11 ms·

Coming Home to a Shipping Container

102 points by edward 9y ago

lightbyte 9y ago
How do these houses stay warm in the winter? Shipping containers have 2mm thick walls, and at the very least the orange home pictured in the article looks like it has walls that are just the container wall.
- maxerickson 9y ago
  For a metal wall it wouldn't even really matter how thick it was. I think the bare wall pictured in the article is interior though, so it wouldn't factor into heating and cooling so much. http://www.steelehouse.net/livingstonmanor/ http://www.steelehouse.net/livingstonmanor/
- iak8god 9y ago
  Taking a close look at the living room photo, the orange wall on the right behind the sofa looks like it may just be a facade over what is presumably a thicker, insulated wall like those drywalled exterior walls visible on the other side of the room. Specifically, the way that orange wall overlaps that slightly dropped section of the ceiling makes me think that it's not actually the exterior wall of the container.
  - logfromblammo 9y ago
    It could be the portions of the container wall that were removed for doors and windows.
    - maxerickson 9y ago
      I link the designers product page for the house in the thread. It's clearly a side wall of a container, it's just an interior wall of the structure.
- fredophile 9y ago
  Looking at the pictures of the inside it looks like the exterior walls are finished with drywall and they come in a few inches which probably allows for some insulation. Expanding out would remove the modular benefits so any insulation would have to be done by reducing the space on the interior.
- cobrabyte 9y ago
  I recently made a sales call to an individual who built a man cave of sorts out of two containers. He paid a bit extra to purchase containers that were originally refrigerated. There was a fair bit of insulation sandwiched between two pieces of steel. It was quite impressive from an energy and noise standpoint. It was eerily quiet.
- hourislate 9y ago
  Shipping containers can come insulated. They use a 2 lb closed cell foam which is an incredible insulation and water proofing product. R-21 at 3" thickness. You can heat the container with a candle and cool it with an ice cube.
  - asdfgadsfgasfdg 9y ago
    Humans give out a fair bit of heat. I seriously doubt an ice cube will cool any small room that contains a human.
    - criddell 9y ago
      That's what I was thinking too. You have to have decent air exchange with the outside or you're going to suffocate or poison yourself.
- wastedhours 9y ago
  If you want it to blend in, usually you'd wrap the outside of the container in insulation, and then clad it. Or, do it on the inside and lose a bit of internal space between the steel and your drywall. Adds expense of course.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
pards 9y ago
Reminds me of Neal Stephenson's book "Snowcrash"
- hprotagonist 9y ago
  yeah this seems pretty homey to me!
- jameskegel 9y ago
  I'm reading this one now; great book!
- jstarfish 9y ago
  It's been a decade since I read it, but I thought he lived in a self-storage unit, not a shipping container?
  - passivepinetree 9y ago
    You're correct. Hiro lives in a U-Stor-It by the LAX airport.
jordache 9y ago
it's a fine idea... but man, get that box insulated!
rb808 9y ago
One thing I'm not sure of - are these containers new ones so benefit from cheap mass manufacturing - or cheap old ones that are too rusted/bent to be used any more? I'm not sure why containers are more effective than mass produced modular houses.
- olympus 9y ago
  Containers aren't cheaper than a modular (manufactured) home, they are just trendier. That's why you haven't seen containers replacing manufactured homes in trailer parks. This is kind of like the tiny house movement. It's not actually cheaper than existing options, but it is disassociated with the "white trash" connotation from living in a mobile home. Rich people will pay extra to not look poor.
  - ada1981 9y ago
    I think you mean middle class people will pay extra to not look poor. Or better, poor people will pay extra to not look poor.
    - wallace_f 9y ago
      >pay extra to not look poor. Tragically, it looks as though actually the majority of household expenditure in the USA is to not look poor. Well, if not, we certainly don't know what it is for: it isn't making us any happier. Status, not wealth, is linked to happiness. Better put: "Spending money you don't have for things you don't need to impress people you don't like." Source: content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1974718,00.html
- mojomark 9y ago
  There is a shipping container surplus in the US due to the large trade imbalance between the the US and the far east.(1) It's my understanding that it's generally cheaper for the far east to manufacture new containers than pay to ship empty containers back. Like you mention, there are also a number of containers that age out. 1. https://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch5en/appl5en/ch5a3en.html https://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch5en/appl5en/ch5a3e...
dpark 9y ago
Shipping containers are terrible to use for homes for so many reasons. By the time you stick multiple together to create enough space and cut windows and doors (and then reinforce them to fix the damage you caused to the structure) to make them acceptable and livable, you end up spending more than you would with typical light frame construction to end up with a cramped space a low ceilings and poor insulation. It really is a fetish. There's no sensible reason for containerized homes (absent maybe disaster zones, but even then no one's really building completed container homes and shipping them; it's still done on-site).
- hourislate 9y ago
  How is closed cell foam poor insulation? It has an R-Value of approx 6-7 R per inch of thickness. 3 inches would provide an R-Value of approx 21 and would also seal the container. At 3 inches of thickness it provides a barrier to moisture. There is no other insulation that even comes close. It also increases the structural integrity of the container by 200%. Containers are incredibly strong and some of the best insulated structures on the planet. Here is a good link for you to educate yourself about insulation. http://www.demilec.com/ http://www.demilec.com/ And another useful link for containers and all the different ways they can be utilized. http://www.gtgroupinc.com/container-sales/gallery/modified-containers/ http://www.gtgroupinc.com/container-sales/gallery/modified-c...
