Build Your Own House

Here's a cool site. You can buy a 20 foot shipping container for about $1500 and a 40 footer for about $2500. They have great really solid hardwood floors that would polish up a treat. Worth considering as a "site office"/place to stay/lockable secure storage while you're building if nothing else. Cheaper than building a shed, and you can always sell it off when you're done with it. Seems to be a fairly healthy market for them.
If Council's not happy about the look of them... you could dress one up with corrugated iron or something.. or just paint it Brunswick Green to make it look better.
Cheers,
Murray Johnson
www.byohouse.com.au

http://earthsci.org/education/fieldsk/c ... ainer.html

Or bury it: http://www.undergroundcontainer.com/

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Bruce
Draftie

Hi Murray and all

How does this sound?

Say if you bought two or three containers and sited them together, lengthwise to make a largish dwelling, then add a traditional roof to make it look like a house.

Could have them sited on a slab or supports.

You could open them up internally, add veranders, windows etc.

Any thoughts? Would this work? Be Cheap?

Cheers,

Paul.

Interesting thought. You'd want to to put a fair bit of thought into "dressing up" the containers to make them look pretty... and you'd need to cut some decent sized openings into them for windows etc. to overcome the potential claustrophobia. In terms of cost per square metre they shape up pretty well potentially. They're 8' x 40' or 320 square feet per 12 metre container. That's 3.2 "squares" per container for say $3500 delivered ($2500 to buy plus $1000 to deliver based on 200km from the city)... so you're looking at about $1000 per square on-site compared with $7000 for "normal" building per square. Of course the $1000 doesn't include foundations, "dressing up" or "services" like plumbing and electricity or roofing... but there's probably a bit of potential to save some money if it was done right.
I've seen containers done out as little portable emergency housing units. They had one on show outside the Melbourne Museum last year. They're probably more suited to that... or temporary (site) or remote accommodation, than long-term proper housing in a neighbourhood context.
They'd possibly make a good cheap wine cellar/basement! You could "bury" one in a big hole, pour your slab over the top with a spiral stairway or ladder down into your container. Not sure about getting air down there, but it's all interesting stuff.
You could probably do something interesting with a few containers in the back of a house for storage -- even bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchen, opening onto a nice open space living area to balance the narrowness of the container areas. A good example of a modern open space is the beautiful Wheatsheaf House designed by exciting young architect Jesse Judd in Victoria.
I'll attach a couple of photos of it.
Cheers
Murray Johnson
www.byohouse.com.au


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Hi Murray,

Yes, it's got me thinking.

Just wondering if you or anyone reading this would happen to know where the best deals on containers are in melbourne?

Cheers,

Paul.

PS,

Do you think this would be a hard one regards building permits/council approval? I am building in a small rural town, classed 'township' for my block.

Yes I think it would be a pretty tough one to get through council. When Murray talks
about cost per sq metre, you should really be comparing it with a shed, not with a
real house - because that is what a container is, a steel shed. It has no insulation, no
cavity to place the insulation in, no electrical or plumbing and no cavity to install them
in. No windows. No eaves to protect the windows. It is not even very strong - a
container is designed to bear weight in the corners, but it won't take much force on
the roof.

Assuming you need to install insulation etc, you are going to end up building a frame
inside your container (further reducing the size) or outside (requiring expensive
cladding). Your costs for doors, windows, electrical, plumbing, cabinetry etc isn't
going to be any less than for conventional construction and the dimensions are really
difficult to work with. By the time you have brought it up to the standards which the
council are probably going to require, you might as well have built a conventional
framed structure.

Having said that, there a some situations where a container is a great solution:
* instant wine cellar
* secure storage
* quick, temporary shelter
* difficult site
* relocatable building

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Bruce
Draftie

Ah well, there goes that idea! No easy solutions are there.

Cheers,

Paul.

Thought this may be of interest as they have pre fab'd some containers for various uses:
http://www.outdoordirect.com.au/index.php?main_page=page&id=6&chapter=0

http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/06/08/pre ... iner-city/

..might be of interest?

Just found another link

http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/05/04/pre ... e-kit-cmk/

http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/04/13/lot ... ner-house/
http://www.fabprefab.com/fabfiles/containerbayhome.htm
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/articl ... llloyd.DTL
http://www.inhabitat.com/2006/06/30/pre ... am-kalkin/

..found a few more

Royal wolf containers in melbourne sells container houses.

check: http://www.royalwolf.com.au/ and look for the portable buildings / mining accomodation section.

Just found this. I doubt we'll ever see this sort of stuff in Australia though

http://www.eco-update.com/architecture/ ... skyscraper

hey jason i am interested in those containner homes, especially the connectors ones that can go double story, keep us posted.

The well known Australian architect Sean Goodsell came up a while back with this nifty container house.

http://www.architectureaustralia.com.au ... 1&typeon=2