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Shipping container bunker

61K views 56 replies 36 participants last post by  longhorngnu 
#1 ·
I have read many posts about how you cant burry a shipping container because they wont support the weight of the dirt above them. This is true to an extent. Forum member "Temu" has proven there are ways around this.

I think I have found another way to make a bunker out of these shipping containers.

What if you dig a hole deep enough to drop a container into, where the roof of the container is say a few feet below ground level. Then instead of burrying it you stack another container on top of it. The second container on top would be filled with dirt half way, or more if possible. These containers are built to be stackable, and the 4 corners support tremendous amounts of weight.

My thinking is you now have a container burried underground by a layer of steel and several feet of earth.

Anyone have any feedback on this idea?
 
#6 ·
I've researched the same thing because my husband and I were thinking of buying steel containers here and just burying them. But, I began to realized most sites say it's not a good idea unless it's massively reinforced internally with additional posts and 2 x 4's, in addition, in the case of an earthquake, the steel box structure could collapse like a house of cards with the intense shifting and shoving of the thousands of pounds of dirt against it. We're trying to research on an arched/quad structure of the ones you see made by Utah Shelters.

I'm not sure if you've seen the site about "Ark II" in Canada, but the guy reinforced old yellow school buses and buried them in the ground.
 
#12 ·
Since you can get them cheap, the top stack idea will work....BUT:

You WILL need to brace the sides of the one buried if you do this or they will buckle in almost as bad as the top would! There is more than just gravity at play here.

I have considerd that. What do you think about something around the bottom container? Like a hesco barrier, a home made version to save money. They used them in desert storm as protective walls and bunkers.
 
#8 ·
You can't find a "square" container. All the cheap ones that people buy for storage sheds and what not are so far away from being "true" that they won't stack anymore.

And buying a new one where everything's nice and square would make it much more expensive than concrete blocks.

If you really wanted to bury a shipping container it could be reinforced by welding in a cage support system. It would be expensive and hard to do though.

Why not bury a container level and then build a "tool shed" over it. That would be really cool.
 
#15 ·
We have used shipping containers to construct bunkers in the Marine Corps on many occasions. The floor of the container (at least the CONEX boxes we typically use) are stronger than the roof. Thus, we set them in a hole upside down in order to better handle the load of the dirt or sandbags. Fill dirt should then be mounded over top. It can then be either covered with a layer of sandbags or seeded.

Just keep in mind that storage containers aren't a permanent bunker solution. Metal is subject to corrosion when burried and the rubber seals will dry rot below ground.

There are a few military publications that mention the use of shipping containers for bunker construction. Try the FM 5-34, Engineer Field Data or the FM 5-103, Survivability
 
#21 ·
Shop for containers made of Cor-ten steel. This steel is nickle-based and prevents rust from eating through. They will develop surface rust, but it will take longer than your life span for rust to eat through.
I have had little success in burying containers. We did manage a usable below grade method using crib walls and bridging dunnage across the roof to support the dirt load. It was so labor intensive we could have poured concrete bunkers in less time and effort. Any shifting or twisting and the doors would not work. Accessing the boxes was a fiasco. The ends were exposed. We built a berm around the door end to block the view of the doors. Not what Was envisioned when we set out to do this.
 
#27 ·
ok but have you tried it?

i buried mine about seven feet down thats to the top of the container no sagging and no worping of the sides at all i welded a colvert to the top and of course cut a hole in it i did however run the culvert all the way to the floor of the container and cut out a ovel in the pipe to act as the door so maybe that helped the overall strength of it.
 
#28 ·
i buried mine about seven feet down thats to the top of the container no sagging and no worping of the sides at all i welded a colvert to the top and of course cut a hole in it i did however run the culvert all the way to the floor of the container and cut out a ovel in the pipe to act as the door so maybe that helped the overall strength of it.
So the side walls are supporting the weight of the dirt okay? No warping at all? Wow thats pretty good. Did you fill in the dirt 1ft at a time alternating sides of the container 1ft at a time when you burried it? I heard this prevents buckling and warping.
 
#29 ·
Here's what to do.
First off, stacked containers are being supported by the very heavy frames around the perimeter, not the roof. If you bury one, think of the roof as a pr-made concrete form. Pour some concrete columns on each side in several places. Be sure when making the rebar cage to attach the rebar to the sides either by welding or bolting. This prevents the sides from bowing inward under the pressure. This also gives you a support for roof beams. It would be wise to buy some 2x2" square steel tubing and run it down the length of the roof on top, in the center. Attach it to the roof.(bolt or weld). Then rebar a cage from one concrete column to the other and form up a beam with plywood. BEFORE you pour the beam, shore up the inside underneath it with 2x4 lumber to be removed after the concrete sets.
Ideally, after the beams set, I personally would remove those forms, and place forms around the entire perimeter of the roof and pour a layer of concrete over the whole roof.
This would also depend on how deep you are burying it but it is probably not necessary.
Again, if you are pouring concrete on top I would shore up the inside so it wont bow in from the concrete weight.
 
#30 ·
You know sometimes I focus so hard on a new idea that I over look the obvious simpler solution. All I need to do is find cheap plastic barrels, and fill them with sand or dirt. This will keep the weight of the dirt from falling inward on the sides of the container.
 
#33 ·
container

There are strong points on the container support all of the weight, so you build a framework of 4x10 using the weight barring points and sheath it with 1 inch marine plywood. The plywood takes all of the weight and the container is fine. The wood eventually rots, but that isn’t for many years and it dose not all rot at the same time and by then the dirt is semi compacted around the berried container anyway.
 
#35 ·
Just Don't Do IT!

