I was just saying the same thing to a friend - I have no personal interest in the topic - I just enjoy hearing her talk. She's so articulate. It's been so long since I heard a reasoned conversation. Hey, Melinda when are you going to run for office 😃
Hi Belinda, It is nice to see an architect who is not stupid in love with shipping containers for homes. And that is also pointing out the serious issues of condensation that they present. I work in international construction so we ship a lot of containers all over the world and then we convert a lot of them for temp. storage, offices and toilets. Leakage is a problem, but condensation is the huge issue, it is the worst in a cold climate but bad in the tropics also-- like the Philippines, Africa, or Sri Lanka and anywhere with a similar climate. The exterior insulation is the best way by far but it is more permanent and compromises the container more than we want. We need to build things quickly, and to reuse the container when we leave. As you said in your recent video, don't use any bat insulation! Ideally frame it and spray foam or use foil faced foam and tape and seal the edges. the other thing is be sure you get it well up off of the ground as the water vapor will flow through at an incredible rate and further complicate your life. Also as you showed in several of your examples you need a secondary roof, if it is going to used long term. the roof will not drain well, and will rust out in a short time if you don't. Another point that you did not go into at least I did notice was after you go through all the difficulties of welding and structural mods to frame out the openings between the two or more containers, is, if you do not put on the secondary roof, the near impossibility to seal the con-joined containers against water. Nice series and good job. You tube is full of haters so ignore them or shut them down, don't let nasty people get under your skin!
Great information. I am currently in the proof building out a shipping container for a hangout spot. I’ll definitely put a roof up and raise the container off the ground
3 года назад+5
Nice comment. The tropic climate is not the same in every part of a tropic country. I feel sometimes the issues for containers or other non traditional construction methods are over generalized and simplified. So you can be in Philipines for example and have different micro climates if you move yo different areas inside the country. So it is more complex actually. Your experience shows quite a good ammount of quality in your advices as well.
I'm in the Philippines and I was set in buying a farmland and using shipping containers as a farmhouse. Your advise and this series have greatly made me rethink that.
Just watched the entire shipping container series. I'm really really impressed by the research and knowledge you've provided. Plus brilliant job on handling the hate . Hope to see more content like this in the future Also tell us about schoolies
This is quality content from a source that clearly understands the nuance of both the industry and the science. More RUclips content should take after this. Great work.
I'm glad you're sharing your perspective and I'm sorry for the overthetop reactions you have received.... I'm one of those people who dreams of building my own house one day and always thought of container build as a shortcut to that. I still think of building one, but now I know to question certain assumptions. Would love to hear your take on what techniques work well for those who would want to be more hands on with building their own home.
Forget about shipping containers and stay on the lookout for an old construction barrack instead. They are pre made with good insulated walls and often have plumbing built in to the floor.
Belinda, I found your Videos on Shopping Containers right on key. For years I dreamed of using them to build my own home, but didn't like the offers or ideas I was seeing to do this type of build in the Tropics ... The process left me with more questions than answers & I know nothing about building. Yet, common sense tells me that condensation, utility, structural integrity, rain, & space ideas needed to be worked out better. In the tropics, you cannot leave condensation as the last thought, or your health is compromised... or anywhere else for that matter. Just recently I am seeing others address those same issues I had long ago, when builders made fun of me for having these questions. It was like: "Lady, you get what you pay for!" & I was like, "No, I am simply asking how do we deal with these issues? Which, no one could answer. 🤦🏻♀️ How can the builders not know how to approach this very important issues? But so it was... Thank you for raising awareness to these very logical issues, that need to be addressed when building with Containers. It's still very possible, yet it needs to be looked at from all right angles. There's always people who don't want to admit that someone else has a better thought than them, which to me is so silly... How else do we grow to invent & fix problems? 😄🤦🏻♀️😁 Stay happy & humble!!! I found your videos easy to watch cause anyone can understand & you go right to the point, without wasting much time. Keep that up, simple, clear & precise info in short videos... ☝️👀👏🏻🌎💕🎤💞
Some ideas I think you missed in this series: Cons for container homes -- The flat roof presents a real problem in many areas, particularly areas that get precipitation. You need to find a way to ensure water, snow, ice do not collect on the roof and have adequate drainage. Some locales will not give you a permit to build if your home does not have a slope (example: some areas of Wyoming require a minimum 12-30 degree pitch in roof due to potential snow loads), so even if you don't want a pitched roof, you may be forced to construct one to meet building codes (an added expense). Another negative: You have to hire a crane or special trucks to deliver the container home, and if stacking them, need special cranes to place the container. Placing the container (especially if stacking) may require special permits beyond what might be required if the home is just built with conventional materials. In flat wide open areas, this might not present a problem, but in remote and hilly areas, the logistics of container placement could be daunting. Probably one of the biggest CONS for shipping containers, of any use, is getting city building inspectors to approve building the container, placing it in a place permanently, getting neighborhood buy-in, and getting permits issued. Generally, one might have to resort to headache amounts of paperwork to get zoning approval changes, or neighbors to enjoy your unpainted container exterior. As you DID say: Cons and pros have not only to do with port location (as a cost consideration) but climate location really plays a role in whether or not containers make sense in any location. Those locations (sans port location) range from "a really stupid idea" to "a great option" based on climate alone. Some ideas as PROS that I think you missed / misunderstood for containers (as homes) -- A MOBILE container home is MUCH more durable than any other mobile home (THOW). Of course, the down side is that it is also possibly heavier than other options. But such a home is more durable under road conditions and could last many more years than a typical RV while making the home more like a real home. The vehicle could be made to be immensely more secure than any RV or tiny home or mobile home. The containers are made into a width and length and height that makes transporting them on the road easy. Container homes that are MOBILE are actually using containers as they were intended to be used -- moving from place to place. It is even possible to put a container on a ship and move from country to country. Another PRO for containers over other forms of construction: Because of the ability to stack containers, they are the cheapest means to go vertical. Even if you have to reinforce the structure because of offset or cutting, or extra height, the overall cost of adding more floors and height to a wood structure gets more expensive with each level, whereas a container can actually be built at ground level and lifted any number of levels above the ground already constructed inside. You can't really do that with a regular house. ANOTHER PRO: Except unless you live in an area that is super-ridiculous about building codes ( like Salt Lake City, which thinks it is necessary to support the integrity of your shipping container at least 8' underground to make it stable) a foundation for a shipping container can be constructed for just the corners of the home, potentially saving significant costs in providing a foundation. Foundations can be poured for only the primary corner points. Even if a full foundation is constructed, many options on how that is done are available for container homes, from bolting the container to a slab, to preparing a basement under a foundation with shipping containers built on top. Potentially a foundation for a container home can be constructed in a weekend and the exterior of the container home can be completed in a week. Durability? If your container is secured to a foundation (bolted, welded, steel strapped), it is grounded and earthquakes and tornadoes, and floods and landslides will probably be more durable for a container home than any other kind of tiny home, or regular home. Take care of a container home and build it right the first time, and it likely will last longer than a stick-frame house, with less (but different) kind of maintenance. Ideas you just can't compete with? People who don't understand other people who desire living in a tiny home. For those who need regular sticks and bricks of a massive size, you'll just never get then to understand why ANYONE desires and WANTS to live in a place less than 400 sq feet. (I currently live in a 110-sq ft space, and would LOVE to have a 320-sq ft space -- a tiny McMansion IMO.) Best just not to even try to justify why people shouldn't be living in "Tiny Homes". It's like comparing those who like cats or dogs or reptiles or birds as pets and thinking one is always better than others. Sometimes it just can't be compared. Overall, a good bit of info. Thanks for your efforts in publishing the series.
