Container Home: Finishing Up the Earth Tube Cooling System - 25 October 2015

A lot was accomplished this last weekend. I finished connecting the culvert piping. I used cement for the large gaps and then covered that will aluminum tape. Finally, I cut small portions of the piping and put over the aluminum tape so that weight of the ground would be distributed evenly across the joints.

Next came filling in the trenches. We did this very slowly, while I was inside the trench to make sure the joints remained OK while the dirt slowly came down on them. Here is the final view after the trenches were filled in.

Here is a view of where the pipes enter the house.

Finally, a mound was built up to divert water flow over the winter around the house.

At the same time this took place, I had to take a tree down for the cable guy to install the high speed internet.

While the bulldozer was there, we went ahead and cleared out the rest of the land. The entire property is now cleared.

The next thing was performing the first test of the cooling system. I placed an 11,000 BTU heater behind a fan blowing directly into the air intake. I set both the fan and heater to maximum. I then walked over to the air outlet pipe and felt cool air coming out. This was most exciting!!

Finally, here is a picture of the inside. I got high speed internet installed this last weekend, so now I have connectivity to the outside world. This will be the only utility the house will be connected to. The window is installed behind the water totes in the back left. The sliding door will be installed next spring. Over the winter, I am going to build out the frame for the sliding door and the second window. I am also going to weld the 4"x2"x0.25" beams every four feet down the wall on the right and the wall to the back. This will reinforce the walls when they are buried to keep the dirt from pushing the walls in. The tires that will be placed outside the wall will also help to hold back the dirt. The dirt pushes with 2,300 pounds per square foot of force. The other thing I plan to do over the winter is to install the subflooring. The container on the right is slightly lower, so I will have to shimmy the subflooring slightly.

This was the last time that I will be over to work on the house this year. I have two speaking engagements and my wife and I have three vacations the rest of the year. I will be returning this coming January.

Read More

Container Home: Telephone Pole Installation - 18 October 2015

This weekend, we got the telephone pole installed. Since there will be no electric utility hookup, I had to install my own pole, or pay roughly $2,000 to have one installed. Luckily, my neighbor had a pole laying around and brought it down and gave it to me. He also helped me install it by bringing his backhoe down. He dug a 4 foot hole in the ground using an 18 inch scoop.

Next, we picked up the pole and put it over the hole as I guided the pole to the deepest part of the hole.

Once we got it centered in the hole, we started filling the hole up with rocks and tamping them down. We finally filled the rest up with dirt.

Read More

Container Home: Earth Tube Cooling Installation - 11 October 2015

This weekend, I started on the earth tube cooling system. I purchased 12 inch culverts. There is 85 feet for the air to travel through and cool down. We dug it 6 feet down. 

Here is a pic of starting the dig.

Here is after the first trench was dug and we initially laid the piping in place as a guide for the other side. 

This is standing inside the trench.

Here is a pic of the trenches after they were dug out and connected.

Next, I drilled pilot holes in the wall as a guide to cut out the steel for the plasma cutter.

After I cut out the wall, I was able to fit the piping through the hole.

Here is what the pipes now look like as one has air going out and the other has air coming in.

I have sealed around the cuts for now. I still have to connect the U end of it. At current, I covered the end with trash bags so water cannot come in on the one day this week which rain is supposed to move in.

The other thing that was done was to clear the lot. Here is a picture of the back showing what it looks like now. I still need to install the french door and the other window. I have also changed what I plan to do to cover the container look. I was originally going to use stucco, but ran across stone veneer that will give the outside a great look. Another change to the design will be the deck. Now that this is cleared off, the part which we were going to build a deck is not as sloped as I originally thought. Instead, we are going to build a large paver patio. It will be much easier to maintain than a deck. Plus, there is not the fire hazard with an open fireplace we want out there. 

Read More

Container Home: Coal Tar Epoxy Application - 07 October 2015

I took the past two weekdays off of work to come over and work on applying the coal tar epoxy to the end of the container where the geothermal cooling pipes will be run out of. The wall had to first be completely free of all rust. I did this by using a wire brush on my angle grinder. This worked perfectly and it was super-fast. I learned quickly how fast the brush will wear down, but once it has worn down, the brush stops all wear and is solid at taking off the rust. The coal tar epoxy is considered one of the best long term sealants. An acquaintance of mine told me about his dad who treats tanks for the oil industry. That is where I learned about this epoxy. It is not cheap at $100 per gallon. One gallon will treat about 160 square feet.

Now that the walls are treated with the epoxy, I am now ready to begin the installation of the geothermal cooling system. 

