I didn't believe it until I saw this article. Now I want one for myself!
http://green.yahoo.com/blog/daily_green_news/8/twelve-amazing-shipping-container-houses.html
These are classsy places with all the cool features. You can even live off the grid! Whoa! I so want one. I could double the square footage I have now for the same price! Now that's a bargain.
To me, this is better than "manufactured housing" or as we call 'em here in the south, trailers. Same idea -- portable metal box made into a home. However, these buggers don't pretend to come with wheels. You put them on a permanent foundation or not, but they're still an insulated metal box. Anyone who's ever lived in a trailer can tell you an insulated metal box can be darn comfy, but I wouldn't want to stack trailers like you can these shipping containers.
I'd be willing to bet they're sturdier and weigh more than a trailer, too. Being a Floridian means I'm concerned about how weather could affect them. Not a happy thing if your trailer and a hurricane happen to be in the same place at the same time. My sturdy little cement block home took a beating last hurricane season, so a metal box had better be heavy and well-anchored. You can really anchor a shipping container!
All in all, I'm very impressed. They even come in pretty colors. Not a bad deal!
2 comments:
The advantages of using shipping containers as your construction building blocks include:
They are inexpensive. A used container will cost between $800 and $6000 each, depending on size, age, condition and distance from the building site. Each 40 foot container gives you 320 square feet. .
Energy concerns. It takes far less energy to reuse shipping containers in a building than to melt them down and reform then into steel beams. Add solar panels and even the ongoing energy use will be green.
Examples of plans can be found HERE- goo.gl/Es8rYu
Thank you, Jim.
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