@bla blahblah you people miss out on how shitty your housing market becomes if you don't have proper regulations. Besides, I bet the required planning for this project helped him to avoid costly mistakes.
This is some next level UA-cam. I feel like you could make the episodes a little longer. This way better than anything on TV. There is so much good stuff here. Great job Ben 😁
To each their own, but I enjoyed how concise yet detailed the video was. Too many vids on youtube are bloated and filled with useless fluff. Maybe a bit more info on the septic design though, eh? I'm just glad this isn't some kind of family vlog and we have 30min of pet and kid filler.
Finally an actual detailed video to help those interested in the nuts and bolts of the project. Well explained, good detail (don’t be afraid to show more). I think those who are watching this type of video are really interested in every step. Great work. Truly a good example for others when doing videos online
That is actually really expensive for land that has no real resources. Can’t grow anything or mine anything. Can’t even move dirt on your property without paying for even more permits and studies.
It has been a few decades, but farm land in central New York State was going for $100 an acre (or rather, 10,000 acres for $1,000,000). I remembered Michigan as being cheap a few years ago, and a quick search shows 1 acre lots for $45,000 but also 40 acre parcels for $200,000-$400,000. 200 acres for $1.4m, 400 acres for $12m, so it can vary widely. Rule of thumb: land gets cheaper in bulk. This is partly because large parcels are generally far from cities and schools, and being close to those things makes land worth more, and partly because large parcels will include some land that can't be built on (too swampy, no water, bad drainage, unstable soil, etc) and would thus be hard to sell. Bonus for you if the reason you wanted that land was to prevent someone from building something ugly in the middle of the pretty view. :)
Price was quite reasonable, actually. It included all of the engineering and design drawings and construction documents. Architectural and Engineering (A&E) services are typically 25 to 35 percent of the total construction value. If a "stock" design were used, the A&E team would have used already proven plans that can be site adapted. The cost would have been 40 to 50 percent lower for the package.
I pour and finish concrete. Have worked with concrete for over two decades, growing up around the trade. You did a VERY neat and accurate description of all the processes involved. I hate the heat and the filth, and the dry skin. But I love seeing a finished slab I installed, perfectly measured and neatly troweled. I look forward to seeing the following episodes!
I have a container shop here in Alaska. It's a 20 and a 40 jointed together side by side. I just have it sitting on rail road ties and it lived through a 6.0 earth quake last November. Only a few things fell over
@@squigglewacks it's bc he has it sitting up on railroad ties. U could do radiant heat in the floors. The guy in T.N. knows wat he's doing & his builds r 20k if u don't want granite & things like that.
@@squigglewacks ck. Out Incredible Tiny Homes out of T.N. owner Randy Jones. His video this week shows 7 new one & a container that he has the floor out of to be shown at a later date. He has a FB acct. Too, but I don't do fb. There's also Container Acre, just found them. Don't know when they did their build but r about to do another one. Wasn't alot of info out there when they did the first one. A new insulation made just for containers called insofast.com with a r-11 rating & cuts out condensation inside. Hope this helps!!
only thing I didn't like about the video was there wasn't another to watch right after!!!! ahhhh!!! now I'm waiting anxiously. keep up the great work. love your vids
mglmouser I wouldn’t think so? Depends how much the containers cost and then compare that to the average cost to bet sq. Foot of a traditional build. Honestly I think some of those surveys are not necessary. But who knows, $25k might be a bargain compared to other parts of CA and traditional builds?
This is great. I’ve been listening to you talk about this for months and I’m so stoked to finally see it in detail. Bravo! I can’t wait for the next video.
You should look into Helical Piers. They are very easy to install and perform better than concrete under seismic loads because they allow movement. This would give you fast installation, adjustability, and a steel connection to your cargo containers.
For a shipping containers we usually go with pillar foundation design, depending on the environment and frost line depth we drill about 1,5m in depth and ~10-20cm in diameter, put in concrete and metal bases just like in your initial drawings. There is also full metal screw in type of pillars, some people use them because they are cheaper alternative, but I am not sure if they are better, those are basically big and long metal screws, they just go in the ground and thats all. These foundations are usually used for smaller constructions. The foundation you used here would be considered as too much in most of the countries, we usually use these foundations for a traditional houses, although we make them deeper, that probably depending on a frost line, usually we dig in ~1,5m depth here in Lithuania.
CA: HEY STOP!! Builder:? What? CA: Do you have a permit? Builder: Sure right here. CA: No No No my friend I need the permit for this permit to be permitted.
sounds like California is even worse than Germany/most of Europe because we slapped a container on our property , needed no real building permit but a pointpermit like you need for a garage or a new driveway and it did not have to have any foundation, we put some welded railway rail frame and a few pieces of concrete tiles/bricks below we just needed to prove that it is removeable without any pollution and that the chimney and sewage dont leak - e just use it for storage and workroom but you could live in there you should have taken a coolingcontainer, they are already isolated and got some electronics installed you can repurpose get some old windows from a demolition site-just be there at the rigth time and ask if you can cut some windows with the framework out to repurpose them, here you get your windows almost for free As if a container would collapse from a earthquake, just ask those people if they are capable of breatheing and thinking at the same time what do they imagine? a landslide with the container skiing and rolling down a mountain
@@geothr33 idk but usually sprinklers destroy almost as much of your inventory as a housefire would - the difference being that the sprinklers saves the house itself which the fire could easily burn to the ground. In this case, what is there really to save? The shipping container which is effectively the house? What do you really need sprinklers for here, I mean worst case you go and buy another shipping container lmao. Everything inside it will be ruined by the water anyways.
My son is stationed at 29 palms and just bought a beautiful home near the Joshua tree. We were able to come out there finally and visit. He took us to the Joshua tree. Amazing place.
this is going to be a great series. the project looks great, the site looks inviting, and the concept of the three separate buildings is cool. Not a new idea, but definitely one that makes a lot sense with a stable weather climate. cant wait to see this one unfold.
This is great. I particularly liked the detail in the foundation construction. I live on the east coast and when building on a sloped site, we struck a large continuous seam of rock. So we decided to anchor one corner of the house basement on this bedrock, poured the slab , built up the walls and used floating “I” beams to act as a dish type bearings to support the weight of the house on top, in case of earth quake. It was actually cheaper to build like this and people thought I was crazy. 2 earthquakes later, the house has settled nicely into the sloped site. In a container this would simply look like a single independent pedestal post under each corner with a cast iron dish and a corresponding twist lock with a cast iron ball. The whole structure “ floats “ on the four corners.
So much California bashing, but it is an awesome place to live. Yes, California is not cheap. Yet, our weather and options of entertainment and outdoor adventures are the best in the US hands down. You get what you pay for. It is really cheap to live in tornado ally.
yes! California sucks. All of these commenters should stay far away. Please just stay where you are and keep doin' what you're doin' to make your town and lives so much better. Nothing to see here in Cali.
montrealhas %50 taxes. Big reason a lot of hockey players dont want to play there. Water is paid to the house, delivery or some fee, the we pay for the water draining. We pay for gravity!!!. Good house to be in if there's a drive by.
Nice work! I’m also a designer in Los Angeles and I know exactly how rigorous the permit process is. I Just finished my detached new 1200sq. ft. ADU in the back of my house I had to go through additional requirements like Low Impact Development Design..It wasn’t easy but got the Final Inspection approval yesterday 🙌👍🤜. For the 18” min. Crawlspace I believe there is an exemption to that rule if you use a naturally durable or preservative-treated structural floor system. But going with a monolithic slab foundation is a good choice and Engineers prefer to use it when designing a new house for is structural reasons. I can’t wait for the next episode!
I am a geotechnical engineer. Considering the stiff soil conditions, I would simply excavate about 50 cm of soil and replace it with gravel followed by compaction. Nothing much, There are 2 main risk scenarios while laying a structure above a soil 1) Settlements 2) Bearing capacity. I do not think there are any risks since the soil conditions within the site are already too damn good and drainable. Sorry to say but the structure engineer fooled you to earn some cash.
Exactly what I was thinking, that foundation was way way way over the top, and they never even ran his popups through it, that ground is solid probably hasn't moved for thousands of years, he was taken for a ride indeed
Gravel was my first thought too, but I use to live in louisiana, where everyone was cheap, and all the ground was mushy and wet... so thick layers of gravel are used all over the place, foundations, roads, parking lots, walk paths, etc anything where you don't want it to be a puddle tomorrow.