Read More

Container Home: Installing First Window - 04 October 2015

This is the second weekend in a row in which it has rained, thereby leaving me unable to apply the coal tar epoxy to the exterior wall. In order to continue with the build, I decided to go ahead and install the first window. I took my time doing this because of several reasons. First and foremost is that once the wall is cut out, I would not want to have to go back and make a change. I had to cordon off the bedroom part and decide what went where. We want a fireplace in the bedroom and after researching those early Saturday morning, I decided on an ethanol fireplace that will hang in the corner. Once I got that decision made, I was able to mark off where the window was going to go and proceed with cutting out the wall. Here are pics I took of it as it progressed. I used bedliner paint for coating the steel since it is very durable. I have also changed a part of the window design as I went through this. I am not going to tell much more on that since I am filing for a patent for the window frame design. What you see here is just a portion of the window frame design. I still have one more window to install along with the french door. I am going to proceed with the other window, but the french door will have to wait until I get the subfloor laid so that I can then gauge how to install it so it is flush with the flooring.

Here is the first part of cutting out the steel using my plasma cutter.

Here is after the panel was removed.

Here is a final view of the window from inside.

Here is a view from the outside. I am not concerned about the black paint getting on the rest of the container as it is going to be covered with cement backerboard and then stucco, which will conceal both the steel container walls and the paint.

Read More

Container Home: Welded Containers Together - 20 September 2015

This weekend, I welded the steel plate over the seal between the two containers. The plate will protect the seal in the event a limb falls on it and it also provides a second barrier to stop water from coming in. I also painted the plate with undercoating paint and then sealed the edges with contractor caulk.

I also got the section between the two container where the doors are sealed. I put backer bars behind it and then caulked. This has now completed the sealing process between the two containers.

The next part I got completed was clearing out the land to the right. This is going to be where the 10 inch pipes will be buried 10 feet into the ground. As you can see in the picture, I have marked the two paths where the 24 inch wide trenches will be dug out. The trenches will be 40 feet long and connected at the end to make it in the shape of a U. This will provide 85 feet of space to circulate air through in order to cool it. At 10 feet down, the temperature will be a consistent 58 degrees all year. The piping will be galvanized steel so that it can easily conduct temperature.

Finally, I have secured an entire shipment of expended tires. I was originally going to install gabion baskets all the way around the buried portions of the containers. In thinking over the weekend, it occurred to me that tires could be used instead. The ends will still be gabion baskets for both safety and aesthetic values. The tires will be filled with gravel and stacked on top of each other. This will provide both bracing against the earth and drainage in the event of flooding. The tires will stop at roughly 1-2 feet below the top. They will then be covered over with dirt to be flush with the top of the containers. This keeps the tires from being exposed and vulnerable to fire.

Read More

Container Home: Vertical Support Beams in Place - 13 September 2015

I finally made it back to work on the house after three weeks off. I got the vertical support beams welded in place. This is such a relief because it was the most dangerous part of the entire project. Getting that horizontal beam up to the ceiling was a challenge unto itself, but also was scary to step underneath it as it was hanging without vertical beams underneath. I knew it had been secured to the ceiling by welds and the 1,000 pound straps were more than ample to support it, but the scary part was still there. I cut the vertical beams to snugly fit in place. I then coated the sides of the beam that I will never see again with the truck undercoating after sandblasting those sides down. I will be getting back to the rest of the beam later. You can see in the pic below where I placed the plate at the bottom and the vertical beam up the wall.

Here is the final picture of the vertical beams in place after I welded the beams together and to the floor plate. The floor place is there to distribute the weight across the floor. I have to say that I was scared when I went to pull the temporary 4x4's out. I hooked a chain around them and then attached that to my Jeep to pull them out. I didn't want to be inside just in case I had not done something right. Both got pulled out and it was rock solid. I even went on the roof and jumped around. The beams never moved a bit. Here is the final view of the support beams now in place. The next part is going to be sandblasting the outside and coating it with paint so the two sides can be buried.

Read More

Container Home: Installing Ceiling Supports - 22 August 2015

Here is putting the i-beam in place across the ceiling. The i-beam is necessary to support this end. We did not want any posts inside the living room, so we are using the i-beam. This was a very tedious process that required a lot of work. I first had to cut the i-beam down, which took quite a while. The i-beam is 8" with 5" flanges. Once I got the i-beam cut, the next thing was getting it hoisted up to the ceiling. I installed two 4x4s as temporary supports so the ceiling would not sag. The i-beam is close to 400 pounds. I bought 4 pulleys to setup a pulley system and used a steel cable.

I connected the cable to a d-ring so my Jeep could be used to hoist the beam up.

