quote:
Originally posted by Malapuaao
Aloha MarkP, I wonder what were the main lessons? I'm at a cold/hot/wet 1000' and can't imagine living in our storage shipping container; so I'm guessing you did a lot with the interior and lighting and maybe cutting in windows? The main alternative, because of portability, seems to be yurts and they too have issues (btw, 1 thing I learned: if you do buy, buy direct from manufacturer and ship directly to your site and you'll save thousands and tons of hassles).
aloha
The major rule is that all of the strengths of a shipping container revolve around it being a hollow metal tube. You need to keep it that way as much as possible. Cut few holes in it. Locate what holes you do cut so as to retain as much of the strength as possible. Reinforce them to regain as much of the strength lost from cutting as possible. I have seen schemes where two containers were welded together side by side and the mating walls were cut out to get a space as wide as the two containers. You lose strength that way. You lose portability that way. It's a long skinny metal tube. Live with that or don't use containers.
If at all possible use the big doors at the end for access. Well not those doors, but build a wall just inside with nice sliding or french doors, then use the big steel doors for locking up when out of town or during a storm. That being said it is hard to lay out an 8' x 40' space with access only at the end. I put a 36" wide door right in the middle of the long side. You might think that the stress is greatest there so don't cut there. The tension in the bottom and the compression in the top are greatest but the shear loads (forces that try to make the top and bottom slide against each other like leaf springs on a truck axle) are least there. The part you are going to cut is the corrugated siding which carries shear and is incapable of carrying tension and compression anyway because it is corrugated. I ended up putting huge 4' x 6' windows into Container 2.0. This was against my better judgement but the lady who is going to live there lobbied strongly for large windows and when I found them on sale 50% off I caved. I welded up 2" x 3" steel angle frames with the 3" flange in the plane of the side of the container to best resist the shear loads I was talking about. These loads would try to make the frames go out of square. I jacked the container up in the middle, cut the holes, and stuck the welded frames through from the inside. The frames then got tack welded around the perimeter on the inside to wherever they contacted the corrugated siding. When I removed the center supports there was no noticeable sagging that I would attribute to the installation of the windows but I really think that the heavy steel frames are necessary to achieve this.
When I say "I welded" I mean a professional welder did the welding. I merely payed him.
When I say "I payed him" I mean I will pay him.
Hey, I'm the brains of the operation. That has to count for something.
Another lesson is that the container can get very cold. Condensation forms on the inside. I quite like the look of the inside when cleaned up nicely and the container is small enough as it is so I have no plans to sheetrock the inside. I also don't plan to cover the outside per se. I plan to spray 1" of foam insulation on the outside. That should be enough to stop the condensation which so readily forms on the interior of an un-insulated container. Yeah, condensation forms inside and black mold grows. Now I'm not gonna be running any marathons soon but neither am I going to die soon. If mold were as bad as claimed I'd be dead already. Nevertheless the exterior insulation should prevent it and take the edge off of the cold and heat. A final coat of elastomeric roof coating will protect the foam. There is a grade of foam specifically for roofs so I am not reinventing the wheel.
You will need a fly roof to keep the sun and rain off of the container. Most people forget this but the roof helps on clear nights as well. In fact that is when you need it most. Most people don't think of everyday objects glowing red hot but they do glow infra-red hot. During the day the sun wins and heats everything else up. The sun also has an internal source of heat so it never cools down. At night the container continues glowing infra-red hot, giving off heat that though puny is not replenished and so the container cools to a temperature often cooler that the outdoor temperature and definitely cooler than the indoor wet-bulb temperature. With a fly roof in place it is the roof that cools down the most.
