We understand. Initially, it does seem like a really good idea. Let’s take an item used for a different purpose and make it into something we will want and need should a chaos situation ever show itself!
Preppers are all for the idea of multi-purposing tools and ordinary everyday devices for other extraordinary functions.
However, you may want to think twice or even three times over about turning a shipping container into a bunker for you and the family.
It is not as stable as you may think, is not designed well for bunker purposes, and there are additional serious issues that should be addressed before turning it into your SHTF home!
After the break, go over to the next page and read up on why we think you should reconsider – or prepare yourself for a lot of work – if a shipping container is what you will or have chosen for a bunker.
Honestly, we're not overly skeptical. There are things you need to know!
Next Page »
So pretty much what this article is saying is that you shouldn’t use one as a bunker because an engineer said that wasn’t it’s intended purpose? Haha would rather use one of these any day over the factory made ones that are constructed out of a peace of curagated pipe.lol
so what are you selling???
What you need? Lol jk
Stack them up and place them down at the mexican border, there’s your wall !!!
I’ve rsurched useing them and found that if you turn it upside down, it makes them a lot stronger, because the floor is designed to hold all the wieght of the container and will hold up better under ground, it takes a little more work but a lot safer
Bull$#%&!@*article
Few mods and a container
Works perfectly
Nope
Yes they do. Just have to be smart enough to make it work
*pose
Lol smarter than chemicals and structural integrity. That’s really smart
with some proper reinforcement they would work well….
use them as a border wall
Pretty much a BS story. Former shipyard worker here. These things can sit on the bottom of a stack with a couple MILLION POUNDS of weight on them and not buckle and I’ve even seen them dropped by cranes and they were still usable after a 100 foot drop. A little bowed but still usable. I’m not sure how much dirt weighs in your area but unless you’re burying them 100 feet deep, they’ll be okay.
The military has used them since Desert Storm that I know of personally and probably before and I’ve never seen one collapse.And the BS that you don’t use something if it was not designed for is completely ridicules to here on a freaking survival page. I gues the writer will only survive until everything he purchased for a specific task runs out than he is up s creek.
The average 40′ long shipping container weighs approximately 6,800 pounds empty. That means that the bottom containers in these stacks are holding up approx. 40 thousand pounds. – It would take about 12 cubic yards of dirt to cover them with a foot of dry dirt. Dry dirt averages about 2,000 pounds. So that means the needed amount of dirt mentioned would come to about 24,000 pounds. That gives plenty of “wiggle room” for the fact that when the dirt gets wet it will get significantly heavier.
Cut a window and you have a taco stand . It’s win win
We had conex’s in Nam… aka shipping containers.
That piece of corrugated pipe is actually designed to take the weight of dirt above it.
Hence why you see them using corrugated pipe under roads.
The Shipping container is designed to be stacked, the edges and ends are reinforced in order to take the weight of other containers stacked up on top of them.
The sheet metal walls on the other hand, are built to keep people and the elements out.
They are not built for any amount of weight.
Seeing as some people require hands on learning over “book knowledge”, I encourage you to spend your own money to find out if the OP is incorrect.
Build your underground bunker with a storage container and see what happens.
For what it’s worth, I have read that School Busses are actually stout enough to take the weight of dirt and non running school busses are often Cheaper than shipping containers.
However, as I have said, do it. See how it goes.
That piece of corrugated pipe is actually designed to take the weight of dirt above it.
Hence why you see them using corrugated pipe under roads.
The Shipping container is designed to be stacked, the edges and ends are reinforced in order to take the weight of other containers stacked up on top of them.
The sheet metal walls on the other hand, are built to keep people and the elements out.
They are not built for any amount of weight.
Seeing as some people require hands on learning over “book knowledge”, I encourage you to spend your own money to find out if the OP is incorrect.
Build your underground bunker with a storage container and see what happens.
For what it’s worth, I have read that School Busses are actually stout enough to take the weight of dirt and non running school busses are often Cheaper than shipping containers.
However, as I have said, do it. See how it goes.
