my new cottage

[kt]

Hi there,

Just wanted to share some progress with my container cottage. I've made great use of posting and knowledge in this forum and wanted to thank everyone who contributed. I got my site scouted, foundation laid and containers placed before winter last year. Now that it's almost over, I'm getting ready to start cutting holes.

Any advice greatly appreciated - one guy in town here suggested that a way to avoid buckling is to not cut or weld in a continuous cut/join, as it heats up too much. Rather go back and forth and let metal cool down first. Any feedback on this? Also, is it necessary to sandblast off the paint first? I thought a respirator would do it, but when we were repairing a hole on the roof, the paint caught on fire.

At any rate, here are the pictures of idea in sketchup, and then how it's turned out so far. The windows/doors in sketchup are not what I'm going to do. And then there are some construction pictures. These are 24' Matson hi-cubes.

Cheers,
KT

Design:










Construction:
site placement/clearing


holes dug for footers


rebar cages


anchors welded


concrete poured (it had started to rain, so concrete truck unable to reach site)


foundation ready


forklift placing container

[dcross]

Good for you,  You seem to have it well in hand.   I notice the Chain wrap on the forklift mast during handling.   I admire your initiative but boy oh boy that must have been a bit nerve wracking on placement.

[kt]

Yeah, we had to rethink the plan, too, when the rear end lifted and the ground was too mushy and one of the wheels kept spinning. We ended up putting the extra bags of quikrete on the rear of the lift, and my boyfriend and I sat on the bags to keep it down. The forklift operator we hired usually works with 20' containers, and was not expecting the extra 1000lbs of the 24' to make that huge of a difference.

But we made it! I now know more than I ever wanted to about foundations and also know that there's no way in heck I would do a larger project than this with me in charge. Have whole new respect for general contractors...

KT

in the air


fork lift rut

[lavardera]

Wow - impressive work. The anchors look well done.

I think the heating of the skin on cutting can make some buckling, but it also can come from other  factors - the box itself can be under some internal stress that becomes "unbalanced" when a portion is removed - like tempered glass shattering. But it can also simply buckle because the structure has lost strength with the portion removed.

It looks like you are making some big holes there - whats your plan to reinforce the box for lost material?

[kiltman]

Love seeing your project come to fruition.  Any chance of seeing an interior floorplan?

Keeps those pictures coming!!!!

D. S. Brown
Tucson, AZ 

[paulsaw]

I like everything about this. The layout itself is rather ingenious.

[PS]

This is cool.  I've never seen "progress shots" of how these homes are put together.  this looks like it is out in a rural area.  Where is this site?  Do you cut the windows out of these after everything is put together?  Did you have to get a permit for this?  In any event, this is great to see!!! Thanks!

[jhurst1]

Greetings KT, looks like a great project. I was wondering about how y'all attached your containers to the foundation? Are you going to use a full seam weld for window/door frames
in order to make them weather tight?  Are you going to use any additional steel to reinforce the structure?
Thanks and good luck.
Jim

[kt]

Love seeing your project come to fruition.  Any chance of seeing an interior floorplan?

Keeps those pictures coming!!!!

D. S. Brown
Tucson, AZ 

Thanks and it took me a while to get Home Designer to *almost* do what I want. mostly. here goes:

First floor layout:


Haven't got the second floor layout/windows done, but the spiral stairs will lead to a study overlooking the valley inside, and a door to a deck built on the two adjoining containers



The back container has a regular door near the path to the rest of the property, archway to the main room, sliding door to bathroom, sliding door to master closet/changing room, partition to master bed.



Front containers are joined to create one dining-kitchen-living room. I'm hoping to create an arch between the two, and fill the arch with double-paned fiberglass. (also in the archway to the back container. I had made some repairs to the roof with fiberglass, painted it white. Slept in it last weekend, and the fiberglass makes a nice light source, but I'd like it to be insulating as well. Just need to find a good fiberglass fabber, and figure out how to attach it all  (Fiberglass did not leak over winter! No mice invasions! Everything still all square! Whew!)

Also will have as much built-in shelving as I can. The furniture in Home Designer isn't what I'll end up with. Probably more industrial artsy.



As I said, the windows/doors in the sketchups aren't where my thinking have gotten to. This is more like it, but with sklylight dome glazing in the circles, so I can hang skychairs there and you can look at the sunset. This too might end up fantasy, but I hope to make it so. Need to make good flashing so it doesn't leak.



This is the southwest corner, facing the path to the rest of the property. This side gets the most sun, so I'm trying to do some passive solar...

[kt]

Wow - impressive work. The anchors look well done.

thanks! I live in earthquake country... the load wasn't hard to figure but wave motion....

It looks like you are making some big holes there - whats your plan to reinforce the box for lost material?

As I said, the sketchup is not exactly what I'm doing now, but I do want to take huge chunks out. (see above home designer models) I was thinking of welding steel beams top to bottom where there are cutouts. I might need some in my archways, sigh.

