This 2008 project, in Boone, North Carolina, was considered a prototype for the company. They wanted to test out everything you might want in a house and see how it worked when using shipping containers as the basic structure. It is a one bedroom, one bath house with a garage underneath large enough for 2 cars.
It was made from 2 40-foot containers, cut in half and stacked. They bought containers sold as wind and water resistent. They chose the 40-foot containers because they have a greater interior height (9' 6") than 20-foot containers (8').
The containers are attached to 3-foot deep concrete piers that serve as the foundation for the structure. The boxes were welded together, and spray foam insulation was used to fill the gap between the upper and lower levels, and to insulate the living space. A roof was added for aesthetic purposes, but they chose to leave the exterior alone (other than painting it) so that the structure of the containers could be seen. Sheet rock was installed in the ceiling of the garage to provide a 2 hour fire separation, because they were unable to determine what the fire rating of Corten steel was, in terms of hours.
Flooring could not be nailed down, but rather than glue it, they laid down foil insulative wrap, two subfloors (one for leveling), and then bamboo flooring as the finish floor. The interior walls were covered with blue board and then finish material; originally, they wanted to leave the metal exposed, to show off the structure of the containers, but that allowed too much cold into the interior. Welding the cut ends of the boxes back up was time-consuming, so (according to the blog) they plan to not cut the ends off containers in the future.
The living area is accessed via an exterior wooden stair, which also creates a small deck outside the front door and a roof over the garage entry.
Cost was about $100/sf; each container cost around $2,600.
Time for construction: News sources claim 40 days after breaking ground; reading the blog, it looks more like 3 months.
Challenges: Permitting. This was a new type of structure for the town they were building in, so new code had to be established. It took several months for them to gather enough information to even begin permitting, and the process involved not just the Town of Boone, but the North Caroline Department of Insurance as well.
Benefits: Low cost per square foot, which they expected to decrease in future projects (larger project equals better cost; cost of their first project was also partially due to the learning curve). Resistent to water and wind. Quick to construct.
Potential drawbacks to this design: Built for a specific site; required foundation. Not moveable once completed.
The company has gone on to complete a variety of other projects, including larger houses, using containers. They have a nice basic FAQ about building homes out of containers here: http://www.dwellbox.com/faq.html
Sources:
http://www.highcountrypress.com/weekly/2008/10-16-08/thinking_outside_th...
http://www.highcountrypress.com/weekly/2009/01-08-09/shelter_highlights_...
http://dwellbox.com, especially their blog: http://dwellbox.com/dwellblog
