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Building Affordable Homes from Shipping Containers
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Building Affordable Homes from Shipping Containers
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" We're back in St. Petersburg Florida after several weeks doing projects in other parts of the country here in St. Pete we've got a pilot project going which is really experimenting with. Re using a re purpose sink idled shipping containers those big steel boxes that come on the ships that bring us everything from China. Many of them are sitting idle in many of our ports around the country. And here in St. Pete we've been looking at a pilot project that takes them we purposes them into. Very structurally sound housing that can withstand hurricane conditions. So far we've learned why there are so many of these steel shipping containers left in our country's ports and around the world. How some resourceful folks right here at Tampa armature works have begun adapting them into housing modules and using them in the residential building market to try to keep down the cost of conventional construction. We also got to know the neighborhood of -- Saint Petersburg has an amazing variety of housing styles. As people settled here from all over the country during the early twentieth century they brought their own ideas of a dream house with them. So these streets are lined with modest to medium sized bungalows. Mediterranean style homes. Prairie style cottages. To story Dutch colonials. And even some federal revivals. And of course you still see some true Florida bungalows that look right at home among the banana palms. Along north shore park and coffee pot by -- you can see grander versions of the same styles with beautiful views of the bay. Most of these neighborhoods were completely built out by the 1950s and sixty's so the character of the housing has really been well preserved. Bartlett park just south of downtown was built up as a working class retirement neighborhood in the 1920s. It's had a period of decline and a tough time with crime and poverty until a few years ago. When the city and a community development corporation called Saint Petersburg neighborhood housing services. Part of the neighborworks USA stepped in. With a Home Depot foundation and the federal alliance for safe homes they undertook this as a pilot project to see if it'll fly as a model for affordable and storm ready housing. Once a depressed area with few prospects Bartlett park is now seeing a dramatic revival as affordable housing and support for first time homebuyers. Creates the pride of place you need. To keep a neighborhood healthy and sustainable. The house you see here was trucked to the site in four sections or intermodal steel building units which is the fancy name for a steel shipping container that's been specially modified here at the Tampa armature works. To meet the needs of the plan. The ISV use we're crane onto the foundation and welded to steel plates that had been installed in the concrete. The conventional truss roof system was. Bolton for the containers right over their own steel rooms. And each truss is attached with special hardware to resist hurricane force uplift. The space in between the IS BUs has now been filled in with conventional construction as well. And next came the metal sheathing. Cutting the windows. Grinding. Priming."
" Stucco. "
" And a special super insulating ceramic coating called supertherm that was developed by this space administration for the shuttle. Here it's designed to stop the metal containers from conducting heat and keeping the building comfortable and efficient. On our last visit here we got to tour the interior with the architect and get a feel for the space that you can create with four shipping containers and a roof system. And I'm really looking forward to seeing how it's turned out in there but before we get started let's see how the project's been going."
