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My thoughts on INCH kits | Jerry D Young | Disaster Preparedness General Discussion | 99 | 08-11-2019 10:58 AM |
Prepping in a big city apartment - Priorities? | 82Blazer | Urban Survival | 72 | 04-22-2018 10:14 PM |
Food storage fats, oils, and essential fatty acids | NY Min | Food and water | 53 | 12-30-2017 02:15 PM |
Wise to rethink your food supplies doing heavy labor. | bunkerbuster | Food and water | 56 | 10-02-2017 06:29 PM |
Storage container advice | bounty | Australia and New Zealand | 6 | 03-24-2017 11:58 PM |
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![]() Well tonite I am camping out here after a very successful days work. Will be getting down about freezing with that cold wind from Canada blowing thru. Looking forward to a nice day tomorrow in the sixties and hopefully getting more done. Wish I had a way to upload some more pics right now out here, but will have to wait another day.
Just realized how much I hate laptops. Dont know how everyone does anything on a smart phone or tablet either. This really sux. Well at least I dont have to rely on these to build my nowhere place. Will follow up on progress assuming I dont freeze to death tonite, when I get back to the big city life. Just thinking of that gives me a headache. Dont know what time it is but feeling closer to the midniteish hour. Only a tiny generator running this computer I am using. There is no moon and the only light I have is this laptop screen. Man it is dark right now. |
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The thought of hurricane straps is what triggered my brain in doing it this way. |
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![]() Nice, Im so jealous. I'd love to be able to throw something like that together. To build around here you need engeneered plans, environmental study, and permits. As cool as your cabin is code informant would bulldoze it for being unsafe. Not sure how a welded together box can be unsafe but they will find away. Keep up the good work.
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![]() I really appreciate this thread. Thank you. Maybe we should have a thread with brief reviews of personal experience in buildout for containers. I went the 40 foot route because I could. Our container is only to live in while we build a house over the next few years. I had the company I bought the container from do the initial work for conversion. They put in 3 windows, a door and 2 whirlybird vents in the top, a frame support for a water tank, cut holes for a small chimney pipe, solar wiring and for water pipe and drain, as well as painted it white, because I believe that helps it stay cooler in the summer.
I failed to plan properly and barely got the site prepared in advance for delivery. I only dug out the area a bit and made the 4 corners into pads with cinder blocks and refill with dirt, brick and stone to add support. They did break a bit but I added more fill around it as needed to help stabilize it. I still do not know if it will hold long term, but is has so far. The ground was mostly undisturbed. It had a slight gully under it, so there is drainage away from the container. Before they delivered it, I put down buliders plastic and fiber insulation batts made from recycled plastic bottles that is a safer alternative to fiberglass. After they set the container on the site, I pulled up the edges of the plastic and sealed it around the edges. It still leaked a little and I eventually installed drains to allow the water to drain out and air to come in and dry any water that comes in. So far it is holding. I am not sure this was the best idea I ever had. ![]() Because of the pesticides, I had the floors sanded at the initial conversion and then I used builders plastic to cover it and installed a rubber tile floor. On top. I painted on an anti-condensation material on the inside of the roof and down thee sides for about a foot. I do not know if this actually helps much because we still get moisture there, but the ceiling whirlybird vents help a lot to clear it quickly. For the rest of the insulation, I used the plastic fiber batts on the walls and attached them with glue and used builder's plastic as a covering, gluing it to the upper part of the wall then laying the rubber floor tiles to hold it in place at the bottom, instead of using studs and dry wall. This makes a sort of vapor barrier, which keeps the inside of the container dry and it keeps the insulation in place. I then used extruded polystyrene ceiling sheets to insulate the inside of the roof. I initially attached them with wood strips glued to the steel and the XPS sheets glued to the wood strips. Part of the ceiling dropped down 2 times, so I eventually fixed them with tek roofing screws and rubber/metal washers to the wood strips. Then some of the glue came loose from the inside of the roof in a portion, so I then fixed the whole thing with longer tek screws and roofing washers that I drilled from the inside through the roof. This finally held but I had to caulk all the holes I made. I cut openings for the vents and kept the pieces that I close them with when it is too cold, but that still allows the vents to help with the condensation above the ceiling. The stove pipe keeps the area around it warm, so I do not close that part off. I installed solar panels and a 12v system with led light strips and we have a National Luna 95l camping fridge that is very expensive but well worth it in my opinion because it works great and sips electricity by only drawing about 2.6 amps when it does run and is so well insulated that