Creating a Storm Shelter Using a Shipping Container

Creating a Storm Shelter Using a Shipping Container

Used shipping containers can be employed in a variety of uses, including creating temporary storage and office facilities. They can also be incorporated into storm shelters, thanks to their sturdiness and durability.

Tornados kill about 60 people per year, injure hundreds, and do substantial property damage. In tornado-prone states throughout the South and Midwest, many residents add tornado shelters to their property to provide a safe refuge from these powerful storms.

Shipping containers can help provide an ideal base for a storm shelter. Work will need to be done to modify them to be partially buried underground, however. For starters, you’ll need to install an upper hatch for the top of the container and a secondary hatch for the side of the container that will face outward and which will remain unburied in the earth.

Next, you will need to reinforce the sides of the shipping container. Shipping containers are very strong vertically, as they are designed to be stacked, but less strong horizontally. You’ll need to brace the walls to keep them from crumpling inward.

Use a backhoe to dig a hole where you intend to place the shelter. Place a foundation of concrete blocks where you intend to place the container. Next, lower the container, and then cover the sides and rear with earth.

With the proper reinforcement and preparation, used shipping containers make an ideal starting material for a storm shelter. Used shipping containers are inexpensive and fairly easy to find from a container dealer or shipyard.