Straight Bussin, no cap fr fr.

[DeMac]

I've recently added a third shipping container on my property. I put down about 10" of limerock underneath, a pad 10ft x 39ft, then' leveled the container using a jack and cut railroad ties.

I added shelving to two of my containers. We can increase the usable volume and accessability tremendously if we add oversized shelving above the floor.

If you have time and resources, I strongly recommend spray foam for condensation. With the flat roof and cold weafher (im in florida, but i get this in the cold weeks) the drips collect homogenously at the top and litterally rain every night inside. As if i sprayed the ceiling while Im in the shower.

I didnt put lighting in my first one but the shelving is a win

Below, I repeated what I built the first time but the second round, I completed everything alone.

I had HD split full sheets of plywood, then used three 2x4s to support each shelf. Save the cut pieces to use as supports on the legs later.

I spent about $550 on wood and hardware. I believe the final yeild of usable sapce to be triple to quadruple the otherwise lost vertical voume AND the access is incomparable.

The 12 foot deep 'backroom' will be a laundry room soon. Tying all four legs across with a 2x4 assures they cant tip and adds overhead lighting support.

For the legs I bought 104-5/8" studs from HD. They fit inside the hi-cube perfectly.

Right now. I'm adding concrete footers to park Freddy D here.
22"x22"x120". I ordered the rebar cages, should be ready to pour in a couple weeks.

 

[Mr P]

From the "old" (1960s to 1990s) auto paint lingo, "thinner" was for lacquer paints, "reducer" was for enamels.

 

[nikitis]

From the "old" (1960s to 1990s) auto paint lingo, "thinner" was for lacquer paints, "reducer" was for enamels.

Never knew this. One of those generational things I guess. I'm no painter but i'm attempting painting lol.

I just put in some Home depot plastic shelving cause it was given to me so I'll use them. I have some wood ones already made ready to go in as well.

The shelves are just high enough to hold the plastic bins per shelf so it works out decently well without wasting height space.

I've been checking every day for condensation, and only this morning have I seen my first bit of it, A few droplets. I've looked into getting venting. Apparently there's only one company in the country selling vents for these shipping containers which is strangely odd there's not more competition. They wanted $220 per vent. Which is outrageous. I've looked up close at the build quality, and I can make them myself for free, It just has a plastic insert inside of a square metal enclosure. I can 3D Print the plastic part, and use left over sheet metal from the bus roof raise, and add a bug screen and be literally just as good as theirs. They are charging that much because they are the only game in town.

But People who have used them said it passively removed their condensation issue. Put one vent at the bottom on the opposite side of the sun in the mornings and afternoons, and one up top at the other sunny side end, and the temperature and pressure change will cause it to vent out passively taking the moisture with it. You can make it better with a fan.

The container has 4 small vents but they don't work very well, it's more of a heat release than anything else and not meant for moisture venting.

Using the existing vents you can improve them greatly with a 12v fan. Here's a 3D Printing project used for the vents:
Shipping Container Vents

 

[Crlefley]

@DeMac Funny, I know you from facebook, after seeing some of your container builds. Also, @nikitis and friends, I think it’s funny. I was laying in bed last night thinking, hmmm I should get a couple storage containers for my property. And look at all of us go! HAHA.

 

[nikitis]

@Crlefley @DeMac This site is shipcon.net now. We've taken it over.

 

[nikitis]

Update:

Sorry the build has taken a hold as I've been using the Bus to haul my house belongings over to the shipping container. We've moved about 80% of our home over to the 30 acres into the container.

I designed a new electronic timing device (which is complex enough it can be used to build a bomb. (P.S. I would never)). But it has 28 timing triggers built in which can kick on and turn on the modified 12v blower fan I installed inside of the shipping container to vent it for 2 minutes every hour to keep condensation from forming and drying out the container. Here is the whole system laid out on my truck for testing.

Here is a 3D printout I designed to hold the blower fan and mount magnetically to the sidewall of the shipping container.

