A Self-Sorting Home Recycling System
I was looking for a convenient way to sort recyclables that was easy to access from my kitchen, but didn’t take up a lot of valuable space. Nothing seemed to fit the bill, so I decided to give it a go and see if…
Cargo Shed – Complete
The curved roof provides a nice compliment to the box below. It is fashioned from aluminum so it won’t leach zinc into the watershed (harmful to aquatic critters). The space above the container gives ample storage for long materials. It’s surprising how much –…
Cargo Shed – Storage Loft
The roof is the weakest part of a shipping container. It’s flat, so the salt spray from sea voyages has been slowing working away at its surface. The metal used is a thin gauge and if left uncovered, the existing corrosion would have only…
Cargo Shed – Interior Finish
One of the psychological challenges in using containers is their cold interior. Despite the ‘cool’ industrial factor inherent in steel design, very few of us opt to live inside metal boxes. We went with our gut on this one and decided to sheath the…
Cargo Shed – Insulation
Shipping containers can be really damp inside. The combination of cold steel and humidity often results in condensation and a lot of it. The moister the climate the more problematic this is. Here in the Pacific Northwest, water literally rained off of the interior…
Cargo Shed – Framing
Contrary to popular belief, containers are neither square, level, nor plumb. The weight of five other containers stacked above causes them to bow out over the years. They are built to general specifications, but we found a fair bit of variation in ours –…
Cargo Shed – Purchase
We did a lot of looking around and finally settled on a shipping company that sold their excess inventory direct to private parties. Delivery was about five hundred dollars and it took a few weeks for the size, shape, and color of container that…
Cargo Shed – Design
Our home came without a garage or any other utility space. Being relatively hands-on, we had a need for both a small shop and general storage. Therefore, once we decided to build the structure from a used shipping container we affectionately titled it the “Tool…
Cargo Shed – Big Picture
Due to the trade imbalance, cargo containers have been piling up in the US for decades. You can now purchase a decommissioned shipping container for less than the cost of scrap steel. Since we live close to a port city (Seattle), we decided to…
