View ChannelsFeatured: Finance
View ShowroomsFeatured: Radiantec - Radiant Solar Heating

BobVila.com

Home

Adding a New Non-Weight-Bearing Steel Wall to the Container House

Bob talks to Derek Mercer and Delwin Carter of Tampa Armature Works about how to treat the steel exterior of the building to make it look more like a conventional house. The steel panel is a 16-gauge sheet metal which has been cut and grinded to fit the house. A recess has been cut into the sheets in place so the new sheet fits flush against the structure. Holes have been cut into the sheet at regular intervals which will serve as weld plugs through which the sheet can be secured to horizontal steel strips on the other side. A MIG welder secures the sheet through the weld holes, reducing the amount of vibration during high winds and preventing buckling. Then stitch welding is done on the inside. Then a grinder is applied so the wells will not be visible when the surface is finished. A plasma cutter is used to cut a window opening into the steel. In effect, a steel partition has been installed, creating a new outside wall and porch, while the original shipping container still provides structural integrity to the home.

Get Adobe Flash Player to see this content.

Chapters from this episode

Design Options for Container-Built Homes Now Playing

Design Options for Container-Built Homes

Layout for a Container-Built Home Now Playing

Layout for a Container-Built Home

Creating a Stucco Surface Now Playing

Creating a Stucco Surface

Building a Hurricane-Resistant Home Now Playing

Building a Hurricane-Resistant Home

Adding a New Non-Weight-Bearing Steel Wall to the Container House Now Playing

Adding a New Non-Weight-Bearing Steel Wall to the Container House

Building Progress on the Converted Shipping Container Home Now Playing

Building Progress on the Converted Shipping Container Home

Clip Transcript For:

Adding a New Non-Weight-Bearing Steel Wall to the Container House

computer-generated transcript - may not be 100% accurate

" The space in between the IS BUs is being filled in with conventional framing and before we go -- to look at that let's find out. How they treat these steel exterior of the building to make him look more like a conventional house. OK so Derek and no winner of the metal fabricator that are evaluating. That are doing this part of the installation. Derek what kind of steel is this. Engaged Gelman -- sheet metal OK and it's been precisely cut and you had to grind it right. Yeah -- that we would this took a plasma -- or take a grounder take the birds off. Get it to fit. OK and then the ones that are already in place I notice there's some sort of a recess -- went. I mean what do you call that it was had to -- a break this is just panels recess and these scandal. Overlap have would have a backing is pricey -- and put it up don't let us slow you down. But that break means that when you put it up against it. It's off flush and it's from."

" So Derek what are all the little holes swore that I am willing to -- we've got. Seven gauge backing strips in the wall seven gauge steel horizontal strip will reduce pulled alone keep any vibration out wall -- mall where else can look. All right well we'll watch you weld them won't talk over it."

" So first the guys are using a mig welder to take care while the plug -- putting them every twelve inches. And this is required so that when this sheet steel if you will is up there it's really solid and if we've got high winds you don't have any kind of buckling noises. Then the stitch welding is done on the inside and after all that they take a grinder and smooth all of these welds over so that when the finishes are applied. -- They're using a plasma cutter to essentially. Cut a big square hole in here where we'll be installing a window. Now the plasma cutter is a real interest being method of concentrating the heat. While blowing to move away the steel that's being burned away temperatures they can approximate 50000 degrees."

" So. This we used a grinder to go over all the edges of these steel sheets. To make sure that they're going to be. Smoothed out enough so that they can be installed. Properly. And then the reason for welding them along all the vertical and horizontal steel members is to make sure that once the wall is made up. It doesn't buckle in a windstorm so that it sounds good and solid and doesn't make any noise. And then of course what we've just been watching is using the plasma cutter to create a window opening. Now the reason for that is that here we are in. What is essentially a new steel partition the original shipping container ended here. And this is possibly where the doors were but anyway we still have the corners of the shipping containers. Which provide structural integrity to the whole thing and now we've got a new outside wall and we've got a front porch and we're on our way to getting a finished house."

[-]

More Videos »Related Videos

Building Progress on the Converted Shipping Container Home

Bob Vila recaps the construction done so far of a storm resistant home in St Petersburg, Florida, where abandoned shipping containers have been converted to modules for affordable housing. Bob stresses the importance of building storm ready homes in Florida, where hurricanes are an annual problem. Bob recounts how America has become a nation that imports more goods than it exports, leading to an oversupply of abandoned shipping containers. Technology has been used to convert these steel boxes into modules for building homes. Bob recounts how Bartlett Park in St Petersburg is undergoing a revitalization, leading to a need for affordable housing for first-time homebuyers. This project demonstrates how shipping containers can be converted for building affordable, storm-ready homes. This house uses four steel sections, called Intermodal Steel Building Units (ISBU's), that were trucked to the site. The units were specially modified at Tampa Armature Works, lowered into place, and welded onto plates installed in the concrete foundation. The conventional truss roof system was bolted to the containers. The roof is secured with special hardware recommended by FLASH (Federal Alliance for Safe Homes) to resist hurricane-force uplift.

