Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

so how do they work so well for temporary office accommodation?
insulation can't be that expensive, for otherwise it would be uneconomic to ship bananas and other similar produce

Hilary always good to hear your views. You do have a bad attitude to your fellow human beings. You ought to have that checked out. More like you and the world will be a delight to live in.

Cynic. With moisture from kitchens /bathrooms etc moisture will condense on any cold steel surface. Insulated food containers are expensive. Block work/brick breathes and can absorb and expel the peaks and troughs of the daily moisture profile. Where they have tried stacked container housing damp and mild growth couldn't be controlled steel started rusting.
Container housing will not work in UK not easy to raise a mortgage. Other methods much better and massively cheaper. Temporary office works mainly because containers easy to move around.

insulated food containers - aka reefers - are not that expensive to build

must also have a chat with a company i know that makes such accommodation, including for m/e where conditions are probably tougher than for uk

Jimb how do you get mass immigration out of the EU/UK should step up and get off there lardy arse . I said the UK could take in 100k refugees no problem. Who said anything about mass immigration. Come on. You know we should do the right thing. We who have everything can give a little to people in a hopeless situation. Step up man where is your good will man.

Cynic. An insulated container after you have fitted windows, plasterboarded the walls etc will be about twice the price of a rendered insulated masonry structure the same size. You will not get a mortgage and the container looks like shite

just as a quick guide, taken off the net ......

Insulated or Thermal Containers
These containers are not refrigerated, instead they have insulated walls suitable for the transport of chilled or frozen goods and other temperature-sensitive products.

Shipping companies offer modifications and conversions of standard containers. Some insulated containers have, in fact, been converted from ordinary containers by modifying their interior walls.

Used insulated container price: £1,100.00

will - 2/3 months back, there was a fascinating prog about a guy who built the most fantastic home from standard 40' boxes, and at a fraction of the cost of a standard house of similar size

I like the way they build houses in Canada. They use wooden frames and panels, with a sort of tarred paper as a liner. I asked someone at a sort of county show who had a stand advertising housebuilding what happened to these tarred paper houses in a fire. He replied, "Oh, they burn real good".

try typing in "dream home built from 40' containers" and you'll (clearly) be amazed

Cynic. Block work cavity wall with door/windows openings will cost about £900 for a container sized structure. You still have to cut out windows/doors and your container is second hand . Your depreciation has to be factored in. Traditional structure will appreciate every year. In 10 years you will have a rusty hulk. I'll have a des res.

Cynic. That the house in Northern Ireland? He had to insert structural steel frame to stop the containers buckling when the openings were cut out. If the same house it could have been built much cheaper as wooden frame. Rest assured if container housing worked we would have them all over. There is a good reason masonry still rules on the UK.

will - i wouldn't want to try to teach you your profession, but even so, it sounds that you speak very much from prejudice and perhaps a shut mind rather than from true knowledge

hmm!
there is a dire shortage of cheap housing, and i would certainly question your costings
even assuming you can find the skilled tradesmen to do the work
surely container housing would be far quicker to construct etc etc .... and they would last an awful lot longer than 10 years

do you also pooh-pooh straw houses? ....... and yes i do know they require a larger footprint

btw, as "container housing" would be classified as "temporary structure" surely a lot less time-consuming and costly planning procedure to go through - eg could surely go on fallow farmland or brownfield sites

Manuel.

If you are so sure.

Buy a few containers and put them at the bottom of your garden and rent them out to some Polish immigrants.

You should make a bob or two.

Manuel.

If you are so sure.

Buy a few containers and put them at the bottom of your garden and rent them out to some Polish immigrants.

You should make a bob or two.

the concept of container homes has interested me for a long time
though i appreciate there must be some downsides, i would have thought that speed (and economy!) of construction might well outweigh ....... pre-fabs worked well, and i think their life-expectancy was <15 years, but in practice, many lasted 50+

=================

wikipedia article "prefabricated building" makes interesting reading

2 weeks ago I visited a small "village" built I think in late 60s.

It was known as "Tin Town" and had steel constructed walls etc..

They were supposed to be warm.

About 2 years later the occupants were complaining of dampness and rust etc.

In the village, all those houses had been replaced by bricks and mortar dwellings.

Surprised me.

But simpler solutions often have their flaws.

Cynic. Hear what you say, would be good if it could be made to work. 10years is too short to secure adequate income to cover costs. If you want cheaper short term housing I worked in the design team years ago on a project in London. Take one vacant industrial steel portal frame warehouse. Remove wall cladding fit Kingspan sipp panels( inner and outer steel liner sheets with150mm bonded insulation ) with fitted windows. Partition up space with sold wood laminated wall panels (small section timbers bonded into 4mx2.5m panels). Three storey structure 25 individual three bed units. Cheap as chips. Do not poo po straw bale houses. Local eco friendly neighbour is building one. First attempt tried it without a timber frame, bales fell apart as roof went on'. Last year suggested he buy a cheap steel frame eBay shed 40mx20m . Lent him a JCB to assemble it. Now he is building new bale walls under the steel roof. Bales braced back to steel frame. Works nice but planners want timber cladding so has to assemble timber frame for cladding support. He calls it a straw bale house. But it's really a timer frame with straw bales and steel frame supported roof. Looks good though.