Not at all. I come from the land of floods and there is gravel everywhere. If you are really worried about it you can make sure to set up barriers to route the water around the structure, and to stop the gravel from being carried off. Even just sandbags works for this, if you want something temporary you can store for less of an eye sore when you are using the structure.
imran zafar just gravel ? Earthquakes can / will shear off plumbing and electrical stubs , ground squirrels, prairie dogs , hedge hogs will burrow through edge of gravel creating a massive rodent network to live on , which brings snakes , you'd be dealing with rodents and snakes constantly
The corners of containers are strongest, all the weight up to 20+ tonn rests on those 4 points. I'd just have dug 4 corner holes in the ground, compacted them and poured in concrete, and made sure it was all leveled. Also put container-shoes (Twistlock) in/on the concrete to better keep the container in place during windy conditions, they do grab alot of wind these big boxes.
I would have hired a piling/foundation drill, then inserted used carpet roll tubes then fill with various size aggregate + compact at each stage + insert reinforce rods and pour concrete using air pokers to reduce air pockets, but it important to remember that the altering/cutting out of container walls does compromise its structure if not supported underneath, so I would have the container resting on 8 points ( 4 each side on 40 ft container to possible reduce flex),...the `Twistlock` is a great idea.
Hello there. I popped in your videos and I pretty enjoy them. Well done for your effort. I am an engineer myself having a background in Greek building code (very tough stuff due to intensive earthquakes over the continent) but also worked and still working on projects for California. I need to note at this point that the building codes all across California are way too overestimated to the point that are not cost effective at all. Owners just financially suffer to finish off their investment without actual "engineering reasons" I dare to say. In the meantime your engineers are afraid of undertaking the responsibility (due to the strict and sometimes unclear codes) so they come up with solutions that definitely cost a lot more than it should. I will give you an example on the "lateral movement" that you mentioned. Just let the self supported element "container" freely move on a leveled surface. It won't go anywhere..You could have implemented supported slabs that could be either screwed in the ground (technology used for PV projects in open spaces) or just deep hammered vertical steel slabs in the ground adding some self expanding concrete to fill up any gaps between the slabs and the soil. I hope I managed to give you an idea of how that could work according to my knowledge. Many Regards from Greece! Andreas.
@@alexfromoz thanks for the comment. I reckon that setting limiters around the support won't cause any problem. it's quite a popular method and I propose you could have a deeper look in it. It's like a restricted support instead of fixes like when calculate cantilevers.
What I found interesting to see, that the plastic foil that was used to cover the floor area before the pouring, was covered with sand. In Western European countries, the plastic barrier is used to prevent sand, or dirt being near, or at risk of getting in contact with the concrete, as it could comprise the concrete mixture. It is also common to put the plastic all the way underneath the concrete, and not just underneath the thinner floor area. The small prefabricated concrete blocks, are used to highten the rebar but serve to keep the plastic in place. Also it is mandatory in our area to use a vibrating surface or penetrating compactor, to increase concrete strength. Using the slab on grade seems a sensible compromise, I was wondering if insulation (HD graphite EPS e.g.) was considered placing underneath the slab. NIce vid!
So glad you made this second channel! It really does feel like a legitimate television series is being born! Thank you Ben And I will see you next week in Atlanta. This time I won’t make you sign my hat.😂 Chris
I thought the whole idea of Shipping Container House is to minimize work, time and money for constructing a home... and I don't think you saved any of those for it to matter
@@davidjose2193 - hey David - did you know you can go into your original comment and edit it? Off to the right are 3 vertical dots. One will say 'edit'. Click that and you can fix anything you wrote.
To be fair, the actual construction of the home was far cheaper than a 'normal' home would be. The permits and taxes wouldn't be factored into the cost of materials and labor. Realistically, even with all the permits and taxes, its probably still cheaper than constructing a regular home in the same location.
The amount of paperwork (and its cost!) is crazy. In Poland, if the land is generally accepted to build there anything, you can build something up to 35m2 and 5m hight without any permit. And permits takes time but cost closer to $250 than $25000.
27 for me in Joshua Tree.. Thing is the money is out here in Cali so paying bribes is a part of the numbers.. His place will easily do 100k a year in rental income..
So far I've seen one suggestion for a different foundation and about 200 gripes about California. I would agree with that one suggestion: use piers at each corner. To deal with the lateral stability issue, make the piers sit on massive footers. Or use the box itself as a structural element. The connection between the pier and the box would have to be totally rigid in all directions, which might call for some additional steel welded to the outside of the box. I could see I-beams welded vertically to each corner, and then extending downward and embedding in the piers. Or something. Can't wait to see how he insulates this thing.
@@toothlessgrin7540 That's right, he said that. And he wanted to keep the floor level with an outdoor deck, so that would have to be raised too. Hm. Not to argue with his priorities, but I think I would have gone with a raised house and deck. That might also have helped the house adapt to the site, which isn't totally flat, it appears. I don't recall why he rejected a perimeter wall foundation.
Regulation is not a bad thing. If you loosen regulations too much you get greedy people and companies disregarding essential safety precautions. Building codes are for example meant to protect you from fire death in your house. Things like Boeing 737 Max 8 crashing into the ground because of a lack of proper government oversight is just a recent example. Regulations is there to protect us. That being said, it needs to be sensible regulation which is actually justifiable and not more bureaucratic than necessary.
@@emperorshievpalpatine I think you miss the point. California overregulates, and has regulations that make no sense. In this case, the builder obviously has the money. But see this case: ua-cam.com/video/n6h7fL22WCE/v-deo.html Where the California government PREFERRED that people remain homeless, even though the homes were build on private land. Why would they do this? Because California is more about power over people's lives than any real safety concern. Being homeless on the sidewalk is clearly less healthy than any kind of shelter.
the point of the regulation is to stop people from doing very thing; and just buy a house in the suburbs from a construction firm who contributed to the regulators election fund.
Scott Franco I don‘t really know all the details of California‘s building regulations and perhaps there is indeed overregulation. I just wanted to point out that the narrative particularly found in the US that all regulations is bad and prohibits „free enterprise“ is equally flawed as too much regulation. Regulation in general is a good thing as long as it is sensible and justified.
Heath Newland That indeed then is corruption. But this is a problems of campaign finance laws and anti-corruption enforcement. It is not a problem of the idea of regulation. Regulation is only as good as the people who make it.
@@TheLegendaryFolklore I get that, I'm just wondering what the problem would be structurally if you did that. It seems like it would be perfectly fine in a saner state.
@@andrewmalone8709 it would be, but considering it's Cali, I think seismic waves would just kick the house into waves and shred the container one pillar at a time instead of a solid platform.
I'm very surprised at the size of the foundations for such a small and considerably light dwelling. And of course you answered the question later in the video :) The raised piers are good for airflow and accessing pipework in the future. I also find you get a little less creepy crawlies.
Dude shipping containers are engineered to handle way more stress than this will ever take. I think you over-engineered the whole foundation. Also why would you try to create anything of value in California? You're not even near the beaches, just go to Nevada it'll be the same thing but cheaper.
Your perspective is understandable but fairly ignorant. Few questions for you... Were they designed to have large holes cut in the corrugated steel walls for doors an windows while still perform to the "engineered" stresses you state? No... Were they designed with certain deflection criteria in mind that will prevent windows from binding/cracking over time? No... Were they designed with higher factors of safety required when dealing with residential dwellings as opposed to industrial applications? No... Is there someone at the manufacture's company willing to stamp the permit documents accepting legal liability for the containers performance? No... I agree that other states let you "do it yourself" but the ones that do don't have significant earthquakes threats to worry about. This area on the other hand has the San Andreas fault running right through it. And there are countless people who dump these containers on their property in the desert and live in them without issue. You just can't permit them, meaning you cant insure them or sell them as a house to someone else.
@@travsb1984 1: No, but this won't affect their sturdiness as a single-story structure. The frame takes most of the load, even if the holes are in the corners it will still have more than enough shear strength for this. 2: They are designed not to deflect that much, as they need to be stacked incredibly high without tipping. Think about a normal wall. It's just a wooden frame with studs running vertically every few feet, some diagonal members, and drywall nailed over it. This is a welded steel frame with corrugated steel walls designed to support over 20 tons in stormy waters. The windows will be fine. 3: The standards they are designed to meet are far more intense than those of a residential house (as far as structural integrity goes) This is why they are made of corten steel, and houses are made out of wood. 4: Why would the company need to accept liability? Their product has been modified and isn't being used for it's intended purpose. 5: Many of the regulations he ran into had nothing to do with earthquakes (700 sqft minimum footprint, 18" minimum 'crawlspace' height, etc.). These containers are designed to be stacked and unstacked 10 levels high on boats for 10 years straight with essentially no maintenance, exposed to the elements and the waves, connected to one another only by four bolts. I think they can handle sitting on the ground and having people walk around in them.
@@bradenanderson6989 Your responses and assumptions confirm that you still know very little about engineering principles, or how the permitting process works in general... Thinking something will work, and proving it will work mathematically are two very different standards. FYI, all of my questions were rhetorical and had answers of no... I would agree that California has too much red tape, but most of the design considerations would apply anywhere, not just in CA. The only requirement that stuck out during the video that made me role my eyes was the 700 sq ft requirement. To my knowledge this is not a California requirement. Building codes in California are actually controlled at the local level, and they are free to amend the CBC however they see fit. I suspect the 700sq*ft requirement is a local requirement.
