
Bay Area family’s quest to create a backyard container home - jseliger
http://www.sfchronicle.com/business/networth/article/Bay-Area-family-s-arduous-quest-to-create-a-12532333.php
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blhack
I really do not understand the appeal of shipping containers as houses.

We already have _several_ industries around "containerized" homes. There are
pre-fab houses, there are RVs, and there are "mobile homes".

Shipping container as a home just seems like function trying to follow form.
Shipping containers looks industrial-cool, but from everything I have ever
been able to find on them, they make _terrible_ houses.

~~~
rdoherty
I agree, this type of solution is 'trendy' and 'innovative', but is not a real
solution to the Bay Area's housing problem.

We do not have a space or money problem, we have a legislative one. Building
height limits, NIMBYs and other laws affect how many homes are built. We have
plenty of space in the sky to build 12+ story buildings for housing, but we
don't.

~~~
racer-v
This is true, and not without good reasons. In places where long-term
residents have enough financial and political clout to control their own
neighborhoods, they almost universally want to keep density low for better
(perceived) quality of life. Visit Palo Alto: the downtown looks like it
hasn't changed since the 70's.

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sologoub
As someone that has spent time in an office built out of shipping containers,
my view is that they are great for shipping but not living in.

Experienced it both in summer and winter months. Both completely sub-optimal.
Because you have poor air circulation and walls are completely air and water
tight, your microclimate depends on your HVAC system completely. Too few or
too many people in the room and everything changes, temperature goes out of
whack, humidity, etc.

We ended up constantly opening and closing windows in the winter and turning
AC on and off full blast in summer. This is in Central Europe, so not the
hottest or clodest climate out there.

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xster
Is it just because the volume is too small or it's due to the material? Can
some breathable membrane ports be installed?

~~~
sologoub
It’s all material - the offices were quite spacious if a bit low on ceiling
height.

If parts of the container walls were redone to allow more circulation it would
be a lot more livable.

I also only spent two work weeks at a time, about 10 hours per day, in that
setup. I suspect actually living in one would create additional issues with
managing moisture, smells and temp.

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beamatronic
Summary: 1 year and $300k to put a metal container in your back yard.

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antoncohen
> container homes are not necessarily cheaper than traditional construction,
> they’re quicker to install and don’t require general contractor

> They needed a boundary survey and a geotechnical study. To called about 50
> companies for each

> He called 20 companies to pour the foundation

> Because the home is in a flood zone, he had to get two elevation
> certificates totaling

> In addition, the Tos owed Menlo Park $8,985 for a permit, plan reviews,
> inspections, a geologist, a “technology surcharge” and other fees.

> They also had to pay $2,227 in impact fees to their elementary and high
> school districts.

> It was like “death by 5,000 paper cuts,” To said.

Umm, regular homes don't need a general contractor either -- if you find and
hire all the sub-contractors directly.

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pcurve
He is a design director at Google with entrepreneur track records. I'd imagine
he is pulling in $500k in total comp, so I guess he isn't doing this because
he can't afford a proper house.

~~~
nostromo
Container homes are actually more expensive than a similar home built with a
wood frame.

~~~
steve_adams_86
It's a marginal difference, but you're not wrong. I don't think it would
matter in this instance though.

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kevin_thibedeau
> The city also made them demolish shelving and a wall the home’s previous
> owners had put in the garage without a permit.

Seriously?

~~~
post_break
Can’t build stuff without permits.

~~~
pixl97
Fucking shelving? This what happens when regulatory capture goes wild.

~~~
rconti
Likely the issue was that the garage was being used as a living space and they
are down-playing the issue and just saying shelves needed to be removed.
Nobody in the area actually parks their car in their garage :) Ours is bike
storage/server room/gym, and has built-in countertops and cabinets. The floor
is carpeted, the ceiling is finished, and even the attic above it is carpeted
and lit.

~~~
flukus
That still sounds like what happens when regulatory capture goes wild.

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azylman
Allowing people to put in-law units in their backyard seems like a good move
in the short term (to increase supply), but also seems like it might cause
problems in the long term: NIMBYs are then _even more_ incentivized to prevent
new housing because they're making a killing off the overpriced shipping
container in their backyard.

