Shipping Container Bar

I’m closing next week on a cool new (to me) house with 2 acres of land.  There’s no HOA and a general agricultural/freedom feel to the area. I’m so excited to have some space for storage and to play!  I’m thinking about buying a used shipping container to drop in the backyard. My plan would be to use half of it for yard equipment storage and turn the other half into a custom backyard bar. 

Do do any of you guys have experience with buying a used shipping container?  Local craigslist prices are about $2300 delivered. Do I need to put down any foundation or pad?  The guy I bought my neon circle track car from had several containers in his backyard that were dropped randomly with no prep underneath. They do seem to have real beefy corners and a few inch gap under the floor. 

Heres an an approximate idea:

Other backyard plans include a side-by-side and mini bike track!

The smaller track by me has a clubhouse made of 3 shipping containers with a wooden deck above them. One of the containers is a bar. It simply has a door and "bar window" on one of the long sides, a window on the other, and one of the short faces cut out to link to the next container (which is a kitchen). It's all on a foundation.

Insulating containers is a PITA, they easily get too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter, that one has the deck keeping the sun off it and no winter to deal with along with good ventilation.

Found pics online:

In reply to GameboyRMH :

Looks like a nice place to relax and hang out.

Sure is, they sell great food too. Did you notice the projector and screen and the BBQ?

I have a friend who has one sitting on the ground behind their house on the coast. It's been there for probably 20 years and the floor still seems solid. The roof has rusted through in places though. If I was going to use on I'd put a simple slant roof on it to provide some relief from sun bake and to make sure most of the water rolled off.

BTW, that friend's container is corten steel, the corrosion resistant marine stuff.  I think most of them are, but I'm not positive.

Stick a slanted roof over it. Install a big fan between the slanted roof and the normal roof. There'd be virtually no sunbake at that point. 

Go pick out the container you want. There are single use ones that are virtually brand new, and ones that have been beat up quite a bit. Prices will vary accordingly.

The container corners sit a 1/2" below the horizontal members. So if you are sitting on concrete only the corners would touch. You can set the container on a gravel base, but the bottom will touch all the way around the perimeter and could lead to rust. Even if it it did it would probably outlast you. If I was doing it I would probably just set each corner on a cinder block.

It will obviously get real hot inside if it is closed up. Paint the outside white to help. I would open up the sides in your bar area as much as possible to provide some ventilation and if you have a deck like the one in the picture hang a sun screen up to provide some shade.

Good tips. Thanks guys!

We have a storage container company in our little town, but they appear to have multiple locations. I mention this because their website is kind of interesting:

https://www.pacvan.com/portable-offices-special-applications/

A local grocery store opened up a pizza place, and did so in an old container. It's great, and they have had huge success.

I would think you'll want something more substantial than just a cinder block under the corners.  Eventually they will sink into the ground and the container wil be resting on the ground. Depending on how soft the soil is, the entire container could sink which could make door openings tricky. 

Personally, for what you are talking about I'd just buy or build a shed.

Google Container Park Las Vegas. And entire shopping center built from them. It was very cool and they did some neat stuff with them.

My old apartment in downtown OKC was across the street from a shipping container "development" with a cool bar called Anchor Down. Great hot dogs/brats to go with the beer.

I forgot, there is a bar in Spartanburg made from containers also. Also popular and awesome.

Ian F said:

I would think you'll want something more substantial than just a cinder block under the corners.  Eventually they will sink into the ground and the container wil be resting on the ground. Depending on how soft the soil is, the entire container could sink which could make door openings tricky. 

Personally, for what you are talking about I'd just buy or build a shed.

Ian is right if your ground is soft. Mine is rocky and drains well so I could literally set it on the dirt and not have any problems.

The existing end doors have lots of clearance, and you could pick one corner off the ground a foot and they would still open. Keep in mind that once you start cutting out the side walls the container gets flimsy, and depending on how much weight you have in it will sag if the middle isn't supported.

Several guys in my area have sheds built out of three of them in a big U with pole barn trusses resting on the side ones over the gap and a tin roof. Most of them have concrete piers under the corners with threaded studs sticking out into the corner connection pockets with adjustment nuts but I don't think anyone has had to adjust one.

I think shipping container structures and recycled pallet art and furniture are things that lose all appeal after a person has spent any amount of time operating a fork lift in a shipping and receiving department. 

The "proper" way to place them is on concrete piers with tiedowns to keep them from escaping due to a flood or earthquake. 

Look at C3, they make many buildings using multiple containers. I have taken my welding students there to see the operation 

What should I use at the corners where all of the weight is supported?  A really strong paver of some kind seems ideal. Does one exist?  Looking for something simple and cheap just to keep the belly from sitting in moist dirt. 

Local to me, done by a guy I used to work with.