I have to ask, & I don't mean to imply that you've been doing anything dodgy, but how does one end up having a couple of containers lying around?
You're trying to get into a Guardian travel supplement article... ;-)
OK, I'm not the only one to have made that assumption. Thanks.
You and me, both.
Well, that is interesting. Sorry for doubting you. Still, I guess it makes your job both easier and harder now.
Weirdly, I've just caught an old "history detectives", where they investigated a house that was built from an old tramcar - they sold them off in Denver in the 50s for $100 a pop.
What does an old container cost? And do containers really make a great basis for building a home?
That's very generous, sorry for being grumpy.
Well I now understand why buried containers for underground storage are a bad idea.
Doesn't everyone have a few lying around somewhere?
GB wrote: [snip]
£750 for a 20ft container when I bought mine. Prices have gone up with the price of scrap so could be £1500 by now.Make your own mind up.
Phew, that's cheap!
I was thinking of practical things, like what sort of foundations you need?
But that place could be chosen so that it was impractical to reach it afterwards.
Chris
In theory, as far as the structure goes, a deep concrete pad under each corner, with the appropriate fastener on it. If the pads stick out of the ground enough, you could get easy access underneath for access to the services, which would all freeze nicely in the cold weather. The main problem is keeping vermin out of the space netween the floor and ground level, and preventing said vermin from gnawing through the floor to get in..
Unless you've got a *major* hoarding problem, or very large windows and doors. you'd not get anywhere near the maximum loading for these things suported at each corner. You may need to also use the fastening points in the centre of a forty footer as extra support if you have either problem.
Don't forget it's got to (a) receive both GPS and cellphone signals and (b) be reachable for maintenance, so putting it inside a welded metal structure isn't a good idea, if only because the aerials would need to protrude outside the body.
The best solution would be to make it part of the engine control gear, so that removing it or disabling it prevents the engine starting, while also allowing remote disabling of the engine by the owner. Sooner or later, it would have to come out of the faraday cage within range of a cellphone mast, the SMS would then get delivered, and the system delivery notification could show an area to start searching.
There are, of course, ways round this, but any security system is only there to make it harder to steal your car than the one next to it in the car park.
It is possible to make impressive structures with containers:
looks like there could be a shortage of them. :-)
Out of idle interest alone, anyone know how much a new container would cost? Obviously much more than an end-of-life expired box, but how much more?
The manufacturer's video I linked said $4000 to $4500 for a 20' in the comments.
There is good evidence that making cars too hard to steal simply increases the number of crimes against the person, to get the keys.
Colin Bignell
As did the British rail companies from Victorian times onwards. Many were situated on rural sites by their new owners as holiday homes and even permanent accomodation. My Gran owned one as a weekender that had been sited in a small glen on what later became the outskirts of East Kilbride, although the site was originally miles from anywhere. I only have the dimmest childhood memories of it, spending weekends there for a couple of years before it was sold off or scrapped, and I suspect that was because of the establishment of the New Town boundaries. I recall what was a fairly elegant carriage, likely Edwardian, still fitted out with all kinds of railway paraphenalia, such as would give collectors nowadays conniptions, but back then was just old tat picked up cheaply.
According to the radio this morning, the thief needs access to the car before using his computer to start it. So if it were locked, he'd have to break in.
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