I appreciate these videos as being a fairly no-nonsense guide to how these things really are. At the end, one thing that I haven't seen mentioned in this series, and is maybe the most interesting benefit to me of shipping containers as homes, was always the ability for a small DIY team to do something more akin to a modern steel-construction modular home construction. It's possible for a small team, or even an individual with occasional help, to build a relatively big complex container by container in a convenient location without a lot of large infrastructure and equipment needed except for the final installation phase where it gets moved to the site and plopped into position where that small group can then go back to final outfitting. When the container forms the basic building block, it is a factory-produced item made to be largely square and true, as mentioned, in a large facility that has the industrial capacity to do so cheaply, which means as a builder you don't need to go secure big pieces of steel that would otherwise be needed for similarly sized custom construction. Thus, one or two people can take a container, keep it in a backyard or a lot somewhere, and at their leisure cut holes, weld in reinforcements, and fit out a container into a respectable modular home unit at what most would consider a manageable DIY'ers budget. And so, while a few individuals will probably need help at the site with hired crews to move stuff in either case, it should be a far quicker and cheaper job to pay for a crew to drop a standard-size container into a set location on site than it is to budget for the type of crews needed to move large beams and framing and other stuff into place while assembly teams work putting those parts together safely. Then because it was done by professionals, all of that work must then be inspected and validated, rework done, etc and make sure everyone's butts are covered. When if you DIY it, I mean, ultimately there's less scrutiny. Of course if one has access to a workshop that has easy delivery for flatbeds loaded with steel and overhead cranes and forklifts to be able to position and do modular-type construction at the workshop, then a DIYer making a home that way vs starting with a container will probably still be the best option. But most people won't have that access, so a container is a bit of a blank-slate starting point shortcut. Of course I much agree that actually employing sound design and engineering and architectural principals in executing the final work is paramount and just because someone's doing it DIY doesn't mean do work that is slapdash or not to code. Ultimately though once you start looking at the prices for just a few containers now, then the costs of all the materials and time to rework it into something that ultimately is a large compromise, the price of a pre-fab steel hanger-type building starts getting really comparable; and turning one of those into a home starts looking a lot more appealing. I've seen some really cool hanger/homes that structurally went up in no-time by crews that are experienced in that type of industrial construction, and then there's not many reasons someone in love with the container concept can't put a container or two inside them to create rooms and smaller areas within the large space. (or build out other various structures to put inside there). The best container homes I've seen generally do combine some kind of large prefab steel building or other structure with some containers in order to juxtapose these large, imposing volumes with these confined purposeful pockets of space in ways that makes for a much more interesting living or working space.
Stacking containers is largely a hipster meme as horizontal expansion is far less expensive and easily done even single-handed as I did for my shops. Combining them with Steelmaster and other trussless building kits (I built both but separately...so far) produces a superior result. The containers (buy "one trip" grade) make instantly usable shop space which facilitates the rest of the build and are much stronger than the trussless kit panel sidewalls. Containers most favor metalworkers proficient at DIY which is why mine suit me. Unless a site specifically requires a crane it's easy to precisely place containers using the typical travelling axle trailer (Landoll etc) used to deliver them in the US, and easy to winch them (I did mine by hand with a Wyeth-Scott puller, railroad ties and steel beams, and used steel pipe rollers) into place where power lines, trees, structure or soft ground prohibit trailer movement.
This is just what I needed, especially that other video that helped me get some perspective on this whole shipping container infatuation I’ve been immersed in for ages! A good wake up call. Thank you
My lady, again, I greatly appreciate and applaud your expertise, knowledge and education. You have expanded my vision on the various uses for shipping containers, for which I thank you. Excellent video, please continue to share and keep us informed of the pros and cons of all aspects of architecture and construction. Thanks again...
Awesome to see you cover the different uses, versatility and repurpose of containers I think this has opened a lot of people's minds... and as always very informative and down to earth info... Belinda you the man.😁
One thing i would very much like to see is your take on Earth-bag building and Cob building. Particularly in regards to insulation and their use as load-bearing materials. Greetings from Denmark!
My family has a piece of land in the sierra nevada mountains in Northern California. We use it as a base camp and have 2 20' containers that we store items in so we dont have to bring everything with us every time go up to camp out. When the Paradise wildfire burned across that part of our land everything that we had built out of wood in the last 30 years BURNED to the ground. We had cleared all the brush and tree's plus any thing that might by flammable from around the outside perimeter to at least a minimum of 50'. The containers survived the fire because of all clearing we had done, some of the paint was faded or burned from the heat and there was ash everywhere,inside also because the door seals had melted on the sides but everything inside pretty much survived the fire. The outhouses did not, they were burned to ground. I watched all your videos on containers and thought you did a wonderful job of explaing all the plus's and minuses. I don't plan on living in one, but just wanted you to know it survived the fire because it was made out of steel.
Here in Ghana, shipping containers are converted into shops that sell a range of items from provisions to clothing. You might want to investigate that as well. They have been in use for decades and the proliferation suggests their usefulness.
I love the refer units. One of my 40 foot units is set up with bioreactors for growing algae for year round production. With the entire roof covered in solar panels, the energy consumption is minimal. Great topics you have.
I SUPER appreciate your objective perspective. We need more honest and objective “influencers”. (Sorry, I couldn’t think of another descriptive) Great job!😊👍🏽
Greetings Belinda and happy new year, I am going to build my own shipping container house and I have to agree with you in some points, as well as to thank you for warning people that It has a some problems to be solved and it is not meant to everybody, I have been getting information on this for the past 2 years. I am aware that I will have to reinforce them to open space and it will ad cost to the build, however the cost of a brick and concrete house here is up to 1000 euros per square meter, so the 160 square meter house (100 for the house and 60 for the attached garage, minus the walls) I'm planing to build will have a cost of up to 160 000 euros plus all necessary building permits and project, it is too expansive and that means debt. After selling my flat and paying the remaining mortgage, I will be able to build everything and achieve my goal to be completely free of debt. . The biggest cost here as well as there is labor, I have the skills and tools to work metal and to install electricity, communications and plumbing. LSF and LWF (steel or wood framing), as well as ICF here cost almost the same as brick and concrete houses (the common house around here) , the only advantages are the time to build and bigger thermal efficiency. Here in Portugal you can buy the HC(high cube) the 9,5 feet tall very easily and for a very good price, the shipping containers themselves will cost 1000€ (airtight) plus 200€ each for the transport, my land is less than 30km from Lisbon and 20km Setúbal ports. The house will be build in a L shape consisting of 2x40' side by side plus 2x40 cut to 25' side by side to make the longer leg, plus 2x40' side by side to make the shorter leg of the L, dimensions will be 65'x56' (20mx17m), the legs of the L shape will have a width of 16' (5m) and 9,5' high, that will give me 160 square meters (each one is 30 square meters), less the inner walls with the insulation. Yes I know I will have to scrub really well the containers and repaint them inside and outside, as well as removing the floor plywood panels, wash them and apply several layers of varnish to seal any contamination. The shipping containers themselves will cost 1000€ plus 250€ each for the transport, my land is near Lisbon and Setúbal ports, so containers, foundations (small concrete slabs) and steel reinforcement will cost less than 20 000€. I have made the calculations on all materials needed (with premium PVC doors and windows, and climate control) and even with the outsourcing of the insulation (projected polyurethane) it will will cost me less than 70 000 euros (worst case scenario), that is 50% savings.
I enjoyed this and the other two videos produced about the shipping container conversions. Well done! Thank you for taking the time to do the first video, discuss the comments in a second video and for doing this one as well.
Hi Belinda, yesterday I discovered your previous video of 7 reasons why using containers to create tiny houses can be a scam. I liked it quite a bit and found all your points very reasonable. It's a shame that it generated so much hate and hostility to the extent that you had to make a second video about it that I saw anyway. This video made me curious and I find very interesting the alternative uses of the containers beyond their use for housing. I was about to give a dislike to the use of mining farms for bitcoins. It is a use that wastes an obscene amount of energy and the benefit is very questionable. However, the use of gas in oil fields to provide them with energy may be more justifiable. I was glad to see the guys who build houses with containers that you recommend, I saw one of their videos yesterday showing the most economical budget for one of the houses they build and I don't think it's that cheap, but it's interesting. I haven't seen more videos of you in case you have something more recent about building with containers, but it would be interesting if you could show the difficulties with the containers to weld them well to avoid water leaks that rust the steel sheet and deteriorate it quickly; and other common disadvantages.
