Cargo container converted into home

[24KT]

Cargo container converted into home
06/04/2010 12:47:31 PM

CBC News

A Manitoba man is selling a shipping container that has been turned into a three-room home complete with plumbing, electricity and laminate flooring.

Vern Hiebert and his neighbour built the home after hearing about a student-housing complex made of shipping containers in the Netherlands.

They installed windows, a three-piece bathroom and a modern, stainless steel kitchen, giving the 14.6 by 2.6-metre home about 400 square feet of living space.

"After we put all the building materials in there - the walls and the ceiling - it's a very comfortable little unit," said Hiebert. "I'd be more than happy to use it as a cabin or even a temporary living space."

The container home he is selling is in Roland, Man., about 80 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg. Potential buyers should take note: it has to be moved.

Listed on the Kijiji website for $32,500, the home's plumbing is designed to allow the unit to be stacked on top of another one if the owner ever wants to expand.

The home is built from the type of steel reinforced container typically used for transporting goods on ships, railroad cars, and semi-trailer units.

Shipping container architecture has become popular around the world, with the containers often stacked in unique ways.

Tempohousing, a company in Amsterdam, has created huge student housing facilities, hotels, and commercial buildings from used shipping containers since 2002.

It also uses the containers to develop a fast solution to build new homes for displaced people in emergency situations, such as in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake.

The structures can be set up in a short time, are storm and earthquake proof, and provide shelter at the lowest cost.

Containers are in many ways an ideal building material because they are strong, durable, stackable, movable, modular, plentiful and relatively cheap.

Hiebert and his neighbour picked up a used one for about $5,000.

That's because the containers have become abundantly available during the last decade due to a deficit in manufactured goods being transported overseas from North America.

Goods are shipped to North America from Asia and Europe but with nothing to send back, shipping companies face a considerable expense hauling the empty units.

It is often cheaper to buy new containers in Asia than to ship old ones back. As a result, the containers get left in North America, seeking new uses such as garages, artist's studios, and cargo homes.

The best part, said Hiebert, is that you can take your entire home with you if you relocate.

[Skip8282]

Z-board material, but kind of interesting.  There's a company that builds homes out of containers.  No way I could live packed in like a sardine though...

[tonymctones]

I agree with skip I couldnt live in something so confined Id feel clastrophobic.

I do like the idea of it for temporary housing or a cabin...would be real nice on the land I go hunting on these days and seems like it would be relatively cheap

[24KT]

Z-board material, but kind of interesting.  There's a company that builds homes out of containers.  No way I could live packed in like a sardine though...

Nuh-uh... it falls under the category of preserving the environment, or housing or the economy or something.  

No trees are felled in the making of this house, so it's environmentally friendly... that makes it a category for this board.

With a growing homeless population and increasing foreclosures, ...it could be considered an innovative suggestion for what can be done to alleviate an affordable housing crisis. that makes it a category for this board.

The fact that the US no longer exports as much as it used to, resulting in the Chinese and other exporters finding it cheaper to abandon shipping containers in the US and simply buy new ones, it could fall under the category of the increasing trade deficit between US & China. That makes it a topic for the political board.  

See how very appropriate it is for the politics board?  

[240 is Back]

i used to live in a single wide trailer about that size, with my brother.

his bedroom was the living room and mine was the other half of the house.

the guns we owned at the time were worth about double what the trailer was lol...

[SAMSON123]

Nuh-uh... it falls under the category of preserving the environment, or housing or the economy or something.  

No trees are felled in the making of this house, so it's environmentally friendly... that makes it a category for this board.

With a growing homeless population and increasing foreclosures, ...it could be considered an innovative suggestion for what can be done to alleviate an affordable housing crisis. that makes it a category for this board.

The fact that the US no longer exports as much as it used to, resulting in the Chinese and other exporters finding it cheaper to abandon shipping containers in the US and simply buy new ones, it could fall under the category of the increasing trade deficit between US & China. That makes it a topic for the political board.  

See how very appropriate it is for the politics board?  

For those who complain of the cargo/shipping containers being UGLY or CRAMPED or something negative, it takes some creative sight to make the container an eye catcher. So far as the environment goes, they are practically 100 percent recyclable, extremely sturdy: may even stand up to hurricanes, earthquakes a lot better than standard wood or brick homes, efficient, since it is all metal I am sure it has a low carbon footprint as opposed to a wood house. easily movable (if necessary). Have a look at some nice cargo container homes

[Soul Crusher]

Pretty cool idea IMHO.