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Launch HN: Boxouse (YC W17) – Shipping-container homes

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Re: Launch HN: Boxouse (YC W17) – Shipping-container homes

#111

Post by brudgers »

lefstathiou wrote: post #89

My dad owns a few trailer parks. Great investment but not for the faint of heart. From our experience, you're not going to want to live in any neighborhood that allows this kind of housing and as a result, it wont be available for long in any neighborhood you're trying to address. Many trailer parks are trashy (literally trash everywhere) with a highly uneducated and unstable demographic. Its the suburban equivalent…

There were (and are) very well maintained mobile home parks. It's more a matter of market segmentation (e.g. college students or retirees or vacationers (and hence location)) than the form factor. Ownership pattern also plays a big role. Resident owned trailer parks are often very well maintained.

For example: http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-search/The-Village...

Re: Launch HN: Boxouse (YC W17) – Shipping-container homes

#112

Post by liseman »

aresant wrote: post #100
liseman wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great ideas, thanks! We've been through 4 different attempts at photos, and results are obviously lacking... do any of you have sources you really like for outlet covers, light cases, and other fixture / finish elements?

I think this guy http://vantagepointphoto.com/#slide5 is one of the best in Northern California - great grasp of lighting and space, probably charges commiserate with scale / quality of his portfolio. This guy has very solid ratings locally, nice portfolio, and worth hitting too - http://www.dannyosterweil.com/about/ - I think he's probably within a few miles of you guys.

This is great; I'll reach out to both of them today. Thanks!

Re: Launch HN: Boxouse (YC W17) – Shipping-container homes

#113

Post by liseman »

alexhutcheson wrote: post #105
liseman wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We'll make it clearer on the website, but the 49k version includes a 1.5kw solar array, ~15kwh of battery storage, all water systems, full smart home functionality (ie 'alexa, trigger windows' to go from transparent to opaque), and furnishings down to the utensils. Our 9k barebones model is closer to how most mobile homes I've seen are outfitted (but with better insulation and design in a boxouse); looks like these a…

Does the 49k version have a toilet?

Yes: toilet, shower, water heater, kitchen sink.

Re: Launch HN: Boxouse (YC W17) – Shipping-container homes

#114

Post by liseman »

brooklynmarket wrote: post #106

Great idea, just wondering on cost breakdown. If you can get a new container for just $2550, why is a bare bones $9K? Seems one could rack out their own very easily. Just wondering. http://www.ebay.com/itm/STORAGE-CONTAINERS-NEW-20-CARGO-SHIP...

+insulation, electrical, window, door, flooring, walls, etc.

Re: Launch HN: Boxouse (YC W17) – Shipping-container homes

#115

Post by Animats »

If you want a metal building, Butler Buildings has all the parts to make one.[1] Rural America has hundreds of thousands of their prefab structures. They sell prebuilt wall sections with insulation, and wall sections with windows and doors. Putting one together is far easier than slicing through a shipping container, and you can vary the dimensions. The industrial look has been unpopular, and they're seldom used as houses.

There's General Steel Buildings, which makes steel house kits.[2] They're not popular, but they are available. For a little extra, you can get fake brick to hide the steel exterior.

You can get some nice prefab houses for well under the $29K these people want for a modified 150 square foot shipping container. In mobile homes, $29K gets you a 16 foot wide unit with 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, 14 foot square living room, kitchen, A/C, and appliances, installed.[3]

Siting is the problem, not manufacturing cost.

[1] http://butlermfg.com [2] https://gensteel.com/steel-building-kits/houses [3] http://www.montysheavybuilthomes.com/index.php?pageID=14676_...

Re: Launch HN: Boxouse (YC W17) – Shipping-container homes

#116

Post by alexhutcheson »

liseman wrote: post #113
alexhutcheson wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does the 49k version have a toilet?

Yes: toilet, shower, water heater, kitchen sink.

Where is the toilet? I assume that the big silver tub is the shower, but it's not clear where the toilet would be.

