Purchasing Second hand Containers

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Partial Transcript.

Hello and welcome to the 3rd in a series of 15 video training tutorials on Shipping Container Home Design and Construction

In this video we are going to discuss

Container Inspection, Cleaning, and Repairs prior to purchase

In previous videos we touched on a few of many misunderstandings and misconceptions that have arisen out of the over enthusiasm for container homes over the past four to five years and this theme is going to become our mantra as we continue through this series of tutorials.

Even just purchasing your second hand containers is somewhat more complex than many enthusiasts would like you to believe – but I mean how hard can it be all you need to do is surf around on craigs list or ebay and buy a couple of super cheap second hand containers and have them shipped to your building site – right ?

Well unfortunately no – to do this right we need to start right and the best way to do that is to appreciate that what we are dealing with here are business assets that are actually being removed from service because they have reached a point in their lifecycle that decommissioning them is commercially viable for the assest owners.

What that means in simple terms is that containers come onto the market at a wide range of price points and physical conditions they at NOT all the same.

They range from brand new, to used for one trip units, to very good, to unit that are well unsuitable for ISBU construction and everything in between.

What that means in the real world is that most containers available for purchase will be “graded” based on what condition they are in and at what point in their assest lifecycle they have reached ie how old they are.

So all the discussions about how cheap shipping containers are is again completely conditional, yes really cheap ones do pop up from time to time but the cheapest ones are almost always in very poor condition and the very good units often cost much more than most people would expect.

Now this is a very important point as there will always be a certain amount of work to be done just to get the containers into the sort of condition that you would want to start working on modifying them. For some containers that might be minimal and some containers are in such poor condition its simply not worth the effort, they are better off being scraped.

On that note you should be aware that even the worst container you will ever lay your eyes on is still valuable as high grade corten scrap steel.

So how much work goes into getting a container ready to modify ?

Well I mentioned in a previous video that some high profile builders in this space  have actually moved away from using second hand containers altogether and are now purchasing brand new containers direct from the factories in China,

I understand why they do it however this in my opinion this is a very poor practice. Some are doing it to be able to order ISBU’s  with over sized dimensions, thereby taking advantage of many of the benefits of the ISBU construction and at the same time side stepping some of the challenges like the standard 8 foot width of an ISBU module and some are doing this in order to bypass the challenges of purchasing second hand containers and that’s what we are going to discuss here in this tutorial number 3

ie getting a regular supply of good condition identical containers that don’t require substantial pre modification preparation or repairs.

Now regardless of the reasoning as I said in my opinion it is simply poor practice to manufacture a 8000 lb plus steel box and drag it from China to your home site so that you can have a nice shiny new and easy to work with blank canvas.

For the longest time ISBU advocates have told us that it took something like 8000 kwh of energy to scrap an old container and recycle the steel and only 400 kwh to reuse an existing container, so the flip side of that must be – If you use a new container even if its made with 100% recycled steel then it took at least that same 8000 kwh plus the fabrication energy input to make that steel into a new container plus the energy to transport it – which is quite a lot if it is fitted out in China and therefore for all purposes empty on the way over as some are.

You need to ask yourself here what else could you have done with those kwh, maybe you could have used an older container that needed some TLC or you could have used an alternative green building method instead of ISBU in the first place.

That said what I ask people to consider when first looking at purchasing  containers is to look for containers that are as close to the end of their lifecycle as practical whist at the same time avoiding the problems and headaches associated with selecting older containers that are so beat up and abused that it’s a major exercise just to get them into a condition that you can start modifying them.

In my opinion modifications and repairs are best viewed as two separate subjects.

Yes both use similar tools and skillsets but a container needs to be in good, robust and safe condition before you even think about selecting it as a candidate for modification.

Apart from the structural discussion – “dings and dents” do not usually cause any significant structural weakness at least for our purposes  – but they are almost impossible to knock out and allow you to have the walls exposed if you like that look and even if your going to clad them they do cause problems in your finish work inside and out.

Containers that are 15 or 20 years old and are still structurally sound are often so dinged up that when it comes to putting on the cladding finishes  that you end up adding back huge amounts of hat channel and a lot labor to create a flat fixing surface.

So as a general rule of thumb

The cost the container will be inversely proportional to the labor you will need to you put back into it just getting it ready for modification.

In other words the less a container costs to start with is generally a good indicator that the boxes are less fair and true for building purposes but what we need is a frame work to use to help us in the review of potential candidates rather than a simple rule of thumb so let get started ….