I don't even know where to begin asking for help. We have purchased four 40ft shipping containers which we are planning to transform into a home. We have the containers, and we will soon have the welder here to weld them together. We thought it would be a simple matter of welding them together, cutting out interior walls, and finishing it out just like a standard house. Well, standard with modifications dealing with working with steel walls.

The welder's first concern was how we planned to support the frames after removing a lot of the interior walls. These units are set side by side, and the plan was to have as open a living space as possible with the resulting 40 x 32 ft shell. The only interior walls we want will be for the bedrooms and bathrooms. Our plan leaves an open space for kitchen/living/dining room of 32 x 26 ft.

So, my first question is how DO we cut out a majority of the steel walls and keep it structurally strong? Pillars every 20 feet? Extra top rails welded? Can leaving say 6 inches of the walls in place serve as beams to keep the shells from bucking or caving in?

My questions go on and on, but first I have to figure out how to cut out the walls and still maintain the structural integrity.

Any advice, websites, book suggestions are greatly appreciated!!