"Ship Shop" Built Between Shipping Containers

"Ship Shop" Built Between Shipping Containers BUILDINGS New Techniques 33-2-37 It looks like any other steel building, but the walls of Tom Schuster's 36 by 40-ft. shop are 40-ft. containers. He had parked two containers 20 ft. apart on railroad timbers in 1995 when he purchased his Pomeroy, Wash., property. At first the containers were used individually for storage. Later Schuster decided to build a shop between the two containers. He covered the space between them with a roof with 4/12-pitch trusses he built and bolted on the outside walls of the containers. He framed and insulated the 20-ft. area between the containers, installed a 10 by 10-ft. overhead garage door, and put chipboard on the interior and steel siding on the exterior of the end walls. He cut a door into one of the containers on the interior sidewall for easy interior access. The area over the tops of the containers makes handy storage space. He also bolted shelves to the containers' sidewalls. He poured a cement floor in the shop area between the containers and has a wood stove for heat. "It makes a super building," Schuster says. "It's windy here, but the containers are heavy and the wind doesn't blow them around. They have hardwood floors and are better built than most storage buildings. I wouldn't trade it for a commercial-built building." Schuster paid $1,200 for each of the containers in 1995. He spent another $8,000 to complete the shop. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Tom Schuster, 10 Connell Hill Rd., Pomeroy, Wash. 99347 (ph 509 8430-3078).

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