Shipping Container Engineering for Residential Housing Use

[bigmig]

I have been seeing this building concept develop for the last decade or so. Finally have a project with these things that looks like It will take flight.
Does anyone have any references or code standards to point in the right direction? Have they been codified in terms of structural residential use?

 

[racookpe1978]

Local housing and political codes are your biggest enemy, biggest concern. Look at how "attractive" the modular housing in Saudi Arabia oil camps and army bases and air bases look like.

Plumbing, power, water, ducting, ventilation and sewage pipe vent connections are not simple - everything has to go through the steel wall or floor or roof with drilled and welded or waterproof connections to outside pipes and wires, which makes many assumed "stack 'em up" easy designs hard to actually implement. Few "cheap" sources have the metalworking skills to make these connections waterproof, bug-proof, and service "tight".

Heat and light and power internal routing takes space and thought to make the insulation work right: Moisture buildup from baths and showers and sinks and sewage odors and kitchen ventilation is easier in a stick-and-frame structure with its many air paths in and out.

Stacked up shipping containers also have no stairs, rails, door opening and access, windows, ventilation, and "people" needs. This means that modular housing requires 5 times to 10 times the ground area of a stack of containers.

 

[JStephen]

Look into the coast of properly blasting and painting the steel surfaces when the time comes, as well.

 

[XR250]

I have always turned down these type of projects. They make no economic sense unless it is located in a temperate climate where no insulation is required and codes are lax.
The framing of a small house is not a significant percentage of the final project cost. You still have all the other costs associated with building a house and even more so due to the things racookpe1978 mentioned.

 

[LittleInch]

some of these look useful especially the second one

ISO 668 I think is the structural standard

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shipping_container_architecture

http://www.residentialshippingconta...ng Containers and Building Code Requirements

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[dhengr]

Bigmig:
It’s been done many times with varying degrees of design complexity and with varying degrees of success. It seems to me that there have been several threads here on E-Tips on the general topic. It generally keeps the wind and the rain out, but otherwise, is a difficult design problem, particularly when trying to meet today’s zoning and building codes. It seems to be more practical in emergency situations where regulations are relaxed and where code requirements are fairly lax. Another issue is finding enough identical containers, of the same design and life-cycle condition, so that every detail does not have to be reworked for every other container. They are made to an international std., so the potential of stacking and load path are fairly well defined, until you try to do real crazy things with them, other than the way they are stacked and tied down on a ship or in a shipping/transfer yard. As mentioned above, such things as wall openings, insulation, mechanical systems, ingress and egress are all fairly complicated and must be worked out in a systematic manor. They do make great storage containers, office space, etc. on a construction site, where slightly rough isn’t too bad. And, I’ve seen them stacked two or three high, and two deep in a row, with the end doors opening out, and then spaced at 20-30' and roofed, with the open space btwn. used as shop and storage space.