Hacker News Reader

Comment by advertising | Hacker News Reader

Have seen numerous shipping container housing projects over the years and none of them really took off. To make containers truly livable long term (combining multiple containers, decent finishes, buildout etc) it seems to cross a price threshold where a person who can afford to do it would likely build a traditional dwelling.

This is more about creative subdividing to me. Whether it's a tent or a shipping container.

View on HN

In Ghana they are used extensively as shops/storefronts, but no one lives in shipping containers. Even in the most rural areas, people make houses literally brick by brick (buying 1-2 bricks at a time) instead of using shipping containers for housing. I think it's for the reason you suggest, and for the additional reason that I imagine living in a shipping container to be somewhat akin to living in a big metal dumpster.

Why would anyone buy bricks in such small numbers, instead of saving up? A wall with two extra bricks on it isn't more useful.

Is it just impossible to save money safely?

Maybe because of transportation? They probably need to walk those bricks to the house.

In this [1] excellent book, it is said that they do it as form of saving. Basically, they don't have bank accounts, and they know that if they don't buy those 1-2 bricks right away after they get paid, they'll spend the money on something else.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Poor-Economics-Radical-Rethinking-Pove...

This is a large part of the reason. Money that gets earned gets spent pretty quickly on one thing or another, and it would be next to impossible for a family to save up enough to buy all the materials to build a house in one go.

Another reason is that they don't have easy access to credit markets, so they can't just get a mortgage and move into a home and start paying it off.

One more part of the reason is that they usually build the homes themselves, and its rewarding to see the house go up brick by brick - visual progress is being made.

I'm not an expert, but these are my informed observations and learnings.

Inflation? Spend X amount now and get 3 bricks or wait a year and only get 2?

Wouldn't a fire in a shipping container be pretty much disastrous though? I can't even imagine how hot it would get.

I liked the idea of a shipping container home, but my brief research into it showed it's not much/any cheaper than a regular home.

But shipping containers do provide a structure to work from, and don't require knowledge of framing, masonry, etc. that building something de novo would. Also, for SF, they are pretty earthquake-proof (unless you stack them Ready Player One style).

I think it really depends on climate but overall it's more insulated, sturdy, overall better just to do a stick built 2x6 structure the same size.

I'm sure the biggest issue is that it's a lot harder to fly under the existing zoning/regulatory umbrella if you build a structure. Most "micro-apartments" are significantly bigger than shipping containers (which are 320 sq. ft.) but even so, at least in Boston, their rents are still in the $2K/month range. It's really about the land price and how much vertical building there is. This amounts to unofficial squatting on industrial land. Of course it's going to be cheaper but it doesn't really solve any problem.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com