Layout for a Container-Built Home

Project: Storm-Ready Housing, Episode 3, Part 3



The St. Petersburg container home is roofed and ready for exterior finishes. The Tampa Armature Works (TAW) crew completes the new front wall by welding a piece of 16-gauge sheet metal to steel framing strips, then by cutting a window opening with a plasma torch. Surface burrs, voids, and seams are repaired with a metal filler. After the crew applies a latex galvanized-metal primer, they spray the exterior with an elastomeric stucco coating and finish it with SuperTherm insulating ceramic paint. Next, Bob meets Leslie Chapman-Henderson of the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes (FLASH) who assesses the building and presents Bob with Florida's Governor's Hurricane Conference award for his efforts to promote storm-preparedness. Inside, Bob meets architect and designer Steve Armstrong who explains how this incredibly strong structure offers flexibility for traditional or open-plan layouts. Bob also reviews design possibilities for container housing with TAW's David Cross.
Part 1: Adding a Steel Partition and Creating a Stucco Surface
Part 2: Building a Hurricane-Resistant Home
Part 3: Layout for a Container-Built Home
Bob joins Steve Armstrong, the project architect and engineer, to discuss the project. The roof is a traditional truss system. The floor is a steel joist construction with traditional plywood decking. The challenge of building a home like this is marrying new methods of construction with traditional methods to create a conventional-looking family home.
Part 4: Design Options for Container-Built Homes
Bob Vila is in St. Petersburg, FL, learning how to create affordable, energy-efficient, storm-ready housing from recycled steel shipping containers. Bob and the team build a roomy, single-family home that improves this once-blighted neighborhood and creates opportunity for first-time homeownership.

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