Affordable Housing Using Cargo Containers Msword

AFFORDABLE HOUSING USING CARGO CONTAINERS Pre Fabricated Homes in Costa Rica using shipping containers By www.containerhomes.net Dated: Jun 17, 2009

The pre fabricated home in Costa Rica can be completed by using a standard ISO steel shipping container. The used shipping containers are converted into homes in less than one month and then they are delivered. Contact us at: www.containerhomes.net PRLog.Org - Global Press Release Distribution

Six Degrees of Reparation INNOVATIVE RECYCLING by building a home from a shipping container. 1. The construction of homes using shipping containers eliminates a waste disposal problem/cleans up coastline. 2. The shipping container home provides affordable housing. 3. The shipping container home is a low cost and low impact form of construction. 4. The shipping container home construction accomplishes this using a minimal amount of energy and non-renewable resources. 5. The shipping container home construction comes with additional Green features. 6. The shipping container can be configured for other uses as well. 7. The shipping container is transportable (can be taken where they are needed)

1. Multi- Purpose Recycling In the United States, the importation of goods and services is nearly 60% higher than exportation. This influx of imported goods creates what is known as a trade deficit. America is buying so much merchandise from other countries, primarily China, and selling so little back to them that shipping containers are an impending waste disposal problem and a potential environmental hazard. Shipping containers are used to transport goods all over the world. It is estimated that 90 percent of the world's trade goods are moved in shipping containers. One hundred million container loads crisscross the world's oceans each year in over 5,000 container ships. There is a very big chance that a lot of the stuff you own or buy came to you in a shipping container. But these shipping containers create problems too. After they are used a few times, they become used shipping containers and nobody wants them. These containers currently have no real use since it is not cost effective to return empty containers to their point of origin. One estimate is $900 per container for the average return trip. Since it’s cheaper to manufacture new shipping containers on the opposite side of the ocean than to transport the empty ones back, the shipping container industry continues to produce more of them each and every year. You might say that shipping containers are a renewable resource of sorts. But unlike bamboo, or other sustainable resources, shipping containers do not “grow” benignly. They are not (yet) harmless in their effect on the environment. In fact, they are stacked, dozens of containers high, in port cities and areas around inland freight transit terminals. In some residential neighborhoods, these mountainous stacks of hundreds of thousands of empty shipping containers actually cast a shadow causing the sun to “set” an hour earlier than in the surrounding area! So, they are already impacting the lifestyle of some coastal residents. Besides being an aesthetic nightmare, these shipping containers pose a serious waste disposal problem. Unless something is done, the environmental impact will only worsen. Twenty-one thousand containers hit American shores every day of the year, and tens of thousands reach the waterfronts of other countries, with many more at sea on any given day. This method of transporting goods is unlikely to change. As long as we are trading with Asia, there is going to be a glut of shipping containers. We can’t change this situation. What can change is how we look at it.

Rather than looking at these shipping containers as a waste disposal problem, we can choose to regard them as an abundance of potential building material. Shipping containers are readily available across the globe. So there is a bright spot in this darkening sky. Some architects and builders are beginning to take advantage of this surplus to recycle the containers. This then, is the first degree of reparation: to clean up the coastlines by recycling these used shipping containers. Recycling in this way will result in cleaner and healthier coastlines without creating another problem like huge areas of landfill. 2. Transition from waste disposal to housing. The Chinese say that every perceived problem holds opportunities. And so it is with the current need for low cost and emergency housing. Not all solutions come by design. Some arrive disguised as problems. Some arrive by happenstance. And some arrive… by boat! One level at which this problem can be addressed is recycling. Just in general, it’s a good thing to recycle materials that otherwise have no further use for their intended purpose, and this holds true here. But to what use should we put 8,000 lbs of steel? An idea whose time seems to have arrived is the use of stockpiled shipping containers to build prefab homes. Why not take something just going to waste and difficult to dispose of and turn it into something useful? Making a building (which can last and last) out of what is essentially a huge piece of industrial waste takes recycling to a whole new level. Few ideas can compete with the pragmatic beauty of this one. Prefab shipping container housing can represent a real solution to some social and ecological problems. Low cost housing built using a minimal amount of energy and a maximum of renewable resources is the second degree of reparation. One shipping container can form the basis for a small, low cost home. For some people, it’s hard to imagine that a shipping container, a steel box that might have just brought a load of wheat across an ocean, can be transformed into a comfortable home. But that skepticism quickly fades once they tour a prefab shipping container home. They are actually quite spacious. Two generous bedrooms ( or a bedroom and an office ), a bathroom and a kitchen are an easy fit in just one container. which can be as large as 20-by-48-feet. Take a country like Costa Rica, for example. The value of land has increased to a level where only foreigners can afford to own property and some Costa Ricans who were once property owners are being displaced or have become employees of the new landowners. The cost of conventional building materials has also risen prohibitively. Used shipping containers are a viable and worldwide option for many people in this position. They can also be the answer to more affordable housing for families worldwide. Container homes can be a great solution for third world countries with housing problems. One container can form the basis for a small, low cost home. Multiple containers can be used as building blocks to create larger and more permanent structures. The containers are manufactured to be stacked much as nine high without compromising their structural integrity so second or third stories are no problem. 3. And low income apartment buildings are beginning to emerge on the landscape. A small carbon footprint There are several reasons for recycling shipping containers into homes rather than something else. One of the most important reasons is the amount of energy required to repurpose them. David Cross, a business development director, explains that melting down an 8000 lb steel shipping container to make steel beams, for example, requires 8000 kW-hrs of energy. The process of