Re: Launch HN: Boxouse (YC W17) – Shipping-container homes

#117

Post by ceejayoz »

dogma1138 wrote: post #104
ceejayoz wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect air quality's tied a lot more to where you live than the square footage of the house you've got. (I dunno, maybe you're an edge case and vape constantly or something...) As an example, I'll bet this house has better air quality than mine: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/15/a4/8c/15a48c913...

It's has nothing to do with Vaping it's about air circulation and total availabile volume, humans exhale 300-500ml of CO2 a minute. And yes the small cabin in the woods with good air circulation might have better air quality than a flat in the city. But wasn't your argument just a minute ago that these tiny homes are for "walkable" cities?

> humans exhale 300-500ml of CO2 a minute

A 20 foot shipping container has something like 39,000,000 to fill, from a quick Googling of their volume.

> But wasn't your argument just a minute ago that these tiny homes are for "walkable" cities?

Sure, if you can't parse the comma and the fact that the walkable cities portion of that response was to your "Humans need space" claim, not the "a person in a hotel room-sized house will suffocate from CO2 build-up" claim.

Re: Launch HN: Boxouse (YC W17) – Shipping-container homes

#118

Post by abakker »

liseman wrote: post #63
abakker wrote: post #59

How to you ameliorate the toxins inherent in shipping containers? Typically, those paints and pressure treated woods are not used indoors, and I would be worried about some of the chemicals? Second, in the climate here, how do you avoid mold? Metal is a prime target for condensation, and in the bay we are always around the dew point. If you insulate the walls, how do you avoid mold growth (maybe put insulation on the…

The interior environment gets entirely sealed under closed-cell foam insulation applied directly to the metal, leaving no interior space for condensation on the metal. Literally all surfaces that you're exposed to are things we buy at home improvement stores: bamboo flooring, cabinet-grade plywood, etc. A big part of the 'deluxe' cost is the elaborate solar system: we're able to cook, heat space + water, etc. all off…

Please see: http://www.archdaily.com/160892/the-pros-and-cons-of-cargo-c...

"For instance, the coatings used to make the containers durable for ocean transport also happen to contain a number of harmful chemicals, such as chromate, phosphorous, and lead-based paints. Moreover, wood floors that line the majority of shipping container buildings are infused with hazardous chemical pesticides like arsenic and chromium to keep pests away."

and

"Reusing Containers seems to be a low energy alternative, however, few people factor in the amount of energy required to make the box habitable. The entire structure needs to be sandblasted bare, floors need to be replaced, and openings need to be cut with a torch or fireman’s saw. The average container eventually produces nearly a thousand pounds of hazardous waste before it can be used as a structure."

Re: Launch HN: Boxouse (YC W17) – Shipping-container homes

#119

Post by dluan »

hastewart39 wrote: post #27
dluan wrote: post #16

I have a friend who tried this and found that he had to take a crane operating class just so he could move/transport the shipping container. It's kind of cool to think that you could live anywhere in the world that has an open port, but how the heck do you get it off a boat in Chile or Ireland the same that's cheap and freeing?

A few years ago we shipped a fab shop complete with a plasma cnc from Texas to a farm in rural Kenya, the whole process was surprisingly easy and I discovered that farm life is way more fun with a plasma cnc!

It'd be really cool to send around a science lab like this. If you need any traveling scientists to live in a boxlab for a trial run, let me know.

Re: Launch HN: Boxouse (YC W17) – Shipping-container homes

#120

Post by ceejayoz »

liseman wrote: post #114
brooklynmarket wrote: post #106

Great idea, just wondering on cost breakdown. If you can get a new container for just $2550, why is a bare bones $9K? Seems one could rack out their own very easily. Just wondering. http://www.ebay.com/itm/STORAGE-CONTAINERS-NEW-20-CARGO-SHIP...

+insulation, electrical, window, door, flooring, walls, etc.

If electrical and flooring are included in the barebones package, you should say so. They're not currently listed on https://boxouse.com/products/boxouse-barebones.
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