Talked to the folks at the container place. First thing, the difference between new and used. Used ones are a better deal but new ones are more secure with shielded padlock hasps and venting to keep condensation at bay. Price difference is about a grand. In all likelihood, I’ll go with the new one. A used one would probably work just fine, but the stakes are too high, in my opinion, to try to shave a grand offa things by getting something that may or may not have an existing problem (leaks, rust, history of toxic cargo leeching into the walls, etc.
Next up is the issue of delivery. The gal at the counter seems pretty sure her guys can get it in there. When the miniex was dropped off last week, that came up on a trailer of approximately the same size as the container (20′), and they dropped that at the big turnaround area near where I need it. Presumably they could get it at least that far and then ‘mule’ it the rest of the way with their crawler.
Once its on the property, I’ll have to jack it up and get it on some blocks a foot or two in the air to keep it off the ground. And once thats done…a world of possibilities become avaialble.
Cost? Well, probably some where north of $5k and south of $6k. Then I’ll need to paint it a less obvious color and add some more camo to it to break up its silhouette.
For right now, I need to print out maps and what not to send to the gal at the container place so she can consult with her boys to make sure that they can get that thing up there. While thats going on, I’ll head up there this weekend and try to figure out where to put it.
As Flight-ER-Doc mentioned previously, it would be good to get it insulated. Otherwise they are a “cooker” in the Summer, and that’s not good for a whole bunch of things for a whole bunch of reasons.
In addition to Google and OnX, CalTopo may be valuable for map sources
MyTopo.com is right over in Billings. They print and ship super quick.
You may ck siderpaunting before hand. A guy with a sprayer is much faster than you with a roller!
Coat roof with RV roof sealer!
A leveled gravel pad is sturdier than blocks and drains well!.
A guy with time and a battery powered angle grinder can be in a conex in just a few minutes!
Seems to me we may be looking at this security thing wrong. As many have pointed out, this is a remote location and inexpensive, portable equipment is available to cut or break into any reasonable container or structure. In some ways the stronger the container looks, the more attractive it may be to looters.
CZ, I would attempt to make the site a place looters avoid. Perhaps post signs on the main approaches saying something like “WARNING: You and your vehicles have been under surveillance for the past mile (or whatever). These images were transmitted live offsite and stored. Any damage to this property or theft of equipment will result in local police finding and arresting you. In addition, some equipment contains hidden satellite tracking tags. Leave immediately.”
I’m sure these ideas have flaws and can be improved, but they’re a start. If you can’t physically keep all the mosquitoes out, you use a strong repellent, right? That’s the idea here.
Still, it’s a toss-up. All that advertising is saying is “I have valuable stuff”, and at best the Sheriff is an hour away.
I understand, doc, but a conex, especially one with special locks, already says “valuable stuff,” doesn’t it? And as for the sheriff being an hour away, that’s the point of multiple well-concealed trailcams and, perhaps, GPS tags. In an area that remote, odds are extremely high that any and all looters/trespassers who know there’s activity at the site WILL be locals and a good sheriff should already know 90-95% of them. I’d say any thieves who ignore those signs would have to be illiterate, extremely cocky, extremely stupid or a relative of the sheriff.
Criminals are for the most part extremely stupid already. If they spent as much energy on lawful endeavors as crime, they’d do quite well for themselves.
But I don’t care too much about identifying who stole my stuff; I’d rather prevent them from stealing it in the first place. After all, once the stuffs gone, you’re not going to get the majority of it back and the criminals are pretty much judgement proof.
Claymores are the only solution to criminal element and toothsome wildlife šæ
Mount them high – save the wildlife
If you have any plans to use it in the winter, put it up high enough for the door to clear the typical snowfall. You won’t be able to open a door that is snowed in. It is easy to overlook – the first missile sites had tops that flipped open. Then it was found they didn’t open when covered in snow. Now they slide horizontally.
Shipping container, insulated on the outside with cob wall, protected by a widely overhanging steeply pitched roof.