I started watching your videos, beginning with the "scam" video (title being a bit provocative) -Ive had a thing with containerized living for some time & I’m DEFINITELY NOT someone that fits into the "tiny home" category (all of my designs are several thousands of SqFt), my thoughts before watching this video were: 1. Maybe she's a crackpot 2. Maybe she's got an ax to grind 3. Maybe she knows something, has some legitimate points & I should watch for purposes of addressing some shortcomings in future builds (Thank you for your points in cantilevering) Anyways, a few counterpoints to the 3 videos of yours I’ve watched along these lines Scam video @2:10, #1 No one really "custom orders" containers unless you’re using it for a REALLY specific purpose (E.G. containers with longitudinal doors, grain containers with no roofs, etc. None of these are really used for residential purposes), container sizes are really just based off of trailer sizing’s as such they’re commonly available in 20ft, 40ft, 45ft (in both "normal" & hi cube elevations); Not so common offerings would be 10ft, 48ft, and 53ft (watching freight train movement with containerized payload, 53 footers seem to be pretty popular these days -I would imagine their availability on the secondary market will become more mainstream consequently getting cheaper & cheaper as time goes on) #2 @2:25 Sprinklers (I’m assuming you’re speaking in the context of fire suppression?) aren’t really all that popular in residential settings #3 @3:55 "Expensive steel reinforcement", steel isn’t really all THAT expensive... Lets say that a beam of whatever shape you’re wanting to use (I personally, have a thing for square tubing); lets say they’re $180 for a 20footer of receiver hitch tubing (I realize this is all contingent upon commodity spot market pricing & this will vary) & you’re going to use this at 8 foot length intervals for 9.5ft vertical ceilings in common between 2 containers (E.G. You’ve blown a wall out & are concatenating 2 containers side by side), this comes to $90/8ft section of wall you’ve removed #4 @5:10 "Health risks", Ok so there’s some possibility that the marine grade wood plywood flooring may have came into contact with payload thats... other than healthy for use by humans? Pull it out & replace with normal residential grade flooring (or better yet, use the legacy floor as subflooring to build on top of); Who wants to have a house with marine grade plywood as their flooring anyway?!? #5 @5:30 "One trip containers", to my knowledge in the USA -The only locality to have a restriction for containerized housing for "one trip containers" is the state of California #6 @6:00 Transport costs, if you live in the middle of no where -Sure, you’ve got a legitimate point; However the entire point of a shipping container is intermodel transport (ship, train, truck), As such just because you’re not coastal doesn’t mean you cant get a good deal on a container; Rail yards charge rent on a daily basis to container owners; If the container owner doesn’t have payload to move down the road it quickly becomes more equitable to liquidate the container than to leave it sitting in the rail yard for some random trucking company to go pick it up, bring it to some customer, load it up, drive it down to the receiver (or back to the rail yard) whenever they get around to it #7 @6:55 one trip containers, getting more trips; When you look at global movement of goods, most everything comes from China to USA, there’s not that large of a percentage of non-refrigerated containerized goods leaving USA (There’s the possibility of containers being used for truck shipments intracountry, but since weights are a huge thing in the trucking industry; the overhead weight (tare weight, if you will) of an empty container adversely impacts how much billable payload you can legally move down the road with) ~> Thus a really huge glut of containers that wind up in country & never really leave Your counterpoints in your response video, I found were... (and Im not trying to get cheeky here) entertaining & insightful #1 @8:18 Cost comparison, alot of the capital costs on a per square foot basis (assuming you’re in the tiny home crowd, again -I am not) are probably going to be more since you’re concatenating a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom(s), and common living areas presumptively into (1) 300'ish SqFt container; Kitchens & bathrooms are going to have an artificially higher per SqFt cost due to the resources they require & the fact that most municipalities will typically have a fair amount of building code in regard to these 2 rooms; Assuming your building plan is using more than 1 container, these costs will tend to flatten out to seemingly "normal stick building" construction as rooms in other containers will presumptively require less complex construction resources (contingent upon the buyers requirements of course) 5 successful conversions video (this one here) #1 @2:25 Freight farms, 1a. installed a much more advanced HVAC system; I wouldn’t really call it advanced, I would call it significantly less powerful & as such consumes less resources than the legacy refrigeration gear that was replaced 1b. "The structure of the container wasn’t compromised in any way"; I suppose this is a bit of potato/poTATOE here but I would call the end cap & doors structural -Looking at the imagery of their box, it seems as though with the smaller refrigeration gear they’ve equipped the box with, they’ve put a significant amount of sheet metal (and Im assuming insulation?) in its place to fill in the void left by the previous equipment & the typical freight doors have been removed & replaced with an insulated bulkhead & a more "typical" door like what someone would see on a walk-in freezer, generator set, etc. #2 @4:40 Black pearl resources, Typically in refining with the petrochemical industry they will "flare off" waste gasses (some would call, sewer gas) that are unusable/unprofitable in a petrochem operation, in this situation they’re using a microturbine generator to process their unusable "trash" into a electrical byproduct that they use locally in plant & also for something that’s electrically hungry... bitcoin mining; Which I wonder at the end of the day, how profitable it is? #3 In the context of NON-Residential container spaces, you left out google datacenters... Which, yea... the DC as a whole isnt built out of containers; Its more built like a shipping terminal, but the compute resources (servers) are all hotplugged several thousand at a time on a container by container basis; Anytime there’s some new huge change in server technology, they can have a container per DC built, trucked out to each DC, they unhook the power & signal resources to the container, move it off to the side replacing it with the container full of newer servers & drive away with all of the old technology #4 Your original video was critical of containerized housing, if you’re going to make a success video -it would be nice to have a majority of the content as residential containerized housing as opposed to largely "industrial" use cases, but... Hey, its a start ;)
Just an idea here: You can always hybridize buildings to include containers in segments that make sense (like in an underground home the entrance area or say an observation space above ground, while keeping the underground parts reinforced concrete and the like). Like with most construction materials it isn't a be all end all in itself but it can still help cut down on things (the bitcoin miners actually made me think of another possible application: a solar battery farm module, batteries and all the other needed electrical bits for an end user solar farm that you can just add to your home depending on your home's design (the need for outside insulation would give room to customize it to make it blend in more)).
Great work Belinda. Stop worrying about what people think. Most persons lack the internal resources to truly appreciate other views and perspectives. Even if it helps them. Keep putting out great videos. Cheers !
Thanks Belinda! I'll be an empty nester soon and am chomping at the bit to go tiny. Your videos, which I just discovered and watch several, are "the other side of the coin". Thank you for that! There is so much information out there on the benefits, but I haven't seen information on the problems. And thank you for emphasizing in one of your other videos that it's ok to disagree or have a different opinion. It's amazing that it needs to be said, but you handled the haters with grace. And I LOVE your dress!
I seriously love your pro n con aspect. As well as the cautionary measures. Many people forget about pipes and electrical conduit. I was a commercial plumber and we hated seeing plumbing walls 4” thick. With a 4” drain or vent line. And yes that was the engineer/architect.
Just finished watching the container homes series. Wish I would have seen this sooner before I agreed to using shipping containers for storage sheds, as they got delivered last week. The good thing is I saw before any construction on them has began so can now speak with contractor about cutout for door and condensation concerns. Might just forgo the backwoods he was talking about. Great video and forget about haters, they have nothing better to do.
I subscribed just because you gave a different outlook on Something that is needed to be talked about in a healthy "checks and balance" structure of a conversation .
I did not know about hydroponics in containers but am familiar with the other 4 uses and follow Containing Luxury. As you stated, building is a science and that's what should inform our projects. All in all, an excellent presentation.
Hello Belinda, i m a new subscriber. I m french, living in Croatia and trying to be self sufficient on a farm-survival shelter on 11 acres of land with some aquaponics. We work with Community Support Agriculture network and have an Chinese traditional medicine activity too. We had a lot of earthquakes the last two months and two were so strong that they destroy one region. So we re building a plan B, just in case. I m thinking the last 8 years making a shipping containers with greenhouses on the top. It will combine growing of mushrooms in container and use the co2 they produce for boost the greenhouse on the top. Thank you for your work, you re a great being.
I have been very worried about the spread of suburbia into prime farmland in the San Joaquin Valley in California. I was delighted by the farms created inside shipping containers and how they use minimal horizontal space. Thank you for sharing this information.
Thank you very much for opening our eyes and tell the real truth about this container fashion. I used to think they were a dream solution. Keep the excellent work en tell us more about the architectural world.
Fascinating --brava! Though I'm not too sure about the 1st example. Wonder how long those LED strips last, how much nutrition those crops are offering etc. You are one brilliant, level-headed lady.
I'm planning on getting two shipping containers to convert one into a pottery studio and the other will house my electric kiln and glazing materials. I really appreciate your videos on the pros and cons of shipping container construction and I'm so sad that you had to deal with racism and sexism for posting your knowledgeable opinion I wondered if you have any thoughts on using a thermal packaging solution on the inside of the shipping container, like TPI, which they claim reduces the risk of condensation to zero? It's relatively cheap, £700 for a 20ft container, and I'd clad the walls and ceiling with wood, had several extractor fans and a wood burning stove for the winter...
Repurposing containers is often fraught, but these all seem to be pretty damn good. Those Musk brothers certainly know a thing or two. Love your choice of music Belinda!
Could you spend a moment to talk about the construction of basements and/or underground bunkers? In California, we're facing unprecedented fires due to the one month of rain we have the entire year that leads up to very dry and combustible fuel all around us. It might be good to have a contingency to consider construction of fireproof/resistant homes or even emergency bunkers in case we are caught in wildland fires that we cannot escape from. You'd have a new following of Californians!