That's one of the reasons for posting - I wanted to get any collective wisdom or advise before just plowing ahead. I got nervous on the foundation, which I'd never done before, and am also slightly nervous about this part.... the rest I figure is more easily fixable.

KT

[kt]

I like everything about this. The layout itself is rather ingenious.

Thanks!

[kt]

This is cool.  I've never seen "progress shots" of how these homes are put together.  this looks like it is out in a rural area.  Where is this site?  Do you cut the windows out of these after everything is put together?  Did you have to get a permit for this?  In any event, this is great to see!!! Thanks!

Boyfriend and I are amateur photographers... well amateur everything  It is out in zoned rangeland boonies on a 160 acre parcel.

Windows come after I have a door. (have some nervousness about sleeping in a container someone could lock me in!!!). And also after the interior cutouts, so there's more space to move around. Am hoping to do this this month!

KT

[kt]

Greetings KT, looks like a great project. I was wondering about how y'all attached your containers to the foundation? Are you going to use a full seam weld for window/door frames
in order to make them weather tight?  Are you going to use any additional steel to reinforce the structure?
Thanks and good luck.
Jim

We attach to foundation through combination direct and to 2" angle. Those white squiggly things are the foundation anchors we welded to plates. I suppose we could have extended the bolts out of the concrete like normal construction, but the boyfriend was worried about the exactness of the forklift operator. So those plates are connected to the anchors,

And then welding the corners to the plate and we got some 2" angle to reinforce for good measure.

Perhaps you could educate me on what a "full seam weld" is. But I'm hoping for weathertight. I'm trying to figure out the doors at the moment, how to frame it - Put some wood in and caulk? How the heck does one deal with the corrugation. That's why there are no holes yet!!!

I am thinking we may need to weld some top to bottom reinforcement, especially on the one that has another stacked on top of it. Gotta go butter up my structural engineer!

KT

[sailboatescape]

If you search the archives there are some pics of when David Cross was still at TAW and you can see how they welded in steel angles for door and window frames.  It gives it strength where you cut out but also gives you a flat surface to mount your door and windows to.  If the cutouts in the out side are spaced apart and not too large, you wouldn't need the strengthing and you could fab them from wood and metal flashing.  That may be more easily fabbed up out in the boonies and you don't have the problem of additional warping from the welding heat.  If you weld, stitch weld to minimize warp and twist.

Is there an indoor bath/shower area?  I am not clear on your references to "fiberglassing the arch to let in light".  Do you have the containers spaced apart and intend to seal the opening at the arch rather than at the top of the two containers?  As to strength as you do cut outs, you have taken a container that is designed to carry thousands of pounds and be picked up by it's four corners.  You have it virtually empty with a number of concrete piers under it which gives you a lot of leeway.  I hired an engineer to run calcs. on some of my designs last year and you can do some pretty large openings without much (if any) reinforcing.  However, I was designing for a heary snow load and had to be more concerned with roof loads.

This appears to be very creative and you are to be congratulated. 

[kt]

If you search the archives there are some pics of when David Cross was still at TAW and you can see how they welded in steel angles for door and window frames.  It gives it strength where you cut out but also gives you a flat surface to mount your door and windows to.  If the cutouts in the out side are spaced apart and not too large, you wouldn't need the strengthing and you could fab them from wood and metal flashing.  That may be more easily fabbed up out in the boonies and you don't have the problem of additional warping from the welding heat.  If you weld, stitch weld to minimize warp and twist.

THANKS for the pointers. Just what I was looking for.

Is there an indoor bath/shower area?  I am not clear on your references to "fiberglassing the arch to let in light".  Do you have the containers spaced apart and intend to seal the opening at the arch rather than at the top of the two containers?  As to strength as you do cut outs, you have taken a container that is designed to carry thousands of pounds and be picked up by it's four corners.  You have it virtually empty with a number of concrete piers under it which gives you a lot of leeway.  I hired an engineer to run calcs. on some of my designs last year and you can do some pretty large openings without much (if any) reinforcing.  However, I was designing for a heary snow load and had to be more concerned with roof loads.

There is an indoor toilet sink, but the front door (will be) 30' from the communal outdoor shower.




Also, I did not want to think about the water vapor and mildew generated by a shower. I will think about it over the stove, of course.

The fiberglass - the containers are spaced only as far apart as the corners allow - but the walls are inset from the edge of the corners, so there is 4-6" of space between them. I suppose it would work to just put fiberglass over the top and edges, but as I said, i do want to make them double paned for insulation. I wanted to do it along the arches to make it look cooler. Hmm. Maybe if I just do it on the outside that would work much better..... I'm wanting a deck up there though    Also do not want the hornets to get in...

The whole corners thing is why I went with the piers (that and wanting to be able to run stuff underneath them)- I mean- why not take advantage of the engineering already in it...

This appears to be very creative and you are to be congratulated. 

Well thanks, but I'm so glad there are others who've done at least some of what I wanted to do... I've been getting a lot of "huh. Well, I've never seen that done before, but there's no reason it shouldn't work..."

KT