40 foot Container , Cargo / Shipping Container, has walls, Beds Built in, Toilet and sink are plummed, fiber glass shower , Kitchen sink plummed, Electric Panel, Lights and electrical, 2 Beams down middle, so it can be burried, or above ground, sealer coating on Roof ,sides and ,back. Great Survival shelter , almost finished , Great Price at 6,000 you move
Looks like someone’s project stalled. I like the idea of repurposing a cargo container but I’d never bury it..I’d go the other direction and berm it or seal it up in concrete.
This particular Craigslist listing tells a story if you know what to look for. Only a certain kinda guy does a project like this.
Annnnnnnnd….new tag: Craigslist
They’re like building blocks. Stackable, different sizes, relatively cheap. Those guys from Zombie Tools in Missoula did a larger scale project with containers. Makes a lot of sense to something designed for modularity. Starbucks made a store out of them in Seattle.
I just looked at the listing. It could be those guys from Zombie Tools.
Funny you should mention ZT….theyre having an open house this weekend that Im going to go to.
Open House at ZT! Maybe they’ll let you cut an F-150 hood in half!
Back in 2004 when the hurricanes came through FL, and in 2005 after Katrina, I thought surplus 20 ft shipping containers might make reasonable emergency housing. A 40 footer could have a center wall added, add a door to the closed end, put in some windows and wiring, deliver a bunch to site, done. One could be outfitted as a “utility version” – generator, bathrooms, kitchen, etc. – to serve a cluster of 4-6 40 footers.
They easily stack 8-10 high for storage, the 40s can be trucked 2 at a time, 20s four at a time, can take a beating, be hosed out when done, and we have a bunch of empty ones scattered around ports that are too expensive to haul back to point of origin. I’ve seen a number of different housing projects done with them, but unless you were going to use it just as an underground concrete form, I’m not too sure about burying one.
FEMA would never allow such ‘substandard’ housing, when the US Taxpayer will shell out for trailers.
If FEMA was run by competent people concerned with quick responses to emergencies, there would be a salt mine in Kansas filled with 20′ containers that had been converted into efficiency apartments, with fold-down nylon webbing beds, a prison-style sink/toilet located in a stand-up shower, and a camper-style kitchen with a couple of propane burners and a propane stove. Each “apartment container” prepacked with a pallet of canned food and bottled water.
When the crisis comes, they’d be loaded onto rail cars and/or trailers and hauled to the location within 48 hours. Cheap, simple, using a standardized footprint container that every commercial and military organization can handle.
And most importantly, far too spartan for even the laziest most benefits-suckingist parasite from the Ninth Ward to voluntarily stay in for one minute longer than necessary.
But that would “violate their human rights” or some such nonsense, and wouldn’t line the pockets of corporations selling FEMA camping trailers, so there’s zero chance of it ever happening.
Your right you would not want to bury it. The stress points are on the corners for stacking. The sheet metal body will collapse under continues pressure from the dirt if buried.
I work international freight, so I occasionally get the chance to score some great deals on containers. Just scored a “one shot” 40 footer for a friend for 1500 including the move. A waterproof, vermin proof large metal box… Pretty hard to beat that combo for the price.
As to the above container, it sounds like you’d want to plan on insulating it. Presumably on the outside since it’s finished now, saves space to do it on the outside anyways.
how do you effectively insulate it for cold weather? Are these much cheaper then just building a stick building?
I would use a closed cell spray foam type insulation. It would serve the dual purpose of insulating and keeping at least the interior sealed against corrosion (assuming proper prep work).
Shipping containers should not be buried. The steel is corrosion-resistant, not corrosion-proof, and will rust rapidly if buried. Nor are the roof and walls capable of supporting a massive load. The strength of the containers is in their frames; pile wet dirt on the top and it WILL collapse.
Also keep in mind that the floors are wood, not steel. Typically the bottom is open, with steel cross-members supporting a plywood deck, which may be treated with some quite nasty persistent insecticides and anti-fungals.
Where containers can be useful is in providing a weather-tight reasonably secure shell. Check the tincancabin.com website for an example of a structure built from containers. There are things he could have done better, but the idea is sound.
For survivalist sorts, I think containers have some uses. Not buried — buried hideyholes are nothing more than occupant-dug graves — but used as modular walls and concrete forms. Build an enclosed-courtyard structure out of containers with insulation sprayed on the exteriors and then add concrete and stone on the exteriors. Slip-formed using the insulation-coated side of the container as one side of the form — the sides are strong enough to handle casting 12″-15″ horizontal courses of concrete and stone.
Rip out the treated wood floors and replace with ordinary plywood. Some people have tried painting the treated wood with epoxy paints to seal in the toxic stuff, but no evidence has been presented that sealing works.
Earnan:
I’m pretty sure that some have metal floors. Any idea what percentage have wood floors? Any quick way to tell without opening it up?
Have you seen a war movie with submarines, and how they implode. well I have seen some containers that a mining Co. buried and that is what they looked like, compoof dead meat. How about an old grain bin? They are all over place, practicly invisable. No one gives them a second thought. I have one that is not in use on a place 150 miles from me, and I’ve stored stuff in it for years. The old house sitting not 30 yards away has been broken into countless times, never the grain bins ever. Nock on wood!