You have an action RUclips channel Excellent videos Keep up the good work Nice space ship containers placed in aeroplanes creating great work in the sands desert's approach rare plants in the Amazon and Obtaining in Mexico all so Obtaining lifeforms
Many have also converted shipping containers into "power plants" for connecting batteries to solar panels and wind turbines to power a home, offset grid usage, or provide energy storage in the event of an outage. It's something I've recommended to my father since they have plenty of land for it and he's been acquiring solar panels so he can continue to power his home in the event of an outage.
Now that I've moved into a one bedroom townhouse with a postage stamp backyard, my only desire in life has suddenly become having a shipping container workshop! Excellent video, thanks.
There are many neat, tidy ways to equip your home without trashing it like using surplus medication or other medical carts as tool boxes (I have three Lionville med carts and they're better toolboxes than my nice Matco rollaway while having monitor arms, space for an SFF PC and built in backup batteries!). They have non-marring casters and fit through standard doorways. I use a patient lift to R&I motorcycle engines and place them on engine stands. Other storage systems like Joboxes suit apartment and dorm life (I had one and a half Harley Sportsters in my barracks room lockers and passed inspection). Industrial plastic shop carts are great for portable non-marring work areas with storage. Five-gallon plastic pails with lids store many parts. Hand trucks make moving heavy stuff easier and safer.
I have really enjoyed the general arc of "Shipping containers are awful as homes" to "Yes, they really are awful for human habitation so here's why some more but you can and should still build tiny" to "shipping containers can still be repurposed in smart ways." Excellent.
It’s almost like you know what you are talking about lol….after seeing all three videos on the shipping containers much respect for the way you laid out your findings (/facts) and the way you handled the 2 video after people got emotional about it.
Love your content! If always been that guy up and up on tech and everyone always asks me what I think on this and that! I can just recommend your channel!!!
Hi Belinda. Wow and boy am I happy I came across your channel today. I was absolutely convinced that I wanted to make tiny houses from shipping containers until I watched your pros and cons/Scam video. Ignore the goons who attack you - I'm a logical woman and I appreciate logical explanations. So I will watch on and look rather at "building" my tiny home and houses and I hope to keep in contact from South Africa. I have some ideas I'd love to run by you. My mum hailed from Lubbock, Texas. Keep up the gr8 work
@@BelindaCarr oh Wow. My brother attended TTech in 1993-1994. That's great news and thank you for replying. My email is librey1@gmail.com Have a great weekend and look forward to hearing from you. I am not on LinkedIn at this time.
I too just discovered your channel and I'm quite impressed with your knowledge. Can I make a question for something i planned to build but I was planing and reconsidering few ideas for a last couple of months. First I am sorry for my English. it is not my native language by far My house is in central part of Europe, Serbia, and it was made like all other houses from brick and mortar; My problem is outside finish, thermal isolation, I'm thinking about making some kind of do it my self breathable facad from vertical wood grill fastened on bricks and between each two to put pressed rockwoll and second layer maybe some kind of chicken wire, connected reed or similar (first of rodent barier and second use to fasten rockwoll to the wood grill and fondation after which to just sprayit-on with lime and cement mixture. My plan is to make facade breathable, to have property to dry itself (because increase percentage of moisture is reducing isolation) and I think that I could do it my self or with friends and to keep thermal mass of inside of house for winter. Plan is to make isolation which I wanna do propper with rockwool but to do myself without must pay contractor or similar. Can you give me some guidance, mybe somebody who made something simmilar. Greetings from Serbia
Hi Belinda, great video about shipping containers insights, I agree with all your arguements for the disadvantages about shipping containers buildings, however, I think there still are several advantages as following, good for transportation when are builded in massive productions at the same modulars size, hence cost effective, and can be built in a factory within short period. Good for apartments hotels hospitals ect. It can reduce carbon footprints during the construction process. It is freight effective, so it can be made in labour and materials cost effective areas/countries. Again, your videos are very inspiring and nice discussing this with you. From a building structural engineer.
Great informative vids. I watch vids on tiny homes (including shipping containers) a lot and I noticed certain flaws and drawbacks are never mentioned which makes the vids very one sided. If I wanted a tiny home, I'd want to know both the pros and cons and like that you don't shy away from mentioning both the advantages and disadvantages.
Hello, only just picked up on a shipping container as ahome. What you say is complete sense. #look at the facts and go from there. Thank you for passing on your knowledge/opinion. I'm sorry you had so much abuse. Regards Richard
Thanks for another superb informative video. With the growing movement of cargo vans being converted into campers/small homes perhaps you can do a video on the correct ways to insulate these vehicles and the importance if including vapour barriers. Just a suggestion. Keep up the good work👍
Keep it unbiased Girl !!!! :))) And thanks for the tip on red and blue light colors for best plant growth !!! I was just about to look into a small scale home food and herb production !!
Miss Carr, thank you for your useful information on the use of shipping containers. A question for you: Have you any information on using closed cell foam insulation on the outside of shipping containers for insulation. Thereby eliminating much of the condensation problems inside as well as keeping the volatile compounds outside?
You are so awesome, everything in your videos I find very useful and I appreciate the amount of research you put into each and every one of them, thank you so much for your time and effort, for I'm the forever student....and now a fan of your channel.
I went through firefighting school when I was in the Navy. It was similar to the firemen's school except the structure was designed more like the engine room on a ship. Everybody on the ship had to go to the school.
If I recall correctly, one of your main concerns with shipping containers was potential contamination with toxic chemicals. How is growing food inside one even remotely safe?
Again, there are one use containers, some govermets only allow for this ones to be used as homes for the same reason ( as you dont tknow what they might have transported). I assume this are the ones used for the farms, either those or containers with a track record, its not impossible to use a container as a home or farm, the thing is most of the "home builders" want the cheap way arround or only want the looks, ignoring the safety and stability, Buying the first good looking container they found ( i remind you the purpouse of the farm is not to be insanely cheap, rather cheaper than using a lot of land and being way more eco friendly)
That was some seriously good insight on shipping container ms including the previous one where you got backlash. But the truth was very important and necessary if someone like me was seriously considering building one. I wish container homes would work in India... But I guess the traditional ones are better for now.
I have no interest in architecture OR shipping containers for that matter but I am LOVING this woman explain all this!!
I was just saying the same thing to a friend - I have no personal interest in the topic - I just enjoy hearing her talk. She's so articulate. It's been so long since I heard a reasoned conversation. Hey, Melinda when are you going to run for office 😃
Probably because she is an attractive woman youtuber who doesn't feel the need to sound like a nincompoop.
lmao she can tall all day on anything and i'm here for it!
Hi Belinda, It is nice to see an architect who is not stupid in love with shipping containers for homes. And that is also pointing out the serious issues of condensation that they present.
I work in international construction so we ship a lot of containers all over the world and then we convert a lot of them for temp. storage, offices and toilets.
Leakage is a problem, but condensation is the huge issue, it is the worst in a cold climate but bad in the tropics also-- like the Philippines, Africa, or Sri Lanka and anywhere with a similar climate.
The exterior insulation is the best way by far but it is more permanent and compromises the container more than we want. We need to build things quickly, and to reuse the container when we leave. As you said in your recent video, don't use any bat insulation! Ideally frame it and spray foam or use foil faced foam and tape and seal the edges. the other thing is be sure you get it well up off of the ground as the water vapor will flow through at an incredible rate and further complicate your life. Also as you showed in several of your examples you need a secondary roof, if it is going to used long term. the roof will not drain well, and will rust out in a short time if you don't.
Another point that you did not go into at least I did notice was after you go through all the difficulties of welding and structural mods to frame out the openings between the two or more containers, is, if you do not put on the secondary roof, the near impossibility to seal the con-joined containers against water.
Nice series and good job. You tube is full of haters so ignore them or shut them down, don't let nasty people get under your skin!
Thanks for sharing your experience and perspective! I appreciate the support.
Great information. I am currently in the proof building out a shipping container for a hangout spot. I’ll definitely put a roof up and raise the container off the ground
Nice comment. The tropic climate is not the same in every part of a tropic country. I feel sometimes the issues for containers or other non traditional construction methods are over generalized and simplified. So you can be in Philipines for example and have different micro climates if you move yo different areas inside the country. So it is more complex actually. Your experience shows quite a good ammount of quality in your advices as well.
I'm in the Philippines and I was set in buying a farmland and using shipping containers as a farmhouse. Your advise and this series have greatly made me rethink that.
@@iampoch01 what did you eventually chose?