As you can see it has a small AGM battery, which goes into the $9 charge controller, With solar also going into the charge controller to keep the battery charged, and then a load out on the charge controller which goes out to 2 items. One to the timing device, which then goes to the blower. The timing device executes the fan every hour for 2 minutes then stops. You can modify timings to your liking. Additionally, I added to the load line a 16ft strip of LED lights and added them to the roof of the shipping container. This is it lit up at night.

The lights run on a magnetic reed switch. When the door opens, the lights kick on, and shut off when the door is closed. No switch required. Brainless.

On the other load line, I have the fan and timer contraption. Here's the whole thing strung up and hanging from one of the hooks in the container:

I haven't cleaned up the wiring in this picture yet. This is just the testing phase and it's working perfectly.

The blower looks small but it moves a TON of air for it's size. My container has been dry every time I've gone into it since I installed this. The only issue now is there is a slight negative pressure on the fan, and I need to design and install a vent for the other side and on the lower side of the container to allow air to more freely flow and dry out the container. The only vents for sale for containers are $200 each!!! And all they are is a small 14in x 11in sheet metal with vented cuts in them and a bug screen. So I will design my own for free with the excess sheet metal I had left over from the roof raise. They will be just as good as the bought ones.

That's mostly it. The shipping container is mostly filling up, and about to run out of room, but we'll get it all in there.

Once we finish the moving, I plan to do the floor of my house to get it ready for renting, and some income, and will then go full bore on the bus build so we can move into it on the 30 acres. Till next time!

 

[Crlefley]

Dude, Thats a pretty fancy little fan vent system. You could almost make those mini 12v fan mounts for heat exchangers. I might need a couple of those for my hydronic system. LOL

 

[nikitis]

Well it's been over a month since I last posted on my own build thread. Here's a life update.

House is like 95% moved out. Keeping the other 5% to live in it while we renovate the house. We spent the last month packing and moving everything out just about minus our bed matress which is now on the floor, my work computer and a food storage shelf it sits on.

We're spending this month Renovating our whole 2 story house. Tackling everything in it. We also paid off the house. And I started a new job where I'm head of I.T. and get to build up a whole new infrastructure for a Large dental company who neglected their I.T. and are now experiencing daily outages. I aim to fix that for them which is why I was hired. So the job and renovation has been occupying my time. We've got most of the ceiling renovated, all the walls painted, base boards, holes patched, windows deep cleaned. cabinets lined with new liners, etc.

Next up is removing the downstairs floor and installing a vinyl hardwood looking floor. Then after that doing some outside window sill touch up and the house will look like new.

After the renovation this month, I'll be going Full bore ham on bus build. I'll be working my day job but every free second I'll be out on the bus as priority number 1 because we plan to live in it on our 30 acre property so it must be done. I won't be posting as much until the house reno is done, then I'll be updating this thread 2-3 times a day so stay tuned.

 

[Mr. Beefy]

That's awesome news all the way around, Nikitis! Truly happy for you, and can't help but admire your ability to push through adversity. I was wondering why you hadn't been as active recently. All good... you're doing what's important.

 

[nikitis]

Thanks Sir, yeah it's tough right now but after it's all done I'll be able to look back at it all and be like "We did it", while sipping on some lemonade on the 30 acre forest in a rocking chair!

Yesterday, I got a lot done with the house renovation. Finished all of the trim boards (Painting), cleaned a rusted vent, and painted it like new. (Saved $16). Installed a new shower bottom rubber skirt that prevents shower water from dripping out.

What's left:
-Paint the tub
-Replace bathroom ceiling fan. (This one is tough cause it's nailed from the inside of the attic and an extremely tight space to crawl into)
-Clean carpets upstairs in every room.
-Paint all of the doors. (They are in good shape, but the white on them are slightly off-white and don't match the new trim so now they gotta be painted....)
-Rip up carpets in downstairs, and install hardwood laminate.