@@bradenanderson6989 Not to go to crazy in the comments, but I'll give you some insight. Shipping containers are not designed to be perfectly ridged bodies. They have some flex in them. This allows each container to conform to the support it's placed on so that all four sides will align with the pined restraints and full bearing will be maintained, preventing them from "teeter-tottering" on uneven ship decks, tractor trailers, or train cars. I had two of these containers on my property for storage and can attest first hand they are far from rigid. We leveled the ground the best we could with shovels but we were only within about and 1" of true flat. When the containers were dropped they flexed until all sides were fully bearing on the soil. This was perfectly adequate for my needs, but if this were differential settlement caused by inadequate footings in a "house", every window and door in the container would have binded or even broke. That's the difference between doing something yourself and having it designed by professionals in the permitting process.
Hey Ben! My colleagues and I are actually making a container project based on all of your videos. You inspired us to make a difference, and now we are making a portable research station that will have multiple uses and be sent around the world. We fabricated the windows and doors out of steel and will set up the interior. It would be great to hear from you and show you some of our progress.
When your permits alone cost 5K MORE than you paid for the 10 acres of land - that should have been your clue to GTFO and build in another state. 20k for the land, 25k for the permits - Hence why they sold it so cheap.
@@TheEndingAbyss there are no active volcanoes in California, which is what the original commentor was talking about. So, although your comment was kind of off topic, and you look really silly with all that cake on your face, I can answer your question..yes you can definitely build on top of an active volcano. I think you should buy the plans this guy is selling and go nuts. Any volcano should do. Might I recommend the one that is currently spewing lava in Hawaii. Forget about the permits, just do it and report back here to share your results.
@@dustinsharber95 I didn't reply to the original comment, I replied a comment within with a joke about what he said. You look pretty silly with all that cake on your face completely missing that.
Just saying ..... A wise man on the street said that : " ... GOD created every living thing to breathe free air because GOD cares for everyone and that is why the Air is free." In other words ...no permits to breathe the air ... "Everyone gets to breathe air..... Ask the trees !". Happy Days !
I think concrete slab is a really good idea. There are of course more effective ways but your method is the most cost efficient. I would dig a hole big enough for another container, put them on top of each other then weld them together. then put steel reinforcements to the side corners. That way you would get a basement but it would cost more.
Johnny Onthespot only benefit would be the amount you could charge for rent. But at $25000 for just paperwork plus whatever the costs for the rest of the project, it could still be years before you see any profit from it. However, once you’re out of the hole that’s a pretty nice pay day in my opinion.
Yeah auckland nz would be more like 75g before putting containers down if you let the government know lol ... and that would be on a 300g property not even close to the city .
@@protectork9831, which begs the question: W.H.Y. in HELL would you do that?!?! You'd have to have more money than common sense to do that IMHO. But if'n you gots the Moolah and you just GOTS to have it, I'm not gonna stand in your way (like I could ANYway, right?!?). But I WOULD....... SMDH.
@@user-td1zo3tv9p where else would I go. Cant pack everything and leave. Family and friends are here. We pay for what is asked may that be gas , expensive houses (mainly because of politicians), expensive food (expensive gas) , expensive labor because politician made it so expensive for everyone to live here that business have to pay high labor cost .
Oh. My. God. Your permit costs are more than my entire build costs in kentucky. No wonder you guys have such a homeless problem. EDIT* And you built in the middle of the F'ing DESERT!
Because it's Kentucky! Nobody wants to fucking live in Kentucky man. And if you say you like it there is because you grew up there. I'd much rather pay more to not live in the middle of nowhere lol
Yeah it’s pretty bad here. Our state taxes are through the roof and our government just keeps raising them with no end. They say that they will do something about homelessness but it’s fucking shit.
Finally! I started watching this in 2020 but I wasn't logged in and lost it. "How did it turn out???🤯" No amount of searching worked. Lol And here 2yrs later it pops up randomly. 😂
Cross bracing of the I-beams would likely have provided the stability needed. That would tie the two I-beams together and prevent them from rolling due to lateral movement. This type of cross-braced I-beam frame used to support large industrial cooling towers mounted on spring vibration isolation mounts, which in turn would be bolted to the concrete. This type of equipment is located at ground level and on building roof tops where seismic anchorage requirements are greater. Cheers
"California is a pretty regulation-intensive state". Winning the award for understatement of the day. Thank you for actually doing everything according to California's rules and documenting it all. It really illustrates the cost of those regulations, and saves the rest of us the aggravation and bankruptcy that would result from attempting to build anything there. Also interesting: They regulate how much of your own soil you can move around on your property. I wonder what the penalty is for over-flatening or creating an illegal berm.
I have seen so many people build stuff out there in the middle of the desert without any kind of permits... It's crazy he went through all that trouble for something no one will ever check.
It's California, EVERYBODY is checking EVERYBODY out and in EVERYBODY'S business. Warning: Doing anything, with anything is known to cause California in the state of Cancer.
Trust me once everything is completed down.to the nut and bolt...then the authorities pitch up with hefty non compliance fine...could cost even four times the initial up front cost ...so hope that helps understand the ends justify the means...😁😁
@@JustinPaul1st The "authorities" are just people who make up these arbitrary rules themselves, then have the power to force compliance through the threat of kidnapping and imprisonment (and state monopoly on violence).
A non sarcastic comment from Jackman?! Are pigs flying?! :-) Really love the maker community encouraging one another. That can't always be said about other industries.
@@jaredstarnes6668 oh man, I don't remember leaving this comment, I must have been half asleep looking at the lack of sarcasm. Let me try again... Hey Ben, could you please wear a tighter shirt next time?
This was great, thanks, been searching for "building your own shipping container home" for a while now, and I think this has helped. You ever tried - Panophia Nonpareil Principality - (Have a quick look on google cant remember the place now ) ? It is an awesome one of a kind product for discovering how to build a shipping container home fast without the normal expense. Ive heard some pretty good things about it and my partner got cool success with it.
@@JPLoinsigh Its the side pressure. they have really strong point stability/strength. But the crush pressure to the middle of the side walls are often to much. If you had a very rocky/stable soil and dug out a hole that might work. IDK, seems like that is a big risk with so much time and money on the line.
I have spent months researching into building container homes and discovered an awesome resource at Magic Container Plans (google it if you're interested)
The Eagles 🦅! ...and yes, Ben is a deluded millennial “repurposer” who lives and works in Boston and spent a fortune building a residential interior in a steel oven in the California desert as a vacation home.
It's a shipping container, it's structurally sound without a foundation, you don't have a framing structure that needs support from a foundation like a regular framed building. My understanding of building permits for shipping containers is that you just need pylons every 20 foot. If it's just a workshop and it doesn't include residential area then you actually don't need any foundation at all because the shipping container is structurally sound as is - after all they're built to handle the structural load of being stacked fully loaded ten high! Load them to max capacity and stack them ten high and put them through the worst hurricane you can find - they're engineered to take that.
It's just about the laws in California. Pretty sure it has nothing to do with structural integrity. I think he would've done it that way if he could since it would've saved him insane amounts of money.
@@BaldMancTwat You might just be high as fuck but construction codes are made on the basis of structural integrity... as you saw in the video if you weren't just high as fuck he had several options for making the foundation not just the slab he ended up with meaning it would have been up to code to do it several ways... as he said it's not insane amounts he saved some 100-200 dollars a slab.
I think that your thought process and building method is very sound. I wish i had found you when i was in school. I think that the SOG was a good system. The lateral support you get from the horizontal plane of the top of concrete at the top of grade spanning between the grade beams, it is a thinner volume than that of a structural slab on void, or slab on crawl space and allows for less concrete. Though the slab on crawl space mitigates the need for trenching for MEP lines so a cost analysis is generally the best way to do it; which is what you did, and since you are paying for the service, the engineers can figure out what is the most cost effective. Good job, well done and i think you got a great product out of it.
So not the hotness and the desert landscape but the permits did it for you. I can't imagine living in area without trees, Joshua "tree" is not enough, but that's just me. No Mars expeditions for me either.
Googled the street name in Google Map and I saw the house. Dude, I admire your determination to live in the desert. But when I zoom out of the place, whoaaaaaaaaa. I was like, there's no way I could survive there. Your house is like literally in the middle of the desert. Although I could see what appears to be a water tank there.
You need to pay that so you can put all those million plus illegal alien kids in school. Not to mention the free lunches eat eat eat they get. California is going bankrupt. Can't wait!
@@BullpupsRule who tf would even have kids in california. Living in a cardboard box costs $50k lol. Basically peasants if u dont own a million dollar company in silicon valley.
