So i want to bury a shipping container

[Frnc]

This is a rough sketch of what I was thinking might be a compromise

[Frnc]

This is roughly what I had in mind as a compromise

[jennyjj01]

Where you label 'drainage' I label 'moat' *

Ignore me. I'm only jealous because the poster has his own coppice and JCB.

*I know: It's only a horseshoe around it.

[Baloo]

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

hi Vitamin C
well choosing the location is probably the most important factor, you need to be underground but above the water table, i was able to pick a good spot and then improve it further



looking at the above is the rough side profile of my site, the area marked A was where i intended to put my barn when l built it 30 years ago, however it soon became evident that it flooded there as it was one of the lower areas so i cut out part of the hillside to make sure my floor was 2ft above anywhere that might flood, this produced a huge amount of spoil that had to go somewhere so i used it to increase the Hight of the hill, it all over grown now and you would never know its not part of the original hill



that gives me tolerance with levels to work with, any waste water from within the bunker and from the french drains around it can flow down hill and either out into the fields or in the case of sewage into a holding tank, the site is on mains water which can be plumbed into the shelter which is quite unusual around the area as most are on wells and i will eventually drill myself a well , i have no idea how long i might want to inhabit it but i magine a coupe of weeks max but would like it capable of a much longer time if required

[Baloo]

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.

i see it the opposite way i think it saves a lot of time using a container as a mould for concrete its cheap as i already have it, its robust enough to extend the walls out by a ft or so and anchor shuttering to it and it achieves a lot if i have somewhere to disappear to when the occasion arises, how would you go about it with out using a shipping container as the core in a cheaper manor that dosent expose its location to all and sundry im all ears and happy to change my method

[jansman]

As I suggested a while back: look at the thread above this which is the same topic. Looking at that, I wouldn’t get in one…just sayin’.

[Baloo]

This is roughly what I had in mind as a compromise

Hi Frnc

thats pretty close to what i was thinking, the difficulty i see there is the reinforcement drawn in red has no where to finish half way up the wall where there is no strength to lean on it really needs to go up to the top where you have a hard edge which is much much stronger
like this is where i think im heading

[Baloo]

so expanding on the crash barrier idea instead of the concrete skin



the barriers are abou3mm think they have they waving from to resist impact/pressure they are suppose to stop a 1500kg car at 70 mph from going through, i see them as plenty strong, theres loads about relatively cheap

i will need a concrete base at around 250mm thick for the container to sit on with out good foundations what ever you do is doomed for failure
if i weld the barriers upright to the sides of the container leaving 150mm sticking down and up then weld them across the roof i have created a shield around the container at lower levels the barriers are stopped from moving inwards by the concrete foundation and at higher levels the roof barriers transfer the side loads to the other side where the opposing forces cancel them out, if they wernt welded to the container you could pull the container out ,

[Baloo]

i am proposing to use a hi cube container which means its 9' tall. that will allow me to install a false floor about 18" up so water/batteries/ etc can be stored underneath and again adding a further reinforcing structure side to side and at aprox 12" down i will add a false ceiling above which dried food clothes etc can be stored

[Frnc]

I get what you mean about not being able to reinforce the sides only half way up.