That will finish the inside work, then for the outside:
-Clean the yard up
-Burn tons of yard waste (trees, branches, etc) in the fire pit.
-Clean up chicken coup area to move them to the new land
-Patch up all of the Window trim on the outside. Some of the sills have started to rot from age.
-Pressure wash the walkways / driveway

Then we can start building the bus out fully and then rent the house and move out. About another month and a half.

Also on a bus build note, I bought a ceiling fan for the house, and realized this thing can totally be adapted to work as a MaxxAir fan, is a smaller profile and could actually fit under a solar panel. I did not have room for a Maxxair fan on my roof and I did want fan ventilation so now I have a solution I will present soon which I've not yet seen anyone try yet. So more coming on that soon, but I do believe I have a working alternative to a Maxxair fan that is cheaper and works as good if not better than it.

 

[Mr. Beefy]

Based on our experiences thus far with a Maxx Fan, I think you're making a wise decision. Lots of people appear to have lots of problems with them, including us. The concept is great, but the build/component quality leaves a lot to be desired, IMO.

 

[Bjorkinman]

Man I’m in the exact same boat. Our house goes on the market march 13th and we’ve been working nonstop to get it ready. Painting vents too lol, pressure washing, painting the outside, resealing windows that should just be replaced and getting rid of pretty much everything. It seems like every day something sells on eBay. My son has had a burn barrel rolling for like two weeks. We also re-homed our chickens and tore down the coop. Built a new deck in December too. Ah!

 

[nikitis]

Based on our experiences thus far with a Maxx Fan, I think you're making a wise decision. Lots of people appear to have lots of problems with them, including us. The concept is great, but the build/component quality leaves a lot to be desired, IMO.

Yup, I just installed the fan in my bathroom, it's quiet, is a blower fan type, blows a TON of air, and I can use a small rounded vent hose to route to anywhere, don't even technically cut a hole in my roof, but even if I did, it wouldn't have to be such a huge square, just a small round hole with a rain cover over it. Could fit under the solar panels and not even see it.

Man I’m in the exact same boat. Our house goes on the market march 13th and we’ve been working nonstop to get it ready. Painting vents too lol, pressure washing, painting the outside, resealing windows that should just be replaced and getting rid of pretty much everything. It seems like every day something sells on eBay. My son has had a burn barrel rolling for like two weeks. We also re-homed our chickens and tore down the coop. Built a new deck in December too. Ah!

Yeah this move is killing us. My wife is feeling separated from me cause I'm in the house working from home and fixing up the house, while she's raising the kids doing home schooling at my mothers cause she doesn't want them to mess the house up again, and they will if they stayed here. They have no concept of cleaning up after themselves. The fan install above was extremely difficult as I'm a big guy and i had to crawl across rafters on my stomach in a confined area to even reach this thing. But it's in now and working great.

Don't mind the discoloration on the crown molding, it's actually a manufacturer defect that never got painted properly in that section.

Soon I'll be ripping up the floor of the downstairs and replacing carpet with vinyl hardwood flooring.

 

[nikitis]

Short update. Ripping out the floor.

Slab was pretty cold ripping up all the nail board on the sides. The amount of PL300 used is pithy. I used 3 times as much on my bus floor lol. I guess it doesn't take much, and the carpet did hold for 30 years.

 

[nikitis]

Short update, not quite bus related, but it is a step in our journey to move into the bus. We plan to move it here. We needed some rock for our house we're about to move out of and rent to make the garden beds ready for renters. I hadn't been down to our river in over a year. And we're getting the rock from our river. I forgot how gorgeous the old historical road was that I restored on the property leading to the river was. You can't make roads like this in a few decades. Takes about 100 years + to achieve such natural looking details. You can tell some of the trees on the sides are at least 100 years, and they are densely populated trees but also how lined up and close to each other are. Someone a long time ago in America planted those trees like this and probably didn't live long enough to see this in it's final form, but had the foresight to imagine it and start the project so long ago. Now I'm sharing that with you guys on the Internet as it deserves to be known.

Thought I'd share since this deserves to be seen. It's lined with poplar, birch, and some sort of silvery leave tree I don't know the name of but the leaves are amazing looking.