Are Buried Shipping Containers a Good Idea for a Bunker? NO, and Here is Why!

It is almost impossible to visit a survival or preparation oriented website and not see either an article or advertisement for using shipping containers as underground bunkers.

They always look amazing – finished floors, a happy family inside, clean with more than ample supplies to last a veritable lifetime; some even have their own air circulation systems so you can control the climate.

That is great if you live in a fantasy where actual life rarely interrupts your fanciful bliss!

If, however, you reside on planet earth with the rest of us, you may want to view the articles and advertisements with a bit of skepticism.

The simplest reason is that shipping containers are simply not meant to have tons of dirt heaped on them and have pressure exerted on them from all sides.

But there are a few other reasons you may want to curb your enthusiasm and on the next page, we cover them.

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118 Comments

  1. Stephen Carter said:

    Furthermore, a proper skeleton inside is a lot like shoring up on mine. And it should never caved “all the way into the skeleton”… As the skeleton is formfitting to the inner walls of the shipping container

  2. Charlie Bridges said:

    The only reason I don’t have one is the water table here is 6″ below surface most of the year.
    Every article I have ever read covered shoring up the sides and roof.

  3. Sean Mel said:

    Just spray the whole thing with rhino-liner or something similar

  4. Matt Carrasquillo said:

    You’re supposed to only place them in the ground and put a concrete roof supported above the container, not like dirt on top that’s the wrong way to do it unless you fortify it

  5. Jonathan Stanley said:

    Disagree with your article. Why not visit Camp Lejeune’s Mount Facilities and see what has been done with them! You can do just about any thing with them. You bury it 30′ in the ground you will have issues. You have to seal them up, especially the floor system, under and inner. The whole thing. You can bury one and make a bunker. Just wouldn’t go more than a couple feet of dirt on top. Maybe only a foot to conceal it!.

  6. Janet White said:

    I checked into a company that builds them,,first thing said on the website was, tell Ur town officials and get any necessary permits,,,well what the hell, the whole point of one, besides surviving, is to not let anyone know anything about it!

  7. Roy R. McAllister said:

    The buried shipping container alone yes is a bad idea. It will take alot more then that.
    But it is a good start. And you need to have a starting point.
    So it not bad it you flow through

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