# Shipping container homes



## serrano7503

Anyone have any exp with container homes? I'm trying to pitch this idea to a customer.

Serrano


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## Cjeff

why?


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## Hardly Working

Must be a Cali thing.


Good luck with the Building Dept. and Code compliance.:laughing:


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## The Coastal Craftsman

About 3 months ago i was in Lowe's and they knew that i was from the UK. They wanted to ask me if i could give them some advice. A woman there had purchased a home from the UK and had it delivered and built in the US not to far from me here. The problem was the sparkys here couldn't work out how anything was wired and they wondered if i would go and have a look. I didn't want anything to do with it but from the sounds of it you can but i don't know how they stand for code and such and it must be far more expensive to have them shipped from another country to here. I couldn't see the logic in her choice to do that.


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## loneframer

A buddy of mine bought one for storage. I believe it's 8'x8'x40'. It makes a nice shed, but I'm not convinced that it's gonna go over big as housing. BTW, if you get one for a shed, take some time to ventilate it properly.:thumbsup:


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## parkers5150

you are a google away from some amazing sh8t


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## loneframer

parkers5150 said:


> you are a google away from some amazing sh8t


 I've seen some very nice places built from containers. I just don't see the marketability for them in my location. Hell, almost every house built here in the last 15 years looks like it could have the same floor plan. Big box with a gable over the entry. Gonna be a hard sell getting these folks to move into a steel crate.


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## mudpad

A guy who sells/ rents shipping containers for storage explained to me why you see them everywhere you go these days. It's the trade deficit with china. They send us all their junk in shipping containers, and we don't have enough junk to send back. It doesnt make economic sense to send them back empty, so they stay here. You can buy an 8x8x40 around here for about 1200 bucks, and the guy selling it is making a decent profit. I can imagine in California they must be really cheap and plentiful.


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## loneframer

mudpad said:


> A guy who sells/ rents shipping containers for storage explained to me why you see them everywhere you go these days. It's the trade deficit with china. They send us all their junk in shipping containers, and we don't have enough junk to send back. It doesnt make economic sense to send them back empty, so they stay here. You can buy an 8x8x40 around here for about 1200 bucks, and the guy selling it is making a decent profit. I can imagine in California they must be really cheap and plentiful.


So now our greatest natural rescource is Chinese shipping containers that are most likely poisoned with lead paint. They should be required to haul them back home if the boat's leaving empty anyhow. I thought China was driving the steel market up due to their industrial revolution. They can't recycle their own s#!t?


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## Pearce Services

If you make your way to JLClive in Providence, there is a real cool one not far from the venue that would be worth a look. The next time I drive by, I will try to get some pics of it


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## mudpad

loneframer said:


> So now our greatest natural rescource is Chinese shipping containers that are most likely poisoned with lead paint. They should be required to haul them back home if the boat's leaving empty anyhow. I thought China was driving the steel market up due to their industrial revolution. They can't recycle their own s#!t?


OMG! that would be interfering with free trade! :w00t:


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## loneframer

mudpad said:


> OMG! that would be interfering with free trade! :w00t:


 I don't want to get too political, but maybe those things could be used to secure the Southern border, provide housing for the homeless, be used as manufacturing facilities and for storage containers to export the Hecho en Mexico goods back to China to ofset the trade deficit.:whistling


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## basswood

Seems strange, but I heard this week that they can build another container for less money than it costs to ship it back empty.

I worked on turning a container into a jobsite office this week. I'll post pics next week. 

They are being used to build barn walls around here... stack them two courses high, then set trusses. I'll get a pic of that sometime.

We should send a bunch down to Haiti.


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## Renegade 1 LI

I have a 40' long hi q (8'-6") in the spring I am going to frame a 16' x 20' shop from the middle of it out & put a gable roof on it then side it all to match. Should make a nice shop with storage.