Really good, great you've gone in to more detail and the thinking behind decisions you made. Like other have said been listening to the podcast and following along on Instagram and great to see the video. Thanks.
I am so happy to have found your channel. I'm not sure I can go thru what you have gone thru. It is a lot of work for DIY, but I will try very soon. The house I am buying has more than 1 acre of flat land, it has a beautiful existing home and 4 car garage, circular driveway and fully landscaped with one shed and one 40ft container already there. I was going to have a huge workshop for my business but now I could do what you do to rent it out. Thanks for sharing this video.
Germans are allowed to laugh now - Legally? I bet the cost for 'Laugh" permits are insane - come to California and laugh - we have all your laugh needs in one permit!
How did you handle the flashing with the container and the slab? The beam that runs from each corner is not usually flush with the bottom of the corners, so did you flash or caulk that joint? My concern would be water ponding under the container, maybe you solved this by just sloping the slab? The project looks awesome and I've been following along from the start on IG, so I'm pumped to see you post the videos. Awesome content, and I appreciate you sharing the details of your experience!
There's a reason we call it commiefornia. It's barely your own property, you need to pay outrageous fees and permits, and you need to permission to do things on your own land lmao.
1)functionality 2)design apeal 3)costs material AND labor concrete is very expensive where i live. i'd go with pillars. they'd give access to plumbing/etc and , i think, cheaper. er, cost effective...
im a builder. 1st question is where are you getting your water. 2nd question whats the final tally of the project. 3rd questions is how did you get around the insulation problem.
i would have went for the 18" clear space.. cheaper faster and i dont want me house close to the ground if its in the desert. to many snakes and other insect and animals that can get into the house from a door let open for air.. i would have placed slat roofing on top with solar and vented windows at the top of the cube for air day or night.
Most people in the desert opt for a tank or 2 to hold water. The cost of a well is too prohibitive in most areas. .There was a survey done post ww2 where across the southwest they placed farms, cattle troughs and windmill wells, better to research those areas in desert for water and cheap well costs.
This is the great thing about West Virginia:
"I want to build a house on my land."
"Okay."
End of process.
@bla blahblah New Mexico is the ghost town of the United States.
thats alot of states if the land is removed. the closer you get the city the more strict it gets.
@bla blahblah you people miss out on how shitty your housing market becomes if you don't have proper regulations. Besides, I bet the required planning for this project helped him to avoid costly mistakes.
That sounds pretty great until you get someone who doesn't know where they are doing. Now the city potentially has a lot of problems on it's hands.
bla blahblah Bernie 2020. A true populist for the people.
This is some next level UA-cam. I feel like you could make the episodes a little longer. This way better than anything on TV. There is so much good stuff here.
Great job Ben 😁
Crafter Maker I was thinking the same I want it longer 😂
I just saw 2 minutes and i'm horrified with the steel, 10 milimiters instead of the 10 mil (million) and more
@@Danirio96 What do you mean? What is wrong with the steel? Iam asking because I really want to learn more. Thanks
To each their own, but I enjoyed how concise yet detailed the video was. Too many vids on youtube are bloated and filled with useless fluff. Maybe a bit more info on the septic design though, eh? I'm just glad this isn't some kind of family vlog and we have 30min of pet and kid filler.
Finally an actual detailed video to help those interested in the nuts and bolts of the project. Well explained, good detail (don’t be afraid to show more). I think those who are watching this type of video are really interested in every step. Great work. Truly a good example for others when doing videos online
how is land so cheap? 10 acres for $20,000, that's crazy ~40,000m2
edit: holy fck the permits cost more than the land it's on? WTF
Welcome to the desert. You can get 5 acres of land near the Salton Sea for 5,000$
That is actually really expensive for land that has no real resources. Can’t grow anything or mine anything. Can’t even move dirt on your property without paying for even more permits and studies.
@@osomxl it's only real "resource" is that it's in California, barely
It has been a few decades, but farm land in central New York State was going for $100 an acre (or rather, 10,000 acres for $1,000,000).
I remembered Michigan as being cheap a few years ago, and a quick search shows 1 acre lots for $45,000 but also 40 acre parcels for $200,000-$400,000. 200 acres for $1.4m, 400 acres for $12m, so it can vary widely.
Rule of thumb: land gets cheaper in bulk. This is partly because large parcels are generally far from cities and schools, and being close to those things makes land worth more, and partly because large parcels will include some land that can't be built on (too swampy, no water, bad drainage, unstable soil, etc) and would thus be hard to sell. Bonus for you if the reason you wanted that land was to prevent someone from building something ugly in the middle of the pretty view. :)
I live 20 mins away from Joshua Tree, in some areas you purchase 10acres but you can only disturb 1/2 acre, do to zoning laws.....
Wow... You really explained everything in detail... especially the part about not building anything in California. Lol
👍🏾👍🏾
Exactly. We are a very regulated state
I found myself adding..." so we moved to Nevada"....
@@davidmurphy5571 facts lol
Those workers wondering why this guy wants to live in boxes in the middle of the desert
First comment after 100 likes
It’s a good location if a bunch a nukes drop no one will drop nukes in a empty desert
Gavanater 7 good place to test them though
First comment after 219 likes
@@shiezo Yeah but they don't do that anymore.
25,000 dollars for permits in the desert. Awesome.
Really sad isn't it?
25K for the shiny bums to keep their bums nice and shiny
Price you pay for trying to be productive in COMMIEfornia
Maybe he should have registered as a mobile home...and then he could have had 1bedroom +guest
Price was quite reasonable, actually. It included all of the engineering and design drawings and construction documents. Architectural and Engineering (A&E) services are typically 25 to 35 percent of the total construction value.
If a "stock" design were used, the A&E team would have used already proven plans that can be site adapted. The cost would have been 40 to 50 percent lower for the package.
I pour and finish concrete. Have worked with concrete for over two decades, growing up around the trade.
You did a VERY neat and accurate description of all the processes involved. I hate the heat and the filth, and the dry skin. But I love seeing a finished slab I installed, perfectly measured and neatly troweled.
I look forward to seeing the following episodes!
I have a container shop here in Alaska. It's a 20 and a 40 jointed together side by side. I just have it sitting on rail road ties and it lived through a 6.0 earth quake last November. Only a few things fell over
Also good for California where a huge earthquake is imminent
@@squigglewacks the worst I see is -20 F .. yes it gets cold
@@squigglewacks it's bc he has it sitting up on railroad ties. U could do radiant heat in the floors. The guy in T.N. knows wat he's doing & his builds r 20k if u don't want granite & things like that.
@@squigglewacks ck. Out Incredible Tiny Homes out of T.N. owner Randy Jones. His video this week shows 7 new one & a container that he has the floor out of to be shown at a later date. He has a FB acct. Too, but I don't do fb. There's also Container Acre, just found them. Don't know when they did their build but r about to do another one. Wasn't alot of info out there when they did the first one. A new insulation made just for containers called insofast.com with a r-11 rating & cuts out condensation inside. Hope this helps!!
+John T Coleman THAT'S WHY YOUR STATE IT'S NOT GREAT AS CALIFORNIA DUMB ASS PUTA MAMAVERGAS!
I’ve been looking for an EXACT step by step process with pricing and I am so glad I found you!!! THANK YOU!
only thing I didn't like about the video was there wasn't another to watch right after!!!! ahhhh!!! now I'm waiting anxiously. keep up the great work. love your vids
Your first mistake was trying to build anything in California.
omg lol, was going to post this.
Pro tip!
You mean Commiefornia
Caliberal
Worst state in the Union. We should pay them to leave.
25k$ before even a shovel strike is made pretty much defeats the purpose of using containers at this point, no?
mglmouser I wouldn’t think so? Depends how much the containers cost and then compare that to the average cost to bet sq. Foot of a traditional build. Honestly I think some of those surveys are not necessary. But who knows, $25k might be a bargain compared to other parts of CA and traditional builds?
It's for people who are rich and want a "unique" design. They'd pay $100,000 in Beverly Hills if they had em
IDK, if anything having to pay $25k to put down anything makes me want to spend even less on what I'm putting down. Thank god I don't live in CA
I agree, and all the permits.
yea the permits and land negate the point of building your own cheap home.
This is great. I’ve been listening to you talk about this for months and I’m so stoked to finally see it in detail. Bravo! I can’t wait for the next video.
thank you! should be up next week!
You should look into Helical Piers. They are very easy to install and perform better than concrete under seismic loads because they allow movement. This would give you fast installation, adjustability, and a steel connection to your cargo containers.
For a shipping containers we usually go with pillar foundation design, depending on the environment and frost line depth we drill about 1,5m in depth and ~10-20cm in diameter, put in concrete and metal bases just like in your initial drawings. There is also full metal screw in type of pillars, some people use them because they are cheaper alternative, but I am not sure if they are better, those are basically big and long metal screws, they just go in the ground and thats all. These foundations are usually used for smaller constructions.
