Building a Container House

http://www.bobvila.com/HowTo_Library/Building_a_Container_House-Building_Systems-A2413.html

Mark Fuller
BobVilla.com
2006

A container-based home offers a fast, green, and sustainable approach to building. These inter-modal steel building units (ISBUs) are manufactured in a factory-controlled environment so they are standardized and reliable. They can be used to build an average-sized home with almost no wood.

In North Charleston, South Carolina, Tampa Armature Works (TAW) and local contractors quickly and easily constructed a container house, blending it perfectly into the surrounding neighborhood. They used four 40 x 8 x 8 foot ISBUs laid side-by-side to create a three bedroom, 1,280 square-foot home without a hint of its original corrugated-steel exterior.

Pre-Fitting Off-Site
When building with ISBUs, the building blocks are ready-made and ready to transport. TAW starts by shipping the containers to their Tampa factory for modifications. Once there, the house blueprints are reviewed and each unit is custom fit for construction. In a home where four containers are to sit side by side, all but the outermost side panels are removed so that, once connected, the ISBUs create an open 40 x 32 foot interior space. The vertical steel support beams are left in place for load-bearing purposes, with five along each remaining side of a container. Openings are cut into the outer walls for doors and windows.

read more...