Thursday, July 17, 2014

Housing from shipping pallets




This is ingenious. I think pallets would also make good insulation holders inside shipping container houses. Line the inside of the container with them, and stuff with rags, etc.   

One caveat is to not use pallets treated with preservatives.

35 comments:

The Dude said...

I like it - shanties for all! Rags aren't just for wearing any more, and you can eat the bugs that live there with you!

No wonder folks are risking death and leaving the jungle to move here - we have upscale slums!

Good news is the government can burn down the entire shithole using only one match - think of the savings!

AllenS said...

Yeah, it's all fun and games, until you get a sliver in your ass.

KCFleming said...

Geez, don't let Homeland Security see this or we'll all be living in them when the Mexican drug gangs er 'migrants', er 'dreamers' kick us outta our homes.

deborah said...

I have a sliver in my ass already: Sixty Grit :)

Sixty, you didn't erase it in time, so I seen it!

As you may be aware, this is for the poverty stricken in the Third World.

I myself am thinking along the lines of building a greenhouse with them...fun!

deborah said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
KCFleming said...

Actually, it does look like fun.

deborah said...

No, Pogo, they'll be kept in moldy FEMA house trailers. The new Projects.

deborah said...

Pogo, that time you were building a dock with your kids, out of oil drums, how did it turn out?

AllenS said...

Unless those pallets have been treated with the most powerful preservative known to man, the termites in those countries would eat these houses up.

Does anyone think that people in these countries don't have access to pallets? Every country has a shit load of pallets. People that they want to help, would have built these bullshit houses if it was practical. It aint.

This is hippy bull shit.

Every single person in that video was a Obama voter.

That should give you a clue.

deborah said...

Allen, I'd already considered that in slums where shanties are made of anything and everything, pallets would already be of use haphazardly. Snapped up even.

But why couldn't the types of houses shown be built? They look practical to me, if enough pallets could be found at one time.

AllenS said...

Best construction --

Stud walls, with steel panel siding.

deborah said...

Of course, but this is if you can't afford any better. In the right climate I think it's practical.

KCFleming said...

@deb:
The dock went like clockwork because my brother-in-law had already built 5 or 6 of them and we made a little factory right there on the banks of the Mississippi.

The key is one boss with know-how, six men, and 2 six-packs.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I could use the contents of a shipping pallet.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

But why couldn't the types of houses shown be built?

Sure. You CAN build a structure out of shipping pallets, but why SHOULD you when there are so many better alternatives that won't rot, crumble away and be eaten up by termites and be gone in a few years. Furniture yes.....houses no. Pallets are used and used and used until they are literally rotten and falling apart.

If you are just looking for 'transitional' meaning temporary for a year housing that will be torn down, buy a tent. Use camp trailers. There are already many modular/prefab options. Why use garbage? Shipping containers that have been thoroughly decontaminated are also a good option.

Those do look like fun playhouses for children or chicken coops, though.

deborah said...

Chicken coops!

That's great, Pogo, sounds like a blast.

Icepick said...

Sixty beat me to the punch by almost two hours, LOL. I'd say great minds think alike, but I wouldn't have said it anywhere near as well, so I don't get the great mind designation.

Rabel said...

How irritating. Not the pallet house itself, although it has many problems, but rather the claim of originality.

People have been using old pallets for slapdash construction ever since there have been pallets, especially in impoverished countries.

This lady, an architect in a low cost design competition, had to trip over one to get a clue.

Icepick said...

No, Pogo, they'll be kept in moldy FEMA house trailers.

The ones left over from Katrina, no doubt.

deborah said...

Rabel, so true. I guess she is an Obama voter.

Yep, Katrina, Ice.

The Dude said...

FEMA is looking into palletizing the shelters they are building for anyone who does not worship our government and all the good it does. So shut up and start enjoying your rotting shack, you RACISTS!

deborah said...

Sixty, I just had an idea. Glue slats from pallets together, clamp them tightly and...turn them into bats. You can call them Slat Bats, educate people about the pallet house movement, and sell them.

The Dude said...

I like it!

But, having pried apart more pallets than I ever wish to recall, including some marvelous pallets from Japan - top notch wood from exotic lands - let me just say this about that - I'd much rather start with a log, or even a tree, rather than a former tree. Much simpler that way. No gluing.

Or lamentations. Must avoid the lamentations of the ply.

deborah said...

:)

Methadras said...

Looks like your typical Tijuana construction methods.

Aridog said...

I just know all y'all are kidding here. Right? Tell me "yes" we be kidding you!

AllenS has it....this is not just crazy(at least I think he does), it is impractical and impossible...said by a man (me) who has built shelters out of jungle fronds...please, oh please, give me a break...this is just silly nonsense.

Do any of all y'all ( I do that redundant irritant on purpose :-) have any idea what pallet wood materials really are?

The Dude said...

In my neck of the woods, Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) is real big, as is Poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) and the ever reliable Southern Yellow Pine (primarily Pinus taeda).

I have seen many exotic woods, some unidentifiable in pallets from the far east, and some from the new world, including Purpleheart (Peltogyne).

chickelit said...

I built a shelter once from wooden pallets and lived to write about it here.

deborah said...

lol great story, chick.

Hey, once I passed a guy on the highway, pulling his camper with his pick-up...with an actual porta-potty standing in the bed of his truck. I had to salute him, that was a great idea.

The Dude said...

Hey, how about you - camping amongst the incense cedars on Mount Palomar.

You did go, right? You don't want them to become incensed cedars, do you?

chickelit said...

I forgot how funny Haz's story was in a comment at the link.

MamaM said...

According to sonM, the retail store where he works has 4 pallet refurbishers who bid for the pallets and haul them away for repair, reconstruction and resale. The pieces found to be unusable are ground up and turned into dyed wood chips for landscaping (red around here). I don't know how pallets are dealt with in the rest of the country, but this scenario confirms what DBQ said, Pallets are used and used and used until they are literally rotten and falling apart.

So I'm having difficulty believing the 150 million pallets dumped in US landfills meme. To my awareness pallets are not a product that's being wasted.

Michael Haz said...

Thanks, Chick!

Those dwellings made of pallets will become instant, life-snuffing bonfires shortly after an occupant lights an open fire to cook breakfast. Thea are a really bad idea. Bricks made of mud would be better.

The Dude said...

Haz, you are such an elitist to think that those poor downtrodden future-citizens can even afford mud.

Get with the program - were it not for Obama-ettes those blighted souls would be living under a leaf.

deborah said...

So true, Haz.