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/diy/ - Do It Yourself

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287428 No.287428 [Reply] [Original]

Britfag here.

How feasible would it be to use shipping containers and recycled materials to build a downshifted self sustaining home in the countryside?

What are the costs, building issues and shit? Anticipating a kick out of the clouds.

>> No.287444

It's not feasible.

>> No.287450

define self-sustaining

>> No.287451

It's cheaper to build it from actual building materials. IIRC. Concrete and rebar outer walls 8 inches thick, rebar 18 inches apart ina grid. You can lay out the molds flat on the ground, pour/cast them (don't forget doorways, windows, and holes for plumbing), and then raise them (CAREFULLY) before bolting/locking them together to make a solid form. 4 inches of sprayed cellulose insulation, capped with cheapo drywall, plywood, or anything else you manage. A small-ish 4-room (Kitchen-Bedroom-Livingroom/Office-Bathroom) building shouldn't cost much, and if you use good building sense, you can collect solar+water from the roof, garden with any property space you have, and reduce cooling/heating bills by using either wood-burning stove, steam generator, wind turbine, or something of the type to keep the power going. The end result is a building about 15-20 feet on either side, about 10-11 feet tall at the highest 8 feet tall at the lowest. The floor should be raised off the ground slab (6-8 inches should do it); fill the space with waterproof insulation, and then add a waterproof barrier of some kind before adding flooring. this keeps the ground from sucking away warmth in winter, and is a protection against minor flooding. As a britfag, point the low end of the building southwards, so the sloped roof still catches rays in any weather.

>> No.287453

Keep an eye on where you put the thing; low spots on a property are a magnet for water and flooding, not to mention bugs that follow the water. High and dry means better sight on the wind and the sun; meaning lower cooling bills for those shitty brit winters. Don't be afraid to fill in to raise the building's ground level a smidge; and make sure that your house's floor is level.

I swear to god one day I'll just make the plans for you guys, check them with the local architects to make sure they make sense and would last (basically) forever and then I'll just post PDFs of 15', 20' and 30' square single-level and split level buildings of varying complexity.

>> No.287455

alas, shipping containers used to be cheaper until it became fashionable to build with them.

>> No.287456

>>287451
>>287453
Neat. Do you work with this stuff IRL, or just an interest?

>> No.287459

>>287456
I'm a CAD tutor/part-time draftsman, so I see all sorts of odd stuff and pick up weird skills on the way.

>> No.287488

>>287455
Even when they were cheaper, it was never a good idea to build from them. Unless mebe ya lived in a year round climate which wouldn't need either heating or cooling, which doesn't seem likely.

Re OP: downshifting in the UK essentially means (other than fags living off daddys' trust fund but pretending they're independent) subsistence farming. It's fairly easy in the UK if you live cheaply and realise anything other than food & shelter is a luxury.

Self sustaining....what does that even mean? Do you even know what you mean by that in this context? Are you not going to go buy....lightbulbs?...as needed?


It's probably worth mentioning that building regulations, technically do apply, but if you're living there yourself you won't ever actually see any trouble due to them.....just don't try to sell the place.


I recommend you buy a cheap smallholding in Wales (Powys is good)...if you get somewhere a fair way from town and without a building (but with permission to build...so somewhere with an old collapsed farmhouse you wouldn't need any councilness to repair would be great), you could probably get a fair bit of land cheap. It won't be flat, but as you're farming manually, that doesn't matter. The hard part is wherever you find has to either have year round water or be on the watergrid.

Then learn to grow veg, decide whether you're happy doing so with most of your time for the rest of your life, and live cheap.

And if you end up in the hills/mountains get more than a tent built by winter or you'll die.

>> No.287490

>>287428
Possible? Yes. Practical? No. Economical? Absolutely not, unless you already have the shipping containers and raw materials around.

>> No.287941

>>287455
Fucking this!

It used to be you could get a wind/water tight 20 foot ISO container for $1000. I priced them last week for portable storage and they were being called ISBUs (International Standard Building Units, I shit you not) and they were going for $2500. That's $2500 for the raw container, not including finishing out costs.
They're only useful if you absolutely must have something portable. Otherwise, look into something else.

>> No.287955

>>287428
I hate saying this OP
Self sustaining in the UK actually requires a shit ton of money [or a friend with a lot of land]
Of course you could rent an allotment, and live in the woods like our local tramp does.