I've been building ISBU shipping container homes and buildings for over thirty years. We started out building single container cabins in the Pacific Northwest.

I'm considered one of the foremost authorities on ISBU construction. I write books about it, in fact, I just released one last week.

Education includes advanced degrees in Architecture and engineering.

After over a hundred projects on seven continents, I can tell you that people have tried to accomplish what you guys and gals are talking about. And...

I'm here to tell you that you CANNOT bury a shipping container without reinforcing it substantially. And by the time you've accomplished that using conventional materials, you might as well have just built an underground structure of masonry or steel reinforced concrete.

I have seen them fail. I have seen people killed. And, I've no wish to see, or hear of it again.

If it could be done SAFELY, responsibly, affordably, and efficiently, I assure you that I'd be doing it. I have many, many survivalist and prepper brothers and sisters who long for "that box hidden safely in the ground". And I tell them what I'm telling you, with a slide show of the failures to accompany it, like a macabre chorus of death.

Please... don't do it.

Unless you just have money to burn and something to prove, it's not going to work, and you're going to kill your family.
 
#36 ·
I would not personally trust those shipping containers underground. I used to work for a freight forwarder, and have seen the pics of damaged containers, because they were loaded incorrectly or just simply bumped into.

the earth is always shifting, earthquakes or not. I would hate to know all ones prepping and hard work, ending in death over a collapsed container.
 
#37 ·
I just need a storm shelter to hide my carrots from George Bush and Obama.


So if shipping containers aren't the way to go, do we have any resources for making them out of concrete blocks?
 
#39 ·
What if you used your ingenuity, and...

I just need a storm shelter to hide my carrots from George Bush and Obama.

So if shipping containers aren't the way to go, do we have any resources for making them out of concrete blocks?
Hey Crutch,

I didn't say that Shipping Containers wouldn't accomplish your mission, I said that you can't BURY them.

Time for a brainstorming session...

Okay, you take a 20' HIGH CUBE ISBU (because it's cheap, durable, easily insulated, taller than a standard 20' ISBU, and VERY easy to handle and manipulate using light farm tractors or a Lull) and you build your basic needs into it. Install an decent RV grade bathroom, and some bunks. And, just to keep momma happy, you install a decent kitchen cooktop, with some pantry storage. This can actually be accomplished for very little money, if you "start smart, and finish smart."

Consider starting this build using an old salvaged RV that you'll cannibalize for "parts."

Now, while you're doing that, go dig a big trench with a backhoe, deep enough to allow that HQ container (9.5' high) to sit on blocks or small pilings you constructed of scrap sonotubes as a foundation below grade. It's not gonna happen in an hour, you're going to be at it a while. but it'll work.

If you're really worried about the water table, you can build earth berms to form that "trench" too... You'll just be building a hollow hill, instead of a "hole."

You can stabilize the soil by shooting lightweight concrete onto the sloping sides of the trench (just like spraying gunite to form a pool), or you can use scraps to form retaining walls... I don't care. Just insure that the ground doesn't move. Then, just build some access steps.

And, if you terrace those inner sloping walls slightly, you can use them for stuff like garden locations for a container (pottery and such) garden.

Add a liberal amount of gravel in the bottom of your "trench" under that ISBU for decent drainage, and then...

(I'm simplifying this. There are a few more required labor steps.)

Forget about covering it with dirt. Too expensive, too dangerous, and it's just another layer of potential "traps".

Just stretch a big pitched waterproof tarp system over the whole thing. And then... stretch a nice camo net over the top of it from one side of the trench to the other. Now, you've done a David Copperfield and made a big steel box disappear. For almost no money.

And now, you also have a water retention system, as a bonus. Gardens need water, and so do you.

Plant some viney stuff near that netting so it'll crawl out over it, and make sure that stuff has thorns.

Within no time at all, you won't be able to see it unless you're standing close to it.

You can even improvise "skylights" and such, to allow you to take advantage of that outside shaded area around that ISBU. Now you can lounge outside, in the shade, "under cover".

Congrats! You just built an "underground bunker" with none of the liabilities, or perils. And, you can't get trapped in it, because you can cut your way out if you have to.

Obviously I've simplified this, but it IS a starting point.

Hmmm...

"Has he really done this?" you ask...

Over a dozen times. Recently. For guys and gals just like US, who see a storm coming and need to protect their families.

And it was a lot cheaper than it sounds.
 
#40 ·
I pass a small piece of land with a mobile home on it, and two of these shipping containers buried in the front and side yard of the home. The tops are fully exposed as well as the door sections. I remember seeing this all take place a few months before Y2K. I couldn't figure out what this individual was up to. My first thought was a storm shelter. Maybe extra storage. I would like to stop and inquire about the setup, but never do. But I sure thought he had a pretty good idea, until now. I just assumed they were built like tanks.
 
#41 ·
All things fail eventually....



And Corten Steel is no exception.

Unless he's welded Steel Beams inside those walls to reinforce them...

While the earth may stay put, at some point after a heavy rain, or an earth movement, or some other kind of pressure related disaster, the sides in direct contact with that earth will collapse. And, if he's inside it at the time, it will assuredly become his coffin.

Just like any other tool, you have to RESPECT THE BOX. If you only ask it to do what it's designed to do, you can almost always eliminate a huge margin for failure.

And survival is about safety.

Otherwise, they'd call it "fishin." :D:
 
#42 ·
this tread again !?? common its been said 100s of times its not only the topweight that counts its the side weight/pressure
i personally think it be cheaper to rent a small backhoe and just dig a hole and put 4 sidewalls in concrete blocs and a bunch of metal beams and a concrete top . ( you can also fill the concrete blocs and insert metal re-bars )
 
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