Want to See the Human-Sized Hobbit House That Costs Less Than $5,000 to Build?

TheBlaze ^ | 11242011 | Liz Klimas

[TheDailyChange]

This is not some set left over from The Lord of the Rings. This hobbit house is an honest-to-goodness man-sized home. Not only does it fit a family of four, but it cost just over $4,650 to build.

[Professional Engineer]

ping

[Ladysforest]

LOL, same here.

[MasterGunner01]

What you do with the Intermodals is join them together (or stack them) to give you the space you need — much the same way double-wide house trailers do. If you join five 40x8-foot containers to a single 40x8-foot container (each one is 320 square feet) together, you get a rather nice 1,920 square foot (40x48-foot) living space. Another idea is arrange four 40x8-foot containers in a square with an open center. The containers can be the living areas off the center courtyard that can be totally enclosed and arranged internally to suit the owner's taste.

Now, I'll grant the containers are homely as all get out, but they are designed to go together and stack on each other or side-by-side or end-to-end. I think that there's a real and untapped market to recycle these containers into sturdy and available housing.

[gorush]

We built an earth-sheltered home and shop building w/ geothermal in-floor heating. (ICF w/ 8" conc. walls). So many people show up thinking we are liberals. It's always a fun interaction when it dawns on them.

[MasterGunner01]

You are quite right about corrosion damage. One of the reasons the Intermodals get retired is they live in a very corrosive environment at sea. That's why the shippers consider they have a life of so many years or voyages and then they are retired. However, the basic structure of the container remains sound and that's what you're buying.

If one container is badly damaged from corrosion or outside physical damage, then you just select a better one. Heavily damaged or otherwise unserviceable containers are recycled in any event. What's left are very sturdy aluminum or steel containers you can put together and customize at an affordable price.

I looked into this customization and there are several web-based companies that deal with all aspects of Intermodal container conversion into housing. It's not for everyone, but there are opportunities to be had here.

[Pipe Dog]

You may be on to something. People are erecting steel buildings and making homes out of them now. We're seeing more of that in our area lately. Garage and house together in one structure. Which was something the wife and I considered.

But I'm glad we made the command decision to build the basement house. We're dug in to the hill tighter than a tick on a dog. Virtually no exterior maintenance with two thirds being underground, easy to heat and cool and all one level. We're not getting any younger.

[OregonRancher]

Actually, the oldest hay bale structure in the mid west is a
two story hotel.

[Pipe Dog]

I've seen your place before on other threads....very nice!
We're just getting started on our basement house.

[gorush]

Looks like a very nice spot. Good luck with construction...it can be fun if one is not tt impatient.

[Pipe Dog]

Btw, did you see this?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2812576/posts

[Pipe Dog]

Oops...let me try this.

Oil Rigs Bring Camps of Men to the Prairie (Oil Jobs but no Housing in ND)

[MasterGunner01]

One of the sites I visited looked at the idea of using these containers for earth sheltered houses. The studies showed them to be quite efficient in this regard.

Over in Europe and Asia are several developments centered on using the Intermodal containers for both offices and apartments. I know London has done some very interesting developments. Some of these remodels are astounding in their creativity.

Other non-traditional housing I've considered is the Monolithic Dome home. The MD home is built on an inflatable membrane (that becomes the outside ‘skin’ of the home). Inside the dome, the walls are sprayed with several layers of insulating foam. The final layer of foam contains re-bar and it is then sprayed with shotcrete (sprayable concrete). The walls of MD homes are about a foot thick and they are impervious to almost all natural or man-made forces. (The walls are also proof against a .30-06 rifle at pointblank range.) Checkout the Monolithic Dome Institute site.

[Track9]

That is really great. Looks very good.. and cheap to run. Radiant floors have got to be some of the best heating. Is geothermal when you drill a deep well and run a closed loop system that takes residual heat from the ground and then uses heat exchangers to bring it up to 70 or so..? Runs off 3 phase 220 I imagine..?

I'd love to have the opportunity to build my own with everything I've learned. Of course the shop would be bigger than the house ;). Good job.

[gorush]

There are both open and closed loop systems. Ours is a closed loop with 500’ of coiled glycol-filled tubing ten feet deep out back. The evaporator and condenser change positions seasonally. There is also a fireplace for off-grid heating.

[gorush]

I don’t think it requires 3 phase.

[MasterGunner01]

I had seen that headline. You could make some very good housing in ND using Intermodal containers. The U.S. Armed Forces are doing it in Iraq and Afghanistan right now. There are manufacturers and suppliers who can do these conversions as we speak. What's needed is sites, site prep, and rough-in of sanitary and utilities. Then truck the converted containers to the site and set them in place with a crane. Hook-up sanitary and utilities, finish off the interiors and you've got a working camp in no time. There are plenty of containers. They could even setup container conversion lines in ND for containers that are locally available (or could be brought in by rail).

You can use the modified containers for field offices, messing, sleeping, and recreational facilities. They are efficient, easy to heat and cool, easily fitted with showers and lavatories, and are extremely fast to get operational.

[Constitution Day]

I think someone needs to order up a Thermobaric Candygram for this hippie. ;)