So i want to bury a shipping container

[Baloo]

adding 3mm steel plate all round the container adds significant weight doing the calcs it works out at 24kg per square meter which adds around 4.8 ton to the container which is already 4 tons plus internal dividers and floor and we are looking at around 10 tons which i see as a good thing as we dont want it sucked out of the ground by a tornado do we

[Frnc]

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

This looks like a heck of a lot of weight on top still. I've no idea how much these crash barriers will strengthen it.

[Baloo]

the internal dims of a 40ft shipping container are 12.03 m long by 2.35 m wide which is really convenient as it neatly side steps building control as there is an exemption for shelters under 30sq/m and this is 28.27 sq/m

[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

This looks like a heck of a lot of weight on top still. I've no idea how much these crash barriers will strengthen it.

i agree it does look a lot but my sketches are no where near to scale, i can fiddle with the amount of cover to suit, conventional wisdom suggests you need around 3' of soil to reduce radiation to acceptable levels

[Baloo]

i will consult on likely weight on the roof but theres always a work around, i could lower the internal floor and the the ceiling so i have more room above that way i could weld in a centre spine from end to end this could have trusses that come down to the side walls, so the downward pressure from above is trying to push the side walls out resisting the side pressure pushing in and the side pressure is pushing in fighting the down pressure

[Frnc]

Those 'coat hangers' should take some of the downward pressure. But 3 feet is a lot of weight. Maybe you could start off with less than 3 ft on top, and add some more after a couple of years if it's all ok.

[grenfell]

Just for clarification are you talking about actually burying the container below ground level or having it sit on a concrete pad at ground level and then piling soil around and over it ?

[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.

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

I think we're saying the same thing , the container IS the shutter. As to a method that doesn't expose the build , at least as much , you could dispense with a lot of the concrete thus reducing deliveries. Rather than poured concrete for the walls you could build it with blocks laid flat. It would be built with little machinery other than a cement mixer and a welder to weld a few ties to the container. The roof could also be done as an arch using blocks or beams if the delivery isn't too obvious...

[jennyjj01]

This sounds a great "Build it once" project. So probably worth spending max effort at the planning stage. I can't help thinking that someone adept at working out stresses and best structure design, will be essential. Either that or keep reviewing the plans and mistakes made by others. Funny how few online designs feature the kind of reinforcements envisaged here.
https://graywolfsurvival.com/2625/why-y ... tf-bunker/

[grenfell]

That's a good article and the attendant comments make for interesting reading as well.