I just discovered your channel and I'm already watching the fourth video from it. Great stuff!
Wow. Thanks, Alexander!
Same here... Damn!!
Me as well. Thanks for the info.
Same here! Nice work! :)
Yaa same💯👍
Just watched the entire shipping container series. I'm really really impressed by the research and knowledge you've provided. Plus brilliant job on handling the hate . Hope to see more content like this in the future
Also tell us about schoolies
Will do. Thanks for the support!
This is quality content from a source that clearly understands the nuance of both the industry and the science. More RUclips content should take after this. Great work.
I'm glad you're sharing your perspective and I'm sorry for the overthetop reactions you have received.... I'm one of those people who dreams of building my own house one day and always thought of container build as a shortcut to that. I still think of building one, but now I know to question certain assumptions.
Would love to hear your take on what techniques work well for those who would want to be more hands on with building their own home.
Thanks for the support, Mario! I'll try to make more videos on the topic of 'self-building'.
Forget about shipping containers and stay on the lookout for an old construction barrack instead. They are pre made with good insulated walls and often have plumbing built in to the floor.
Belinda,
I found your Videos on Shopping Containers right on key. For years I dreamed of using them to build my own home, but didn't like the offers or ideas I was seeing to do this type of build in the Tropics ... The process left me with more questions than answers & I know nothing about building. Yet, common sense tells me that condensation, utility, structural integrity, rain, & space ideas needed to be worked out better. In the tropics, you cannot leave condensation as the last thought, or your health is compromised... or anywhere else for that matter.
Just recently I am seeing others address those same issues I had long ago, when builders made fun of me for having these questions. It was like: "Lady, you get what you pay for!" & I was like, "No, I am simply asking how do we deal with these issues? Which, no one could answer. 🤦🏻♀️ How can the builders not know how to approach this very important issues? But so it was...
Thank you for raising awareness to these very logical issues, that need to be addressed when building with Containers. It's still very possible, yet it needs to be looked at from all right angles. There's always people who don't want to admit that someone else has a better thought than them, which to me is so silly... How else do we grow to invent & fix problems? 😄🤦🏻♀️😁 Stay happy & humble!!! I found your videos easy to watch cause anyone can understand & you go right to the point, without wasting much time. Keep that up, simple, clear & precise info in short videos... ☝️👀👏🏻🌎💕🎤💞
Some ideas I think you missed in this series: Cons for container homes -- The flat roof presents a real problem in many areas, particularly areas that get precipitation. You need to find a way to ensure water, snow, ice do not collect on the roof and have adequate drainage. Some locales will not give you a permit to build if your home does not have a slope (example: some areas of Wyoming require a minimum 12-30 degree pitch in roof due to potential snow loads), so even if you don't want a pitched roof, you may be forced to construct one to meet building codes (an added expense). Another negative: You have to hire a crane or special trucks to deliver the container home, and if stacking them, need special cranes to place the container. Placing the container (especially if stacking) may require special permits beyond what might be required if the home is just built with conventional materials. In flat wide open areas, this might not present a problem, but in remote and hilly areas, the logistics of container placement could be daunting. Probably one of the biggest CONS for shipping containers, of any use, is getting city building inspectors to approve building the container, placing it in a place permanently, getting neighborhood buy-in, and getting permits issued. Generally, one might have to resort to headache amounts of paperwork to get zoning approval changes, or neighbors to enjoy your unpainted container exterior.
As you DID say: Cons and pros have not only to do with port location (as a cost consideration) but climate location really plays a role in whether or not containers make sense in any location. Those locations (sans port location) range from "a really stupid idea" to "a great option" based on climate alone.
Some ideas as PROS that I think you missed / misunderstood for containers (as homes) -- A MOBILE container home is MUCH more durable than any other mobile home (THOW). Of course, the down side is that it is also possibly heavier than other options. But such a home is more durable under road conditions and could last many more years than a typical RV while making the home more like a real home. The vehicle could be made to be immensely more secure than any RV or tiny home or mobile home. The containers are made into a width and length and height that makes transporting them on the road easy. Container homes that are MOBILE are actually using containers as they were intended to be used -- moving from place to place. It is even possible to put a container on a ship and move from country to country. Another PRO for containers over other forms of construction: Because of the ability to stack containers, they are the cheapest means to go vertical. Even if you have to reinforce the structure because of offset or cutting, or extra height, the overall cost of adding more floors and height to a wood structure gets more expensive with each level, whereas a container can actually be built at ground level and lifted any number of levels above the ground already constructed inside. You can't really do that with a regular house. ANOTHER PRO: Except unless you live in an area that is super-ridiculous about building codes ( like Salt Lake City, which thinks it is necessary to support the integrity of your shipping container at least 8' underground to make it stable) a foundation for a shipping container can be constructed for just the corners of the home, potentially saving significant costs in providing a foundation. Foundations can be poured for only the primary corner points. Even if a full foundation is constructed, many options on how that is done are available for container homes, from bolting the container to a slab, to preparing a basement under a foundation with shipping containers built on top. Potentially a foundation for a container home can be constructed in a weekend and the exterior of the container home can be completed in a week.
Durability? If your container is secured to a foundation (bolted, welded, steel strapped), it is grounded and earthquakes and tornadoes, and floods and landslides will probably be more durable for a container home than any other kind of tiny home, or regular home. Take care of a container home and build it right the first time, and it likely will last longer than a stick-frame house, with less (but different) kind of maintenance.
Ideas you just can't compete with? People who don't understand other people who desire living in a tiny home. For those who need regular sticks and bricks of a massive size, you'll just never get then to understand why ANYONE desires and WANTS to live in a place less than 400 sq feet. (I currently live in a 110-sq ft space, and would LOVE to have a 320-sq ft space -- a tiny McMansion IMO.) Best just not to even try to justify why people shouldn't be living in "Tiny Homes". It's like comparing those who like cats or dogs or reptiles or birds as pets and thinking one is always better than others. Sometimes it just can't be compared.
Overall, a good bit of info. Thanks for your efforts in publishing the series.
I appreciate these videos as being a fairly no-nonsense guide to how these things really are. At the end, one thing that I haven't seen mentioned in this series, and is maybe the most interesting benefit to me of shipping containers as homes, was always the ability for a small DIY team to do something more akin to a modern steel-construction modular home construction. It's possible for a small team, or even an individual with occasional help, to build a relatively big complex container by container in a convenient location without a lot of large infrastructure and equipment needed except for the final installation phase where it gets moved to the site and plopped into position where that small group can then go back to final outfitting.
When the container forms the basic building block, it is a factory-produced item made to be largely square and true, as mentioned, in a large facility that has the industrial capacity to do so cheaply, which means as a builder you don't need to go secure big pieces of steel that would otherwise be needed for similarly sized custom construction. Thus, one or two people can take a container, keep it in a backyard or a lot somewhere, and at their leisure cut holes, weld in reinforcements, and fit out a container into a respectable modular home unit at what most would consider a manageable DIY'ers budget. And so, while a few individuals will probably need help at the site with hired crews to move stuff in either case, it should be a far quicker and cheaper job to pay for a crew to drop a standard-size container into a set location on site than it is to budget for the type of crews needed to move large beams and framing and other stuff into place while assembly teams work putting those parts together safely. Then because it was done by professionals, all of that work must then be inspected and validated, rework done, etc and make sure everyone's butts are covered. When if you DIY it, I mean, ultimately there's less scrutiny.
Of course if one has access to a workshop that has easy delivery for flatbeds loaded with steel and overhead cranes and forklifts to be able to position and do modular-type construction at the workshop, then a DIYer making a home that way vs starting with a container will probably still be the best option. But most people won't have that access, so a container is a bit of a blank-slate starting point shortcut.
Of course I much agree that actually employing sound design and engineering and architectural principals in executing the final work is paramount and just because someone's doing it DIY doesn't mean do work that is slapdash or not to code.
Ultimately though once you start looking at the prices for just a few containers now, then the costs of all the materials and time to rework it into something that ultimately is a large compromise, the price of a pre-fab steel hanger-type building starts getting really comparable; and turning one of those into a home starts looking a lot more appealing. I've seen some really cool hanger/homes that structurally went up in no-time by crews that are experienced in that type of industrial construction, and then there's not many reasons someone in love with the container concept can't put a container or two inside them to create rooms and smaller areas within the large space. (or build out other various structures to put inside there).
The best container homes I've seen generally do combine some kind of large prefab steel building or other structure with some containers in order to juxtapose these large, imposing volumes with these confined purposeful pockets of space in ways that makes for a much more interesting living or working space.