As I was hoisting the beam up, I had to stop every few inches. It would begin to sag on one side. The beam was cut perfectly to fit in between the wall grooves. When it sagged too much, one end would come out and then the beam dropped.

Once I got it up to this point, I had to detach the steel cable and chain because it could not go any further. I secured the two ends with 700 pound straps, along with an additional 400 pound strap. I removed the chain and cable and then put the cable underneath so it could be hoisted the final 18 inches to the ceiling.

Once I got the beam hoisted to the ceiling, I welded it directly to the main container supports on both ends and the center.

This took so much time, that the only other part I finished were fabricating the floor plates. Even though it is not welded in place, I left the straps secured to it and used a come along to secure the steel cable just to make sure it remains secure. When I go back in three weeks, I will install the vertical support beams on both ends. This is by far the most dangerous part of the entire project.

Read More

Container Home: Walls Completely Cut Out - 08 August 2015

Here is the latest picture of the inside as I have cut out the inner walls and welded the support beams in the back. The 4x4s are temporary until I can get a welder out there to cut and weld the 8" I-Beam to the ceiling along with the two vertical support beams on either end of it to support the beam. My welder is not powerful enough and although my plasma cutter is, the generator only produces 36 amps and I need 50 amps to cut the beam. This is also a critical structural beam that I think a pro needs to help me put in place.

We have decided once the support beam is in place, we will begin building out the bedroom and bathroom. We will also put in place the gabion baskets on the outside to bury the bedroom/bathroom portions. Of course before we put the baskets in place and bury it, we will apply truck bed liner to the external walls of the containers, along with a urethane foam coating for rust prevention. There will also be a drainage pipe at the bottom, layered with sewage rock and then dirt. Once this is complete, we are going to pause for a little while to see how efficient the cooling of the inside it with it being buried on two sides before we progress with the living room.

Read More

Container Home: Cutting out the Center walls - 01 August 2015

Once those support beams were in place, I began cutting out the inner walls from both containers. This portion will be the master bedroom and bathroom, which will be 13'x16'.

For the water supply, we will be using two 275 gallon totes. These are FDA grade totes used in the food industry. These will be buried 10 feet so they will be immune to freezing. They will be replenished with water through a rain water collection system that will be carbon filtered. There will be a DC pump to pump the water into the home.

This is the 8" I-Beam that will be welded to the ceiling with two vertical I-Beam supports. I took this picture of it as we were taking it off of the roof rack of my Jeep to give a perspective of its size. It weighs 345 pounds.

Read More

Container Home: Installing Vertical Supports - 18 July 2015

Once I got that sealed, I cut a small portion of the inner walls out so that I could weld the two vertical support beams in place. These are 2"x2"x.25" beams that can support up to 2.5 tons of weight.

Read More

Container Home: Lining up the containers - 11 July 2015

When I came back to begin work on connecting the containers together, I realized we had not completely pulled the container together. Luckily, I had built a very strong bumper for me Jeep. I connected a 6 ton steel cable to the d-ring and then ran that around a tree in the back and finally up to the shipping container, with a 5 ton come-along connected. The Jeep was braced up against that tree to keep it from being pulled down. The come-along pulled the container right in place. I then proceeded to weld the joints of the containers together.

I ended up having to do the same thing to the other end of the container.

Once I finished pulling the container together and welding them, I then welded them to the steel beams I had inlaid into the foundation.

There is a crevice in between the containers that has to be filled. I used backer rods to fill it in and allow for me to use free flowing contractor calk to seal the space.

Read More

Container Home: Delivering the Second Shipping Container - 13 June 2015

We had the second container delivered and this one was tricky to get in place. We had to use the scoop and get some dirt out of the way on the left corner there so the container could be pulled into place.

Here is after we got the second shipping container moved into place. Again, we used a backhoe.

Read More

Container Home: Delivering the First Shipping Container - 16 May 2015

Here is a picture of the first container being delivered.

This was right after the container was slowly lowered down to the slab.

After the container got put partially in place on the slab, we used a backhoe to pull it into place.

Here is a video I took as it was being pulled into place.

Here is a picture after we pulled the first shipping container into place using a backhoe. Yes, a standard backhoe is powerful enough to move 10,000 pounds with the scoop. I was surprised they have that much power, but also thankful that I didn't have to get a crane in there.

Here is a picture from the end of the first container in position.

This same day, we got a couple of more trees pushed over and the driveway formed. so that it circles around the trees in the center. In the end, I am going to have a concrete driveway laid. I ride motorcycles and know how dangerous gravel is to them.

Read More