The foundation you used here would be considered as too much in most of the countries, we usually use these foundations for a traditional houses, although we make them deeper, that probably depending on a frost line, usually we dig in ~1,5m depth here in Lithuania.
CA: HEY STOP!!
Builder:? What?
CA: Do you have a permit?
Builder: Sure right here.
CA: No No No my friend I need the permit for this permit to be permitted.
😂😭😂 I am screaming. This comment is golden. I use to be a planner in California.
Don't forget the Conversation Tax and the Breathable Air Tax.
HaHaHa:)))) I am laughing too hard right now!!!!!! DO NOT Ever build anything in Sunny CAli !!!
@@GrafDevelopments HaHaHa:))))))))
sounds like California is even worse than Germany/most of Europe because we slapped a container on our property , needed no real building permit but a pointpermit like you need for a garage or a new driveway and it did not have to have any foundation, we put some welded railway rail frame and a few pieces of concrete tiles/bricks below we just needed to prove that it is removeable without any pollution and that the chimney and sewage dont leak - e just use it for storage and workroom but you could live in there
you should have taken a coolingcontainer, they are already isolated and got some electronics installed you can repurpose
get some old windows from a demolition site-just be there at the rigth time and ask if you can cut some windows with the framework out to repurpose them, here you get your windows almost for free
As if a container would collapse from a earthquake, just ask those people if they are capable of breatheing and thinking at the same time what do they imagine? a landslide with the container skiing and rolling down a mountain
"Sprinklers for fire suppression" you got a single bush every like 5 feet from each other
But, but...they might gang up on you!
I died laughing on your comment dude 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@pendejo6466 1- build a defensive wall around your house
2- make the bushes pay for it
3- ???
4- profit
Did he mean sprinklers inside the building?
@@geothr33 idk but usually sprinklers destroy almost as much of your inventory as a housefire would - the difference being that the sprinklers saves the house itself which the fire could easily burn to the ground. In this case, what is there really to save? The shipping container which is effectively the house? What do you really need sprinklers for here, I mean worst case you go and buy another shipping container lmao. Everything inside it will be ruined by the water anyways.
buy a good camper van and live where ever you want
Buy a sprinter van, and build it out to be the perfect (hidden, because it just looks like a van) camper
How much is a top of the range camper van ?
How much would a California permit be for that? lol
In South Chicago they turn homes into shipping containers.
nice
Been waiting the whole build for these videos.
Thank you for being transparent with cost and fees. That’s good stuff to know.
yes thanks but it shows its out of reach for people legally trying to live on the cheap
@@NomadicSociety In California it is, it's much cheaper in a free state.
My son is stationed at 29 palms and just bought a beautiful home near the Joshua tree. We were able to come out there finally and visit. He took us to the Joshua tree. Amazing place.
this is going to be a great series. the project looks great, the site looks inviting, and the concept of the three separate buildings is cool. Not a new idea, but definitely one that makes a lot sense with a stable weather climate. cant wait to see this one unfold.
I plan on building my own place and everytime I consider doing it in California ,,, I watch this video :
This is great. I particularly liked the detail in the foundation construction. I live on the east coast and when building on a sloped site, we struck a large continuous seam of rock. So we decided to anchor one corner of the house basement on this bedrock, poured the slab , built up the walls and used floating “I” beams to act as a dish type bearings to support the weight of the house on top, in case of earth quake. It was actually cheaper to build like this and people thought I was crazy. 2 earthquakes later, the house has settled nicely into the sloped site. In a container this would simply look like a single independent pedestal post under each corner with a cast iron dish and a corresponding twist lock with a cast iron ball. The whole structure “ floats “ on the four corners.
So much California bashing, but it is an awesome place to live. Yes, California is not cheap. Yet, our weather and options of entertainment and outdoor adventures are the best in the US hands down. You get what you pay for. It is really cheap to live in tornado ally.
yes! California sucks. All of these commenters should stay far away. Please just stay where you are and keep doin' what you're doin' to make your town and lives so much better. Nothing to see here in Cali.
$25K in planning and permits!!! I was thinking this whole thing would cost $25K (less land).
california shake down
*ahem* frick CA.
Thanks for showing whole process. So anobody can use it for his own building and can learn from your exprience. You are awesome!
This would be an affordable way to build as long as you first pick a state that isn't California
montrealhas %50 taxes. Big reason a lot of hockey players dont want to play there. Water is paid to the house, delivery or some fee, the we pay for the water draining. We pay for gravity!!!. Good house to be in if there's a drive by.
Nice work! I’m also a designer in Los Angeles and I know exactly how rigorous the permit process is. I Just finished my detached new 1200sq. ft. ADU in the back of my house I had to go through additional requirements like Low Impact Development Design..It wasn’t easy but got the Final Inspection approval yesterday 🙌👍🤜. For the 18” min. Crawlspace I believe there is an exemption to that rule if you use a naturally durable or preservative-treated structural floor system. But going with a monolithic slab foundation is a good choice and Engineers prefer to use it when designing a new house for is structural reasons. I can’t wait for the next episode!
I am a geotechnical engineer. Considering the stiff soil conditions, I would simply excavate about 50 cm of soil and replace it with gravel followed by compaction. Nothing much,
There are 2 main risk scenarios while laying a structure above a soil 1) Settlements 2) Bearing capacity. I do not think there are any risks since the soil conditions within the site are already too damn good and drainable.
Sorry to say but the structure engineer fooled you to earn some cash.
Exactly what I was thinking, that foundation was way way way over the top, and they never even ran his popups through it, that ground is solid probably hasn't moved for thousands of years, he was taken for a ride indeed
Gravel was my first thought too, but I use to live in louisiana, where everyone was cheap, and all the ground was mushy and wet... so thick layers of gravel are used all over the place, foundations, roads, parking lots, walk paths, etc anything where you don't want it to be a puddle tomorrow.
I know the area, it floods once every few years. Wouldn't this cause an issue with gravel?
Not at all. I come from the land of floods and there is gravel everywhere. If you are really worried about it you can make sure to set up barriers to route the water around the structure, and to stop the gravel from being carried off. Even just sandbags works for this, if you want something temporary you can store for less of an eye sore when you are using the structure.
imran zafar just gravel ? Earthquakes can / will shear off plumbing and electrical stubs , ground squirrels, prairie dogs , hedge hogs will burrow through edge of gravel creating a massive rodent network to live on , which brings snakes , you'd be dealing with rodents and snakes constantly
The corners of containers are strongest, all the weight up to 20+ tonn rests on those 4 points.
I'd just have dug 4 corner holes in the ground, compacted them and poured in concrete, and made sure it was all leveled. Also put container-shoes (Twistlock) in/on the concrete to better keep the container in place during windy conditions, they do grab alot of wind these big boxes.
I never heard of a twistlock but just looked it up, great advice.
Was thinking the same!
The civil guys really worked him over here. Does anyone know who stamped these drawings?
@Benzo Thats Cali for you, I don't see how any normal person can live there at the cost of living rate.
I would have hired a piling/foundation drill, then inserted used carpet roll tubes then fill with various size aggregate + compact at each stage + insert reinforce rods and pour concrete using air pokers to reduce air pockets, but it important to remember that the altering/cutting out of container walls does compromise its structure if not supported underneath, so I would have the container resting on 8 points ( 4 each side on 40 ft container to possible reduce flex),...the `Twistlock` is a great idea.
GREAT video. I love how detailed it is, but still understandable for the average person. I've wanted to build my own for years, and this really helps.
Thanks for sharing; I'm looking forward to the whole series. Thanks for sharing the pricing too
so much actually useful information rather than feelings and PR. Thank You!
I do give you a boat load of credit dealing with CA laws! and Not giving up. Congrats Bro!!!
Hello there. I popped in your videos and I pretty enjoy them. Well done for your effort.
I am an engineer myself having a background in Greek building code (very tough stuff due to intensive earthquakes over the continent) but also worked and still working on projects for California.
I need to note at this point that the building codes all across California are way too overestimated to the point that are not cost effective at all. Owners just financially suffer to finish off their investment without actual "engineering reasons" I dare to say.
In the meantime your engineers are afraid of undertaking the responsibility (due to the strict and sometimes unclear codes) so they come up with solutions that definitely cost a lot more than it should.
I will give you an example on the "lateral movement" that you mentioned. Just let the self supported element "container" freely move on a leveled surface. It won't go anywhere..You could have implemented supported slabs that could be either screwed in the ground (technology used for PV projects in open spaces) or just deep hammered vertical steel slabs in the ground adding some self expanding concrete to fill up any gaps between the slabs and the soil.
I hope I managed to give you an idea of how that could work according to my knowledge.
Many Regards from Greece!