Stacking containers is largely a hipster meme as horizontal expansion is far less expensive and easily done even single-handed as I did for my shops. Combining them with Steelmaster and other trussless building kits (I built both but separately...so far) produces a superior result. The containers (buy "one trip" grade) make instantly usable shop space which facilitates the rest of the build and are much stronger than the trussless kit panel sidewalls. Containers most favor metalworkers proficient at DIY which is why mine suit me. Unless a site specifically requires a crane it's easy to precisely place containers using the typical travelling axle trailer (Landoll etc) used to deliver them in the US, and easy to winch them (I did mine by hand with a Wyeth-Scott puller, railroad ties and steel beams, and used steel pipe rollers) into place where power lines, trees, structure or soft ground prohibit trailer movement.
@@Comm0ut
side by side, makes sense. Thanx for your comment.
This is just what I needed, especially that other video that helped me get some perspective on this whole shipping container infatuation I’ve been immersed in for ages! A good wake up call. Thank you
My lady, again, I greatly appreciate and applaud your expertise, knowledge and education. You have expanded my vision on the various uses for shipping containers, for which I thank you.
Excellent video, please continue to share and keep us informed of the pros and cons of all aspects of architecture and construction.
Thanks again...
I have spent months researching into building container homes and found a great resource at Magic Container Plans (check it out on google)
Awesome to see you cover the different uses, versatility and repurpose of containers I think this has opened a lot of people's minds... and as always very informative and down to earth info... Belinda you the man.😁
I'm writing to my local TV station recommending, that one of there executives watch your show. Thanks for been so informative.
Just discovered your channel, never seen a channel providing such a beautiful explanation of topics with all the sources specified. Just subscribed.
One thing i would very much like to see is your take on Earth-bag building and Cob building. Particularly in regards to insulation and their use as load-bearing materials.
Greetings from Denmark!
I will try to make a video on them soon. Thanks!
My family has a piece of land in the sierra nevada mountains in Northern California. We use it as a base camp and have 2 20' containers that we store items in so we dont have to bring everything with us every time go up to camp out. When the Paradise wildfire burned across that part of our land everything that we had built out of wood in the last 30 years BURNED to the ground. We had cleared all the brush and tree's plus any thing that might by flammable from around the outside perimeter to at least a minimum of 50'. The containers survived the fire because of all clearing we had done, some of the paint was faded or burned from the heat and there was ash everywhere,inside also because the door seals had melted on the sides but everything inside pretty much survived the fire. The outhouses did not, they were burned to ground. I watched all your videos on containers and thought you did a wonderful job of explaing all the plus's and minuses. I don't plan on living in one, but just wanted you to know it survived the fire because it was made out of steel.
I'm very glad that your belongings survived the fire! I hope you don't have to go through that again. Thanks for sharing your story.
Here in Ghana, shipping containers are converted into shops that sell a range of items from provisions to clothing. You might want to investigate that as well. They have been in use for decades and the proliferation suggests their usefulness.
I love the refer units. One of my 40 foot units is set up with bioreactors for growing algae for year round production. With the entire roof covered in solar panels, the energy consumption is minimal. Great topics you have.
I SUPER appreciate your objective perspective. We need more honest and objective “influencers”. (Sorry, I couldn’t think of another descriptive) Great job!😊👍🏽
I really like your videos, they are thoughtful and well researched. Keep up the great work!
Greetings Belinda and happy new year, I am going to build my own shipping container house and I have to agree with you in some points, as well as to thank you for warning people that It has a some problems to be solved and it is not meant to everybody, I have been getting information on this for the past 2 years.
I am aware that I will have to reinforce them to open space and it will ad cost to the build, however the cost of a brick and concrete house here is up to 1000 euros per square meter, so the 160 square meter house (100 for the house and 60 for the attached garage, minus the walls) I'm planing to build will have a cost of up to 160 000 euros plus all necessary building permits and project, it is too expansive and that means debt.
After selling my flat and paying the remaining mortgage, I will be able to build everything and achieve my goal to be completely free of debt.
.
The biggest cost here as well as there is labor, I have the skills and tools to work metal and to install electricity, communications and plumbing.
LSF and LWF (steel or wood framing), as well as ICF here cost almost the same as brick and concrete houses (the common house around here) , the only advantages are the time to build and bigger thermal efficiency.
Here in Portugal you can buy the HC(high cube) the 9,5 feet tall very easily and for a very good price, the shipping containers themselves will cost 1000€ (airtight) plus 200€ each for the transport, my land is less than 30km from Lisbon and 20km Setúbal ports.
The house will be build in a L shape consisting of 2x40' side by side plus 2x40 cut to 25' side by side to make the longer leg, plus 2x40' side by side to make the shorter leg of the L, dimensions will be 65'x56' (20mx17m), the legs of the L shape will have a width of 16' (5m) and 9,5' high, that will give me 160 square meters (each one is 30 square meters), less the inner walls with the insulation.
Yes I know I will have to scrub really well the containers and repaint them inside and outside, as well as removing the floor plywood panels, wash them and apply several layers of varnish to seal any contamination.
The shipping containers themselves will cost 1000€ plus 250€ each for the transport, my land is near Lisbon and Setúbal ports, so containers, foundations (small concrete slabs) and steel reinforcement will cost less than 20 000€.
I have made the calculations on all materials needed (with premium PVC doors and windows, and climate control) and even with the outsourcing of the insulation (projected polyurethane) it will will cost me less than 70 000 euros (worst case scenario), that is 50% savings.
I enjoyed this and the other two videos produced about the shipping container conversions. Well done! Thank you for taking the time to do the first video, discuss the comments in a second video and for doing this one as well.
Hi Belinda, yesterday I discovered your previous video of 7 reasons why using containers to create tiny houses can be a scam.
I liked it quite a bit and found all your points very reasonable. It's a shame that it generated so much hate and hostility to the extent that you had to make a second video about it that I saw anyway.
This video made me curious and I find very interesting the alternative uses of the containers beyond their use for housing. I was about to give a dislike to the use of mining farms for bitcoins. It is a use that wastes an obscene amount of energy and the benefit is very questionable. However, the use of gas in oil fields to provide them with energy may be more justifiable.
I was glad to see the guys who build houses with containers that you recommend, I saw one of their videos yesterday showing the most economical budget for one of the houses they build and I don't think it's that cheap, but it's interesting.
I haven't seen more videos of you in case you have something more recent about building with containers, but it would be interesting if you could show the difficulties with the containers to weld them well to avoid water leaks that rust the steel sheet and deteriorate it quickly; and other common disadvantages.
I started watching your videos, beginning with the "scam" video (title being a bit provocative) -Ive had a thing with containerized living for some time & I’m DEFINITELY NOT someone that fits into the "tiny home" category (all of my designs are several thousands of SqFt), my thoughts before watching this video were:
1. Maybe she's a crackpot
2. Maybe she's got an ax to grind
3. Maybe she knows something, has some legitimate points & I should watch for purposes of addressing some shortcomings in future builds (Thank you for your points in cantilevering)
Anyways, a few counterpoints to the 3 videos of yours I’ve watched along these lines
Scam video @2:10, #1 No one really "custom orders" containers unless you’re using it for a REALLY specific purpose (E.G. containers with longitudinal doors, grain containers with no roofs, etc. None of these are really used for residential purposes), container sizes are really just based off of trailer sizing’s as such they’re commonly available in 20ft, 40ft, 45ft (in both "normal" & hi cube elevations); Not so common offerings would be 10ft, 48ft, and 53ft (watching freight train movement with containerized payload, 53 footers seem to be pretty popular these days -I would imagine their availability on the secondary market will become more mainstream consequently getting cheaper & cheaper as time goes on)
#2 @2:25 Sprinklers (I’m assuming you’re speaking in the context of fire suppression?) aren’t really all that popular in residential settings
#3 @3:55 "Expensive steel reinforcement", steel isn’t really all THAT expensive... Lets say that a beam of whatever shape you’re wanting to use (I personally, have a thing for square tubing); lets say they’re $180 for a 20footer of receiver hitch tubing (I realize this is all contingent upon commodity spot market pricing & this will vary) & you’re going to use this at 8 foot length intervals for 9.5ft vertical ceilings in common between 2 containers (E.G. You’ve blown a wall out & are concatenating 2 containers side by side), this comes to $90/8ft section of wall you’ve removed
#4 @5:10 "Health risks", Ok so there’s some possibility that the marine grade wood plywood flooring may have came into contact with payload thats... other than healthy for use by humans? Pull it out & replace with normal residential grade flooring (or better yet, use the legacy floor as subflooring to build on top of); Who wants to have a house with marine grade plywood as their flooring anyway?!?