  - dpark 9y ago
    You realize shipping containers don't typically have closed cell foam in them, right? Obviously you can add it. But you can add closed cell foam to any structure, and you can do it more cost effectively in a structure designed for insulation (and habitation). R-21 is also pretty low for the ceiling/roof in many climates. Also there's no way closed cell foam increases the strength of the container by 200% unless you're just talking about dent resistance. Adding foam as a moisture barrier is pretty amusing since moisture resistance is one thing shipping containers do have by default.
    - Aloha 9y ago
patrickk 9y ago
There was an amazing, upscale home built from multiple shipping containers featured on Grand Designs. Here's an article about the house itself, sadly the episode doesn't seem to be on youtube: http://www.archdaily.com/593806/grillagh-water-house-patrick-bradley-architects http://www.archdaily.com/593806/grillagh-water-house-patrick... I think this is the episode: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs/on-demand/57386-006 http://www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs/on-demand/5...
- knodi123 9y ago
  hehe, > The overall aesthetics and forms of the house which is sculptural like marries beautiful into completely rural setting and with this very modest size house of just 1236sqft. provides everything that’s required to have a prefect family home.
- jdavis703 9y ago
  That episode is on Netflix, in case anyone wants to watch it there. It's Season 12, Episode 4 "County Derry": https://www.netflix.com/title/80160755 https://www.netflix.com/title/80160755.
yeukhon 9y ago
Can they withstand earthquake as per CA's standard, if one is built in CA?
- dsfyu404ed 9y ago
  If the roof designer spent more than a nanosecond trying to regain some of the rigidity lost by cutting the roof off then yes. The ceiling is already ~8ft with the stock roof so there's plenty of space for bracing. In stock form you can roll an empty one over and not hurt it much.
  - generic101 9y ago
    If you're in an earthquake, you don't want your house to roll over.... I'm assuming the container is attached to a foundation to prevent movement. If you are worried about an earthquake, bodily injury from glass windows breaking is probably your biggest concern.
- jdavis703 9y ago
  Shipping containers are designed for stacking on ships, which can have quite a bit of movement when at sea. If you engineer the house correctly, it's not a problem. I'd be much more concerned about living in a soft story residence than a container.
ghostbrainalpha 9y ago
Considering the build cost on an Adobe Dome home is 6k, I always wonder why they are not popular compared to a shipping container. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2582344/Home-sweet-dome-Man-quits-job-builds-dream-mini-home-just-six-weeks-9-000.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2582344/Home-sweet-d...
- mastax 9y ago
  Considering the size of that home, you could probably build a similar home out of almost any material for about the same price. You could probably pay a contractor to make you a traditional wood-frame home of the same size for the same money in less time. Still, that's an interesting and remarkably practical home that guy built for himself.
- tryingagainbro 9y ago
  It cost him that much, we don't know what options he chose, labor, did he do the work himself etc. Then, what is the purpose of the house? Had he added, say $3000 more, he might have made so even his kids could grow there. etc etc.
logfromblammo 9y ago
Seems like it would be better to build pre-fab housing modules with maximum building envelope 469"L x 88"W x 98"H, and use those 40' high-cube containers to ship them. At the destination site, build the foundation, docking racks from structural steel, and a climate-appropriate roof and insulated outer shell. The pre-fab is built in a factory, shipped to the site, rolled off the container truck with a ramp and a forklift, and rolled into the rack. Each one is essentially 250 sq.ft. of shotgun house. Alternately, make a pre-fab "core" that consists of all the essential plumbing, HVAC, and wiring for one house, and erect a piecemeal house around it using traditional methods and local materials. You can fit one core for a 2-story house inside a 20' standard container, or two in a 40' container. The extensive on-site modifications required to turn a standard shipping container into a decent house necessarily preclude isotainer homes from being economical or ecologically sound. The advantages of container-based shipping are best exploited by using the containers to ship factory-built things.
tryingagainbro 9y ago
Shipping Container...great for a shed with some tweaking. Why reinvent the wheel? These cute solutions in many cases exceed the cost and never fulfill the stated desire. After spending all that money, it's still a container house, and almost 100% is sunk cost.
vmarshall23 9y ago
Well at least we can all agree that "Coming Home to a Shipping Container" is still preferable to "Coming Home in a Shipping Container" </snark>
cjCamel 9y ago
In Bristol, UK we're into shipping containers in a big way. We use them as restaurants and shops[1], we put startups in them[2], and Massive Attack house the homeless in them![3] I've heard that the startups are boiling hot in the summer and freezing cold in the winter. Hopefully the homes for the homeless are better insulated. [1] http://wappingwharf.co.uk/retail-at-cargo http://wappingwharf.co.uk/retail-at-cargo [2] https://www.bristoltemplequarter.com/boxworks-the-launch https://www.bristoltemplequarter.com/boxworks-the-launch [3] http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/explore-new-shipping-container-bristols-440138 http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/explore-new-s...
contingencies 9y ago
An experienced New Zealand architect once suggested to me that one of the best features of modular homes was their deployability by helicopter to remote locations.