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## parkers5150

do a search in contractortalk for container homes by hsconstruction


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## loneframer

http://www.thedailygreen.com/green-homes/latest/shipping-container-homes-460309

Found this on that thread. I really dont care for the industrial look, but I'm sure it appeals to some. I guess growing up in an area so rich in history, I just hate to see the countryside covered with homes that were contracted through Ikea.


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## parkers5150

lone, that's exactly it, perspective. i live out here in Cali where people stand in line to pay over a million dollars for a production built tract house. like you i prefer old, school mid century to exact, but i'd take a steel box over these cookie cutter cali tract homes any day of the week


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## concretemasonry

It could be the containers were shipped from the U.S. with lumber since China does not to cut down its valuable timber. China also imports manufacturing equipment in the tradition containers. Then, they put cheap toys ordered by a marketer/imported based on price and not quality in them and send by a slow conventional boat from China back. - They will not fit on the fast, sophisticated super ships that WalMart uses because they are not compatible and the ships only have a 13 man crew on a ship that is so fast (4 days less on a crossing) and too big to fit through the canals.

They probably pile up on the west cost with nothing to ship back since most of China's imports (electronics) are flown in.

It is a strange ever-changing world we live it.


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## loneframer

These are pics I snapped in my hometown. There are many small towns along the river and bay that were founded well over 200 years ago.


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## Joasis

I have converted several to offices for the oil field companies here, and they work. Our football field pressbox is made of 2 stacked and then covered with 26 gauge metal for appearance. 

There are a lot of sites where you can see homes, and "retreats" built utilizing containers, but, by the time you pay for and set the boxes, plus finish out the interior and exterior, they are not cost effective, especially considering you have a finished space inside less then 8 feet wide.


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## loneframer

joasis said:


> I have converted several to offices for the oil field companies here, and they work. Our football field pressbox is made of 2 stacked and then covered with 26 gauge metal for appearance.
> 
> There are a lot of sites where you can see homes, and "retreats" built utilizing containers, but, *by the time you pay for and set the boxes, plus finish out the interior and exterior, they are not cost effective,* especially considering you have a finished space inside less then 8 feet wide.


 That was an assumption that I had in my head. Cutting in windows and doors, making provisions for wiring and plumbing, insulation, HVAC, etc. In my region, I can't imagine them being cost effective for a home.


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## stuart45

This is an apartment block built with them.


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## mudpad

loneframer said:


> These are pics I snapped in my hometown. There are many small towns along the river and bay that were founded well over 200 years ago.


You mean those buildings weren't built from shipping containers? :laughing:

I have had some experience with historic preservation/ renovation/ rehabilitation. Probably ought to start a thread.


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## terakota

Container house can be build this way





http://www.lowimpactliving.com/blog/2009/07/07/affordable-shipping-container-house-in-quebec/


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## raayn

What a difference 4 years makes.....We're using these in the city of New Haven for private housing projects.


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## shakey0818

I currently rent a shipping container and love it.I use it as a shop to store all my tools.It is 8x8x20.I only pay $67 a month.I couldnt buy one last min so i rented it.Do a search.Theres was a great site all about shipping containers but i cant find it.Heres a few links about them.

http://www.containerhomes.net/How to/How_to_.html

http://seacontainercabin.blogspot.com/p/welding-containers-together.html


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## raayn

shakey0818 said:


> I currently rent a shipping container and love it.I use it as a shop to store all my tools.It is 8x8x20.I only pay $67 a month.I couldnt buy one last min so i rented it.Do a search.Theres was a great site all about shipping containers but i cant find it.Heres a few links about them.
> 
> http://www.containerhomes.net/How to/How_to_.html
> 
> http://seacontainercabin.blogspot.com/p/welding-containers-together.html


I would definitely be open to a project like this in the future. @320 SF of a 40'er......that's about 3 containers per 1000' of living space.
Thanks for the links, I'll check them out!


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## Calidecks




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