#5 @5:30 "One trip containers", to my knowledge in the USA -The only locality to have a restriction for containerized housing for "one trip containers" is the state of California
#6 @6:00 Transport costs, if you live in the middle of no where -Sure, you’ve got a legitimate point; However the entire point of a shipping container is intermodel transport (ship, train, truck), As such just because you’re not coastal doesn’t mean you cant get a good deal on a container; Rail yards charge rent on a daily basis to container owners; If the container owner doesn’t have payload to move down the road it quickly becomes more equitable to liquidate the container than to leave it sitting in the rail yard for some random trucking company to go pick it up, bring it to some customer, load it up, drive it down to the receiver (or back to the rail yard) whenever they get around to it
#7 @6:55 one trip containers, getting more trips; When you look at global movement of goods, most everything comes from China to USA, there’s not that large of a percentage of non-refrigerated containerized goods leaving USA (There’s the possibility of containers being used for truck shipments intracountry, but since weights are a huge thing in the trucking industry; the overhead weight (tare weight, if you will) of an empty container adversely impacts how much billable payload you can legally move down the road with) ~> Thus a really huge glut of containers that wind up in country & never really leave
Your counterpoints in your response video, I found were... (and Im not trying to get cheeky here) entertaining & insightful
#1 @8:18 Cost comparison, alot of the capital costs on a per square foot basis (assuming you’re in the tiny home crowd, again -I am not) are probably going to be more since you’re concatenating a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom(s), and common living areas presumptively into (1) 300'ish SqFt container; Kitchens & bathrooms are going to have an artificially higher per SqFt cost due to the resources they require & the fact that most municipalities will typically have a fair amount of building code in regard to these 2 rooms; Assuming your building plan is using more than 1 container, these costs will tend to flatten out to seemingly "normal stick building" construction as rooms in other containers will presumptively require less complex construction resources (contingent upon the buyers requirements of course)
5 successful conversions video (this one here)
#1 @2:25 Freight farms, 1a. installed a much more advanced HVAC system; I wouldn’t really call it advanced, I would call it significantly less powerful & as such consumes less resources than the legacy refrigeration gear that was replaced 1b. "The structure of the container wasn’t compromised in any way"; I suppose this is a bit of potato/poTATOE here but I would call the end cap & doors structural -Looking at the imagery of their box, it seems as though with the smaller refrigeration gear they’ve equipped the box with, they’ve put a significant amount of sheet metal (and Im assuming insulation?) in its place to fill in the void left by the previous equipment & the typical freight doors have been removed & replaced with an insulated bulkhead & a more "typical" door like what someone would see on a walk-in freezer, generator set, etc.
#2 @4:40 Black pearl resources, Typically in refining with the petrochemical industry they will "flare off" waste gasses (some would call, sewer gas) that are unusable/unprofitable in a petrochem operation, in this situation they’re using a microturbine generator to process their unusable "trash" into a electrical byproduct that they use locally in plant & also for something that’s electrically hungry... bitcoin mining; Which I wonder at the end of the day, how profitable it is?
#3 In the context of NON-Residential container spaces, you left out google datacenters... Which, yea... the DC as a whole isnt built out of containers; Its more built like a shipping terminal, but the compute resources (servers) are all hotplugged several thousand at a time on a container by container basis; Anytime there’s some new huge change in server technology, they can have a container per DC built, trucked out to each DC, they unhook the power & signal resources to the container, move it off to the side replacing it with the container full of newer servers & drive away with all of the old technology
#4 Your original video was critical of containerized housing, if you’re going to make a success video -it would be nice to have a majority of the content as residential containerized housing as opposed to largely "industrial" use cases, but... Hey, its a start ;)
Just an idea here: You can always hybridize buildings to include containers in segments that make sense (like in an underground home the entrance area or say an observation space above ground, while keeping the underground parts reinforced concrete and the like). Like with most construction materials it isn't a be all end all in itself but it can still help cut down on things (the bitcoin miners actually made me think of another possible application: a solar battery farm module, batteries and all the other needed electrical bits for an end user solar farm that you can just add to your home depending on your home's design (the need for outside insulation would give room to customize it to make it blend in more)).
Great work Belinda. Stop worrying about what people think. Most persons lack the internal resources to truly appreciate other views and perspectives. Even if it helps them.
Keep putting out great videos. Cheers !
Thanks Belinda! I'll be an empty nester soon and am chomping at the bit to go tiny. Your videos, which I just discovered and watch several, are "the other side of the coin". Thank you for that! There is so much information out there on the benefits, but I haven't seen information on the problems.
And thank you for emphasizing in one of your other videos that it's ok to disagree or have a different opinion. It's amazing that it needs to be said, but you handled the haters with grace.
And I LOVE your dress!
I seriously love your pro n con aspect. As well as the cautionary measures. Many people forget about pipes and electrical conduit. I was a commercial plumber and we hated seeing plumbing walls 4” thick. With a 4” drain or vent line. And yes that was the engineer/architect.
Discovered your channel with the first shipping container video, love them and your outlook on life! You deserve more subs.
Thanks for the support!
just watched 3 of your shipping container videos. great work, subbed.
Ditto!! You go, girl!! Er, make that woman. LOL
Just finished watching the container homes series. Wish I would have seen this sooner before I agreed to using shipping containers for storage sheds, as they got delivered last week. The good thing is I saw before any construction on them has began so can now speak with contractor about cutout for door and condensation concerns. Might just forgo the backwoods he was talking about. Great video and forget about haters, they have nothing better to do.
This was vastly more fascinating than container homes
I subscribed just because you gave a different outlook on Something that is needed to be talked about in a healthy "checks and balance" structure of a conversation .
I did not know about hydroponics in containers but am familiar with the other 4 uses and follow Containing Luxury. As you stated, building is a science and that's what should inform our projects.
All in all, an excellent presentation.
Hello Belinda, i m a new subscriber. I m french, living in Croatia and trying to be self sufficient on a farm-survival shelter on 11 acres of land with some aquaponics. We work with Community Support Agriculture network and have an Chinese traditional medicine activity too. We had a lot of earthquakes the last two months and two were so strong that they destroy one region. So we re building a plan B, just in case. I m thinking the last 8 years making a shipping containers with greenhouses on the top. It will combine growing of mushrooms in container and use the co2 they produce for boost the greenhouse on the top. Thank you for your work, you re a great being.
I'm a Woby, so it was really cool to see that shout out. As ever, a concise and thoughtful video. Thank you
I have been very worried about the spread of suburbia into prime farmland in the San Joaquin Valley in California. I was delighted by the farms created inside shipping containers and how they use minimal horizontal space. Thank you for sharing this information.
The workshop one is a cool Idea, lots of space for cheap and Keeps down The noise.
I really appreciate your very informative presentation that covers both the pro and con in building, design and architecture.
Thank you !
Thank you very much for opening our eyes and tell the real truth about this container fashion. I used to think they were a dream solution. Keep the excellent work en tell us more about the architectural world.
Fascinating --brava! Though I'm not too sure about the 1st example. Wonder how long those LED strips last, how much nutrition those crops are offering etc.
You are one brilliant, level-headed lady.
I'm planning on getting two shipping containers to convert one into a pottery studio and the other will house my electric kiln and glazing materials.
I really appreciate your videos on the pros and cons of shipping container construction and I'm so sad that you had to deal with racism and sexism for posting your knowledgeable opinion
I wondered if you have any thoughts on using a thermal packaging solution on the inside of the shipping container, like TPI, which they claim reduces the risk of condensation to zero? It's relatively cheap, £700 for a 20ft container, and I'd clad the walls and ceiling with wood, had several extractor fans and a wood burning stove for the winter...
underrated channel
Repurposing containers is often fraught, but these all seem to be pretty damn good. Those Musk brothers certainly know a thing or two. Love your choice of music Belinda!
Thanks, Ross! Those Musk genes are something else ... :)
Could you spend a moment to talk about the construction of basements and/or underground bunkers? In California, we're facing unprecedented fires due to the one month of rain we have the entire year that leads up to very dry and combustible fuel all around us. It might be good to have a contingency to consider construction of fireproof/resistant homes or even emergency bunkers in case we are caught in wildland fires that we cannot escape from.
You'd have a new following of Californians!
You have an action RUclips channel Excellent videos Keep up the good work Nice space ship containers placed in aeroplanes creating great work in the sands desert's approach rare plants in the Amazon and Obtaining in Mexico all so Obtaining lifeforms
Watching your videos is a lot like going to school. Very well done.
Thanks for the shout out!
