Shipping containers

[Courtesy Flush]

It never occurred to me before, but shipping containers are piling up by the millions in U.S. ports. Since we import so much more than we export, the containers are not needed to ship stuff back to China. It's not economically feasible to ship them back empty, so they accumulate.

I've been reading websites and articles about converting them into housing, but most examples are more upscale than you'd think. They combine multiple containers into large, chic houses. A more practical use for them would be to take a single unit, and convert it onto housing for one or maybe two people.

The containers sell for about $1800 on ebay, and I don't know where else to check for prices, but that's pretty cheap for its size, and it's a weather-proof shell that can make very economical shelter. Not just for low-income people, but for hurricane evacuees, etc. FEMA could stack them just like industry does (when not needed), and not take up the hundreds of acres the FEMA trailers occupy when not in use.

While it's a great untapped resource, it's also very telling of our modern times. In the past, people in third world countries used American shipping crates for housing. Now we're using Chinese containers. Hmmm.

[harlinchi]

1. Are we all named Joad?

It just seems a little 'Grapes of Wrath' -ish to me!

Of course, kdsusa is thinking of solving problems while I jest. I just hope I don't wind up in one.

[Kolesar]

6. That's what I thought! Remember when they moved into the rail cars

...late in the book after they lost their home, their car, and their tent. Then they just walked off, carrying their wet blankets.

[Nihil]

12. I was thinking of a more modern film ...

... the sequence in "I, Robot" where they find the old model robots
herded into containers awaiting their deaths ...

[Igel]

2. Some third world countries are using Chinese shipping containers

for housing, too.

My in-laws have a couple. They have so much stuff they've accumulated over the years that they need them for storage.

In the last year or so I saw a story--with sketches--in the MSM or some media close to the MSM that discussed stacking them for building apt. buildings. Modify them, stack them, with wiring and plumbing, bond them together somehow, add outside scaffolding for the stairs, and voila. Housing. IIRC the resulting building wasn't too expensive.

[Iwasthere]

3. Hmmm

Just bought 3 1/2 acres of jungle in Costa rica about 3 miles from beach near panama. One of these might work perfectly for a home till I build. Could pull it up into a tree too.

[Champion Jack]

13. A tree?

The one I have here for extra storage weighs 9000 lbs empty

[silverweb]

4. LOTS of info on this.

Scroll down and check out the multiple articles on the subject on _this page_ at TreeHugger!

[Courtesy Flush]

5. Here's a large hostel made of containers.

http://users.lia.net/neweden/container.htm

[eppur_se_muova]

7. Now THAT's thinking outside the, um, the beaten path!

Some interesting history: One of R. Buckminster Fuller's first projects in cheaply manufactured housing made use of silo components converted to dwellings. Large numbers of these were sent to the Persian Gulf by the Army in WWII.

http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/studios/s97/burns/p_fullerd.html

[IDemo]

8. I'll take one of these instead, also courtesy of Buckminster Fuller->

Geodesic dome

[eppur_se_muova]

10. My favorite by far. I just thought the history was interesting.

That and the idea of using whatever's at hand that's not seeing much use otherwise.

[XemaSab]

9. I bet you could make a prefab flooring unit with water/sewer and electricity

with a nice finish and sell that for cheap to make the containers "livable."

Cut a few holes in the side and you've got a standard Santa Barbara apartment! Minus the vermin! :duck:

[tinrobot]

11. They make great houses

...plus the infrastructure for transporting them is already in place. I've seriously thought of building a house out of them.

Here's a couple of of resources for shipping container housing

http://www.fabprefab.com/fabfiles/containerbayhome.htm

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/01/shipping_contai.php

http://www.shipping-container-housing.com/container-housing.html