recycling that entire 8000 lbs of steel into a shipping container home takes only 400 kW-hrs of electrical energy or about 5% of the energy needed to melt it. Reusing shipping containers in this way saves not only electrical energy but also the expenditure of human energy (time and labor costs) and the fuel used to ship them back to their country of origin. And since they are built to factory specifications, a lot of guesswork is eliminated. This reduces construction time for building crews and wasted materials. The nature of shipping containers as building material also allows for the possibility of a number of energy-saving designs. So shipping container homes are energy efficient in many ways. Contact us at: http://www.containerhomes.net/ Containerhomes.net builds homes in Costa Rica using shipping containers as the main building block for construction. These steel homes are perfect for the security of your home and can be prefabricated at our factory in San Ramon, Costa Rica in one month. Category Shipping Containers Tags shipping, container, Home, construction, design, costs, Costa Rica, prefabricated, homes Email Click to email author Country Costa Rica Page 3/3 ============================================================================]

AFFORDABLE HOUSING USING CARGO CONTAINERS What these articles on the use of cargo containers do not mention is that a 20' cargo container has a gross weight limit of over 90,000 pounds. An entire loaded container is lifted by attachments to the four corners. The heavy metal frames are extremely strong. Thus it is possible to cut out any one or more of the walls of the container. They can be bolted together and even stacked on top of each other. What the containers need is a very solid foundation of concrete and re-bar and some metal embedded in the concrete and bolted to the lower corners. By ganging two or more containers and cutting out the interior walls, one can have a room of 8' or 16' or 24' or more wide. The lengths can be 10', 20', 40', or 53'. There are a huge number of the 20' and 40' around since most shipping is now using the 53' container. The electrical wiring and plumbing can be done by furring out the interior walls with 2 x 4's or 2 x 6's. Then the cavities filled with Icynene foam. Then drywall is installed and finished. On the outside, the container could be painted or straw bales installed, or rammed earth installed, or rammed earth in tires or any other approach. The structural part could be done in days in stead of weeks. We would very quickly be working inside during the winter In the spring and summer we could put on the roof, and finish the outside. We could build several houses at once and hire a crane to place all of the containers at one time. The containers come either on commercial flat bed trucks or container trucks. They could also come on “roll-back” trucks which slide the container to the ground. Another truck which would great to have is a “hook-lift truck”, which has a boom and has flatbed on which the container rides. At the job site, the hook-lift lifts one end of the flatbed and the container slides to the ground. The truck pulls forward an the rest of the container hits the ground – slick. We could have a commercial carrier with two flat bed trailers bring two units to the site and we can unload them without a crane, using the hooklift truck. We could buy an old logging truck which has a 40' bed and a knuckle boom just behind the cab. These can lift probably 6000 to 10,000 pounds. I saw one in the Truck Trader for $42,000 plus. There are probably one or more storage yards filled with older 40' containers in SLC. If so, then the old logging truck might be the one to buy or simply hire a owner/operator of a logging truck to do the hauling from SLC. The containers are placed next to the slab. We can do the wall cutting while the containers are setting a few feet apart, then the crane lifts them in place, and they are secured to each other and to the foundation straps. We will have also cut out for the windows and doors in the exterior walls and can have already installed the windows and doors. There are several methods of cutting. We will be cutting through steel sheeting which has about 2” corrugations. Also, on the inside of the wall will be metal ribs which are made of about 1/8th inch steel. We will need a very strong rotary saw with a 10” ablative blade made for metal cutting. We would need to bolt or screw a straight edge to the area below the cut so that the blade cuts straight and and at right angles to the side. We rest the right edge of the saw's bottom guide plate on the straight edge and begin sawing. We need a strong fan blowing the sparks and debris away from the operator and the motor. We do not want abrasive particles sucked into the motor windings.