The cob walls are made of local dirt mixed with straw and cowdung, rendered over with lime plaster which is self healing. The cob adds thermal mass which stabilises temperature. The overhanging steel truss framed pitched roof gives you secure attic space and a lovely verandah round about, which you can screen in. If you are clever with measuring solar angles, you can add a solar heated wall that only works in winter. If you use terracotta tile, the whole thing is practically fireproof. Warm in winter, cool in summer, especially if you are clever with making a chimney, and setting up the ventilation. Beware the underside of a container. No use having two foot thick walls and ceiling and only 3/4″ ply floor with concealed access for miscreants. Why not stack two containers, and have a secure cellar as well.
Add in a moat full of barbed wire to double as a fishpond and cooling lake and cress farm, and you could make quite the little fortress and guerilla garden. However, no physical obstacle is ever more than a nuisance and delay without armed overwatch. Sentry guns and guard drones may not be out of the question…
So for cob.. having a non moisture permeable wall physically against once side of the cob is a bad idea. If I were going to do that I would get some hay bails and stack them on a raised foundation around container and then cob the outside of them.wire mesh and screen on top of wall to allow ventilation and then roof over that. Seems like a lot of stupididly hard work to protect a steel container to me.
If I was going to that extent I would build a straw bale house with heavy cob walls on the outside. a ft or two thick. Build with some galvanized barbed wire running through it every few inches of height. Without the barbed wire cob is some evil stuff, I have seen where they tried to knock down an old cob building and a bulldozer was spinning its tracks trying to knock the wall down. Once cured with the straw in it giving it a lot of strength it is very hard to modify or break. You can cut it but you will work for it getting through a couple feet. If you put the barbed wire in layers as you build up wall it is about as permanent as you can get. Even in wet environments if the outlayer after wall goes up is plastered in a lime mixture it is almost weather proof. Do not use portland cement or any concrete mixture. It does not breath and will cause long term failure of the cob wall as it builds up moisture. Once it hits a certain level cob turns to mud. Lime plasters breath, they are water proof to rain hitting them but allow moisture vapor to breath through them. Old technology is the bomb sometimes.
cob and straw bale construction is durable, strong and will last forever. It is also strong… š it deserved repeating.
would love to build a new house that way but I can’t do it any more and its to expensive in labor to pay others.
https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/08/bear-ignores-shot-and-dogs-drives-women-from-bighorns-camp-before-shredding-tents/
This article was posted on Citizensfreepress.com
Had these campers had some sort of “early warning” the bear wouldn’t have caught them in their tents, blindsided…
If you have reliable network access (aka “Starlink) you can install a simple security system like Simplisafe. A camera on the conex will detect motion and send an image to your phone. (Thought-moving the antenna and batteries to the top of the conex won’t make them impregnable but you’ll have notification and pictures if thieves try to access it and kill it).
You’ve got game cameras that send images; cameras that see incoming vehicles and personnel are necessary, but a concealed one that watches inside from the gate is beneficial – it’ll capture license plates.
“Operation ID” requires engraving or marking your stuff with an ID number, usually a DL number because that’s easily searchable by authorities, but any consistent number would work. Stickers for Operation ID should be available at your local PD. It’s a “post theft” solution, stuff needs to be hocked to trigger police notification, something Bad Bart keeps for himself for 10 years won’t.alert anyone.
It’s impossible to prevent all theft, anti-theft is just “increasing the degree of difficulty.” Increasing it enough raises the threshold beyond what many will attempt, but there are always those who seek a challenge, and no shortage of the stupid and demented who will attempt robbing Ft Knox with two buddies, a pickup and a 38 revolver.
+1 on the gravel pad; a railroad tie frame (anchored to the ground with rebar) to hold 6-8″ of crushed stone. The stone won’t settle unevenly like concrete blocks, 6″ or more drains well, and you won’t have critters living under it. Look at #5 stone (about 1″ -1 1/4″ in size) rather than “57” (5/8″ -3/4″ crushed stone, which will have a lot of fines in it). If you can….spray on auto undercoating on the bottom will add years to it.