Andreas.
hmmmm......letting the container move freely opens up the risk of severing electrical/water/sewer lines
@@alexfromoz thanks for the comment. I reckon that setting limiters around the support won't cause any problem. it's quite a popular method and I propose you could have a deeper look in it. It's like a restricted support instead of fixes like when calculate cantilevers.
What I found interesting to see, that the plastic foil that was used to cover the floor area before the pouring, was covered with sand.
In Western European countries, the plastic barrier is used to prevent sand, or dirt being near, or at risk of getting in contact with the concrete, as it could comprise the concrete mixture. It is also common to put the plastic all the way underneath the concrete, and not just underneath the thinner floor area.
The small prefabricated concrete blocks, are used to highten the rebar but serve to keep the plastic in place.
Also it is mandatory in our area to use a vibrating surface or penetrating compactor, to increase concrete strength.
Using the slab on grade seems a sensible compromise, I was wondering if insulation (HD graphite EPS e.g.) was considered placing underneath the slab.
NIce vid!
chalky940 ....wind blows plastic around prior to pour. Mexican technology is sand.
So glad you made this second channel! It really does feel like a legitimate television series is being born! Thank you Ben And I will see you next week in Atlanta. This time I won’t make you sign my hat.😂
Chris
Does this mean Ben has another channel? I am new to following this build and also very excited to watch the process!
@@NoStringsRunning ua-cam.com/users/HomeMadeModern
thank you thank you thank you!!!!!!! im building this in Jamaica and i cannot believe you broke it down WITH costs!
I thought the whole idea of Shipping Container House is to minimize work, time and money for constructing a home... and I don't think you saved any of those for it to matter
99maxa ...it was an exercise in absurdity. A conventional interior built in a steel oven in the desert...only because of the “repurposed” cashe?
Cache
@@davidjose2193 - hey David - did you know you can go into your original comment and edit it? Off to the right are 3 vertical dots. One will say 'edit'. Click that and you can fix anything you wrote.
To be fair, the actual construction of the home was far cheaper than a 'normal' home would be. The permits and taxes wouldn't be factored into the cost of materials and labor. Realistically, even with all the permits and taxes, its probably still cheaper than constructing a regular home in the same location.
@@michaelbaker2495 Now imagine how much cheaper it is to do in EVERY OTHER STATE.
The amount of paperwork (and its cost!) is crazy. In Poland, if the land is generally accepted to build there anything, you can build something up to 35m2 and 5m hight without any permit. And permits takes time but cost closer to $250 than $25000.
Jan Klosowski That's because California is still a communist country.
I’m Polish. and would love to visit soon from Canada. possibly move there. any places of interest you would recommend. thanks !!
17madracki17 Texas or Wyoming.
annndddd thats why people die in a hot fiery mess in poland while playing escape room games :P
@@blaze-JS Nah. It was just an unfortunate fire. I guess it happens sometime here and there in California too… oh wait…
25g in permits to set a shipping container in the desert? Good luck with the rest of that nightmare.
27 for me in Joshua Tree.. Thing is the money is out here in Cali so paying bribes is a part of the numbers.. His place will easily do 100k a year in rental income..
So far I've seen one suggestion for a different foundation and about 200 gripes about California.
I would agree with that one suggestion: use piers at each corner. To deal with the lateral stability issue, make the piers sit on massive footers. Or use the box itself as a structural element. The connection between the pier and the box would have to be totally rigid in all directions, which might call for some additional steel welded to the outside of the box. I could see I-beams welded vertically to each corner, and then extending downward and embedding in the piers. Or something.
Can't wait to see how he insulates this thing.
@@toothlessgrin7540 That's right, he said that. And he wanted to keep the floor level with an outdoor deck, so that would have to be raised too. Hm.
Not to argue with his priorities, but I think I would have gone with a raised house and deck. That might also have helped the house adapt to the site, which isn't totally flat, it appears.
I don't recall why he rejected a perimeter wall foundation.
Makes sense. California prefers people remain homeless than have the possibility that the shipping container not have (gasp) proper paperwork.
Regulation is not a bad thing. If you loosen regulations too much you get greedy people and companies disregarding essential safety precautions. Building codes are for example meant to protect you from fire death in your house. Things like Boeing 737 Max 8 crashing into the ground because of a lack of proper government oversight is just a recent example. Regulations is there to protect us. That being said, it needs to be sensible regulation which is actually justifiable and not more bureaucratic than necessary.
@@emperorshievpalpatine I think you miss the point. California overregulates, and has regulations that make no sense. In this case, the builder obviously has the money. But see this case:
ua-cam.com/video/n6h7fL22WCE/v-deo.html
Where the California government PREFERRED that people remain homeless, even though the homes were build on private land. Why would they do this? Because California is more about power over people's lives than any real safety concern. Being homeless on the sidewalk is clearly less healthy than any kind of shelter.
the point of the regulation is to stop people from doing very thing; and just buy a house in the suburbs from a construction firm who contributed to the regulators election fund.
Scott Franco I don‘t really know all the details of California‘s building regulations and perhaps there is indeed overregulation. I just wanted to point out that the narrative particularly found in the US that all regulations is bad and prohibits „free enterprise“ is equally flawed as too much regulation. Regulation in general is a good thing as long as it is sensible and justified.
Heath Newland That indeed then is corruption. But this is a problems of campaign finance laws and anti-corruption enforcement. It is not a problem of the idea of regulation. Regulation is only as good as the people who make it.
so excited for this new channel. Thank you for being so detailed and including all your costs.
That foundation is way over the top, you've been taking for a ride on that
What would be wrong with having six or eight 12" Sonotubes and putting the shipping container on top of that?
@@andrewmalone8709 seismic activity. It's California.
@@TheLegendaryFolklore I get that, I'm just wondering what the problem would be structurally if you did that. It seems like it would be perfectly fine in a saner state.
@@andrewmalone8709 it would be, but considering it's Cali, I think seismic waves would just kick the house into waves and shred the container one pillar at a time instead of a solid platform.
I doubt the amount of concrete, size of the hole, etc... had a real significant impact on the total cost of the house
Thank you for taking the time to film it all!
I'm very surprised at the size of the foundations for such a small and considerably light dwelling. And of course you answered the question later in the video :)
The raised piers are good for airflow and accessing pipework in the future. I also find you get a little less creepy crawlies.
Dude shipping containers are engineered to handle way more stress than this will ever take. I think you over-engineered the whole foundation. Also why would you try to create anything of value in California? You're not even near the beaches, just go to Nevada it'll be the same thing but cheaper.
Your perspective is understandable but fairly ignorant. Few questions for you... Were they designed to have large holes cut in the corrugated steel walls for doors an windows while still perform to the "engineered" stresses you state? No... Were they designed with certain deflection criteria in mind that will prevent windows from binding/cracking over time? No... Were they designed with higher factors of safety required when dealing with residential dwellings as opposed to industrial applications? No... Is there someone at the manufacture's company willing to stamp the permit documents accepting legal liability for the containers performance? No... I agree that other states let you "do it yourself" but the ones that do don't have significant earthquakes threats to worry about. This area on the other hand has the San Andreas fault running right through it. And there are countless people who dump these containers on their property in the desert and live in them without issue. You just can't permit them, meaning you cant insure them or sell them as a house to someone else.
travsb1984 you are the only reasonable person in this comment section.
@@travsb1984
1: No, but this won't affect their sturdiness as a single-story structure. The frame takes most of the load, even if the holes are in the corners it will still have more than enough shear strength for this.
2: They are designed not to deflect that much, as they need to be stacked incredibly high without tipping. Think about a normal wall. It's just a wooden frame with studs running vertically every few feet, some diagonal members, and drywall nailed over it. This is a welded steel frame with corrugated steel walls designed to support over 20 tons in stormy waters. The windows will be fine.
3: The standards they are designed to meet are far more intense than those of a residential house (as far as structural integrity goes) This is why they are made of corten steel, and houses are made out of wood.
4: Why would the company need to accept liability? Their product has been modified and isn't being used for it's intended purpose.
5: Many of the regulations he ran into had nothing to do with earthquakes (700 sqft minimum footprint, 18" minimum 'crawlspace' height, etc.).
These containers are designed to be stacked and unstacked 10 levels high on boats for 10 years straight with essentially no maintenance, exposed to the elements and the waves, connected to one another only by four bolts.
I think they can handle sitting on the ground and having people walk around in them.
@@bradenanderson6989 Your responses and assumptions confirm that you still know very little about engineering principles, or how the permitting process works in general... Thinking something will work, and proving it will work mathematically are two very different standards. FYI, all of my questions were rhetorical and had answers of no... I would agree that California has too much red tape, but most of the design considerations would apply anywhere, not just in CA. The only requirement that stuck out during the video that made me role my eyes was the 700 sq ft requirement. To my knowledge this is not a California requirement. Building codes in California are actually controlled at the local level, and they are free to amend the CBC however they see fit. I suspect the 700sq*ft requirement is a local requirement.