it does not runs that much. My battery barely drains at night. I have added a couple of standing 12v fans that have made it very tolerable in the heat so far. I also installed a small wood burning stove that we use to burn wood and coal to heat and cook with in the winter. With the level of insulation we have it seems to be very tolerable, though it does not get as cold here in South Africa as in the USA or Canada. I added a 500l water tank on the roof and ran a pipe down the backside and through the wall to a tap I installed, along with a sink and a drain tube. We have been getting water from the neighbor, but just drilled a borehole/well and I hope to get the pump installed next week, so we will have our own water source. For bathroom, we use a pop-up camping toilet with compost for no.2, and for no.1 we just throw it out. I have built a small wooden platform at the back where the original double doors open and plan to build a wooden fran that I will cover with builders plastic that I will attach to the one door and it will swing out and latch to the other one when they are mostly open. This will make a place we can shower. I have a portable gas water heater/geyser that has a 12v pump and shower head that we hope to use for showers. To date we have been doing basin baths. We have a queen bed, cupboards, some shelves and a table and folding chairs. We cook with a camping gas stove or, grill outside over a fire or we use the wood stove. I installed a sink on the outside in back that can be used for washing clothes and for me to use while I build for cleaning from painting, etc. I have built a pole barn type garage/storage next to the container and we hope to start the house soon. We also started a small veggie garden and I put up a veggie tunnel. Although we are in a place where there are other people, it is at least small and rural enough to be better than being in the city in case of SHTF. All in all I am happy with how things turned out. I am even considering doing something a little like you are doing with your container when we build the house. It would be simple to build in stages, using containers for part of the build. But I believe that standard wood construction will suit me better and will have a better comfort range than the container, which is still warmer in the summer and colder in the winter because of the steel shell. Thanks again for your thread. I will look forward to hearing the rest of the story. |
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I think you are lucky you did not try to bury one of these as planned. Intuitively shipping containers seem like they would hold up to being buried, but they really only have strength in the corners for stacking and tend to crush like a beer can. After seeing they way you set yours (genius by the way using the stacking wells in the corners ), it dawned on me that a guy could dig down, even if only 3-4-5 feet, and build a slab and cinderblock foundational basement under one of these. I totally get your situation being on a minimal budget, We've built a lot of darn cool things on a scavenger's budget over the years. I'll be building a 40x60 pole barn in the near future (potentially with some of these containers included in the overall design), so spray insulation is in my future regardless, I have done industrial spraying and sandblasting and have enough insight to know that you are better served buying good used equipment (if you can afford to), doing the job, and then reselling the equipment (for the same you paid usually), than you are paying some one about the same price for the single job. For example, we bought an old abandoned drilling rig, rigged it up, drilled a water well, and then traded it for a bulldozer, built our ponds, and then traded it for a backhoe... you get the drift. I have also been collecting Styrofoam. if you look regularly in the free section of Craigslist you will find a regular supply of free hot-tub covers (Styrofoam 4-6" thick), people don't know how to use a needle and thread and just throw them out and buy new when they rip. I have 4 of them collected so far in the past couple of years and if I had been really trying hard I'd likely have over a dozen by now (I use these floating in my ponds and water tanks to minimize algae growth and evaporation, they work awesome for this here in the desert). Actually, its crazy how many free HOT-TUBS I could have had in that same time period- (these would make amazing aquaculture ponds) Didn't you say you were near DFW?, identify some businesses that receive large items packaged in Styrofoam. For example, there is a company that makes solar panels near me and they package their panels with huge thick sheets of Styrofoam and then ship them to their distributers- those distributers then have to throw away tons of the stuff every week. If you look hard enough you can likely find a good supply of free insulation. I just spent $300 on 7 4x8 sheets of 2" Styrofoam insulation to winterize a glass sun-room, and I can tell you that the stuff works awesome, especially if you can find a good free source. Anyway, yes this thread is greatly appreciated by many I'm sure, you'll likely get more love about it now that you're posting regular pictures of your progress ![]() |
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![]() That turned out to be one cold nite out there. I didnt have a sleeping bag good for much less than 60 degrees. My pecans were cold and so were my toes. By the time sun came up, I had finally gotten warm enough and had no intentions of taking away from that for a while. I wanted some sleep and was going to finally get it.