Amazon sells cheap solar powered motion sensing outdoor lights, a couple near the top of the doors will illuminate whomever / whatever approaches the conex making the security camera’s job easier. One or two on posts at the gate will make it easier for you to get in after dark and light up anyone poking around. Pro Tip: have a hidden way in that allows foot entry without triggering the lights….just in case.
If you ever add an improved driveway, a wide concrete “gutter” perpendicular to the driveway will keep vehicles out. You can drive (and walk) over a cattleguard, but if it’s hinged to the inside and secured (sprinkler system in-ground plastic vault, a screw-in earth anchor inside the vault, and a stout padlock like Master’s American series, works. Not bulletproof, but the vault restricts access with bolt cutters, a 4-5 ft wide, 3 ft deep “gutter” is larger than most wheeled traffic can cross. Again, “increase the degree of difficulty.”
Your big issue will be getting materials to the site; crushed rock, concrete, railroad ties, etc. are all heavy, and getting it delivered will be an issue. Hauling stone each weekend in 5 gallon buckets can be done, and concrete can be hauled in bags and manually mixed, but…..
I would suggest having the interior sprayed with closed cell foam before it is delivered. I have a 30×50 metal building that I use for a shop, and the 2k that the foam insulation cost was well worth it.
There is the problem that any intruder knows reaction time even under camera surveillance is measured in hours. Time to crack a CONEX is under 15 minutes last time we had to do it for an EMS Emergency. Yeah, a dumbass locked up his buddy and lost the keys.
Commander, do you remember that Deer Camp story I told you about a year or so ago? We went up a week before season to prep the camp and found tweekers had been living there and trashed the place? STOLE most everything they could and destroyed the rest.
After getting it cleaned up (Thank the inventor of the 12 volt power washer) we repaired it for Deer Season. Afterwards we LIFTED the cabin, dug and installed a cellar (much like your tanks) then removed the doors and windows and all stuff hiding it under the cabin in the cellar.
Unless tweekers figure out what part of the floorboards to unscrew to get to the cellar it’s an abandoned cabin with no real weather shelter value.
Perhaps a CONEX with less valuable stuff over a cellar might be more useful?
My wife’s unit is set on deck – pier concrete blocks at corners and 5′ centers. All of this on a sloped caliche bed (site has minimal slope). The contents are minimal. Lawn tractor – push mower – tools.
WOW – double the $$$$ compared to my locale >> we have the huge railroad inland ports for the Chinese conex box invasion – anything even slightly busted become unusable and gets added to the scrap pile – farmers haul the future livestock homes off for a few $100 – metal price figured ……
I’m with the others – connexes are useful (I have 2), but these days if someone knows it’s there, they can get into it.
I also agree on the insulation – doing that to my shop dropped the summer temp down to ambient from 40 degrees above ambient.
An alternative would be to see if they have any office or security hut containers available – they not only have insulation, but lights, doors, even bathrooms. The big question is how much more you’ll pay for them.
Foundation is also a question: if you have soft ground, they WILL sink in, and even concrete blocks and railroad ties will sink into the ground a surprising amount.
I’ve seen people selling containers themselves, but the problem then is moving them.
All of these options have pros and cons – do your research and make a wise choice, and remember that you will eventually get something wrong; be ready to live with it and hope it’s a small item.
web site for all things containerish
https://www.youtube.com/@TheContainerGuyTV
If their mule is similar to those used by mobile home companies here in East Tennessee, they should be able to get your Conex anywhere you can get your four wheel drive truck. You might ask about undercoating or truck bed liner sprayed on the bottom to prevent rust prior to their delivery. And Iād go with gravel like everyone else said. Raised off the ground makes an area snakes and critters a refuge.
