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Shipping Container Homes Info

  • 26-02-2020 4:14pm
    #1
    Zooeybean
    Registered Users Posts: 1 ✭


    Hi All,

    Has anyone erected a container home? If so can anyone answer these questions for me please and/ or any additional useful information?:

    -is there planning permission required in Ireland?
    -Would it be considered a temporary structure?

    I have a site and wanted to go down this route as a cost effective means as going the conventional route is not an option due to finances.

    Cheers!


Comments

  • #2
    sydthebeat
    Subscribers Posts: 41,830 ✭✭✭✭sydthebeat


    there are no planning exemptions for "temporary structures"

    if you intend to use this as a home, it requires planning permission, and it is required to be brought to to specification with current building regulations... so for Part L "energy efficient" regs alone, this means an A2 rated dwelling.
    it also has comply with all the other buildings regulations such as access for persons with disabilities, ventilation, drainage, etc etc


  • #3
    Gumbo
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 39,783 Mod ✭✭✭✭Gumbo


    Zooeybean wrote: »
    Hi All,

    Has anyone erected a container home? If so can anyone answer these questions for me please and/ or any additional useful information?:

    -is there planning permission required in Ireland?
    -Would it be considered a temporary structure?

    I have a site and wanted to go down this route as a cost effective means as going the conventional route is not an option due to finances.

    Cheers!

    Planning required.
    Only one of that I know and it’s in Ringsend, Dublin.
    Permission for 3 storey but owner has to stop at 2 stories. Same cost of not more than traditional build due to certification and a professional putting their name to it.

    https://www.google.ie/amp/s/www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/homes-and-property/interiors/best-of-2017-seven-shipping-containers-become-a-family-home-1.2983804%3fmode=amp


  • #4
    sydthebeat
    Subscribers Posts: 41,830 ✭✭✭✭sydthebeat


    ^

    375,000 for a 158 sq m house....

    Ouch


  • #5
    _Brian
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,617 ✭✭✭✭_Brian


    The thing is it provides a quick frame round which the trappings need to meet the regular standards.

    I’ve built two houses, the shell is the cheapest part of the build, the money is always in the detailing and certification.


  • #6
    sydthebeat
    Subscribers Posts: 41,830 ✭✭✭✭sydthebeat


    _Brian wrote: »

    I’ve built two houses, the shell is the cheapest part of the build, the money is always in the detailing and certification.

    By "detailing" so you mean the finishes??


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  • #7
    Banzai600
    Registered Users Posts: 318 ✭✭Banzai600


    Grand Designs on Channel 4 featured an Northern Irish architect who built a lavish home from shipping containers up in northern Ireland.

    it was quite plush, but it can be done to suit all budgets -depending on finish as already said.


    see here: https://www.pb-architects.com/grillagh-water-house.html

    if you search the web you will find more info.


  • #8
    tabby aspreme
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,034 ✭✭✭tabby aspreme


    I would think there is huge resistance within the likes of the CIF, and other lobby group's, for building like this, as it could lower the price of building a basic house. Shipping containers are designed to be stacked 8 high on a ship, in all types of weather, each one carrying over 20 tonnes, quite common to use them across Europe.


  • #9
    sydthebeat
    Subscribers Posts: 41,830 ✭✭✭✭sydthebeat


    tabby aspreme wrote: »
    I would think there is huge resistance within the likes of the CIF, and other lobby group's, for building like this, as it could lower the price of building a basic house. .

    these are such outliers that i couldnt see CIF giving it any consideration.

    The advertised examples of these builds certainly do not point to them as being in any way cheaper than standard builds.

    the example in the article above has a construction cost of €217 per sq ft
    for a lot of self builders that could be almost DOUBLE their build costs.

    the problem with these is making them building regulation compliant.
    How do you insulate adequately and allow for mitigation against interstitial condensation in these non breathable walls, floors and roofs?
    Who signs off the structure should there be a need to augment the 'chassis' of this container?
    who signs of the structure and capacity of the joining methods, welds etc?
    Lots of mathematical calculations included here.
    Noise reduction standards and method?
    Id imagine air tightness is difficult to achieve as well.

    standard builds have decades of research and analysis and tested 'standards' to work from already. these builds do not.


