have a mobile home.

Otherwise, this really isn't much different from other buildings I was looking at.

**paul wheaton** · 01-06-2010, 02:24 PM

Originally Posted by Lady_V

Good idea, but... I am wondering what problems would go along with trying to get the okay to put this on your land.

And that is exactly why it looks so rough - especially on the one side that you can see from the gate.

**Mummy2** · 01-06-2010, 03:06 PM

Here it was quite easy, pour a concrete slab, have plumbing lines dropped along with electrical lines and the permits were easy to get. You will need to figure out water source for your area.

Honestly its still not toasty in summer...

**Incognito** · 01-06-2010, 08:02 PM

Zoning by-laws, occupancy permits, income tax address verification, census, to name a few?
3 years of non-detection? That's quite remarkable, since the authorities are usually everywhere with their rule books.