Conex has too many cons, not to mention the high costs related in anything you need to do to it… and then, your security is still highly questionable…
You’re basically at a Mexican standoff… One might consider looking back in history to see what they did in similar situations…
But I believe it will come down to having a physical presence in order to have real security… Distance is your nemesis…
Law enforcement… too far away…
even if they’d actually contribute as a deterrent…
Once anything begins to arrive and stay there, of any value, you may as well consider it expendable… It may be time to seriously consider employing a builder, or contractor, who’d be there daily working your site… in the very least, most of the tools and gear on site would be theirs to lose… But this would only be a temporary solution while your site is being established… What then ?
Once you’re established, you still won’t experience great security, until you’re actually living there full time…
As mentioned, earlier, you’re at a Mexican standoff…
There must be a solution, but it will take serious planning, and more than likely,
a serious investment to solve this…
This is similar to a game of chess… a game of, “What if’s”… planning many, many moves ahead… this won’t be solved with a “Quick” decision…
“The patient hunter is always rewarded”
Sounds like it’s a 50/50 proposition.As several have already stated, prep the container as thoroughly as possible before delivery. Security is going to be your major issue. No matter how invisible you try to be, someone will notice. I like the junkyard camo idea.
Did you check if it is feasible to have a heli drop a container at your place? If you decided to double stack them, even if one is buried, air dropped would be much easier. Have the container seller deliver to a close area, and have it picked up off the trailer. Shorter the flight with a dangling load, the cheaper it should be, and the happier the crew involved.
Be aware that the container top will be weight restricted, unless it is another container being mounted. They are not designed to support much mass beyond the spots with the struts. I suspect there may be a general urge to cover it in dirt and plant grass for insulation and appearance/camo. Calculate the weight that would be involved. Don’t forget the added weight of rain water that would collect, in addition to the growth of plants. Might need to add reinforcement if anything is planned for up top.
Think about the utility of adding more containers in the future. Maybe plan for space to set up another con spaced to add one above the two on the ground? Could give you covered parking if positioned properly.
Maybe check into a coating called Vipeq. Had it sprayed onto the south wall of the house and am very happy with the results. They can do almost any color. Camo would be cool.
Vipeq spray-on paint (often called Thermal CorkShield) is actually an eco-friendly, spray-applied coating made from natural cork, water-based resins, and organic dyes. Rather than functioning like standard exterior paint, it serves as a multifunction performance barrier that provides thermal insulation, sound dampening, and weather protection in one application.
“Could give you covered parking if positioned properly.”
Two containers, parallel and ~20 feet apart….standard 2X4 roof trusses, close in the ends, you’ve got a 400 sq ft living area.
Roofs weigh more than people think they do, using 1X4 strapping across the trusses instead of plywood, topped with a good tarp, keeps it lightweight, maybe not winter quarters, but 2.5 seasons. Conexes are, as pointed out above, designed to carry weight on their corners; I’d have to run the numbers on 2X4 trusses on 24 inch centers and 1X4 strapping on 16 inch horizontal centers (assuming 20 ft between 8 ft wide conexes, 38 ft trusses move the loads to a pair of longitudinal corner-to-corner LVLs on each conex and add 1 ft overhangs), qty four 20 ft LVL beams (2.0″ thick, 10″ wide, or a doubled pair of 1.5″ thick 8″ wide LVLs) would – probably – be adequate to move the roof load from the weak top flat area to the corners of the conex.
Getting 38 ft trusses to the site would be the challenge; a good truss engineer could design a segmented bolt-together truss design using 1/2″ plywood and bolts to assemble 38 footers from 18 (center) and 10 ft (2x wings) sections. Other than snow (which in your climate would be….heavy…. ) the trusses wouldn’t be carrying much load. So, maybe spring-through-mid fall quarters while you build something more substantial, remove the tarp late October, replace it in May.
Zero,
Lots of reasonable input so far. I own four and have the school of hard knocks scars. Observations:
Every animal known to man wants under them, so plan accordingly.
