Shantytown.com
Launch HN: Boxouse (YC W17) – Shipping-container homes
31–40 of 156 posts
Re: Launch HN: Boxouse (YC W17) – Shipping-container homes
#32how come it took so long to "launch"? I recall seeing you working on this in 2015?
Re: Launch HN: Boxouse (YC W17) – Shipping-container homes
#33I really don't understand the appeal of this. Are people really so desperate to live in an expensive city that they'd be willing to live in a box? Also, how do you plan to get away from the image of metal box houses being tied to shanty-towns and favelas?
>Are people really so desperate to live in an expensive city that they'd be willing to live in a box?
Isn't near every apt just a box, with slight changes around the frame? The question is how you carve up space within the box
Re: Launch HN: Boxouse (YC W17) – Shipping-container homes
#34https://boxouse.com/collections/buy/products/boxouse-standar... Those photos don't really fit the "sleek finish out" and "premium materials" description. The tub looks dirty, the bed slats are all wonky, and it looks overall extremely cheap. It's certainly not $20k worth of add-ons to the barebones bit ( https://boxouse.com/collections/buy/products/boxouse-barebon... ).
Yeah, this looks less appealing than a single-wide. Since the real value in these not-mobile-home small housing thingies usually seems to be letting people live in a mobile home without compromising their sense of where they sit in the class structure, it needs to at least have a veneer of "superb craftsmanship" or whatever.
Re: Launch HN: Boxouse (YC W17) – Shipping-container homes
#35There was a shipping container home on Grand Designs (what a show!) that looked absolutely breathtaking: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/09/24/1411571780563_wps_... I think a bit of sprucing up (with wood and a sound paint-job) would go a long way to remove that whiff of trailer park that I get from your landing page.
Do you have a link to more photos of that house?
Re: Launch HN: Boxouse (YC W17) – Shipping-container homes
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
We use several inches of closed-cell foam insulation interior to the metal. In addition to an r-value of 15+, you're not hearing much outside:)
R15 feels a little low? Here in Michigan, for example, the ceiling requires R49. Walls require at least R20.
For one thing it is a smaller space, easily heated and cooled. Second, closed cell foam means no air infiltration to suck away your heat.
Walls in houses, assuming stud framed, are insulated to R20 but effective R value is less due to thermal bridging, air infiltration.
Re: Launch HN: Boxouse (YC W17) – Shipping-container homes
#37The boxouse.com website is quite frustrating. I scrolled down the page to view the pictures of the houses, but when each picture scrolls into view, it is obscured by a white overlay?! Readers must click each picture to view it on a new page.
I was about to raise the same issue. Not really a satisfactory UX when the photos that might give me some idea of what I'm looking at are obscured whenever they're in the browser viewport.
Re: Launch HN: Boxouse (YC W17) – Shipping-container homes
#38I really don't understand the appeal of this. Are people really so desperate to live in an expensive city that they'd be willing to live in a box? Also, how do you plan to get away from the image of metal box houses being tied to shanty-towns and favelas?
>Are people really so desperate to live in an expensive city that they'd be willing to live in a box? Isn't near every apt just a box, with slight changes around the frame? The question is how you carve up space within the box
Topologically, yes. Semiotically, no.
Re: Launch HN: Boxouse (YC W17) – Shipping-container homes
#39https://boxouse.com/collections/buy/products/boxouse-standar... Those photos don't really fit the "sleek finish out" and "premium materials" description. The tub looks dirty, the bed slats are all wonky, and it looks overall extremely cheap. It's certainly not $20k worth of add-ons to the barebones bit ( https://boxouse.com/collections/buy/products/boxouse-barebon... ).
Yeah, this looks less appealing than a single-wide. Since the real value in these not-mobile-home small housing thingies usually seems to be letting people live in a mobile home without compromising their sense of where they sit in the class structure, it needs to at least have a veneer of "superb craftsmanship" or whatever.
It really does. Based on these photos, I'd rather live in a single-wide, and I know from experience exactly how shoddy those are.
Re: Launch HN: Boxouse (YC W17) – Shipping-container homes
#40I 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?
There are special trucks set up to deliver 20ft/40ft containers anywhere. Since a large portion of goods flows by water you should not have a problem at any port in the world to load and unload your container.
The fee to deliver your container to it's final destination can be from a couple of hundred dollars and up depending on how far the truck driver has to go from the logistics company.
Logistically you can ship a 40 ft container (max weight) from China to Toronto Canada (delivered to premises) for $2000-2800.
You do not need to have a crane operators license or class.