We can use the cut-out sides and windows and doors for sheeting on barns and sheds for the walls and the roofs. Some years ago, I priced 20' containers at $800 in Galveston, TX, and bought two containers for $1500 at the Long Beach Terminal. Transportation will cost because of the distance. But consider whatever building materials are bought, they will have to be shipped in. My house will have three, 40' containers, side by side which gives me 24' x 40' outside and 23' by 39' inside for a gross total of 960 sq. ft. Say the containers cost $1800 each and transport is $500 each, for a total of $6,900. Windows and doors will run about $600. The foundation will run between $1,500 and $3,000. All I need is a perimeter foundation with large footings and a shelf for the straw bales, so there is a considerable savings versus a slab on grade. Engineering and building permits will cost $1000. Wood for concrete forms will run about $200 and can be reused for each successive foundation. The studs and dry wall materials will cost about $40 per running foot or $5120 and the ceiling will run about $1,200 plus insulation of about $200. The total cost of the structure without plumbing, electrical, cabinets, interior walls, HVAC, carpets, painting, wall coverings and drapes, will run about $18,000. This assumes no labor costs. I can probably get a “first-time buyer's loan” under Section 502 of HUD'S affordable housing lending program. Another approach is to sit four containers in a square on the outside of a slab on grad. Then build a roof over the four units. The inside walls can be left or cut out. A gable roof over all of the containers would be shelf-supporting since the net span could be 32' between bearing points. By combining different container lengths and juxtapositions, one could create a footprint very close to a custom, stick-built house. We all help each other build our houses and track hours to keep our labor exchanges fair. I will be glad to do the plumbing and electrical. I also recommend radiant floor heating, using PEX tubing and a solar water heater with a booster when the Sun does not shine or the winter storm is long and cold. Alternatively, there are “stack” units which use hot water for heat and chilled water for air conditioning. This is basically a unit attached to the wall with the plumbing and electrical in the wall cavity behind it with supply and return pipes in the attic space. I plan to have a wood pellet stove for heat in the main room. I plan to chip and grind juniper, then use pyrolysis to create “BioCoalLite(TM)” in pellet form. I will go with the radiant floor heating. During the hottest days of the summer I will probably use room AC units. Also, most of the charcoal will be made into Agrichar and used to add tilth and nutrients to the crop lands.

Jim Miller jimmiller5417 – at – yahoo.com October 27, 2009 Feel free to copy, repost with attribution. EMAIL to: www.containerhomes.net We are interested in whether you have detailed construction plans for house -- small (two or three containers) and family size )(four to six containers). My house will be a small one and I will use strawbales on the outside for insulation. The outside of the strawbales would be stucco. I would add a gable roof. What do you use for the foundation? How do you get a building permit? Does the Uniform Building Code provide for using containers? Do you have pictures of what you have built? What do you charge for the plans? I have a project which could use 8 x 16' containers. Do you have a source for such sizes or anything close? SEE ALSO:

amazing shipping container houses By Brian Clark Howard Posted Mon Mar 16, 2009 10:50am PDT Related topics: Design, Solar Power, Buildings, Reusing stuff More from The Daily Green News blog http://green.yahoo.com/blog/daily_green_news/8/twelveamazing-shippingcontainer-houses.html Invented more than five decades ago, the modern shipping container is the linchpin in our global distribution network of products. In the containers go toys from China, textiles

from India, grain from America, and cars from Germany. In go electronics, chocolate, and cheese. While a number of resourceful people have converted shipping containers into make-shift shelters at the margin of society for years, architects and green designers are also increasingly turning to the strong, cheap boxes as source building blocks. Shipping containers can be readily modified with a range of creature comforts and can be connected and stacked to create modular, efficient spaces for a fraction of the cost, labor, and resources of more conventional materials. Discover some of the exciting possibilities of shipping container architecture, from disaster relief shelters to luxury condos, vacation homes, and off-the-grid adventurers. See what makes them green as well as cutting edge. ===========================================] Cargo Container Home Designs by Architects & Builders | Dornob Cargo container homes show no sign of slowing down. With the ever growing population of disused and deserted shipping containers around the world more and ... dornob.com/cargo-container-home-designs-by-architects-builders/ DIY Used Cargo Homes & Shipping Container House Plans | Dornob Nowadays more and more architects and builders are finding used free or for sale cargo containers at discount prices to construct all kinds of houses, homes ... dornob.com/diy-used-cargo-homes-shipping-container-house-plans/ ================================================] Containers4Homes's complete step by step, fully illustrated manual will help you avoid the pitfalls as you design and build your own cargo container home. http://containers4homes.com/ Are you wasting your valuable time looking for useful information about ISBU building on the Internet? Why not just let Containers4Homes provide you all the information you need to begin your ISBU project today! This manual was written in simple layman's terms with lots of illustrations & photos that will guide you through the design & building process step by step. ==================================================]

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