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My spouse and I have become very fond of the idea of building a higher-end container home in HPP. We know that cool, comfortable houses are now being built in the hottest climates in SE Asia. We need someone who knows about coatings, internal insulation, cooling roofs, etc.
Does anyone know of an architect who has actually designed such a home on the Biig Island?
Out budget is $400k. We are not looking for a huge house.
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I am an architect currently designing three alternative building system projects in central HPP.
Some of my plans for here, Keaau, and Kailua have been for container buildings. You can reach me at 310-562-0362 and I will be back on the Big Island May 23.
John Maloney
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Thank you, John. Once we get our questions organized I'll give you a call.
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Being a current container owner (and at one time, "containers owner"), while things may have changed since I looked into it, I did exhaustive research into container homes and learned that the cost of overcoming their shortcomings was higher than any cost savings gained by using them. You can build great homes using them, but you can build cheaper and better homes by not using them. If money isn't an issue you'll do fine building with containers.
They are however the perfect storage solution especially for farms.
ETA: information
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I am doing another right now using the lessons I learned from building my present home. There really is only one reason I went this way. I need the finished product to be portable and the container can do that like nothing else can. Otherwise I would have built a cabin with a more user-friendly layout. I am making no effort to make this permit-able. If I tried it would come out more expensive than regular construction.
I don't see much wiggle room as far as design and lay-out goes. I wouldn't build anything requiring more than a single container or two more or less independent containers side by side with a roof in between.
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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
aloha
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Thanks for sharing, everyone. Do you happen to know the price per square foot for construction?
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Hawaii modular space looks like they have a new product. Looks like sips??
http://hawaiimodularspace.com/in-plant_main.html
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If you are working with shipping containers one of the most difficult things for people to accept is DON'T PAINT THE EXTERIOR.
Weathering steel or corten steel as its sometimes called is a special alloy where the rusty-appearing patina itself is what keeps the steel from rusting. If you try to paint over it or remove the patina and then paint over it, you are altering the chemical state of the steel and it will quickly oxidize (rust) all the way through. The only paint that should be on the container is the original manufacturers paint. The only exception would be if the container has been repaired, the welded areas may not have the same weathering resistance as the original steel.
If you have a container that has already been re-painted and its already flaking off you'll want to remove the paint as quickly as possible because water will get under the paint and eventually the container will start leaking. If the container has been damaged in this manner the only real fix is to put a roof over it. If you need to paint the container for whatever reason you'll need to keep an eye on it and maintain (repaint) the container frequently because now you're relying on the paint (instead of the steel) to keep the water out. We sold a 35 year old shipping container that had never been repainted and it was solid, our neighbor had a 10 year old container that had been re-painted and where water got under the paint on the roof the steel got ate through in just a few years and everything inside got wet and moldy.
I contacted the company who makes Snow Roof and inquired if it was safe to put on the roof of the container and they advised against it unless I had a way to ensure that water couldn't gather.
ETA: The neighbor's painted container had been painted by a container resale company who claimed they knew what they were doing, it wasn't a "home job".
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Thank you Tada and Terracore.
My interest in a container home is two-fold. First, I want a vacation home on the Big Island and my spouse loves the idea of a container home. It's a compromise of sorts. Second, I want a house that can be locked down when we are on the mainland. I could be wrong, but it seems like an all metal structure might allow for this.
We are currently selling a house and when that is done I will call JM3.