The bottom is just a wood deck and steel frame, the walls and ceiling are steel and if you have big temperature swings you will be disappointed at the amount of condensation that forms. Investigate the practicality of having it jacked up and the bottom spray foamed. Once you have it set in place, saving the weight during transport, then use Liquid Nails and firing strips all the way around. You can use insulation board between the firing strips. Then cover it all with plywood or something similar. Paint it with High Hide white or grey paint if you want to brighten things, otherwise it is then good to go. You can now add power strips or anything else hanging from the walls. If you do a drop-ceiling you can add however much insulation you want up top. Insulated like this you will be amazed at the energy efficiency.
Security – Yes, they can cut the locks off. If you weld in a walk through door on one side, opposite end from the double-doors, you can do this: Build a welded square tube frame and either cover it with expanded metal or cut the pieces and number them and weld it on site. Imagine their disappointment at cutting the lock off, and making all that noise, and knowing there may be cameras; when they open the door and see that there is a floor to ceiling wall of expanded metal to get through next. Just make a door in that and have the door be locked from the interior side for fire escape egress. Then you can concentrate on making the walk through door as hard as you want. If you go this route, the SOBs won’t quote or provide an insulated door, so make sure your steel door and frame are quoted with the door foamed…
These are worth their weight in gold: Shipping container jack adapter. When I bought mine they were only available from one source and he raped you for them. Now they are available all over. (link below) Just make sure you have a short but strong bottle jack like the Harbor Freight PITTSBURGH 20 Ton Hydraulic Low-Profile Bottle Jack (SKU 56735) $60 (link below).
Once it is set if you haven’t insulted the bottom you won’t be happy long-term. At that point about all you can do is start building it up inside, so if you plan that you will have to plan your walk through door opening accordingly. Even spray foamed on the bottom, see note #1 – everything will be trying to live under it. Or hunt under it. There are ways to deal with things getting under there and tearing up your insulation, but I don’t want to make this post any longer.
Properly insulated, properly ventilated and properly secured they are great. Two side by side to allow for a cover for the area between them; I have a friend with a very nice shop set up like that on his property in the desert. I don’t know about snow loads, but his is a cool setup. And he put sliding barn doors on the side facing into the courtyard between them. I am intrigued by the spray material the one poster mentioned, the one with cork, but what I laid out are solid upgrades that I encourage you to consider.
Phillip
jack adapter: https://www.google.com/search?q=shipping+container+jack+adapter&client=firefox-b-1-d&hs=wzFq&sca_esv=114ce2f88324942a&sxsrf=APpeQnuQyr8ukkVrZz9K3vkiFD1bAsVX2A%3A1784038557627&ei=nURWaqPlJfKkqtsPvp6LIQ&biw=1390&bih=714&ved=0ahUKEwjjp_jDrdKVAxVykmoFHT7PIgQQ4dUDCBI&uact=5&oq=shipping+container+jack+adapter&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiH3NoaXBwaW5nIGNvbnRhaW5lciBqYWNrIGFkYXB0ZXIyCxAAGIAEGIoFGJECMgYQABgHGB4yCxAAGIAEGIoFGIYDMgUQABjvBTIFEAAY7wUyCBAAGIkFGKIESJEoUOMNWNIlcAJ4AZABAJgBgQGgAdAOqgEEMTAuObgBA8gBAPgBAZgCEKAC_QrCAgoQABhHGNYEGLADwgIHEAAYgAQYDcICCBAAGIAEGKIEmAMAiAYBkAYIkgcDOS43oAfaXLIHAzcuN7gH8grCBwUxLjguN8gHJoAIAQ&sclient=gws-wiz-serp
jack: https://www.harborfreight.com/20-ton-hydraulic-low-profile-bottle-jack-56735.html
Had some time to think about this, and read other comments. I feel that for the time being that Conex or shipping container might be over kill. Something like a Large jobsite box might be a solution. That is unless your goal is to live out of it.
I have not yet met the jobsite box that can contain a side-by-side, 55-gallon drums, or bunks of pipe and lumber.