For about twelve years the ranger station on San Miguel Island was two 20 foot shipping containers placed next to a wooden deck. They were outfitted with windows and doors by a commercial company and airlifted in place. Not a very aesthetic setup, but I spent more than one stormy night inside, snug, warm, and dry, and extremely grateful for the shelter. They are inherently rodent proof, unless you leave the door open. That should be a major consideration for any storage unit.

Never buy one of those containers sight-unseen. Many of the ones they want to get rid of are seriously damaged and rusty, and many of the worst have carried garbage (rotting stuff garbage). Look beyond a cheap coat of paint.

Here's some info with some price ranges: http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/10102006_Shipping_Container_Housing.asp

Sue

Shipping containers can be quite good. But they can leak and be difficult to reseal, rust and be more trouble to correct than they are worth, difficult to insulate and extremely cold if uninsulated. Living for any time in shipping container can be uncomfortable unless you essentially build a room inside the steel shell.

It also has to be noted that even though they are made of steel the load bearing capacity that allows them to be stacked is all in the corners and in specifically reinforced areas of the walls. The ceilings on them are not structurally sound enough to carry a lot of weight. If you are planning on burying one underground and covering it with any significant amount of dirt you would need to reinforce the roof structure.

A shipping container placed underground in most areas will also need to be thoroughly sealed, rustproofed inside and out, and provision made to keep it from floating if the water table rises.

All that can be done, and it has been in quite a few cases, but it isn't quite as simple and easy as many people think.

I agree with Art- the corners are the load bearers.

I've known several people that have converted them to living spaces- they insulated inside and outside the steel, covered in paneling inside, had man doors cut/modified at each end, solatubes or skylights added, etc.

Here is a web site that you might want to peruse,

http://www.shedandshelter.com/index.html

Has different types of buildings and shelters, lots of good information.

Since first reading this thread, I have had a shed constructed on my Mothers propoerty.

About 11 feet by 17 feet, built of concrete blocks on a cast concrete base.
Three walls only being required as the structure is a lean-to against an existing stone wall.
The door is substantial hardwood, fitted with a mortice lock and outward opening.
No windows are fitted, ample light being provivded via the roof which is of transparent polycarbonate.

I chose concrete blocks rather than timber for both security and fire safety.
The type of substantial timber construction disscussed in previous posts, is almost unknown here in the UK. The choice is between blockwork or very lightweight prefabricated timber that is very vulnerable.

Fire risk concerns me somewhat since most of the contents are flammable, and the location is in a small town with other structures nearby. No electrical installation of any kind is used, again to reduce fire risk. The shed is for long term backup stocks, not for items that may be required suddenly in the dark

How is it for temperature with the clear roof?
I wonder if the sun might make it a bit to warm.
Cement blocks are pretty good construction and we would use them more here except for frost.
Usually we don't bother with foundations under a storage shed here. A wooden shed flexes enough that it stays together when the frost heaves it in the winter.
With cement block shed we would have to put foundation 3 or 4 feet deep underneath it and that would cost more than the shed.

The roof slopes towards North, which limits solar gain a bit, but yes it does get rather warm.
I may cover the roof in white canvas during the summer, removing this in the winter.

The concrete base was cast on an existing hard surfaced area, no additional foundations being considered to be needed.

We do get frost here, but not severe enough to cause damage in most cases.

The total cost for having it built, not DIY was £2,700.

I have an outbuilding that was built to store firewood.
I converted it to two closed rooms with floors and doors. One side is heavy tools: chainsaw, floor jacks, 5 foot prybars, shorter prybars, full sized axes, sledgehammers, carpentry hatchets, rakes, shovels of every style I use. There's also cargo strapping systems in there that can be used to raise heavy objects. Plus general rope, wire roap, etc

Probably need to move a framing hammer and duplex nails out here as well if I'm going to support a damaged structure.

The second half is filled with scrap wood also known as dunnage. I keep hard hats, gloves, dust masks, glasses, and knee pads for extrication here too. The wood is a variety of sizes and cuts. Just the sort of stuff you'd need to reinforce a building.,

Should the main house collapse this is the wood and tools that are going to be used to access mu house "safely" and get the rest of my stuff.

I've also got a 24' extension ladder in back, a large wheelbarrow, and my pusher lawnmower in case the grass is becoming too long during the emergency. http://forums.equipped.org/images/icons/default/smile.gif

I have just torn the old attached garage off my house and replaced it with a new garage with a room above and off to the side, plus a rooftop deck. In the course of designing the new structure, I made the very significant discovery that, if the new garage was not actually attached to the existing house, even if it's only an inch away as mine is, the permit and inspection process was very substantially simpler, faster, and cheaper. Not only that, if my old original house falls down for some reason (earthquake??), now I have a second "house" that, due to some steel beam framing construction, stands a much better chance of remaining upright. And, as I mentioned in another post, the new construction has to have gutters and downspouts that feed into rain barrels, for a nice emergency water supply.