Affordable housing

Hello everyone I just wanted to share something I've been planning for a long time now and maybe some people could get some ideas for a home or shop from this.

When I am of legal age to move out I will be purchasing a small piece of land, and 1 40' x 8' x 9' 6" cargo container to live out of. It will be 230 sq ft and be fully up to the nebraska building code with proper insulation, windows, foundation, and more. It will have 3 windows a full bathroom French entry doors, kitchen, living room. It is going to be tight but eventually I will expand. This is the smart way to go because each container only costs about 3000-4500 new or used. These also give you cheaper insurance because of there fire safety ratings. If one of these is secured to a foundation, a tornado is no match. These also exceed structural minimums by a lot and all I have to do is Frame and insulate the inside. I will be using a small tankless water heater for all my hot water. I estimated 20k without labor, and this is with all the dream kitchen and stuff, which I can do without. So I'd say I can get it all done for under 20k total.

sounds awesome good luck on a fast fun build and be sure to include a lot of pics we love pics

Man I wish I thought like you when I was your age. Keep it up man. Your doing awesome.

A very good plan, as cargo containers come in a standard size (40' x 8' x 8 1/2'), a decent large size, well built, easy to connect together, and they are a fairly inexpensive to purchase as they are a excess byproduct of the import/export transportation business. There's a group in New Mexico that has done a lot of thought on this and other alternative housing solutions.

Here's a good book on the subject. https://renaissanceronin.files.wordp...i2chb-icon.jpg

40 x 8 = 320 SF. There I just increased the size of your house. Lol
Really that is a very good idea. I have seen some pretty awesome designs for a double wide. They cut out an arch way between the two, And used the cut out arch piece for a roof over the front door.
I might build one myself someday.

Plus, you can have your home moved fairly easily. I knew a couple who converted a school bus for that reason. When work required them to move, they just fired the engine up and went.

The main thing is to keep it affordable. Avoid debt at all costs!

If you live in a storage container what will you keep your scrap in?

Another storage container.

Devin,

Play your cards right when purchasing a container. Sometimes you can get one that was refrigerated and therefore is insulated already so you dont have to. But don't buy sight unseen! I was offered a sea can for a project I was working on some years back but it was a 12 hour drive away so I had a buddy in the city go over and take a look. Yup. Good deal. Right. If you didn't have a nose. The fridge compressor failed when it had a load of something that could rot in it....

I've mixed feelings about putting all that effort into a sea can. It won't add a heck of a lot of value to the property. Getting some permanent buildings on there is what you need to look at to build equity over just the raw land value.

Depending on how good you are with your hands, you might consider building a 2 car garage on the property you buy. A couple of my buddies did that after we got out of school. Built a garage and lived in it while they built a house on the same property. A bit of a roundabout way but you end up with something that is worth a lot of money in the end.

If you do the math, it is pretty hard to beat standard stick frame construction for cheap enclosure of space. (if you do the work yourself, just buying materials.) And unless you plan on doing very little inside the sea can for finishing, you are going to have to put up studs and drywall anyway to hold the insulation and the finished wall. And to cover the wiring, unless you wire with armored BX cable.

Its not hard to meet the minimum standards for building with stick framing.

Insurance is NOT going to like anything that is out of the ordinary. Fireproof or not. They probably would categorize it as a mobile home.

Hopefully some of the guys who do this kind of stuff for their 8-5 living will chime in with their opinions. Sledge? Scrappah?

But you got the right idea! Good for you!

Jon.

Speaking of mobile homes, I am not a fan but they can be had for very little used. This would require lots of home work and looking on your part. Many or perhaps most mobil homes require special windows, doors etc, This is where experience will make certain you can make a good deal.

I offer this as an alternative to the container house. Mike

In Nebraska I would look at below grade first, depending on the land. A few feet of earth is cheaper and more effective than any manufactured insulation. Above grade, there are various options for nice thick walls full of free dirt.

Everything Jon said I basically agree with, a container house is not going to add a lot of value to your property. A fact though, it's the land that will always be worth the most. You can build the best conventionally constructed home on a property and still not add a lot of value to the land. With property purchasing and equity it still comes down to the location of that property. I'm in the building construction industry and have been a licensed contractor for over twenty years. In a state that has perhaps the highest building code standards in the world.

I have always been interested in alternate building methods and do study them. A container home or ISBU (Intermodal Steel Building Unit) is not a home for most people. As with anything, there is pros and cons to consider and a container home has it's advantages and disadvantages. There is a building association that promotes standards of construction and use of ISBU homes. They have been used for many years in other parts of the world where affordable housing is not as common as it is here in North America. I know one city (El Paso, Texas) that has approved and permitted a ISBU home in a urban residential area. This type of construction is in my opinion a option for some in need of less expensive housing. Rural construction, post disaster housing and those wanting to consider utilizing a existing resource are just a few reasons for this type of construction. One could even use a container home for a temporary shelter as they built a much more comfortable/conventional home. A wooden frame home is a proven and preferable home for most, myself included. A container home is within the scope of this forum, reuse, re-purpose and recycle.

Wow lots of great replies, Some pics will be below of an initial sketchup, I did not include some things because of the softwares limitations such as tankless hot water heater, ac and heater, and other

I believe saying building a normal home this size would be cheaper is a good idea as more of an investment that I could get my money back from, but the cost of building a home like that is far more than this for these reasons.

