Bob closes season two of Bob Vila with a return visit to the Bartlett Park container-built homes in St. Petersburg, Florida. These affordable houses are serving as models for a pilot program initiated by the St. Petersburg Neighborhood Housing Services, the Home Depot Foundation, and the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes. Their goal is to build safe, affordable housing that will draw first-time homeowners and bring pride-of-place to neighborhoods like Bartlett Park that need neighborhood revitalization. Bob recaps the shipping container story and how Tampa Armature Works has adapted these abandoned steel containers to create housing modules. Bob looks at the rich architectural history of St. Petersburg, and the development of its waterfront parks and neighborhoods. He also reviews the construction progress to date and the innovative way four intermodal steel building units, or ISBU’s, were joined together with a block foundation, traditional framing, and a truss roof to create a storm-ready, four-bedroom home that looks like any traditional Florida stucco home from the exterior. Architect Steve Armstrong and Project Manager Ray Price join Bob to review the insulating ceramic coating that was used to paint the exterior and protect it from heat buildup. They also review the innovative finishes and design features that helped them transition the exterior surfaces from corrugated metal siding to sheet-metal panels to concrete block to wood with a unified finish. Lessons learned on this first home will be applied on its sister house, which is already under construction. General Contractor Buba Barrow joins Bob for a tour of the finish work and interior layout, staring on the tiled front porch, moving through the open-plan family, kitchen, and dining spaces, and finishing with the four bedrooms that are faced in mold-resistant wallboard and painted with an orange-peel textured finish. The kitchen is complete with oak cabinets, laminate counters, a bottom-freezer/upper refrigerator unit and an energy-efficient dual-drawer dishwasher. Bob closes the show with David Cross, formerly of Tampa Armature Works and now with SG Blocks, who tells him about the more than 500 inquiries he has received about building with converted shipping containers and plans for future projects that include multi-use housing developments, single-family homes, and military installations.
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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 ... Watch video and view full description
The front of the home is complete and looks like the exterior of any home in the American suburbs. Bob talks with Ray Price, the project manager for St. Petersburg ... Watch video and view full description
Bob talks with Buba Barrow, the general contractor for the project, about finishing touches being added to the home. On the front porch, a non-slip tile is being installed. Because ... Watch video and view full description
The finishing touches are being added to the interior of the home in St Petersburg. The appliances are being delivered and installed. The home features an open plan with a ... Watch video and view full description
Because this is an affordable house, most of the items in the kitchen were builder-supplied. The kitchen features oak cabinets and laminated countertops. With affordable homes, it's important to acquire ... Watch video and view full description
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. ... Watch video and view full description
Appliances • Amana - 19 cu. ft. refrigerator with EasyFreezer pull-out drawer with EasyClose drawer track system Carpentry, Construction & Materials • Barrow Construction - home building and general contracting services • Georgia-Pacific - DensArmor fiberglass-faced inorganic wallboard • SG Blocks - a container based sustainable building system • Simpson Strongties - building safer structures with bolts, clips, straps, plates, tie-downs, and fasteners • Tampa Armature Works - converting steel shipping containers into building units Painting & Wallpapering • SuperTherm - insulating ceramic paints and coatings Real Estate • Home Depot Foundation - building affordable homes and strong communities through grants and partnership to non-profit organizations • NeighborWorks - a non-profit network improving communities and creating opportunities for home ownership since 1978 • St. Petersburg Neighborhood Housing Services - home ownership services and education for low-income, first-time homebuyers
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