Shipping container building

[caver]

I had a 20' container delivered a week ago. Why not a 40'? There's a turn down the gravel road that is too tight for a 40' unit and it would be easier to move with my backhoe. The driver brought it on a tilt bed he uses for hauling cars. He got one end down and was trying to drive out when the upper end started to slide off to the side. I hooked the tractor up to it with a chain to pull it back.

I jacked it up onto some blocks of wood with the doors pointed a little downhill. I think I got the door end tweaked a little as it was hard to get them to latch no matter what I tried.

 

[Wyobuckaroo]

THE only really objectionable thing I find is how doors latch at bottom, sort of makes it impossible to create permanent ramp to move things into container, though removing standard doors and adding a roll up would be quite nice modification...
------------ Yes.. This is a can be a concern in many places.. Especially here in the far north... Many places can get by with a pad under a ramp and a short jump into the container.. This as many people do store there small tractors in the container. I like that for the security and all. However.... Here when we occasionally can get a meter of snow overnight it would be an issue to deal with.. With that in mind, my intention is to use the containers for secure storage, mostly for livestock feed. It can be worth the work to deal with pallet and truck load quantities for the price break.. A big issue here is keeping feed, buildings and all bear proof.

A good imagination... Can be your best friend and your biggest work maker.. I correspond with people in Australia who have containers that they use as secure cabins as such.. They build an outside wall with entry door just inside the container doors and fit it out for a cabin inside. They use them at remote locations on the properties. That and another container for tools, equipment storage, an out house and you are pretty well set up it seems. As there general climate throughout the year is quite different than the far north here, so everywhere has its differences.

 

[EddieWalker]

I did it back in 2003 when I bought my land and needed a fast, dry, secure place to store stuff. I put them 24 feet apart and built a roof over them. It worked out pretty good, but I wouldn't do it again. You lose a lot of space, and it makes it awkward dealing with the containers. They are expensive walls. But for what I needed at the time, they worked out.

 

[caver]

Yesterday I worked on trying to square up doors and hit a half way happy spot but something is still dragging.
Today I was tinkering at home with a small surplus
solar panel and a computer muffin fan. I would rig one or two up to the vents pictured below to draw some air
through in the summer. For some reason they had the vents taped up and forgot to pull tape off before picture.
It was about 52 when I arrived at the property and felt like about 80 inside. I also found
a magnetic/sticky bar code ownership thingy and thought it might have a tracking chip inside but doesn't look like it to me.

 

[BukitCase]

Doors can be a B--ch, sometimes they're just screwed up and other times jacking one corner or another can help (and adding shims once you find out what helps)

The computer fan would probably help, unless you wanna actually WORK inside - I have a 20, 2 40's and 2 40 hi-cubes. I built a steel framed 24'x24' roof over the 20 - between the roof and a few trees, that one NEVER sees the sun. Any time of the day or nite, I can walk inside and it's the same temp as outside.

The 2 standard 40's are storage, some of which does NOT need extreme temp swings - the two hi-cubes will be welded together parallel to each other, with connecting areas between and a bridge crane in one side (the weld area) - other side will get tools and machine area. Eventually a 60' square shop will be built around those two.

With ALL the 40's, I've measured inside temps with an IR gun at over 140 F during direct sun, when the outside temp was a bit over 60. (doors had been closed, but doesn't make a lot of difference)

My solution isn't quick, but necessary for me - I still need the security aspect due to the general neighborhood AND one neighbor in particular (not to mention bugs, possums, raccoons, bees, birds, etc - also, it's gonna be a while before I can afford the REST of the plan (roof over 2, 60' square slab and shop over the other two) so I bought greenhouse vent kits and am (slowly) in the process of building secure bezels for both the shutter fan AND the linked louver panel for inlet air, ALL of which will have welded bars over the outside plus screening for the other critters - all these will be on the leeward sides of the containers (our hill gets quite a bit of "horizontal rain") and be automated by temperature.

I have 20" fans hanging by the doors (ceiling height) facing out at the moment, NOT secure/NOT bug proof and only mitigates the temp within about 15' from the door, whether blowing in or out

The greenhouse kits were about $350 each, include 16" shutter fan and 24" motorized louvers with controller. Not cheep, but doable sooner than $80 thou for complete pole shop/slab. Now all I gotta do is keep from losing that "round tuit" ... Steve

 

[buck12]

The doors on my first container started dragging after I put my tractor in it the first time. The weight of the tractor caused the blocks to settle into the ground. Ten minutes with a floor jack and a couple of shims and no more issues until I had the container moved years later.

 

[Wyobuckaroo]

I'm kinda, sorta imagining much like in post #13... Only the steep part of the roof over both containers and center space.. There may or may not be usable storage on top of the containers between rafters, but if not that is OK also..

The big concern here would be snow load on the roof.. I also would like lean too on either side, but not as wide to keep the flatter roof short.

High cube....... Never knew about them.. I presume the same width, but taller..

What are the dimensions of a High Cube ??

 

[BukitCase]

Hi-cubes (usually 40') are exactly 1 foot taller; I found two in good shape for only a couple hundred more than normal 40's, that'll make a full length bridge crane in one of the pair a lot easier without having to duck the bridge. It'll also make it easier to do lighting - I plan to use 4' led shop lamps in the high spots between grooves in the roof, using neodymium magnets to hold lights and wiring as high as possible for better crane clearance, etc... Steve

Shipping Container Dimensions - Standard Container Size Information

 

[buck12]

I would definitely go with a high cube. If you look at my previous post in this thread the blue container is a regular height container which holds my Mahindra 2615. I had to buy the high cube to store my Kubota. The high cube was either $100 or $200 more than the regular height container.