@@bradenanderson6989 Not to go to crazy in the comments, but I'll give you some insight. Shipping containers are not designed to be perfectly ridged bodies. They have some flex in them. This allows each container to conform to the support it's placed on so that all four sides will align with the pined restraints and full bearing will be maintained, preventing them from "teeter-tottering" on uneven ship decks, tractor trailers, or train cars. I had two of these containers on my property for storage and can attest first hand they are far from rigid. We leveled the ground the best we could with shovels but we were only within about and 1" of true flat. When the containers were dropped they flexed until all sides were fully bearing on the soil. This was perfectly adequate for my needs, but if this were differential settlement caused by inadequate footings in a "house", every window and door in the container would have binded or even broke. That's the difference between doing something yourself and having it designed by professionals in the permitting process.
Hey Ben! My colleagues and I are actually making a container project based on all of your videos. You inspired us to make a difference, and now we are making a portable research station that will have multiple uses and be sent around the world. We fabricated the windows and doors out of steel and will set up the interior. It would be great to hear from you and show you some of our progress.
When your permits alone cost 5K MORE than you paid for the 10 acres of land - that should have been your clue to GTFO and build in another state. 20k for the land, 25k for the permits - Hence why they sold it so cheap.
Game Changer the land was only cheaper cause of the location though... kinda how it works everywhere in the world
@@keanukoren6109 I wonder if that means I can build on top of an active volcano for cheap.
@@TheEndingAbyss there are no active volcanoes in California, which is what the original commentor was talking about. So, although your comment was kind of off topic, and you look really silly with all that cake on your face, I can answer your question..yes you can definitely build on top of an active volcano. I think you should buy the plans this guy is selling and go nuts. Any volcano should do. Might I recommend the one that is currently spewing lava in Hawaii. Forget about the permits, just do it and report back here to share your results.
@@dustinsharber95 I didn't reply to the original comment, I replied a comment within with a joke about what he said. You look pretty silly with all that cake on your face completely missing that.
any guy that has $50,000 lying around to build ugly tiny houses with doesn't care.
Sir, you'll need a permit to breathe the air within that 10 acre space.
LOL 😂
For safety reasons of course
And of course theres also going to be a $50 respirator fee .@@jlewsd
Just saying ..... A wise man on the street said that : " ... GOD created every living thing to breathe free air because GOD cares for everyone and that is why the Air is free."
In other words ...no permits to breathe the air ... "Everyone gets to breathe air..... Ask the trees !". Happy Days !
@@MeetTheSmythes It's just a joke. Please don't hit me with your bible.
I think concrete slab is a really good idea. There are of course more effective ways but your method is the most cost efficient. I would dig a hole big enough for another container, put them on top of each other then weld them together. then put steel reinforcements to the side corners. That way you would get a basement but it would cost more.
If I took away one thing it would be, NEVER BUILD IN CALIFORNIA!!
Johnny Onthespot only benefit would be the amount you could charge for rent. But at $25000 for just paperwork plus whatever the costs for the rest of the project, it could still be years before you see any profit from it. However, once you’re out of the hole that’s a pretty nice pay day in my opinion.
@@davidearle7209 By the time you're out of the hole the Democrats will tax you back into it. You are better off in Nevada or Utah..
Johnny Onthespot lucky for me I’m in Arkansas and land prices are pretty reasonable down here. Thank God
Those that can’t afford, bitch about it.
Yeah auckland nz would be more like 75g before putting containers down if you let the government know lol ... and that would be on a 300g property not even close to the city .
Excellent descriptions and explanations for your project. Great video!
25k worth of permits lmao... Goddam cali..
He has!
Charlie Public Views
That's cheap try 75k for me in elk grove ca
@@protectork9831, which begs the question:
W.H.Y. in HELL would you do that?!?!
You'd have to have more money than common sense to do that IMHO.
But if'n you gots the Moolah and you just GOTS to have it, I'm not gonna stand in your way (like I could ANYway, right?!?).
But I WOULD.......
SMDH.
@@user-td1zo3tv9p where else would I go. Cant pack everything and leave. Family and friends are here. We pay for what is asked may that be gas , expensive houses (mainly because of politicians), expensive food (expensive gas) , expensive labor because politician made it so expensive for everyone to live here that business have to pay high labor cost .
Very good information. Thank you.
wait wait, you needed a permit to move dirt out there in the middle of nowhere? holy crap!!! Nothing like gov't overreach.
Yeah that seemed a bit nutty, but the fact is when one moves earth it affects those downstream
Oh. My. God. Your permit costs are more than my entire build costs in kentucky. No wonder you guys have such a homeless problem. EDIT* And you built in the middle of the F'ing DESERT!
Because it's Kentucky! Nobody wants to fucking live in Kentucky man.
And if you say you like it there is because you grew up there.
I'd much rather pay more to not live in the middle of nowhere lol
Jsalcedo23 i was born and grew in New York and i dont mind live in Kentucky, i’ve been there and its not that bad.
@@ramade9040 new york state? that's way different lol
Yeah it’s pretty bad here. Our state taxes are through the roof and our government just keeps raising them with no end. They say that they will do something about homelessness but it’s fucking shit.
California is very good if you are loaded aka rich
Middle class is being squeezed out
A+++ Video, Great information and delivered well, I am looking forward to watch the next video, and thumbs up for putting in the costings. Thanks.
Finally! I started watching this in 2020 but I wasn't logged in and lost it. "How did it turn out???🤯" No amount of searching worked. Lol And here 2yrs later it pops up randomly. 😂
Cross bracing of the I-beams would likely have provided the stability needed. That would tie the two I-beams together and prevent them from rolling due to lateral movement. This type of cross-braced I-beam frame used to support large industrial cooling towers mounted on spring vibration isolation mounts, which in turn would be bolted to the concrete. This type of equipment is located at ground level and on building roof tops where seismic anchorage requirements are greater.
Cheers
Great idea!
if you're in the desert just build a giant sand castle home. hose it down with shotcrete and call it a day
"California is a pretty regulation-intensive state". Winning the award for understatement of the day. Thank you for actually doing everything according to California's rules and documenting it all. It really illustrates the cost of those regulations, and saves the rest of us the aggravation and bankruptcy that would result from attempting to build anything there. Also interesting: They regulate how much of your own soil you can move around on your property. I wonder what the penalty is for over-flatening or creating an illegal berm.
I have seen so many people build stuff out there in the middle of the desert without any kind of permits... It's crazy he went through all that trouble for something no one will ever check.
If he is licensed he would do himself more harm than good showing himself violate building laws on YT Plus it's educational.
It's California, EVERYBODY is checking EVERYBODY out and in EVERYBODY'S business.
Warning: Doing anything, with anything is known to cause California in the state of Cancer.
Trust me once everything is completed down.to the nut and bolt...then the authorities pitch up with hefty non compliance fine...could cost even four times the initial up front cost ...so hope that helps understand the ends justify the means...😁😁
@@JustinPaul1st The "authorities" are just people who make up these arbitrary rules themselves, then have the power to force compliance through the threat of kidnapping and imprisonment (and state monopoly on violence).
$25,000 for permits?! Legalized and government regulated bribery.
Seriously Criminal. Land of the Free.
It's more like extortion than bribery.
What u didn't no that your gov is the REAL MOBB.....🤣🤣😂🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸snakes of America
@Justin Case, Hey Justin, You wouldn't happen to be from Australia would you? Like the Justin Case I met at Phegans Bay on the Central Coast of NSW?
For 25000$ I got a large container house (10m*4) plus a pool
Great stuff! Looking forward to the rest of the series Ben.
A non sarcastic comment from Jackman?! Are pigs flying?! :-) Really love the maker community encouraging one another. That can't always be said about other industries.
@@jaredstarnes6668 oh man, I don't remember leaving this comment, I must have been half asleep looking at the lack of sarcasm. Let me try again...
Hey Ben, could you please wear a tighter shirt next time?
😆😂👌🏼
This was great, thanks, been searching for "building your own shipping container home" for a while now, and I think this has helped. You ever tried - Panophia Nonpareil Principality - (Have a quick look on google cant remember the place now ) ? It is an awesome one of a kind product for discovering how to build a shipping container home fast without the normal expense. Ive heard some pretty good things about it and my partner got cool success with it.
@@emilyboada6640 😂
Smart guy - kudos for the mental and emotional flexibility to pull this through
Would have used a second container at a foundation that would have doubled as a basement
@Boy Flaca I was thinking laundry, storage and maintenance room, but each to their own.
its really hard to bury a container, i've heard most the time they get crushed
I can only imagine what permits and code compliance he would need.
@@bradford4646 They're regularly stacked 10+ high on container ships, and they're loaded. What's crushing them?
