Did you buy an HPM Kit Home?

[lifeisruff]

Originally Posted by whtviper1

It's been the hottest in recorded history summer in Hawaii.

Living in a metal container may have.....flaws

Are you suggesting a wood container is cooler?
Maybe, thinking, thinking, thinking, maybe, but, under the metal "tin" roof of the 1975 era Ohana, it was 102* the other day ... but the pool thermometer was hung pretty close to the ceiling.

I am waiting for Hotcatz to chime in before I make up my mind about this unbearable heat though.

[hotzcatz]

Hi Ruff! <chiming in here, hear the bells? It's on the stroke of midnight so that's a lot of chiming. Time & strike with Westminster chimes.>

If you're gonna do a container dwelling, not sure if it's gonna become legal although there was someone working on that. Not a project I'd draw up, but I heard there was someone who would somewhere on the Puna side of Hilo somewhere.

You'd need the higher ceiling ones so there's enough headroom to become a legal dwelling and if you're gonna do the cube thing, get an insulated one. We had a 40' insulated one out at the farm which we were using for storage. Someone had fixed it up for living in at one point. The insulation did a lot to keep it cooler, but it was still a box with limited windows, dimensions and ventilation. We sold it for a bit more than what we paid for it, used containers do keep their value pretty well.


Have you got any vents up near the ceiling of your ohana, Ruff? Hot air rises, it's best to give it somewhere to go. Also, if the house is up on post and pier, a floor vent can bring in cooler air from under the house to cool off the interior. I lived in an old Hicks Home that had grills in the closet floors and louvered closet doors. Transom windows over the doors which could open and vents up in the ceiling. That house stayed pretty cool even during high summer. They'd also painted to roof blindingly white, that helped a lot, too.

[terracore]

Cheap containers are cheap because they don't have a valid engineer's certificate and are no longer considered seaworthy. Their only option is to scrap the steel or sell them for terrestrial uses. Keep this in mind before you buy a cheap mainland container and think you'll be able to ship it here. Sometimes you can get ones that still have a few months left on the engineer's certificate. It's important to ask these questions before buying thousands of pounds of steel that you may or may not be able to get to your destination. It is illegal for the barge companies to ship containers that aren't certified as seaworthy (this includes stacking other containers on top of it, etc) and they won't do it.

I've owned 40 and 20 foot shipping containers, both high cubes, and I still have the 20' shipping container. I've posted this many times before so if this sounds like a rerun just skip to the next post. I did exhaustive research into retrofitting them for human habitation. I'll skip to the end of the research: it costs more to overcome their limitations than it does to not use them in the first place. There are few exceptions: #1 If the containers are free or #2 You need an instant shelter and expediency is more important than finances. They DO make excellent storage "buildings", however I would never want to live in one. We use our 20' high cube for storing livestock and farm supplies/feed.

I haven't purchased or shopped for shipping containers on the BI in some time but when I did the cost difference between the 20 and 40' containers was negligible. Somebody (maybe it was Kimo) explained to me that 20' containers are rarely sent to the BI so they cut the 40' containers in half and add doors etc to them and by the time they are done they cost as much as the 40' containers do.

When I was moving to the BI I was bringing a 20' container worth of stuff with me so I called the barge company and asked if they had any for sale. In their entire fleet they only had TWO that were seaworthy and for sale, and I was lucky enough that one was in my port. So I was able to get my stuff put into that container with no obligation but the option to buy it after I got here. Again, as luck would have it we bought a property that necessitated a storage building so I exercised my option and bought the container. One of the best decisions I've ever made. I also considered the option of flipping the container if I didn't need it, but I wanted the container more than a little bit of profit.

And do not buy into the hype that shipping container homes are environmentally friendly because you are 'recycling'. The steel in one shipping container can be recycled into enough steel studs to build 14 similarly sized dwellings.

[lifeisruff]

Originally Posted by terracore

Cheap containers are cheap because they don't have a valid engineer's certificate and are no longer considered seaworthy. Their only option is to scrap the steel or sell them for terrestrial uses. Keep this in mind before you buy a cheap mainland container and think you'll be able to ship it here. Sometimes you can get ones that still have a few months left on the engineer's certificate. It's important to ask these questions before buying thousands of pounds of steel that you may or may not be able to get to your destination. It is illegal for the barge companies to ship containers that aren't certified as seaworthy (this includes stacking other containers on top of it, etc) and they won't do it.

I've owned 40 and 20 foot shipping containers, both high cubes, and I still have the 20' shipping container. I've posted this many times before so if this sounds like a rerun just skip to the next post. I did exhaustive research into retrofitting them for human habitation. I'll skip to the end of the research: it costs more to overcome their limitations than it does to not use them in the first place. There are few exceptions: #1 If the containers are free or #2 You need an instant shelter and expediency is more important than finances. They DO make excellent storage "buildings", however I would never want to live in one. We use our 20' high cube for storing livestock and farm supplies/feed.

I haven't purchased or shopped for shipping containers on the BI in some time but when I did the cost difference between the 20 and 40' containers was negligible. Somebody (maybe it was Kimo) explained to me that 20' containers are rarely sent to the BI so they cut the 40' containers in half and add doors etc to them and by the time they are done they cost as much as the 40' containers do.

When I was moving to the BI I was bringing a 20' container worth of stuff with me so I called the barge company and asked if they had any for sale. In their entire fleet they only had TWO that were seaworthy and for sale, and I was lucky enough that one was in my port. So I was able to get my stuff put into that container with no obligation but the option to buy it after I got here. Again, as luck would have it we bought a property that necessitated a storage building so I exercised my option and bought the container. One of the best decisions I've ever made. I also considered the option of flipping the container if I didn't need it, but I wanted the container more than a little bit of profit.

And do not buy into the hype that shipping container homes are environmentally friendly because you are 'recycling'. The steel in one shipping container can be recycled into enough steel studs to build 14 similarly sized dwellings.

Terracore you always come with the best first hand info.

And I enjoy your 5 paragraph essay style, RESPECT!

But, *IMHO* you are crazy to live in anything other than a shipping container home on BI.

Stack em 8 high if you want. Go long and connect em length ways. Add a couple on end for a watch tower, wind mobile or viewing platform high above the forest.

Put up any respectable tin roof structure for shade, water, elect over two 40'ers and you are set for life.
Want to remodel? just restack!
Tired of your spot? just move them.
Big volcanic vent decides to grow up out of da dirt like a giant pimple on a teenagers greasy pizza lookin face and start spewing SO2 gas and making a light that is so bright it lights up your bedroom like somebody left on the worlds biggest street light in your back yard ... sorry, I got carried away with my analogy.

Oh yes, shipping containers make a fine small home for BI...

[Blueskies3]

Thanks, Hotzcatz!

[hotzcatz]

You're welcome, Blueskies3, & welcome to City Data, as well!