When I left the last trip out, there were four more of the rafters yet to be placed. So far everything had only been tacked together. I got lucky with a spare hand to help out. He wanted to see how I has getting along on it anyway. With an extra set of hands that have a decent idea of what I was doing, this container could be nearly finished by now. The container was set down last year about Christmas. It wasnt until this last October I finally got everything on site to begin building. Since then it has been coming together at a decent pace. I am only a few days behind on what work has been done when posting it here. I know anything posted is useless without pics. But too many of the same thing is just as useless. So trying not to go crazy on adding everything I clicked. Finally all of the missing rafters are set in place and tacked to ridge beam. So they are just flopping around up there right now. Here the container side with steep rise. The addition side with a much shallower pitch roofline. The rafters are just under 5 ft on centers. Should be plenty to hold what I am going to use for the roof materials. Nothing real exciting right now. Just able to stand back and realize what this is going to be when finished. So that ended up a short but productive day. I had just gotten back from an out of town job and been working nights. Takes me a few days to adjust back. I spent a week away from the build here doing some other stuff. But still focused on the one problem I had posted earlier. How to attach the rafters to container and outer wall. I know it does not look that complicated to attach rafter to container. But I was not having any decent brain farts for ideas. Just something simple and sturdy. Preferably using existing materials at hand and not too much work to fab up. So thats where i left things the last time out. Rafters tacked at top of beam and just flapping around until I decided what to do. |
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![]() Just short of a week ago I wanted to try fabing some pieces of angle that might work to secure the rafters to container. Another thing to consider was the four inner rafters on container needed to be raised a little more than an inch to match height of outer ones.
This rafter needs to be raised about an inch above container, and fasten it secure to support the roof and what mother nature throws at it for the next 50 years. So I decided during the week I was absent from working on it to try some scrap 3x6 box tubing that was 11 gauge wall thickness. Thats about 1/8" thick. First I cut out a pattern a little smaller than actual piece would end up. With a handy plasma cutter I clamped the pattern to one end of box tubing above and just started tracing around until the next part fell on floor. Not much more than 10 minutes into this laborious process there were ten pieces gracing the floor. This is my scrap piece left over from someone elses scrap piece of box tubing. I would say it has served its purpose well and with very little wasted. And to think that someone had thrown out a few dozen pieces of the 3x6" box tubing measuring 2 and 3 feet long. Dragging this out might be overly dramatizing. But there is a point to the madness. Re purposing materials that could work well, even if some labor is involved can easily save a fortune in direct out of pocket expense. Maybe even enough to purchase a plasma cutter instead of prefabricated components that you could have made yourself. |
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![]() After welding each end of this C purlin up for the ridge beam, it still seemed to be really flimsy. Even tho its not really supporting any load, I still wanted a little more rigidity. This is a hencho en mexico purlin and is 2 x 6 instead of the others measuring 2 1/2 x 6. A lighter duty and cheaper for those on a budget. Yea thats it. There is a noticeable weight difference between the two on the specs page at Mueller, so that makes sense.
I took an 8" long scrap piece of 3 x 6 box tubing used for those brackets and cut a gusset for each end. Angle cut it to blend into the purlin. This actually made the top beam a lot more secure. At least it lessens the likelihood of potentially ripping off at the weld. Sure if you say so....It was a feeling I got. And you gotta go with the gut sometimes. I am almost caught up with what is posted so far. Just a couple more things not covered. In the next post I hope to have some of the skin put up and start piecing together some panels used for the roof. Weather isnt going to be that good for most of next week, so I am not expecting for a lot to get done. Enough for now. |
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![]() fordtrucksforever
You last visited: 10-29-2017 at 02:42 AM newbie Join Date: Dec 2012 Posts: 0 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Dont know what happened, but as of today the above is my current stats. I can not add pics anymore. There are also several pics missing on previous posts I made. So guess I will sit this one out until something has been resolved. |
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![]() Weather has been iffy so far. Not getting anything done. Hoping for at least one day before Christmas that will work out.