@@JPLoinsigh Its the side pressure. they have really strong point stability/strength. But the crush pressure to the middle of the side walls are often to much. If you had a very rocky/stable soil and dug out a hole that might work. IDK, seems like that is a big risk with so much time and money on the line.
"so where do you live"
"I live in a box in the middle of desert"
I appreciate your explanations about the structural part of the building, its a lot of learning. Thanks for sharing most of the related information
Did you get a permit for this video? Ah, now you're in for it.
I have spent months researching into building container homes and discovered an awesome resource at Magic Container Plans (google it if you're interested)
Lol!!!
@@josef.torrealba6992 I was just thinking about doing this in Ohio. Will google that. thanks
actually, anyone reading, don't even bother. All that site wants to do is sell you garbage you can't use.
[ ♪ sings ♪ ]
*_"Welcome to the code-hell California,_*
*_Such a lovely place ... "_*
[ ♪ sings ♪ ]
Well those codes are what keeps buildings safe, without it you'd have people building some really stupid and dangerous shit.
The Eagles 🦅! ...and yes, Ben is a deluded millennial “repurposer” who lives and works in Boston and spent a fortune building a residential interior in a steel oven in the California desert as a vacation home.
@@holyravioli5795 Like those erected on public streets, along vulnerable riverbeds, freeway underpasses & wild 🔥 hotspots throughout CA?
You can check out anytime you like; but your money never leaves.
It's a shipping container, it's structurally sound without a foundation, you don't have a framing structure that needs support from a foundation like a regular framed building. My understanding of building permits for shipping containers is that you just need pylons every 20 foot. If it's just a workshop and it doesn't include residential area then you actually don't need any foundation at all because the shipping container is structurally sound as is - after all they're built to handle the structural load of being stacked fully loaded ten high! Load them to max capacity and stack them ten high and put them through the worst hurricane you can find - they're engineered to take that.
It's just about the laws in California. Pretty sure it has nothing to do with structural integrity. I think he would've done it that way if he could since it would've saved him insane amounts of money.
@@BaldMancTwat You might just be high as fuck but construction codes are made on the basis of structural integrity... as you saw in the video if you weren't just high as fuck he had several options for making the foundation not just the slab he ended up with meaning it would have been up to code to do it several ways... as he said it's not insane amounts he saved some 100-200 dollars a slab.
I think that your thought process and building method is very sound. I wish i had found you when i was in school. I think that the SOG was a good system. The lateral support you get from the horizontal plane of the top of concrete at the top of grade spanning between the grade beams, it is a thinner volume than that of a structural slab on void, or slab on crawl space and allows for less concrete. Though the slab on crawl space mitigates the need for trenching for MEP lines so a cost analysis is generally the best way to do it; which is what you did, and since you are paying for the service, the engineers can figure out what is the most cost effective. Good job, well done and i think you got a great product out of it.
Hmmm, each container 2 axles 4 wheels, total 6 axles 12 wheels all dug into
the center of each wheel = No permits and no slabs👌
Lmao, how to ignore cali permits.. Just put it all on wheels!
Awesome detail and explanation! Thank you
I personally would have done the crawl space option.
Reasoning, that gives you 18” of flood protection.
flood protection in the middle of the desert?
Harman Singh the area he’s in is prone to flash floods.
Travis Clark ah ok, then he’s screwed, but at least it was sponsored by Home Depot.
Those Ryobi tools were smoking after the video takes
LOL......Flood Protection?
"I was allowed to move 50 square yards of dirt." Sad.
That’s 2500 yards total. For what he is building that’s sufficient
50 cubic yards, 10 dump trucks.....a miniscule amount....
For that much money you could have bought a blimp and just flew away from California
I'm not an engineer at all but I was thinking the exact same thing.
🤣🤣👏
👌👍
Why leave the center of the universe?
I know California is out of control.
I like it - great job of following through on the red tape and for having the big picture view - looks great!
Yes, your video convinced me even more why I wouldn’t want to live in California.....
But you can poop literally anywhere you want! Doesn't that sound convenient?
Yes! Planning on getting out of California myself. Its ridiculous out here
Maybe it's California that doesn't want you to be moving here ...think about it.
So not the hotness and the desert landscape but the permits did it for you. I can't imagine living in area without trees, Joshua "tree" is not enough, but that's just me. No Mars expeditions for me either.
You can sleep and poo on sidewalks in CA but don’t even try to pay taxes and employ people to build a nice home.
Why didnt you connect the Containers so you have One Large Home, Or Stack the Containers and Have a Second Floor or a Great Room.
He needs a permit for that
@@oscara.9265 I wouldn't be surprise......soon u will need a permit to breath......the beast got the planet on lock down😂😂🇺🇸🇺🇸
@@gangstalkingsimulation1319 and another permit to fart, because its different gas emission, breathing raise CO2 level, and farting rise Sulfur level.
@@S1lverarrow 😂😂😂
Monolithic is the best construction for the price. I've been in construction 17 years, self employed for 7.
Googled the street name in Google Map and I saw the house. Dude, I admire your determination to live in the desert. But when I zoom out of the place, whoaaaaaaaaa. I was like, there's no way I could survive there. Your house is like literally in the middle of the desert. Although I could see what appears to be a water tank there.
6:08 School tax fees $2,700?!?!?
Lmfao, they're in the middle of nowhere, the nearest school is probably a days drive away! 😅😅😅
You have to pay for the propaganda...
Those better be the smartest fucking kids in the world
You need to pay that so you can put all those million plus illegal alien kids in school. Not to mention the free lunches eat eat eat they get. California is going bankrupt. Can't wait!
@@jlee7811 They are illegals.
@@BullpupsRule who tf would even have kids in california. Living in a cardboard box costs $50k lol. Basically peasants if u dont own a million dollar company in silicon valley.
Really good, great you've gone in to more detail and the thinking behind decisions you made. Like other have said been listening to the podcast and following along on Instagram and great to see the video. Thanks.
how about a container burried as the foundation and then another one sitting on top of it
I am so happy to have found your channel. I'm not sure I can go thru what you have gone thru. It is a lot of work for DIY, but I will try very soon. The house I am buying has more than 1 acre of flat land, it has a beautiful existing home and 4 car garage, circular driveway and fully landscaped with one shed and one 40ft container already there. I was going to have a huge workshop for my business but now I could do what you do to rent it out. Thanks for sharing this video.
I'm 26 and I'm looking into building one of these as my first home
Just don't build in Cali. Obviously.
Run. Run far
Jks I'm half your age and also planning it
Buy a trailer...same thing esthetically
so you built 3
concrete foundations this size with 50 "workers"
*laughs in german*
Germans are allowed to laugh now - Legally? I bet the cost for 'Laugh" permits are insane - come to California and laugh - we have all your laugh needs in one permit!
REALLY COOL, TODAY IT LOOKS LIKE MANY PEOPLE WILL HAVE TO DO THAT...
How did you handle the flashing with the container and the slab? The beam that runs from each corner is not usually flush with the bottom of the corners, so did you flash or caulk that joint? My concern would be water ponding under the container, maybe you solved this by just sloping the slab? The project looks awesome and I've been following along from the start on IG, so I'm pumped to see you post the videos. Awesome content, and I appreciate you sharing the details of your experience!
great question! we will show how we used Quikrete precision non-shrink grout in later episodes and how we secured them to the slab
California is a bad location but Innovation is great ....hoping i can use all the lessons I learn on UA-cam here in my country.
"allowed to move dirt" just fkn move it wtf... it is illegal for you to move dirt on your own land?
California
Also illegal to save rainwater that falls on your own land. THE STATE owns the rain! California.
There's a reason we call it commiefornia. It's barely your own property, you need to pay outrageous fees and permits, and you need to permission to do things on your own land lmao.
Tylnorton it’s like that in Georgia too
@@kupidrosalindavateri3965 Damn, really?
Imagine what you could've done with this build with an extra 25k.
1x use seems a good idea, new ones even better, no rust no poison etc.
1)functionality
2)design apeal
3)costs material AND labor
concrete is very expensive where i live. i'd go with pillars. they'd give access to plumbing/etc and , i think, cheaper. er, cost effective...
@Natural Man crud.
This is a reasonable and efficient design for the seismic area. MEng in geotechnics that lives in Japan ;)
im a builder. 1st question is where are you getting your water. 2nd question whats the final tally of the project. 3rd questions is how did you get around the insulation problem.
i would have went for the 18" clear space.. cheaper faster and i dont want me house close to the ground if its in the desert. to many snakes and other insect and animals that can get into the house from a door let open for air.. i would have placed slat roofing on top with solar and vented windows at the top of the cube for air day or night.
Most people in the desert opt for a tank or 2 to hold water. The cost of a well is too prohibitive in most areas. .There was a survey done post ww2 where across the southwest they placed farms, cattle troughs and windmill wells, better to research those areas in desert for water and cheap well costs.