Storage container already has structure, and outer walls for the cost of under $4k

Building a home the same size you have the following costs: Siding, shingles, framing (proper headers which storage containers do not need because of the strength), sheathing, joists, subfloor, rafter framing, roofing underlay, roof sheathing. Now just for the fun of it lets do the rough cost of this. To frame a house its around $4-9 /sq ft. So lets say we do it all ourselves, and its $5/sq ft 320 sq ft. = $1600, framing for storage container for insulation is on the low side of $500. Now subfloor I calculated $600, and another easy $1400 for sheathing and roof. Easy 1,500 for a roof. Siding youll be spending upwards of 4k depending on the siding type. Thats already around 10k WITHOUT ANY INSIDE WORK, and I didn't even include all the costs. (Don't quote me on my estimates)

Also I considered a mobile home, but they are very expensive, and in my opinion all the used ones I saw up for sale look very trashy, and a shipping container can give me the modern look.

For a shop I will be buying some more containers to put next to it most likely, and eventually combine like 10 to build a nice modern house that will have good resale value.

Also yes believe it or not certain insurance companies will classify container homes seperate from mobile homes.

I've thought this plan out a lot, so I am confident this is what I want to do, and ill do it! I've emailed building inspectors, cement people, electricians, plumbers, realtors, container sellers, and many more people to see my prices laid out.

And yea sorry meant 230 sq feet

Ill actually be purchasing a tall mouth container that will be 9' 6" tall, not 8' 2"


http://i.gyazo.com/024fc7dfbee3f59ae6711b4b6bf1a742.png
http://i.gyazo.com/84ae652818bb7b04d772d15d208b5406.png


Also how would I do it below grade, I feel like it would just rust out, and also do not think it would pass building code... Some of the the regulations include having to have windows you can escape from in each room, having proper thickness and r level of insulation, and other crazy stuff.

You just need a french drain. If your serious about code related issues, pm me and we can talk

You are into it and obviously doing the required learning and planing. Keep us posted and good luck, I like your vision and "out of the box" (no pun intended) thinking.

Charn beat me to it, about setting up below ground. I just wanted to add the obvious.

My take. Even by yourself you will want storage for important items you need secured, and a workspace for particularly bad weather.

I would build as follows: According to your picture I would locate a container lengthwise right at the french door and create usable space that way. I would have my bedroom down this wing, not at the end but in the middle, mostly for security reasons. Kind of hard to explain but hey...I'm a bit of a kook.

Second I would prepare the site for the containers by digging down 6 feet, installing drainage tile and then covering that with whatever is code for drainage. It should be obvious to place your containers on the highest part of the property. I would then set the container partially below ground. The reasoning is to reduce elemental exposure and self regulate temperatures in the summer time. If you really wanted to make this interested you could stack containers on top of each other and bury one of them all the way down, but I should tell you this requires modification to the bottom container for structural purposes. At least then you'd have a basement.

Some things that come to mind...coat the containers...skip paint. Probably think more along the lines of basement waterproofing. I say that because not very many containers are or CAN BE totally water proof. Other things to think about...I know you can by what used to be military containerized housing units pretty cheap...and also there are companies that retrofit for overseas contractors working in Afghanistan and formerly iraq. They make them here and ship them there....I bet you can find a few of these containers stateside.

Lastly...think about water production and water waste. How are you gonna get it, how are you going to get rid of it...

This is probably the most excited I've been about a post on smf in a good long while.

This is totally sensational to me, I've never seen this container house before in my life.

Devin you are definitely eons ahead of other young men your age when it comes to be well rounded, so that is most impressive.

Having been a general contractor for many years I can tell you that I think could build a bigger stick framed garage with studio apartment for $20k.

If you have your mind set on a "Tiny Home" you might consider building on a flat bed trailer. In most cases no building permit would be required but I am confident that your common sense would guide you in building it structurally sound. It could easily be moved around your property or to a different site if need be.

As I'm sure you know you have a lot of options when it comes to being creative with the toilet/plumbing and electrical.

See I don't really want a tiny home, I want to move out! Right out of highschool I can construct this in a month or less. I can most likely save up that amount of money I need to move into it aswell, see eventually I want a modern like 5 container home with a massive garage, shop, tons of windows, and really modern, but for now this will do just perfect, and I don't plan on having it on a trailer, if need be to move the container it will be secured in corners by steel tiedowns that I can cut. My goal is far from a mobile home. Also to stack them you need no extra reinforcements, they are all the same frame so the edges will line up, and they hold a substantial amount of weight. I don't want the room in center, having the bathroom and kitchen closer is more cost effective due to the cost of plumbing and such, and my bedroom is actually very close to the front door. I will most likely see the costs of getting water and electricity and sewage mains on the land, or look into purchasing land with it existing or easy to run. I'm kind of going in blind in electrical and plumbing area, so we will see what happens. This container will be coated with a special paint made for it to waterproof, and I'm also considering putting a roof on it that's at a small angle, but it's unlikely due to cost. My idea is to pour a slab with footings that go below the frontline since that's code, and put the container atop that, and a driveway next to it. My only issue is I feel like water would deep under and possiblhy sit there and rust it, so I'll need to figure that out. 1 think I don't want is it sitting off the ground a bunch to where u can see under it. As for structure, what I like is its already a tough one, and exceeds structural capacity of most homes I found in my research. All I need to do is do a quick stick frame on the inside for drywall and insulation.