Several people have already asked me why I bothered installing a new subfloor over the existing plywood.  The primary reason has to do with the removed side walls.  When the sidewalls are removed, in my case with a  cutting torch, there are remnants of the side wall that stand up about 1/4″ from the bottom rail of the container. Even if you could eliminate this remnant, the bottom rail itself is about 1/8″ higher than the surrounding plywood – at least on my containers.  There is also the issue of sealing up the gap that exists between the containers. Continue reading →

The interior framing is mostly done, except for a couple of the partition walls.  As mentioned previously, I chose to use 1 5/8″ UltraSTEEL steel studs from Dietrich Metal Framing for the space saving aspect over traditional wood studs.  In retrospect, I’m not so sure I would do it again.  I only saved about 2″ on two sides of the cabin, which worked out to be just six square feet of floor space. Continue reading →

I finished the exterior walls a few weeks ago, and everything went together fairly well.  I decided to use standard 2×4 wood studs for the exterior walls since I’m comfortable framing in windows and doors with them.  For the interior framing I am using 1 5/8″ steel studs mainly for the space saving aspect, although I will be discussing that separately in an upcoming post. Continue reading →

I fully intended to replace the original floors in my shipping containers with new plywood, although I was not looking forward to the work involved.  I had read of the chemicals used to treat the plywood floors and the potential health risks to humans, so I really didn’t think I had a choice.  Everything that I had read though focused on Basileum SI-84 as the chemical of choice for plywood in shipping containers.  When my containers arrived, I was surprised to find that they were treated with Radaleum FHP-60 instead of Basileum – not that I knew what Radaleum FHP-60 even was. Continue reading →

Removing the walls

This was kind of a disappointment for me.  I had arranged to have the internal walls removed with a plasma cutter, but there was a problem.  The welder I  hired could not find a large enough generator that could produce clean power for his plasma cutter, so he just showed up with cutting torches instead.  I really wanted to have the clean cuts a plasma cutter makes for both the cabin interior and the resulting leftover steel panels.  I’m not going to complain too much since his fee was very reasonable, and I really did not want to do this myself.  In the end it probably doesn’t matter since everything that was cut will be covered up in some way. Continue reading →