I am loaded up and ready to head out in the morning for a few more days of work on container. But a little more gibberish to post before getting into the actual construction.
All of the work getting done is without any help or even insight from others. Most people could not care less if something they have no personal or deep interest in. I am doing all of the work by myself, so building and also making sure there are decent pics and writing a follow up may be in small increments behind what I have been able to complete as far. Hopefully there are a few people here that might be interested in a container build in their future and can get some ideas from what others are doing. I sure would like to find some good detailed information about certain aspects of this. But should have everything worked out by the time this build is finished.
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Initially I spent a lot of time digging thru limited sources and little if any really reliable or useful information as to how any of the builds I followed were done.
What about going with a 40 ft container if more room was needed? Everyone seems to think a 40 foot container would work great because you have double the space compared to a 20 foot container. For several reasons I didnt want a 40 ft container. One serious reason I will go into later. But the 8 ft width really limits the ingenuity one can use in design. Or creates a need for ingenuity above and beyond the average snowflake IQ. With a narrow and very long footprint, doesnt make for too many ideas that would work well for a floor plan. You are stuck with having a room at each end and usually open in between them.
So by conventional thinking, you would make a sleeping area at one end and bathroom at the other. You could combine the two at one end, but limits privacy if there are several occupants. Then you add a kitchen on the back wall or an L shape from wall on bathroom side. If doing a container for short term living quarters opens the lack of luxury up a lot. You can have fold down cots and much simpler cooking arrangements. So for me, the main drawback to a 40 ft container made a lot of sense. You could also compare the 40 foot length to a small mobile home. Older ones would be 9 X 40 ft. That extra one foot width makes a huge difference on what you can do with the added space. In a very short term use the limited space would be tolerable. Much more time spent could drive you and other occupants completely crazy. Or to the point of wanting to kill each other.
Back on to the layout using a 20 ft container and several options. All of this time I kept looking at the available space there was to actually move freely around and maintain my sanity in case of unfavorable long term conditions, like weather, zombie apocalypse, fallout, etc.
By adding an addition to the back, I could open it up to at least stretch my legs a little more. Since there was already going to be the side addition, this was not too far of a reach. I was getting closer to what seemed to be the right direction, but not yet. Had to rehash everything over and over before going to the next level.
Back to the drawing board again. And again. and once more, again. And for good measure lets go back again. What I needed to realize is for the materials it would take to add what I had planned at this point, would take very little more to make it much larger. OK fast forward thru all the little baby steps I went thru to finally realize how I should proceed.
If I just wanted a small getaway, this could work well. It was simple enough. Has plenty of room and easily add anything that was lacking as needed over time. But still has a feel more like a hotel room.
This was getting closer to what I thought was going to be the final layout. But still not ready to commit just yet. I was more comfortable with this general floorplan, or something to this effect. But it was not there all the way for my liking. If I were to build more or less a bug out at another location, this is closer to what it would end up as. Square footage staying to a minimum was why you see the bathroom this way.
There is a stackable washer/dryer, shower, and hot water heater. Originally this was to be equipped with a short fat 30 gallon hot water heater, since I have one ready to put in use. But realizing the amount of precious space it takes up, was scrapped. If this layout or one similar were to be used it would be equipped with a tankless type. Since the water usage is minor even a point of use heater might be a better choice. The small sink in bathroom is placed in a nitch of type that extends into the kitchen behind a built in cupboard. The cupboard would appear to be the full footprint in kitchen, but only have a single or double depth shelving. All of the plumbing would be hidden and easily tied in with kitchen.
Throwing away all of the previous floor plans that I spent months narrowing down going over what to do, I went large. Since this was going to be a permanent place to reside now, I saw no reason to keep the footprint so small. Since there are more buildings that will be added after this one is finished. First starting out with an 8' x 20' footprint was still my foundation to build from.
You may ask why not start with a 40' container, like so many usually choose to begin with. The main reason I didnt go with one is the big trail of a footprint a 40' container would leave moving it to the location I am building on. Secondly, a 20' container is something I could actually move by myself. It will fit on a flatbed trailer and pulled with a 3/4 ton truck easily. That is if you use some common sense and patience.
Fortunately I had access to an old retired goose neck trailer with 18' flatbed sitting above tires and bobtailed in back. A conventional 20 foot flatbed could be used just as easily. The container weighs in around 5500 pounds. Not much different than a large tractor with attachments. This is something else everyone should have, if they can afford one. Doesnt have to be big or new, but a full size tractor, preferably 4wd, is a major plus if not necessity.
After shopping around the area for a while, I found several places offering storage containers for sale. Most of them were all competitively priced. Some offered delivery at a fixed price or included with purchase. I had a 50 mile radius for free, but that was not anywhere close to where the container would be going.
So I had a 20' container delivered free with purchase to a given location. It would be a while before I would be able to move to its final destination. This gave me time for looking over the container and measure to further define my plans in more detail. Once again back to the drawing board with what I wanted to build which would become, in time, my permanent residence.
Now for more detail on choosing a 20" container for my build. Well instead of going with one that is 40' long anyway. I am building out in the sticks. Basically a large piece of family property that is undeveloped for the most part. It is mainly covered with oak trees, hickory trees, copperheads, wolf spiders, and certain years lots of ticks. No open fields or bare areas anywhere. I cut a road to the build site thru the trees. I did not just cut a path straight to the location from the road. Instead it is an indirect route from a driveway coming in from the county road. There is no access any other way in, except by foot, thru the trees.
The path blazed was steering around the trees so I didnt need to cut any large ones out of the way. That took a few attempts after trying to drive thru. If you are facing the pathway thats cut, is curved around enough so it just disappears into the surrounding trees. You have to be looking for the driveway to actually see where it goes.
A 20' container would barely fit thru the opening without scraping against trees on either side of the path. There is no way this could be accomplished using a 40' container. Unless I cut it in two pieces. That was an option I had considered when first started shopping for a container. The way my indirect route was cut thru, a 40 ft container would have never gotten past the entrance to main driveway from the county road. Not to mention making the hard right turn onto the property driveway with 40 feet pivoting behind or at least the length where trailer axles are mounted.
Yet there is still another reason to choose a 20 ft container for my project. This worked best for me. Your mileage may differ. Since I was lucky to have access to an old retired goose neck trailer, made it very easy to transport the container to its final location by myself. You could get away with a flatbed or even stick axles under the container, just working with what you have. With this goose neck, I had to mock up a receiver that fits into the bed of an old 3/4 ton truck that had recently been retired. Wasnt too much trouble, just used some old scrap channel iron pieces that were welded up in the shape of an H or U depending on what it needs to fit. It was secured directly down where bolts go thru for bed. Finally I get to add my first pic!!
After this I could move the trailer around and back it up to container.