I did get the rafters finally welded in place. Using those angle pieces that were cut from a 3 x 6 box tubing worked out very well. Before welding secure I needed to do some fine adjustments so everything measured square. I ratcheted the cable tight to persuade the framing over a little. After the measurements were correct, I welded the angle braces to top of container and rafters. These worked out perfectly. I spaced the three center rafters up to match outer ones then clamped down tight. Everything was tacked in place. It never hurts to remeasure everything before welding permanantly together. It is amazing how solid and rigid everything is now. With this part of construction finally figured out and done, I can start cutting the roof panels to size and screw them down. This is going to start looking more like a real structure when the outer skin is put on. I cant wait to see what it looks like. I want to thank everyone that have offered suggestions. It helped me make my decision on how to proceed with some things that were in question. A little bit of reassurance goes a very long way. I added several simple stick pictures of some of the earlier floor plans that had been tossed around. They are on a couple of the posts from first page. This was before I figured out a two story structure was the best way for me to build my nowhere house. YMMV |
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![]() Hope everybody had a great holiday experience. Merry Christmas to anyone it applies to. I am even going to wish some holiday spirit to the secularist liberals here. If there are any America first haters lurking around, well go **** yourself.
I had a great time spent with family and friends. The core of America. Got to shoot some new toys and watch the next generation have their first time with them too. Christmas day weather was perfect. Even tho it was cold, there were no clouds in the sky and no wind blowing. I took some time out and tried to figure a way to cut and install the skin to my nowhere build. What I chose was some very rigid and strong B decking. Its main purpose is for upper flooring or flat roof applications. Then it gets filled with concrete on top. I found these cheap surplus. They are 25 1/2 ft long with a full 36" width coverage. There is some surface rust from sitting stacked out in the weather for years. But which in no way compromises anything. These panels are 22 gauge in thickness. For a comparison, standard r-panels come in two very common sizes. For your conventional pole barn, smaller or portable building they are commonly in 29 gauge. Stronger and more commercial applications would be 26 gauge. The first of these panels going up are for the far wall on addition that was built to the side of container. Each of them are cut to length and at a 15 degree angle to match the pitch of roof. This way there is no voids or major gaps at top to deal with. They also were notched as you can see to fit around each of the rafters. I used a conventional circular saw with 7 inch abrasive wheel to cut these panels to length. Set to 15 degree angle and follow the pencil line drawn. For the notches, I used that 4 1/2" angle grinder with cutoff wheel. Work went fairly fast and no major issues to deal with. These panels will sit flush to bottom of the floor beams. By clamping a couple pieces of scrap to bottom of this beam, gave a footing for the panel to rest during assembly. After measuring the length and location of notch, they were cut at the 15 degree angle on top. Then bottom of panel was set on the scrap pieces clamped down as seen in earlier pic. I picked up the panel and lifted over my head. Then walked toward structure while pushing the panel up until it was standing straight against the framing. Without any wind blowing they would stay free standing, but put a brace against them while I grabbed the screw gun and secure each panel in place. So today I only had a few hours of tolerable weather and was able to get the first wall done with full width panels. Even tho the weather was cold wet and miserable I didnt want to let it go to waste. Had weather been more bearable and a couple more hours to work in, I could have most of these up. From inside, the wall is starting to close everything in. Its beginning to look more like the real deal now. Weather permitting this week I will make a repeat of today and hope to get most of the remaining panels installed. When I stood the first panel up and secured with only two screws, it was surprising how strong and rigid the walls were going to be. Right now they are screwed together at the very top and bottom only. I ran out of daylight before getting the center beam screwed down. I know there is no issue what so ever how strong the building is going to be. Hope anyone reading this is enjoying the project. It has been a long time coming for me, but now it no longer seems like just a pipe dream. |
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![]() I've read other threads like these on a few other forums and they always fascinate me. Some people do very creative things with used containers and yours is going to be no different. I am looking forward to following this thread.
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