Shipping containers recycled into affordable, accessible Utah home

[DeSwiss]

Kirsten Dirksen·Published on Feb 14, 2014

Real estate broker Jeff White dreamed of transforming used shipping containers into affordable housing. Laughed at by the first architects he approached, he began to work on his concept using a 40-foot-long, 9-foot-6-inches-tall and 8-foot-wide container in the driveway of his Salt Lake City (Utah) home. Being "busted" by a city inspector became the needed publicity for his project and soon after the Salt Lake's mayor was behind him and helped to ease the permits and inspections process.

After two years of transformation (including plans, groundwork and permits), what began as two forty-foot high cube containers is now a light and airy 672-square-foot house. It's not dirt cheap- the Sarah House (named for a San Francisco homeless woman whose makeshift home inspired White) is currently on the market for $135,000 (and only to low-income buyers)-, but that price includes a lot of hidden costs. "I spent 40 thousand dollars for the lot and then the infrastructure underneath it, getting the sewer, water lines, probably an additional 25 thousand dollars. So you can see where I'm at, the house is still coming in at 55 to 60 thousand dollars." White thinks with time and economies of scale, he can bring the costs down.

Sarah House: http://crossroadsurbancenter.org/projects/sarah-house

Filmed by Johnny Sanphillippo -- more of his stories about urbanism, adaptation & resilience: http://granolashotgun.com/

Original story: http://faircompanies.com/videos/view/shipping-containers-recycled-into-affordable-salt-lake-home/

- We can do this!

[Joe Shlabotnik]

1. Excellent video.

Often a poor case is made for shipping container housing because they look sort of dodgy or artsy, whereas this video took the time to showcase this home's elegance and practicality.

[DeSwiss]

2. Change is coming.

Necessity, and an understanding of how to use technological advance will decide our future, not profits. Once the existing system has crashed. And it's gonna crash......

[IrishAyes]

3. I don't care for shipping container homes at all, and it's not just their horrible (to me) look.

By the time you buy a container or 2, have it shipped and then craned into place, and do all the necessaries to make a healthy and efficient home, plus jump zoning regs, you'd have been better off building a plain little Tiny Home from scratch. People who've never built a container home themselves tend to discount their very real added expense. Even if you found a container abandoned roadside, they're still more trouble than they're worth unless you intend to live 3rd world style.

[DeSwiss]

5. Absolutely fine!

- Different strokes, and all that. The idea is to come up with sustainable and workable solutions. Then there are the tiny homes. The post directly above you has a tiny home built from wood. Maybe that one????

And if not one of those, then maybe what you're looking for is a Earthship:

[IrishAyes]

8. Like the earthships too. Just trying to advise folks of the (potential, at least) lack of cost

effectiveness of the shipping containers. Quite apart from the fact that I don't care for their design, which is merely personal.

[MADem]

12. I agree with you. If someone wanted to make a "suburb" of them they could probably

do it cheaply, but that would have a purpose of segregating those with lower incomes. Concept is interesting, though...but I've seen nicer pre-fab housing where you just buy the cubes and they bolt 'em together (Japan, e.g.--made in the PI!).

I think there's something like that container house for sale in Canada as well.

I think containers have uses, though. They'd do very nicely if stacked up and shipped as post-disaster "emergency housing." You could make a duplex out of a container for very short term housing--a couple of studio apartments; beats a tent, anyway...

[rdharma]

4. Very Cool!

[snappyturtle]

6. Marvelous! nt

[Heather MC]

7. I love her Videos and the small house movement

[NBachers]

9. I love seeing tiny house threads on Democratic Underground!

Yay! No toxic finger pointing and thread hijacking! No group-swarm attacks!

[mopinko]

10. saw a lot of upcycled container is hawaii.

kinda duh.
they really use them for everything, including housing. some just simply parked, others fitted out cleverly. some are sad, some are cool. most of the housing looks beat up there, with the salt air.

[BlackM]

11. Not my cup of tea...

Having been involved in 3 "shipping container home" projects (I work in architecture), I have to admit, shipping container homes are far more expensive and entail difficult design limitations than most people think. To me, after my experiences, they're just not worth it. Pre-fab makes far more sense.

Most of the images you see of container homes are either computer-generated renderings (and unrealistic) or very expensive designer homes. Of course you can buy converted containers ready made as job trailers or temporary offices, but that's not a design choice most people looking for homes want.

The container home in the video/link above could have been built for a fraction of the cost using conventional framing.

Even the "going green" claim is bogus. Steel containers aren't green to begin with, and repurposing them entails a lot of steel fabrication. Most require walls/ceilings to be furred out, so your still using framing lumber, and most climates will necessitate an insulating ceramic paint on the exterior which is toxic. The marine grade plywood flooring in containers is treated with arsenic and other pesticides to keep vermin out of the containers, which pose a health risk unless encapsulated, but most just remove it leaving a pile of toxic lumber heading for the landfill.

[loudsue]

13. Am I the only one that is sick to death of "Google ads"? popping up on every YouTube video

They don't just run ahead of the video now, they have to take up half the bottom of the screen while you're trying to watch.

Google is quickly becoming my lease favorite thing in the world. Well, next to Windows.

[blkmusclmachine]

14. Cool!