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If I had a need for another house (and the enthusiasm to build one) I would
like to make one based on three or
four shipping contains joined together side-by-side with a roof over the
top of all.
The crude 'sketch' below represents one layout that I thought would work
fairly well.
It shows a plan view of four 12m (40ft) shipping containers laid out
side-by-side with the first two offset 3m from the last two.
Shipping containers are 2.43m (8ft) wide and about the same in height.
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| Container 1 |
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| Container 2 |
| | Container 3
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| | Container 4
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The large grey rectangle represents the roof, which overhangs the walls
on all four sides.
The roof would be approximately 19m × 12.75m, covering an
area of 240m2.
The floor area of the containers would be
4 × 2.43m × 12m,
a total of 117m2; I think this is fairly small by Australian
house standards, but then I believe most Australian houses are considerably
bigger than they need to be.
Internal container walls could be removed wherever a room width of greater
than 2.4m was desired.
A queen sized bed is 1.6m wide and 2.1m long, so 2.4m would make a very
narrow main bedroom, but would be wide enough for a room containing a
single bed, or for a bathroom or laundary, possibly a kitchen.
For a lounge room, dining room, main bedroom you'd probably want to
remove one of the walls and have double width, 4.8m.
The builder would probably weld strips of metal to join all containers to
each other – top, bottom, and ends – on the outside, so
preventing entry of vermin and draughts.
Example layout - simplified
Back
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| | Patio
3m × 5m
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Laundry
3m×2.43m
| Main bedroom
3.8m × 5m
| Bedroom
5.2m × 2.43m
| Bathroom
toilet
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| Bedroom
4.2m × 2.43m
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Kitchen
6m × 2.43m
| Lounge
6m × 5m
| Dining
6m × 2.43m
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| Car port
3m × 5m |
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| | Front
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The example of a layout on the right is very much just to get a feel for
the possibilities.
It's detail is largely limited by my ability to use tables in the
html language.
There would, of course, be connecting doors between the two
halves; there could be one between kitchen and bathroom,
lounge and main bedroom, and another
could connect the lounge with the passage between the bedrooms.
The divider between kitchen and dinning room would only be partial.
The outside would be lined with straw-bale walls, rendered
for weather-proofing as is standard procedure for straw-bale walls;
this would keep the
rain from the containers and so prevent rust, more importantly
it would provide a high degree of insulation.
The builder might use the open space at upper left as a patio and that
at the lower right as a car port.
Cost
What would it all cost?
I bought a 12m shipping container in 2003 for Aus$3200 including
delivery;
allowing for inflation four containers might now (2009) cost $16 000.
Container price depends on quality; as the containers for this home would
not need to be weather proof – mine was –
you could buy quite badly battered ones at a lower price.
A roof over the lot might be a further $10 000, less if you were to
build it yourself.
Straw-bale walls, windows, doors, cutting sections out of the inner
container walls, ceiling and under-floor insulation, installing other
internal walls, plumbing, painting, etc. — it would all depend on how
much building was done by the owner and how much was done by professionals;
your guess is probably as good as mine, but I'd take a stab at
$10 000 to $20 000 very much depending on whether new or second
hand materials were used and how much of the work was done by the owner.
That's Aus$36 000 to $46 000 (Aus$40 000 = US$28 000 at
the 2009/04 conversion rate) for the whole thing; a very cheap house.
Environmental advantages
Shipping containers are being retired all the time; probably every one
that is bought for a purpose such as this is just one less that gets
scrapped for the steel that is in it.
(Clay bricks and concrete are greenhouse intensive and should be avoided
as building materials if possible, they would not be needed in this home.)
Given the straw-bale outer walls and supposing effective insulation in
ceiling and under the floor, and supposing sensible passive solar placing
of windows, the house could require little heating and cooling.
Life
The straw-bales would be susceptible to rot if they get wet and probably to
termite attack.
The remainder of the house should have a very long life.
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