Many have also converted shipping containers into "power plants" for connecting batteries to solar panels and wind turbines to power a home, offset grid usage, or provide energy storage in the event of an outage. It's something I've recommended to my father since they have plenty of land for it and he's been acquiring solar panels so he can continue to power his home in the event of an outage.
Now that I've moved into a one bedroom townhouse with a postage stamp backyard, my only desire in life has suddenly become having a shipping container workshop! Excellent video, thanks.
There are many neat, tidy ways to equip your home without trashing it like using surplus medication or other medical carts as tool boxes (I have three Lionville med carts and they're better toolboxes than my nice Matco rollaway while having monitor arms, space for an SFF PC and built in backup batteries!). They have non-marring casters and fit through standard doorways. I use a patient lift to R&I motorcycle engines and place them on engine stands. Other storage systems like Joboxes suit apartment and dorm life (I had one and a half Harley Sportsters in my barracks room lockers and passed inspection). Industrial plastic shop carts are great for portable non-marring work areas with storage. Five-gallon plastic pails with lids store many parts. Hand trucks make moving heavy stuff easier and safer.
I think your channel is brilliant and makes me regret not pursuing a career in architecture and construction design.
You answered my question about a container shop/shed. great info, thank you so much.
This channel and Belinda's explanations on this are terrific. I really love this.
Belinda.......... You're smart!
Thanks for the information!
I have really enjoyed the general arc of "Shipping containers are awful as homes" to "Yes, they really are awful for human habitation so here's why some more but you can and should still build tiny" to "shipping containers can still be repurposed in smart ways." Excellent.
Haha. Thanks, Zac.
Making a video to address the positive aspects of upcycling containers..
..shows burning containers as a great purpose :)
It’s almost like you know what you are talking about lol….after seeing all three videos on the shipping containers much respect for the way you laid out your findings (/facts) and the way you handled the 2 video after people got emotional about it.
Very interesting series on shipping containers! And, as a seamstress, I admire your garment!
What a fun way to Successfully transform containers for workshops.
Love your content! If always been that guy up and up on tech and everyone always asks me what I think on this and that! I can just recommend your channel!!!
Nice space ship containers placed in aeroplanes creating great work in the sands desert's
This has to be the best 'trilogy' ever
Great videos
Oh wow, there's more
Hi Belinda.
Wow and boy am I happy I came across your channel today.
I was absolutely convinced that I wanted to make tiny houses from shipping containers until I watched your pros and cons/Scam video.
Ignore the goons who attack you - I'm a logical woman and I appreciate logical explanations.
So I will watch on and look rather at "building" my tiny home and houses and I hope to keep in contact from South Africa. I have some ideas I'd love to run by you. My mum hailed from Lubbock, Texas.
Keep up the gr8 work
My husband went to school at Texas Tech in Lubbock! I'd be glad to help in any way I can. You can send me an email or LinkedIn message.
@@BelindaCarr oh Wow.
My brother attended TTech in 1993-1994.
That's great news and thank you for replying. My email is librey1@gmail.com
Have a great weekend and look forward to hearing from you. I am not on LinkedIn at this time.
Anything from the minds of the musk family I find interesting, I think they are all innovative thinkers, creative minded individuals.
Just discovered your channel and already three videos in! Subscribed!
You have an action RUclips channel Excellent videos Keep up the good work
Best channel on RUclips
Just found your and your videos are excellent, thoughtful, and well-articulated. Don't let the haters get you down!
I just found your channel and I’m on my 3rd video already , I’ve also subscribed already
Thanks for subbing!
And so you're a good teacher as well. I learned a few things today. Thank you.
I too just discovered your channel and I'm quite impressed with your knowledge.
Can I make a question for something i planned to build but I was planing and reconsidering few ideas for a last couple of months.
First I am sorry for my English. it is not my native language by far
My house is in central part of Europe, Serbia, and it was made like all other houses from brick and mortar;
My problem is outside finish, thermal isolation, I'm thinking about making some kind of do it my self breathable facad from vertical wood grill fastened on bricks and between each two to put pressed rockwoll and second layer maybe some kind of chicken wire, connected reed or similar (first of rodent barier and second use to fasten rockwoll to the wood grill and fondation after which to just sprayit-on with lime and cement mixture.
My plan is to make facade breathable, to have property to dry itself (because increase percentage of moisture is reducing isolation) and I think that I could do it my self or with friends and to keep thermal mass of inside of house for winter.
Plan is to make isolation which I wanna do propper with rockwool but to do myself without must pay contractor or similar.
Can you give me some guidance, mybe somebody who made something simmilar.
Greetings from Serbia
Hi Belinda, great video about shipping containers insights, I agree with all your arguements for the disadvantages about shipping containers buildings, however, I think there still are several advantages as following, good for transportation when are builded in massive productions at the same modulars size, hence cost effective, and can be built in a factory within short period. Good for apartments hotels hospitals ect. It can reduce carbon footprints during the construction process. It is freight effective, so it can be made in labour and materials cost effective areas/countries. Again, your videos are very inspiring and nice discussing this with you. From a building structural engineer.
Great informative vids. I watch vids on tiny homes (including shipping containers) a lot and I noticed certain flaws and drawbacks are never mentioned which makes the vids very one sided. If I wanted a tiny home, I'd want to know both the pros and cons and like that you don't shy away from mentioning both the advantages and disadvantages.
Hello, only just picked up on a shipping container as ahome. What you say is complete sense. #look at the facts and go from there. Thank you for passing on your knowledge/opinion. I'm sorry you had so much abuse. Regards Richard
Can you do a video where you cover alternative small home options to container homes. I mean if there are any options that you find successful.
Thanks for another superb informative video.
With the growing movement of cargo vans being converted into campers/small homes perhaps you can do a video on the correct ways to insulate these vehicles and the importance if including vapour barriers.
Just a suggestion.
Keep up the good work👍
Great suggestion. Thanks!
Wow hearing about the vertical farm is so interesting!!
ah yes. i've seen this method in the movie "Gentlements", they are using the same concept for farming weed in england. nice!
Thank you. Both vids brought up a lot of excellent points. Keep on keepin' on.
Watched all the three videos related to this topic..very informative , precise and logical ...keep up the good work💯👍
Keep it unbiased Girl !!!! :))) And thanks for the tip on red and blue light colors for best plant growth !!! I was just about to look into a small scale home food and herb production !!
Miss Carr, thank you for your useful information on the use of shipping containers. A question for you: Have you any information on using closed cell foam insulation on the outside of shipping containers for insulation. Thereby eliminating much of the condensation problems inside as well as keeping the volatile compounds outside?
Omg why I need to go school... This is worth a course.
This channel is gold
More great information.So glad I "bumped" into this site.Looking forward to more
Amazing video and information 👌
Excellent analysis and presentation 👏
From the looks of it, these containers can provide the world with basil.
Another great video... What about container POOLS do one on that, also popup shops and layouts
watched your other 2 videos on the topic of shipping containers. You, my friend just got a new sub, thanks for actually defining a logical argument
So what I'm hearing is that shipping containers make really good sheds
So glad we found you!!!
your shirt/outfit is BEYOND cute on you. You look so beautiful 🥺❤️❤️
Shipping container rental storage is also an easy to implement and low modification use
You are so awesome, everything in your videos I find very useful and I appreciate the amount of research you put into each and every one of them, thank you so much for your time and effort, for I'm the forever student....and now a fan of your channel.
New viewer here. I enjoy your sincere ideas.
Could you use storage pod containers? just thinking they tend to be a bit larger
Thank you for this valuable information. Don’t worry about being chewed up if you’re staying the facts.
I went through firefighting school when I was in the Navy. It was similar to the firemen's school except the structure was designed more like the engine room on a ship. Everybody on the ship had to go to the school.
If I recall correctly, one of your main concerns with shipping containers was potential contamination with toxic chemicals. How is growing food inside one even remotely safe?
Again, there are one use containers, some govermets only allow for this ones to be used as homes for the same reason ( as you dont tknow what they might have transported). I assume this are the ones used for the farms, either those or containers with a track record, its not impossible to use a container as a home or farm, the thing is most of the "home builders" want the cheap way arround or only want the looks, ignoring the safety and stability, Buying the first good looking container they found ( i remind you the purpouse of the farm is not to be insanely cheap, rather cheaper than using a lot of land and being way more eco friendly)
That was some seriously good insight on shipping container ms including the previous one where you got backlash. But the truth was very important and necessary if someone like me was seriously considering building one. I wish container homes would work in India... But I guess the traditional ones are better for now.
Thanks for watching! I appreciate it.