[stevehull]

Understand that I am not a "shipping container" advocate who says these are the best. They have their place - especially for an urban environment with people that don't mind smaller spaces.

Personally, I advocate SIPS and use them a lot.

As for costs, compared to stick building practices, it is FAR cheaper to use a shipping container, cut out holes for windows/doors and to run utilities/pipes on the outside, then foaming the outside and providing a peripheral weather "skin" and roof.

Some individuals then put on a thin layer of sheet rock on the inside for a more conventional look, but many really like the utility metal look - some even want the rust stains and shipping scrape marks left as is. A bit too industrial for me . . .

One real issue is the noise. With a bare metal box, any inside high frequency source of sound - even some cooking noises (frying especially), get amplified and I find it way too much. For me, I would insist on some rock wool behind a sheet rock layer. But this increases the costs.

My worry has been, and continues to be interior air pollution using shipping container design. I believe two things are necessary: 1) some minimal forced air circulation and 2) an ERV (or HRV). Unless you have cross ventilation, just opening one window may not allow adequate ventilation. These boxes are air tight to start and this can easily be maintained with simple sealing techniques around window/door edges.

With a single box design, the space issue makes me feel a bit tight. On the other hand, some designs have a box on top of a box with cut outs in the bottom of the second top box to create vertical spaces. Others put them adjacent to one another and do a "cut out" thereby creating more horizontal space. Still others do this and also stack them. Still very tight in terms of space.

These conversions are incredibly easy to heat and cool. With R-30 insulation, and controlled ventilation, a 12K BTU heater is enough to handle a 60 degree-day heating load in a single container. One problem with stacking them is that thermal stratification must be overcome with forced ventilation. Hard to find a small enough unit to do this.

In other areas of the world, a small living space is normal, but (IMHO) shipping box home conversions will not be the rage in developed countries with the exceptions of young urban (or rural) types that will accept the physical realities.

Lastly, fire departments do not like them as it is hard to vent them in case of a fire. Because of the closed space, any small fire becomes an inferno very quickly. You would think the metal box would prevent fires. The problem is all the combustible stuff that we put inside the steel box to live with.

The "mini house" (150-300 sq feet) concept has many advocates and they really enjoy the "enhanced minimalism". Shipping boxes are about the same size . . .

Cheap to built, simple to convert and easy to heat/cool. Those are the positives. But a lot of negatives also.

But those that like them, REALLY like them.


Steve