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Small Cabin Forum / Cabin Construction / Building my first Shipping container Home
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EcoPig
Member
# Posted: 24 Jun 2013 07:22am
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Hey guys,

My names Darren, I recently graduated from university as an Architectural technologist and decided to try and make a living by building micro homes which are my passion. I decided a good starting point would be a shipping container home as shipping containers are a good challenge and keep you from accidently oversizing. With a shipping container you cant just say ow i'll make this a bit wider and this a bit higher, you have to make use of what you have and nothing else.

Works going well and i'll try to update this thread with photos as it goes on. I've decided to rent out the house as a holiday home for a while as my daughter is currently too young to live in it. (The design uses a small bed area for children but wouldnt be suitable for a 2 year old. lol) so i've created an IndieGoGo project to rent it out. I'm hoping that people will come and stay in the container and experience micro home living aswell as the potential for shipping container housing. I really think micro homes are a great idea and could really solve alot of housing issues in the future.

If you wanna check out the project its here:

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/sch-1-an-affordable-sustainable-micro-home-holiday

I'd love to get some feed back from other small home builders on their thoughts and suggestions. Also if anyone is around the cornwall area and fancies visiting or even helping out then drop me an email.

sparky1
Member
# Posted: 24 Jun 2013 07:31am
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welcome from sparky1;
in southern part of Virginia ,USA,location almost got me then i saw your site.
Love, Scotland & England, last time there, the month on May 2000.I wish you the very Best,
sparky1 in s.Va.USA.

EcoPig
Member
# Posted: 24 Jun 2013 07:31am
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I also got a mention about my project on Inhabitat back in January.

http://inhabitat.com/eco-pig-designs-set-to-begin-construction-on-sch-1-shipping-cont ainer-home/

Rossman
Member
# Posted: 24 Jun 2013 11:38am
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Anything more than computer renderings?

Love to see some actual pics. Toyed with the idea of building our place with containers but after talking with the local building inspector, passed on the idea. Too "outside the box" for him I think.

EcoPig
Member
# Posted: 24 Jun 2013 11:57am
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If you go right to the bottom of the IndieGoGo page theres some photos on there from a few weeks ago. I've got some more which i have been meaning to update it with. All of the internal studwork is now done. I just need to build the extensions and finish off the ceiling joists.

I'm going to rearrange the project page to put the photos and the rewards info closer to the top after some feedback from other people who've viewed it.

There are ways to get around building inspectors issues. Theres no reason why you cant build a perfectly normal house inside of a shipping container and with the right foundations and connections it can be classed as a temporary structure. If you want to build with multiple containers as one big house then if wrap the building with waterproofing and clad it then insulate it with a layer of closed cell spray foam insulation it wont leak, you wont get any condensation and it wont be visible as a container on the outside, if you want it to be then you just need to patch it and make sure the spray foam covers every last inch of the internal walls, this should be just a watertight.

As for inside, you can reach standard ceilign heights using a high cube container and if you use studwalls inside its exactly the same as conversting any other building.

Rossman
Member
# Posted: 25 Jun 2013 10:28am
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Quoting: EcoPig
There are ways to get around building inspectors issues. Theres no reason why you cant build a perfectly normal house inside of a shipping container and with the right foundations and connections it can be classed as a temporary structure.


In our municipality, shipping containers are classified as "vehicle bodies" and you are not allowed to have them on your lot, let alone live in them. To overcome those hurdles would not be worth the time and effort that would have to be invested, if it's even possible.

EcoPig
Member
# Posted: 25 Jun 2013 10:37am
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That sucks mate, sorry to hear it. Its a shame! Shipping containers are much stronger than a lot of traditional building techniques and yet they aren't accepted yet!

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