Shipping containers provide home in a box

I've seen these in HGTV or similar channel. They are recycled for habitation. Many look really great. Really no different than some modular housing. Plus economical. They do present their own challenges. If you like modern or loft living I can see the attraction. But you have to modify your design for the standard dimensions of the container. Using them as a base for building does allow you to use more of your budget for nice upgrades like flooring and countertops.

 

Here is another approach to modular housing, called the redneck mansion:

 

lol... that does look cool, as a kid, i would have KILLED to live there!!

 

Properly done could this be an economical answer to some of the homeless?

 

It is also a good way to recycle the shipping containers. Although it's cheaper than stick built, it still isn't cheap.

 

i'm diggin' it

 

Cargo container homes for green alternatives for office, and even new home, construction. There are countless numbers of empty, unused shipping containers around the world just sitting on the shipping docks and taking up space.

The reason for this is that it’s too expensive for a country to ship empty containers back to the their origin in most cases, it’s just cheaper to buy new containers from Asia.

The result is an extremely high surplus of empty shipping containers that are just waiting to become someone’s home or office.Design, buy or build your shipping container home today!

 

Considering how the global economy is rapidly spiraling down, all those empty shipping containers may be put to good use

I'm thinking of getting 1-2 for my hobby farm, as watertight outdoor storage. They're sturdy and a decent 40 ft container is around $1,600

I sure can't build anything that size for that price!

 

My Uncle did something similar with school buses on his farm. He took two old busses, pulled off the body and buried them with the back end accessible. They have worked for decades now.

 

If I recall, fallout shelter plans also had old school buses and old rail cars buried that way. Eg "shelter in place"

 

I would have thought they would at least be good candidates for carrying metal scrap to a recycler--even if they weren't worth hauling empty. I can't understand why someone would abandon that much salvageable material. Scrap was going for good prices a year or two ago. (I sold a few hundred dollars worth of aluminum, copper, brass, stainless, etc. that I had about in various forms, and a half ton of iron.)

It was my understanding that for some of the Asian facilities construction, the foreign contract workers were living in shipping containers. I assume that they did so because any other accomodations would have cost them way too much.

I wouldn't expect the containers to be particularly energy efficient... Spending twice as much per square foot as what a nice home costs around here seems a bit absurd to me.

Seems to me we had some sort of old short rail road box car container for storage on the farm when I was really little...if I recall correctly. I can sort of visualize it, but don't know what became of it.

 

Here's a company working on making homes out of shipping containers for the very poor in Mexico. The homes will be for purchase, but hopefully will only cost around $10,000. I understand that they are trying to work with some of the local companies that hire these people in order to help with some sort of payment plan for the workers.

The company website: PFNC Global Communities

and here's just a random article that tells the story: Shipping containers could ease Mexico housing crises | ASSOCIATED PRESS

It seems like a fantastic idea and a way to greatly improve people's lives. I hope it works.

 

Maybe we could use them to make homes for our politicians. Once they are asleep at night, we load the containers and ship them off.

Tom

 

We might be better off putting our illustrious bankers in them...then send the container vessel on a slow cruise off the Somali coast. That alone would save us trillions...although I suspect that somehow Thain would finagle the most expensive bathroom ever installed in a shipping container.

 

And then, in the deepest part of the Atlantic or Pacific, open the seacocks and scuttle her