You want my trailer for....what??

[Mahnarch]

Container Condos - for the full article.

A 17-unit condominium built from shipping containers is being proposed for Detroit, on lots now vacant or containing burned-out homes. According to the Detroit Free Press, "The project would stack empty containers four high, cut in windows and doors, install plumbing, stairways and heating, and add amenities such as balconies and landscaped patios." Architect Steven Flum says that "it solves several problems at once, including the need to build environmentally sensitive buildings cheaply. The project is going to cost about $1.8 million, about 25% less than a normal condo project of similar quality would run."

For those not in the know - a 'shipping container' is a semi trailer.
A 'sea container' is a semi trailer specifically made to go from truck to ship and back to truck via a crane.
They also affix to train cars.

Now, I've heard of people emptying out old school buses and burying them underground for bomb shelters and cellars but.....Container Condos?

I don't know if these designers have stepped into a trailer lately, but, they're not really that big.
I mean, I can lay down in mine (not that I have....on purpose [my shoelace got caught on a skid]) and I can't touch my feet or head to either wall but, my arms aren't going to be fully up-stretched if I go for the win.

And, 60% in energy savings?
Pfft!! On a cold day it's probably about 50 degrees colder inside the trailer than it is out in the blizzard.

I'm all for recycling and saving energy (not for 'Global Warming' but, for keeping my people from being slaves to the monopoly utilities and energy barons) but, come on, people!!

This reminds me of people who poop in a bag when they're camping so that their poo poo doesn't contaminate the woods while 1,200 bears dump in those same woods every day.

Besides, when the rain starts coming down the beating of those drops on those steel roofs and siding......deafening.

[Phil]

The construction of a semi trailer is not as substantial as a school bus either. In many cases the sides flap to the breeze because they're thin sheet metal or fibreglass.

Even a heavy snow can buckle the roof if it's parked outside for a while and the snow builds up.

School busses are heavy guage metal and riveted or bolted in closer distances.

Also the bus sides have several folds and bends for strength. They are made for travel and the possibility of impact. A semi trailer is more of a way to create a closed box to transport cargo. And they're not as wide as most people think. Since teh wheels fit right under the trailer they don't even need flaired fenders.

Semi trailers are often placed on trains. There might be 50 trailers going from Pitsburgh to Chicago and 50 more going to LA. Local truckers can transport the trailers and their contents once they're delivered already loaded. So that's how the bulk can be moved fast. The train doing the same thing the ship would do to a lesser magnitude.

Turning semi trailer into a condo is an interesting concept. Come to think of it though trailer houses are not very wide either. Motorhomes have an extended side though most do anyway.
I don't think you can do that with the semi though.

[Blastgirl]

That's not my idea of elegant housing but hey. I'm not a designer.
Like open rooms and spaciousness. I am not a big enthusiast of closed quarters, but that's what you would end up with.

They're spacious enough for the concept though. They are fifty-three feet? The ceiling is probably eight feet or no higher because they have to make it under a bridge including the wheels. (there's probably times Mahnarch and his colleagues have to go around the block because it won't fit under.

But that's mostly the rig will fit under a twelve foot viaduct meaning that the trailer and wheels is less than twelve feet. So the ceiling probably is not more than eight feet.

Yeah, that does seem pretty strange. However some apartments are pretty small and they probably could do less "brick by brick" building by using the already built trailer to build a condo complex.

[Mahnarch]

Yeah, a typical loading dock is about 4ft and my rig's total height is 13'6".
And, it's a '26 place' trailer, so that makes it a 53 footer at 110 inches wide.
Even so, when I come to an overpass that's marked 13'8", I get nervous - especially when there's ice or snow on the road.

[As a side note: if the bridge is one of those 'arched' style constructs (lower at the ends - high in the middle), the sign shows the highest point. That's why, if a bridge is marked 13'8", a truck will try to hover over the center line as it goes under. Just so you know....and knowing is half the battle.]

Skids are...well, "normal" skids are 45in x 48in x 48in.
If you double stack them it's 8ft - and you get a few inches of clearance on the top.
Sometimes you get new, or dummy, shippers who make skids 5ft and try to shove them in double stacked - ending in disaster and a life lesson learned.

"My" roof is also fiberglass, as a certain company who shall remain nameless, learned one day when one of their guys tried to lift his hi-lo mast up too far and poked through it. (a brand new trailer, too! I just can't have nice things, you know!)

The fiberglass is nice because, during the day the sun lights up the inside and makes loading and unloading sooo much nicer than the steel topped coffins but, they don't hold much heat or weight, like Phil said with the snow build up.


***

There is one bridge in downtown Grand Rapids that a real pain.

Instead of being able to go under the 13'1" bridge, on a nice, wide and smooth road we have to go down another block to the 'Road that the County Forgot' (pot hole city - most of the asphalt has been ground into sand.....seriously...)and squeeze through and around fire hydrants and telephone poles that are waaaaayyy to close to the curbs....all to deliver 1 skid and then be on our way.

Sometimes I just want to call up that company and tell them to meet me down the road with their hi-lo.
I'll preempt the delivery by putting that skid right on the tail so they can pull it off from street level.

I hate driving in Grand Rapids.
Well, not all of GR, just the North West end.
All of the roads in that section were laid out when trucks were only 35ft long.

And, of course, there's always a four wheeler camping at all the intersections and won't move.

[Blastgirl]

Making trailers into condos still seems a little low budget.

I remember in National Geographic years ago there was a guy who had built a house from mortar and beer/soda cans. That seemed a little overboard with recycling though. ;D

And the guy actually lived there. And probably sold that house for a fortune.

[Kimm]

Sometimes its all about what people are able to sell as a novelty.

I certainly dont see former trailer truck trailers are elegant but if properly presented you never know. Look at jeans with holes in them from the factory that way. Who though that could be vogue someday?

[Classicblast]

It's a cheap solution. You use the trailer as a skeleton rather than build structures then you would stack them like legos.

[Blastgirl]

It wouldn't be any smaller than Classic's apartment he rented for the summer.

[Mahnarch]

Heh! I, sorta, redact my previous statement about them being too small.


This last Saturday I used one of our straight trucks to move my mum from her old house to mine and when her couch and coffee table was in the truck is looked a lot more roomy than I thought!

I'm not talking "Lake Cabin" but, if you could live in an Ice Shanty it'd be alright! lol.

I brought the straight truck thinking we'd fill it to the rear doors and the entire contents of her house didn't even reach the 3/4 mark!

Of course, she did give a lot of things away, beforehand.

[Phil]

I guess that depends. Some people need 3 tractor trailers to move and some people just need a F700 U Haul truck.

[Mahnarch]

I'm also forgetting that my family is notoriously short.

I'm 5'10" and I'm "the giant" in our family.
But, with my mum's couch and coffee table in my straight truck, we could've easily fit a thin entertainment center and her TV against the far wall and gamed on the PS2! (I'll wait for the PS3 to drop in price...)

Of course, the main problem would be 'heating'...
'Ventilaton' isn't a problem. Just open the roll-back door...heh!

[Phil]

See, you answered your own question. Step out and enjoy the beautiful steel veranda formerly known as a step bumper.

[Kimm]

Thats a funny thought. Im sure you mean the big metal bumper on a truck turned into a porch ;D