102 points by edward 9y ago

How do these houses stay warm in the winter? Shipping containers have 2mm thick walls, and at the very least the orange home pictured in the article looks like it has walls that are just the container wall.

maxerickson 9y ago
For a metal wall it wouldn't even really matter how thick it was. I think the bare wall pictured in the article is interior though, so it wouldn't factor into heating and cooling so much. http://www.steelehouse.net/livingstonmanor/ http://www.steelehouse.net/livingstonmanor/
iak8god 9y ago
Taking a close look at the living room photo, the orange wall on the right behind the sofa looks like it may just be a facade over what is presumably a thicker, insulated wall like those drywalled exterior walls visible on the other side of the room. Specifically, the way that orange wall overlaps that slightly dropped section of the ceiling makes me think that it's not actually the exterior wall of the container.
- logfromblammo 9y ago
  It could be the portions of the container wall that were removed for doors and windows.
  - maxerickson 9y ago
    I link the designers product page for the house in the thread. It's clearly a side wall of a container, it's just an interior wall of the structure.
fredophile 9y ago
Looking at the pictures of the inside it looks like the exterior walls are finished with drywall and they come in a few inches which probably allows for some insulation. Expanding out would remove the modular benefits so any insulation would have to be done by reducing the space on the interior.
cobrabyte 9y ago
I recently made a sales call to an individual who built a man cave of sorts out of two containers. He paid a bit extra to purchase containers that were originally refrigerated. There was a fair bit of insulation sandwiched between two pieces of steel. It was quite impressive from an energy and noise standpoint. It was eerily quiet.
hourislate 9y ago
Shipping containers can come insulated. They use a 2 lb closed cell foam which is an incredible insulation and water proofing product. R-21 at 3" thickness. You can heat the container with a candle and cool it with an ice cube.
- asdfgadsfgasfdg 9y ago
  Humans give out a fair bit of heat. I seriously doubt an ice cube will cool any small room that contains a human.
  - criddell 9y ago
    That's what I was thinking too. You have to have decent air exchange with the outside or you're going to suffocate or poison yourself.
wastedhours 9y ago
If you want it to blend in, usually you'd wrap the outside of the container in insulation, and then clad it. Or, do it on the inside and lose a bit of internal space between the steel and your drywall. Adds expense of course.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