  • #10
    Metric Tensor
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,725 ✭✭✭Metric Tensor


    tabby aspreme wrote: »
    I would think there is huge resistance within the likes of the CIF, and other lobby group's, for building like this, as it could lower the price of building a basic house. Shipping containers are designed to be stacked 8 high on a ship, in all types of weather, each one carrying over 20 tonnes, quite common to use them across Europe.

    They are not designed to be lived in though.

    Fire safety, insulation, ventilation, heating, toilets, water supply, moisture resistance, sound insulation, stairs, windows, doors, etc all have to be addressed. And that's assuming the structural design is compliant, which it may not be despite it being possible to stack them on a ship. All this work required to make the building compliant with the building regulations means that the container is only a shell or frame as pointed out above.

    And it's actually cheaper to get the frame by other means and meet the building regulations in the process. Nothing to do with any vested interests or conspiracy theories.

    Also add to it the fact that people who think of building with containers usually mean second hand containers that have been walloped about the high seas for 10 years and are no longer fit for transporting cheap underpants from the far east not to mind make the shell of a house.

    New containers are not the cheapest way to build a structural steel frame. And a structural steel frame is not the cheapest way to build a house in the first place.


  • #11
    _Brian
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,617 ✭✭✭✭_Brian


    sydthebeat wrote: »
    By "detailing" so you mean the finishes??


    Insulation, airtightness, right onto finishes, the frame of a house is cheap


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  • #12
    Muahahaha
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,688 ✭✭✭✭Muahahaha


    Banzai600 wrote: »
    Grand Designs on Channel 4 featured an Northern Irish architect who built a lavish home from shipping containers up in northern Ireland.

    it was quite plush, but it can be done to suit all budgets -depending on finish as already said.


    see here: https://www.pb-architects.com/grillagh-water-house.html

    if you search the web you will find more info.

    McCloud visited him again for another Grand Designs program about 2-3 months back, the program was his top 5 favourite designs of which the container home in NI was one.

    Anyway McCloud asked him what happened with the aftermath of the initial program, Patrick said he had hundreds of people all across the UK wanting help to build their own container homes. Think he was planning on running his architecture business along those lines of designing homes for these people but in the long and short of it was the banks would not give mortgages on them so it was a no goer.


  • #13
    Effects
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,760 ✭✭✭Effects


    Muahahaha wrote: »
    the long and short of it was the banks would not give mortgages on them so it was a no goer.

    For the one in Ringsend, AFAIR, they had to use brand new containers (expensive), or else the engineer wouldn't sign off on it, and they wouldn't get a mortgage.


  • #14
    Muahahaha
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,688 ✭✭✭✭Muahahaha


    Yeah I think that is part of the problem with container homes. People see they can buy these used containers for a few grand a piece and then think they can build a cheap home out of them. But between planning, building regs and finding a bank willing to offer a mortgage it makes it a lot more difficult and the end price goes up to the point that you might as well have just built a normal home anyway.

    From the original Grand Designs on Patrick Bradleys container home he had the land from his parents and AFAIR he largely built it for cash and calling in favours with colleagues in the construction industry. He had wanted to make a proper business out of it but later found UK banks would not lend mortgages on them so that put an end to that really. I wonder how house insurance companies see them too, would imagine they would be looking for all sorts of certificates to insure them.


  • #15
    Effects
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,760 ✭✭✭Effects


    Didn't he also spend ten grand on a carbon fibre bath :D


  • #16
    Gumbo
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 39,783 Mod ✭✭✭✭Gumbo


    Effects wrote: »
    For the one in Ringsend, AFAIR, they had to use brand new containers (expensive), or else the engineer wouldn't sign off on it, and they wouldn't get a mortgage.

    This is true.


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