Design Options for Container-Built Homes

Project: Storm-Ready Housing, Episode 3, Part 4



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
Part 4: Design Options for Container-Built Homes
Bob talks with David Cross from Tampa Armature Works. Cross reviews the versatility of designing houses with shipping containers. Both traditional and contemporary models are available using this method of construction.
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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