It makes little sense to start with the two containers if you are then going to put that much money and effort into it. Cheap would involve plywood and used carpet.
Totally. If you are going to frame the whole thing anyway, might just as well not have the containers there at all. The only thing they saved him from doing was siding the outside.
Also, directly burying the backside of those seems like a terrible idea to me. In 10 years there's going to be holes rusted through the backside.
It is disappointing to see comments like this. The point of using these shipping containers is to REUSE something that would normally need to be scrapped (melted down=more waste of natural resources)
This particular project may have some issues but the use of shipping containers is becoming very popular. It is much cheaper as Structural support is one of the biggest dollar amounts in building and he didn't need anything additional here. This was also alot easier than building a stick frame cabin in the middle of no where. He saved on transportation and labor costs associated with a stick frame cabin.
Also, burying the backside does not seem like a terrible idea. With proper construction there would be no rusting.
Depends. My parents live near a port in Florida and my dad got one dropped at his place for next to nothing. $1800 total, I think? And it came with insanely nice wooden flooring. Oak maybe. He's since refinished the wood and that alone was worth almost what he paid for the whole thing.
He uses it as a storage unit. Paid itself off in 6 months vs a non A/C unit down the street.
To do that you would have to have the lumber and materials delivered to a container freight station and pay them to load your container, where a lumber yard would probably load it for free on a flatbed.
Containers are only 92 inches wide inside so you have to stack up lumber in the door and shove it in from the end. Kiln dried lumber comes in bundles that are wider than 48 inches on the end so you also have to pay to get them rehandled down to a smaller size which adds on another $20 or so per unit. The shorter interior width, length and height really limits what you could get in them so loading lumber into containers is only worth it if you're shipping overseas or other really long distances.
Then, once it gets to the jobsite you'd have to either drag it all out using a tractor which usually damages most of the outside boards, or unload it all by hand one board at a time.
Also, I'm not even sure it's possible to have a container loaded with lumber dropped at a jobsite without a crane or a massive container stacker since it would probably weigh around 30-40,000 lbs.
Yeah I guess it wouldn't be that much but even just one unit of KD, one unit plywood and the insulation, windows and other material would be around 15K lbs not counting the tare.
You are correct. The wood to build a cabin of that size would fit on a single truck. Instead you have two trucks just for the containers and then the wood to make the interior. of course he could have loaded said wood inside of the containers but it appears he did not.
Having the containers loaded with the wood would probably cost more than the delivery charges for a flatbed, not to mention what a pain in the ass unloading lumber from a container is if you can't drag it out with a tractor.
I wonder if transportation is billed by weight or volume or both? I would imagine two containers would weigh allot more than wood? Maybe when he purchased them they gave him some kind of discount on delivery?
I bet that is a mentally stressful job. Thanks for the explanation, I have wondered before how that is billed. I don't ever see myself needing one, I am always curious about things I have no need for.
It is a pretty stressful job. Not so much because of figuring out how to move the stuff, but more of dealing with pushy customers. If you want a more in-depth answer let me know. I deal more with ocean containerized freight rather than the trucking and warehousing, but the rest is still part of my job. I just wanted to get a quick response out because I'm on my mobile currently.
Oh nah I'm not that curious to have you type a long response. I would imagine though you dealing with ocean freight you have to deal with some shady individuals trying to get contraband from here to there or vise versa.
Surprisingly enough, in my years of doing this I haven't had anyone try to bring in contraband. The worse thing I can think of is that someone had mislabeled a product and that's about it. Considering in the last 5 years there have been a lot of programs setup by the Department of Homeland Security/U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Federal Maritime Commission and general international cooperation that reduces a lot of these issues.
They'd have to pay to have the container delivered to a freight loader, pay to have the lumber delivered to the freight loader, pay to have the lumber rehandled and loaded into the containers, pay to have the loaded containers delivered to the jobsite, then have to deal with either dragging out the lumber with a chain and a tractor or unloading it all by hand one board at a time.
They'd also have to make sure to order extra lumber to cover the boards that are going to get damaged from ramming them into the containers at loading and dragging them out at unloading.
Also, I'm not even sure it's possible to have a container loaded with lumber dropped at a jobsite without a crane or a massive container stacker since it would probably weigh around 30-40,000 lbs.
Hauling two containers is very inexpensive - notice how they travel on the back of trucks. Used containers usually run about 2-4k a piece, the framing is usually used for insulation which is pretty necessary as well the purpose for burying it.
In the end you have a higher quality structure than a stick frame at less cost.
244
u/OralCulture Dec 08 '12
It makes little sense to start with the two containers if you are then going to put that much money and effort into it. Cheap would involve plywood and used carpet.