pards 9y ago

Reminds me of Neal Stephenson's book "Snowcrash"

hprotagonist 9y ago
yeah this seems pretty homey to me!
jameskegel 9y ago
I'm reading this one now; great book!
jstarfish 9y ago
It's been a decade since I read it, but I thought he lived in a self-storage unit, not a shipping container?
- passivepinetree 9y ago
  You're correct. Hiro lives in a U-Stor-It by the LAX airport.

jordache 9y ago

it's a fine idea... but man, get that box insulated!

rb808 9y ago

One thing I'm not sure of - are these containers new ones so benefit from cheap mass manufacturing - or cheap old ones that are too rusted/bent to be used any more? I'm not sure why containers are more effective than mass produced modular houses.

olympus 9y ago
Containers aren't cheaper than a modular (manufactured) home, they are just trendier. That's why you haven't seen containers replacing manufactured homes in trailer parks. This is kind of like the tiny house movement. It's not actually cheaper than existing options, but it is disassociated with the "white trash" connotation from living in a mobile home. Rich people will pay extra to not look poor.
- ada1981 9y ago
  I think you mean middle class people will pay extra to not look poor. Or better, poor people will pay extra to not look poor.
  - wallace_f 9y ago
    >pay extra to not look poor. Tragically, it looks as though actually the majority of household expenditure in the USA is to not look poor. Well, if not, we certainly don't know what it is for: it isn't making us any happier. Status, not wealth, is linked to happiness. Better put: "Spending money you don't have for things you don't need to impress people you don't like." Source: content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1974718,00.html
mojomark 9y ago
There is a shipping container surplus in the US due to the large trade imbalance between the the US and the far east.(1) It's my understanding that it's generally cheaper for the far east to manufacture new containers than pay to ship empty containers back. Like you mention, there are also a number of containers that age out. 1. https://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch5en/appl5en/ch5a3en.html https://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch5en/appl5en/ch5a3e...

dpark 9y ago

Shipping containers are terrible to use for homes for so many reasons. By the time you stick multiple together to create enough space and cut windows and doors (and then reinforce them to fix the damage you caused to the structure) to make them acceptable and livable, you end up spending more than you would with typical light frame construction to end up with a cramped space a low ceilings and poor insulation. It really is a fetish. There's no sensible reason for containerized homes (absent maybe disaster zones, but even then no one's really building completed container homes and shipping them; it's still done on-site).

hourislate 9y ago
How is closed cell foam poor insulation? It has an R-Value of approx 6-7 R per inch of thickness. 3 inches would provide an R-Value of approx 21 and would also seal the container. At 3 inches of thickness it provides a barrier to moisture. There is no other insulation that even comes close. It also increases the structural integrity of the container by 200%. Containers are incredibly strong and some of the best insulated structures on the planet. Here is a good link for you to educate yourself about insulation. http://www.demilec.com/ http://www.demilec.com/ And another useful link for containers and all the different ways they can be utilized. http://www.gtgroupinc.com/container-sales/gallery/modified-containers/ http://www.gtgroupinc.com/container-sales/gallery/modified-c...
- dpark 9y ago
  You realize shipping containers don't typically have closed cell foam in them, right? Obviously you can add it. But you can add closed cell foam to any structure, and you can do it more cost effectively in a structure designed for insulation (and habitation). R-21 is also pretty low for the ceiling/roof in many climates. Also there's no way closed cell foam increases the strength of the container by 200% unless you're just talking about dent resistance. Adding foam as a moisture barrier is pretty amusing since moisture resistance is one thing shipping containers do have by default.
  - Aloha 9y ago

patrickk 9y ago

There was an amazing, upscale home built from multiple shipping containers featured on Grand Designs. Here's an article about the house itself, sadly the episode doesn't seem to be on youtube: http://www.archdaily.com/593806/grillagh-water-house-patrick-bradley-architects http://www.archdaily.com/593806/grillagh-water-house-patrick... I think this is the episode: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs/on-demand/57386-006 http://www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs/on-demand/5...