Converting Steel Shipping Containers to Housing

Bob talks about the vast number of steel shipping containers abandoned in America's ports. Because America is no longer an exporting nation, only an importing nation, it is too expensive to return the 700,000 containers clogging American ports. Tampa Armature Works (TAW) converts these containers to intermodal steel building units (ISBU's) for use by the military and as durable, affordable installations throughout the world. David Cross of TAW explains how they have developed a skeletal frame system that brings the container down to its most elemental structural elements from which anything can be built. Cross shows Bob "the world's largest toolbox," which is an ISBU converted into a series of bins, cargo holds, and roll doors that can organize, store, and protect all kinds of tools, gear, and equipment in a military setting. Once modified, these containers are perfect as storm-ready housing units, or "container homes", with corrugated sides, a bottom steel channel and flat-bar toprail functioning together like a steel I-beam. Inside, 1 1/8-inch marine-grade Apitone flooring is a huge and standard benefit in every ISBU. TAW can cut the openings for doors and windows, finish the exterior with heavy gauge steel, wrap it in a sheet-metal skin, spray it with SuperTherm insulative ceramic coating, and deliver it for $40 to $45 per square foot. The foundation and roof are then supplied on site by the contractor. With 17 million of these containers in circulation world-wide, this is a salvage, recycling, and green business initiative that can create heavy-gauge steel, hurricane-resistant housing fast and for about the same dollars as a light-gauge steel home. Cross and TAW are just looking for consumers willing to jump on board with the technology and opportunities ISBU's present.

Building Affordable Homes from Shipping Containers

Bob is in St. Petersburg, Florida, to tour a finished affordable home after completing projects in other parts of the country. The St. Petersburg container-built homes are part of a pilot project involving the use of idle steel shipping containers converted for use as housing units. The goal of the program is to create structurally sound homes that can withstand hurricane conditions. St. Petersburg contains an amazing variety of home styles that developed as people settled from all over the country during the early 20th century. The streets are lined with modest to medium-sized bungalows, Mediterranean-style homes, prarie-style cottages, two-story Dutch Colonials, and some Federal revivals to go with the true Florida bungalows. Along North Shore Park and Coffee Pot Bayou there are grander versions of the same styles. Most of these developments were built out during the 50s and 60s and the character of the housing has been well preserved. Bartlett Park, just south of downtown, was built as a working class retirement neighborhood in the 1920s. It has had a period of decline and problems with crime and poverty until a few years ago when the city and St. Petersburg Neighborhood Housing Services took action. With the Home Depot Foundation and the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes, the houses were adopted as pilot homes to see if it is feasible to use this technology to build affordable and storm-ready housing. Bartlett Park was once a depressed neighborhood, but is now experiencing a dramatic revival. Affordable housing and support for first-time home buyers is creating the "pride of place" needed to keep a neighborhood healthy and sustainable. This house was trucked onto the site in four sections, or "intermodal steel building units." These ISBU's are modified to meet the needs of the plan. The ISBU's were craned onto the foundation and welded to steel plates installed in the concrete. The conventional truss roof system was bolted to the containers. Each truss is attached with special hardware to resist hurricane-force uplift. The space between the ISBU's has been filled in with conventional construction. Steel sheathing was put in place, windows were cut, and the edges of the steel were ground down. The exterior walls were primed before stucco with a super-insulating coating called SuperTherm. SuperTherm prevents the walls from conducting heat, keeping the building comfortable and energy-efficient. On the last visit here, Bob talked with the architect for the project to get a feel for the space.

The Future of Building with Steel Shipping Containers

Bob talks with David Cross formerly of Tampa Armature Works, now of S G BLocks, the company that has taken these abandoned shipping containers and converted them into home-building units. This building technology has a bright future. Since the units first aired on the show, Cross has received well over 500 inquiries about building with ISBU's. There are two more orders in production for military systems in the Caribbean islands, the Redondo Beach house in California, and a possible 600 unit development in southern California. These units are all intended to be affordable. The construction being planned is intended for multi-family and stand-alone housing.