So i want to bury a shipping container

[Frnc]

Well, don't bury it too deep. We saw that 18 inches of soil bent the roof. You will need to stop the pressure on the sides as well. Are you sure you can dig deep enough? What about water after heavy rain?

How about this. I wonder if you could bury it, but have a deep trench (almost as deep as the container) around it a few feet away. This would reduce the pressure and drain water. The walls of the trench could be V shaped to reduce risk of sides collapsing. Maybe this is almost the same as not burying the container, but piling soil against the sides. At least it wouldn't get blown away in a hurricane.

Looking at the photo of those houses, that must be very rare, and so severe there is little people could do.

[Frnc]

Well, don't bury it too deep. We saw that 18 inches of soil bent the roof. You will need to stop the pressure on the sides as well. Are you sure you can dig deep enough? What about water after heavy rain?

How about this. I wonder if you could bury it, but have a deep trench (almost as deep as the container) around it a few feet away. This would reduce the pressure and drain water. The walls of the trench could be V shaped to reduce risk of sides collapsing. Maybe this is almost the same as not burying the container, but piling soil against the sides. At least it wouldn't get blown away in a hurricane.

Looking at the photo of those houses, that must be very rare, and so severe there is little people could do.

[jansman]

The aforementioned container (s) are towed behind trucks. They are very good. However, they weren’t invented for burying and living in! Personally,I would not want to go in one underground,in order to *live* ,emergency or no emergency. Frankly ,I think it is a potential death - wish.

[Yorkshire Andy]

For the price of them probably be better off in the long run getting some large diameter concrete drain rings and a manhole section for access

They are designed to be buried can get 6' diameter
8'long seconds for about £800 a section 8'x8' about £1k

When you think a shipping container on its own in good fettle is pushing £3k now before remedial reinforcement et all

[Baloo]

Well, don't bury it too deep. We saw that 18 inches of soil bent the roof. You will need to stop the pressure on the sides as well. Are you sure you can dig deep enough? What about water after heavy rain?

How about this. I wonder if you could bury it, but have a deep trench (almost as deep as the container) around it a few feet away. This would reduce the pressure and drain water. The walls of the trench could be V shaped to reduce risk of sides collapsing. Maybe this is almost the same as not burying the container, but piling soil against the sides. At least it wouldn't get blown away in a hurricane.

Looking at the photo of those houses, that must be very rare, and so severe there is little people could do.

morning Frnc
yep the pictures of the roof collapsing dont convey a great image but shipping containers have no strength on the sides or roof, thats just there to protect the goods in transit, anyone who tries to bury a container with out reinforcement has no common sense, but thats the thing with common sense its not very common is it, to make it work the container serves as form work to pour a reinforced concrete shield around it
so you end up with a concrete tube 40ft long and 8 ft square, you can either pour the concrete around it before it goes in the ground or after both have advantages, im thinking i will do it before as its easier to work on, concrete only needs to be a ft thick but i might go thicker as i may encase under floor heating pipe in the concrete and make use of the suns heat via evacuated solar tubes all summer long to warm the concrete mass that slowly dissipates during the cold months, big downside with pouring outside the excavation is weight, i can lift and carry around 5 tons, the shipping container is 4 empty but add in the concrete skin and its approaching 20 tons but l can see a way of doing it , anyway here this guy is on the right track with pouring in the ground
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3EAJex1RVo

as for tornados being a rare event yes they are but isent that purpose of prepping, getting ready for something thats not usual, if we prepped for something that happened every week or month that would just be normal life
have a nice day

[Baloo]

For the price of them probably be better off in the long run getting some large diameter concrete drain rings and a manhole section for access

They are designed to be buried can get 6' diameter
8'long seconds for about £800 a section 8'x8' about £1k

When you think a shipping container on its own in good fettle is pushing £3k now before remedial reinforcement et all

concrete section dont stack up forgive the pun lol, you would you would need at least 5 sections so thats 4 joints and both ends to seal which i would see as a major problem chances of a leak would be high, then there cost 5 x 1k plus a crane plus how many lorries to deliver plus a foundation to make them sit level so the joints have some chance of aligning my container were £800 each delivered many years ago one has been sited in the barn so it remains in good condition, true i have to encase it in 2.6ks worth of concrete but its a fraction of the cost of series of concrete sections that are problem prone
cheers Andy

[Baloo]

i think i saw a post about a survival bunker being a death trap, i cant see it now to reply too but laptop is a bit flakey
its a perception thing, we all drive about in metal boxes with a tank full of very explosive fuel underneath us and we see that as as ok, the facts are out there thousands and thousands of people die every year because of motor cars, yet sitting in a shipping container that has a concrete shield around it seems pretty safe to me, i done remember reading about a single person dyeing in the uk in a burried shipping container last year google how many died in their cars last year

[jansman]

i think i saw a post about a survival bunker being a death trap, i cant see it now to reply too but laptop is a bit flakey
its a perception thing, we all drive about in metal boxes with a tank full of very explosive fuel underneath us and we see that as as ok, the facts are out there thousands and thousands of people die every year because of motor cars, yet sitting in a shipping container that has a concrete shield around it seems pretty safe to me, i done remember reading about a single person dyeing in the uk in a burried shipping container last year google how many died in their cars last year

It was me that said it’s a potential death trap. Containers that sit on trucks are made for just that. Not burying. I would be inclined to use the concrete piping suggested by Yorkshire Andy. Mind you,at the end of the day,it’s your choice.

[Vitamin c]

Just out of intrest
How would you get fresh water and get rid of dirty water.

[grenfell]

to make it work the container serves as form work to pour a reinforced concrete shield around it
so you end up with a concrete tube 40ft long and 8 ft square, you can either pour the concrete around it before it goes in the ground or after both have advantages,

Using the container as a shutter for the concrete seems about the most or perhaps only logical way to go about this. I've worked on a couple of jobs where new basement areas were constructed . Starts with a hole in the ground and a base pouring first. Reinforcing is used and turned upwards at the edges. This allows the "walls" to bond to the floor slab. . I think concrete beams were used for the ground floor level. The container would of course require bracing on the inside maybe with scaffold and trench props or timber to hold the sides of the container in place while the concrete sets and I would say casting insitu would be the best way to go. Trying to move a forty foot container with a foot of concrete around it wouldn't be easy. It would have to be left to cure for some time as green concrete is quite fragile for a while. Depending on how you intend to get into the container you may have to construct a shutter in front of the box itself to accomodate stairs or whatever.
I think you mentioned earlier about people noticing concrete deliveries and you may also have a large amount of spoil to get rid of. Most of it won't be much use as it won't be topsoil. I always say very little is impossible even burying a shipping container and turning it into a bunker but and there's always a but it's an awful lot of work , time and money to achieve what I would say is very little.