knodi123 9y ago
hehe, > The overall aesthetics and forms of the house which is sculptural like marries beautiful into completely rural setting and with this very modest size house of just 1236sqft. provides everything that’s required to have a prefect family home.
jdavis703 9y ago
That episode is on Netflix, in case anyone wants to watch it there. It's Season 12, Episode 4 "County Derry": https://www.netflix.com/title/80160755 https://www.netflix.com/title/80160755.

yeukhon 9y ago

Can they withstand earthquake as per CA's standard, if one is built in CA?

dsfyu404ed 9y ago
If the roof designer spent more than a nanosecond trying to regain some of the rigidity lost by cutting the roof off then yes. The ceiling is already ~8ft with the stock roof so there's plenty of space for bracing. In stock form you can roll an empty one over and not hurt it much.
- generic101 9y ago
  If you're in an earthquake, you don't want your house to roll over.... I'm assuming the container is attached to a foundation to prevent movement. If you are worried about an earthquake, bodily injury from glass windows breaking is probably your biggest concern.
jdavis703 9y ago
Shipping containers are designed for stacking on ships, which can have quite a bit of movement when at sea. If you engineer the house correctly, it's not a problem. I'd be much more concerned about living in a soft story residence than a container.

ghostbrainalpha 9y ago

Considering the build cost on an Adobe Dome home is 6k, I always wonder why they are not popular compared to a shipping container. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2582344/Home-sweet-dome-Man-quits-job-builds-dream-mini-home-just-six-weeks-9-000.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2582344/Home-sweet-d...

mastax 9y ago
Considering the size of that home, you could probably build a similar home out of almost any material for about the same price. You could probably pay a contractor to make you a traditional wood-frame home of the same size for the same money in less time. Still, that's an interesting and remarkably practical home that guy built for himself.
tryingagainbro 9y ago
It cost him that much, we don't know what options he chose, labor, did he do the work himself etc. Then, what is the purpose of the house? Had he added, say $3000 more, he might have made so even his kids could grow there. etc etc.

logfromblammo 9y ago

Seems like it would be better to build pre-fab housing modules with maximum building envelope 469"L x 88"W x 98"H, and use those 40' high-cube containers to ship them. At the destination site, build the foundation, docking racks from structural steel, and a climate-appropriate roof and insulated outer shell. The pre-fab is built in a factory, shipped to the site, rolled off the container truck with a ramp and a forklift, and rolled into the rack. Each one is essentially 250 sq.ft. of shotgun house. Alternately, make a pre-fab "core" that consists of all the essential plumbing, HVAC, and wiring for one house, and erect a piecemeal house around it using traditional methods and local materials. You can fit one core for a 2-story house inside a 20' standard container, or two in a 40' container. The extensive on-site modifications required to turn a standard shipping container into a decent house necessarily preclude isotainer homes from being economical or ecologically sound. The advantages of container-based shipping are best exploited by using the containers to ship factory-built things.

tryingagainbro 9y ago

Shipping Container...great for a shed with some tweaking. Why reinvent the wheel? These cute solutions in many cases exceed the cost and never fulfill the stated desire. After spending all that money, it's still a container house, and almost 100% is sunk cost.

vmarshall23 9y ago

Well at least we can all agree that "Coming Home to a Shipping Container" is still preferable to "Coming Home in a Shipping Container" </snark>

cjCamel 9y ago

In Bristol, UK we're into shipping containers in a big way. We use them as restaurants and shops[1], we put startups in them[2], and Massive Attack house the homeless in them![3] I've heard that the startups are boiling hot in the summer and freezing cold in the winter. Hopefully the homes for the homeless are better insulated. [1] http://wappingwharf.co.uk/retail-at-cargo http://wappingwharf.co.uk/retail-at-cargo [2] https://www.bristoltemplequarter.com/boxworks-the-launch https://www.bristoltemplequarter.com/boxworks-the-launch [3] http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/explore-new-shipping-container-bristols-440138 http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/explore-new-s...

contingencies 9y ago

An experienced New Zealand architect once suggested to me that one of the best features of modular homes was their deployability by helicopter to remote locations.