~~~
rconti
Plus parking issues, plus...

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wheresmyusern
i spend a lot of time looking at alternative housing and i must say that
container homes are complete and utter bull shit. its a stupid fad that is
fueled by idiots.

containers are expensive. just transporting a container is already a losing
proposition because you are transporting a mass of steel in the form of a
large empty box. so you lose on getting your materials transported. its more
expensive than just buying an equivalent amount of steel and building it into
a house.

containers are extraordinarily poorly suited for making houses. if you want
any windows at all, you need to heavily modify the container, reinforcing and
welding and all together going through enough trouble that you might as well
just make the whole thing from scratch. the entire container-home movement is
completely retarded -- its like watching solar roadways again. a massive group
of people who are totally liberated from critical thought. container homes are
stupid. they are a pollutant in the alternative housing scene. stop making
them.

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wonderwonder
$20k just in fees before they could even pour the foundation...

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neo4sure
Looks like the cost is reasonable for the bay area

[http://www.themiyoung.com/single-post/2016/11/03/The-
Guide-C...](http://www.themiyoung.com/single-post/2016/11/03/The-Guide-Costs-
of-Home-building-in-Silicon-Valley)

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mysterypie
> _They needed a boundary survey ($2,475) and a geotechnical study ($2,670).
> To called about 50 companies for each before he found ones willing to do
> it._

Why is it so difficult to find someone willing to do a _survey_?

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markwakeford
Can someone help me out on the missing pieces here, whats the average
construction cost of a regular home in the US ? In Australia a single storey
180m2 home which is just under 2000 ft2 would run for approximately $200k AUD.
That works out to be $1100 per square meter or a little over $100 AUD or $80
USD per square foot. The article is stating around $300 USD per square foot,
this seems astronomically expensive.

~~~
quickthrower2
AU$200k? 180m2? It won't be a good quality house.

~~~
taneq
That's a reasonable cost for building a decent quality single story brick-and-
tile house in Perth, Australia.

Here's one of a similar size for $190k:
[https://media.dalealcock.com.au/deals1/](https://media.dalealcock.com.au/deals1/)

~~~
abraae
I was astonished as the ease of building houses in Perth when I visited
recently.

Since its all sand, digging and compacting your foundations is ridiculously
easy, and typically getting out of the ground is the riskiest part of building
a new home.

Then pick a off the shelf house design which is simple brick and tile, so
there's no gotchas during construction.

I can well believe these costs.

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oblib
There's someone building a huge one not far from where I live in the Ozarks in
SW Missouri. It's at least 4 containers high and a few dozens of containers
were used to build it.

The last time I saw it (a few months ago) they were finishing off the exterior
and it was stunningly beautiful. You'd not know it was built with containers
from an outside view.

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rconti
Whoa, cool-- I bike by this house every day on my way to work. Saw the
containers and cranes coming in, googled the company, etc. It took several
days of various components (truck, containers, etc) parked in the street
before they were done.

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s_ngularity
Really off-topic, but the logo at the beginning of the video for the Blocks
project (B made out of a rectangle and two circles) is totally
indistinguishable from the logo of the skateboarding company Plan B

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jakelarkin
everything in housing is codified around the naive technology of early 20th
century America homebuilding - mostly bespoke wood frame structures. Try
something different and you will have to pay up for special consideration,
mostly so that everyone up and down the approval/work chain can contractually
cover their liability without having to think too hard about it.

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dboreham
Bah..thought this was an article about Docker.

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ensiferum
That has got to the be the most expensive dog house ever!

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cyphunk
why does every promo video of anything out of the valley have to include this
universal inspirational soft rock music? please, stop marketing everything
like a surf board, change your music tastes, go spend time in transylvania.

~~~
jlardinois
Have you ever been to the area? It's not a soundtrack, that's just what it
sounds like here. There's always a gently strummed guitar flowing out of a
watery amp somewhere off in the distance.

