Okay, go ahead. Dig your own grave…

Greetings, Campers!

As most of you know, my family is building a home out of shipping containers. And, we’re even helping other families build homes out of these marvelous boxes. I have some “experience” where these boxes are concerned, and I’m doing my best, to see that they get used to their fullest potential!

As this blog evolves, it’s become “a Corten Crusading Clearing House“…  and it seems that I’ve become known in the ISBU community as a “debunker.” It seems that I have no problem putting my size 10 boot in my mouth… er… um… dispelling myth after myth about this or that…

We don’t play no stinking “Idealistic crap that could never be built in a million years…” kinda nonsense.

We live in the real world, a world where we need REAL houses, that are affordable and (gasp!) buildable, by the common man. That means that we don’t feature “concept homes”, or homes that get built… solely so that the builder ends up on TV.

I don’t have $400 or $500 a square foot to build with.

And I’m betting that you don’t either. Do You? If you do… I have this bridge for sale…

Lately, I’m getting barraged with people asking that age-old question (again, and again, and again…):

“Can you show me how to bury a 40′ Shipping Container?”

I actually started counting. In the last year, I’ve been asked this over 200 times. Now, I’ve answered this question over and over again! I’ve done everything but “get the stinkin’ tattoo…”

(And that’s a “no-no” if you’re Jewish. Ink may be cool, but I’ll save it for you Gentiles…)  

So, I just tell them this;

“Sure, I can show you how to bury one. But, you can’t LIVE in it! That would be suicide!”

Once more, for the record:

Shipping containers aren’t designed to be buried. The strength doesn’t come from the skin, it comes from the FRAME of the box.

Evidently, people don’t believe me, when I tell them that it’s a really stupid idea.

Unless you like digging your own grave… literally.

Now, from time to time, I run a post on guys who are actually making a difference in the ISBU world.

I’m getting really sick and tired of those “smarty pants architects or developer wanna-be’s” that run their mouths about ISBU houses that you can’t even begin to get past planning and zoning, much less build…

And, since you won’t listen to ME, I thought I’d recruit somebody in that category, who has enough alphabet soup on his wall to be an expert in almost everything… including kicking some serious “bad guy” butt… My kinda guy!

The fine folks at Runkle Consulting, a Georgia structural engineering firm, make their living by providing design services to architects and builders. They also provide that same expertise to to homeowners, contractors, and builders in correcting various forms of structural failure.

I repeat: “… correcting various forms of structural failure.”

The firm was founded by Lt. Col. George W. Runkle USAFR (Ret.).  Mr. Runkle has over 27 years experience in the US military and has served in many locations in the world, from Mc Guire AFB, NJ to LSA Anaconda in Iraq.

Now frankly, given a choice… I’ve personally been to both places, New Jersey AND Iraq… and I’d prefer Iraq. At least there, you have a chance at survival!

He retired from the Air Force Reserves in 2005 after three separate tours to the Mideast after 9/11.  He has extensive experience with facility design, structural repairs, and timber design.  He first worked with buildings made from intermodal shipping containers in 2002 in Uzbekistan.

He’s also an American Hero, a man that we should ALL be proud of…

But, this show is about ISBU’s… so… instead of going off on a rant about how we treat veterans, and stuff like that…

I’m simply gonna say that they are also the guys who built THIS house, in Atlanta…

We’ve all seen it. Right?

Well, here’s what HE had to say about burying shipping containers;

“A question I keep getting asked over and over again is:

“Can I bury a shipping container to make an underground structure, or a basement?”.

The short answer is no.

The reason is two fold, corrosion and structure.  Constant contact with soil will give you serious corrosion problems over time, the steel is relatively light gauge for burying.  You would have to put in cathodic protection to slow the corrosion, and you would still have problems, as has been discovered with buried fuel tanks over the years.  The second is structural, it doesn’t work.  The loads on the sides are extreme, and I actually ran the calculations.

Here is a graphic of the results:

Everything with a stress ratio over “1.0″ is a failure, and as you can see, the sides fail by an order of magnitude of 1.7 to 1.9.  That’s a soil loading using soil and an angle of internal friction of about 30 degrees for all you engineers out there, which is silty sand (SM).  That is an equivalent fluid pressure of 35 PSF, which is not as bad as you can get in some soil conditions.

Unfortunately, this won’t put this issue to rest I’m sure.

I get e-mails about burying these things all the time, and my answer is the same every time (no).  Then the person will ask the question in a different manner hoping for the answer he or she wants.  The laws of gravity, the strength of materials, and corrosion potential of steel doesn’t change because your words do.

It will still fail.

You can modify the container to make it work, but it would be cheaper to pour a concrete wall.  It will still corrode.

I have been asked about using aluminum containers underground.  The container would still be too week, the modifications needed would be even more extremely expensive, and it still wouldn’t be any better than a concrete wall and would cost you much more.

So, to conclude, you can not bury a container.”

Note that I re-formatted his statements, “to make ‘em look purty.” However, not a single word was changed.

But, after reading his view on ISBU Burial, doesn’t that sound familiar? In fact, haven’t I said the exact same thing? And, haven’t I detailed the construction of concrete retaining walls, to hold back the tide? Hmmm?

I hate to say that I told you so, but…

I TOLD YOU SO!

So give me and my email a break, huh? Stop asking. The answer isn’t going to change. Not from me, and certainly not from the Colonel. However, he might make you do some push-ups, or run you until you drop. Oy, if only I could…  Some of you guys and gals would go on “The Ronin Weigh Loss” regime, pronto!

Thank Gawd it’s not just me.. I was starting to feel persecuted!

I HIGHLY recommend that you pay a visit to the Runkle Consulting Site. They are really bright people, who know what they’re talking about. You can learn a LOT about IBSU’s by spending a little time on their site. And if you watch the Colonel long enough, you might just learn something about “life” too…

And, after all the recent flooding in Atlanta and parts thereabout, I bet they are busier than bees on a warm, sunny day! So, you’d better make an appointment!

Stay tuned!