I disagree. 100% I have seen some of the best bunkers made from shipping containers with working toilets and sink and kitchen and living room in them. really nice interior.
http://www.luxuryflatsinlondon.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Diy-Shipping-container-home-design-and-construction-techniques.jpg
there have been times when these have caved in due to excessive side pressure.if you set things up right and fortify them properly there shouldn’t be any problem
Philemon, I build nuclear reactors and pressure vessels for a living, all hands on here. Lol
Philemon: Thanks for the clarification. To bad you had to be a dickhead with your ending comments. Hopefully the people that survive whatever happens will be willing to educate without being an$#%&!@*about it. Good day sir.
Thomas Bagley
^Then what hes saying about the corrugated pipe being designed to support the weight of dirt and shipping containers being designed to support the weight of other shipping containers should have been a no-brainer for you.
I’m just going to walk around with a metal detector and a shovel because judging from these comments, there’s going to be plenty of dead people and supplies buried in caved in shipping containers…
Why not put in couple of walls to separate off areas of it. Like the bulkheads in a sub. Problem solved.
Steven
Many people choose to do the wrong thing when they were specifically told why they should not do so, because they assume that they know better.
I am simply acknowledging that those people exist.
It is your choice to consider me a dickhead, I have no qualms with your assumption. Your opinion of me is like footprints on the beach, I can choose to let your opinion matter to me, but it does not.
I assume that the people who will survive would know from secondhand experience what didn’t work.
It would be cool if the entire story was on one page rather than having to skip through a bunch of bulshit.
Then how the heck do they make houses out of them by don’t make sense
In a long-term survival situation you probably won’t be able to stay in a new place for an extended amount of time anyway.
It depends on how you bury them and if you reenforce the roof…..
Not meant for lateral forces against the walls. Stack them all you want, but apply pressure on the sides and they can collapse. That’s why anyone intending to bury these should surround them with rebar and concrete, using the container as an internal (non removable) form for the mixture.
These containers make awesome bunkers. You can put as many exits that you want using simple corrugated drainage pipe. You can put in ventilation, wiring, waste drainage, insulation. Its according to the container size but in the big ones you can have a bedroom and a bunk room and a bathroom and function area like kitchen livingroom and a storage room. The interior walls act a support to insure a crushing collapse doesnt occur. Remember, a bunker is for survival in the worst situation. Not a pleasure cruz.
Easy way to fix this is to reinforce the sides and sand blast the coating off, rhink line the insides and out.
Metal box covered in paint…bury it to live in you say..haha go ahead..you will be safe from the aliens im sure…drops tin foil hat and basic science book
Yea, I don’t think you need to bury one 6′ in the ground either … there are ways to make this work. I would be more worried about the air in the thing … working construction for many years I know how oxygen depletion is something to think about.
Eric Lee
It’s cool but it’s the lack of exits that I don’t like. All they gotta do is gas your air intake and torch the door off. I’d rather get 4 and use them as walls of a shop. Then you could store supplies and even a bug out vehicle in them. The only thing I’m burying is going to be a weapons/med/food cache. Then it doesn’t need air vents and I’m not sitting in a hole for who knows how long. Rather have a pistol in the nightstand than a panic room.
I would put my efforts into trying to make it a faraday cage so that you have more than a moving box worth of stuff. Keep a car/truck maybe some motorcycles in it.
Zach Hansen
Anyone ever heard of Cement
[ posted before reading the article ].
I have thought about this idea already and came to the conclusion that the best use is for storing goods for a SHTF situation.
Also some modifications would have to be made before burying them and placement will be vary critical.
The old military saying .
“A cave is a grave”
Jason Schattner never was in the military but seems like a dumb$#%&!@*hiding in the closet in a scary movie. Don’t run into the basement when the front damn door is open lol
Put shores up to support it.from collapseing.
Mike Carter
Yep .
The only real value to a cave or cheap bunker is lost once the enemy knows where it is .
So it is extremely important to camouflage and fortify it as much as possible .
Well that’s horse$#%&!@*
Take the wood floor out and replace it with plastic deck boards
Dig a hole deep enough then pour a slab on the bottom and before it sets drop the container on the slab
Fix the doors to how that will work best for the individual
Then after its on the slab form up around the container sides and put in rebar and pour in cement
As far as the paint on the inside if it is so toxic then why are people dropping like dead flies all over the place?
http://containerauction.com/read-news/how-to-bury-a-shipping-container-gabion-basket
Gabian baskets