DIY Container Bunker Design: Construction Tips w/ 

I buried my container upside down because the flooring is the strongest part now having it as a ceiling. Sat down on two foot of gravel for water drainage and poured concrete slab floor inside over horizontal rebar and vertical rebar hammered into the ground 6’. I ran 4” I beams every two foot apart down the sides and sealed everything up with sealant and more gravel to fill in the sides and top with a layer of dirt over that.

The guy from atlas rocks :) good to see him helping others :)

I have an underground home. I'm the second owner. Had to excavate the wingwalls at the entrance and put in drainage tile also used allthread and 12 inch steel plates to prevent them ever coming back into a bulging state. Backfilled with river rock.

Designed a nice tomb / casket... and mother nature or the enemy locks you inside it... Any shelter design without at least two places for egress is a casket. If a tree fell against it, rocks rolled against the doors, someone locks you in, you're screwed. The design must be lockable from the inside when occupied, and should not be lockable on at least one exit from the outside. Then of course, there was no design for airflow in this case. It's a casket. Moral of the story is, you cannot do these things quickly or without thought, or inexpensively... Re. I don't want anyone to get hurt. You need to think these things through and have a check list...

After all the work needed to safely bury a container, I think it would be easier just to use ICF, CMU, or formed concrete.

I personally think ICF, assembling precast Square pipe sections together or forming the desired shape using pressure treated plywood and pouring concrete would be easier than skinning inside and out of shipping containers. Perhaps using the end wall with the door/s end wall of the shipping container and casting into position with the angled retaining walls would make sence. lots of ways to do things but seems like a lot of layers inside and out to make a shipping container work. would be a good business model to have a set of casting/forming mould sections that can be assembled on site and removed to take to the next jobsite. a curved roof is stronger tham a flat roof so make some curved room mould sections and a one with a tunnel access so have multiple exits.

I hope this all works out! I can see you and the Team are working hard to make this happen! Good luck with it. And Happy New Year, Channing!!

The hydrostatic pressure joke got me!!😂 great video!

*The Container Guy* New Sub, enjoying your content, thank-you for taking the time to bring us along. GOD Bless.

You guys rule!! I love your videos. Containers are so handy.

One way in/out is a tomb, exposed front doors. Tunnel down at an angle with steps diwn to buner and a rear escape vertical tunnel.

Glad to see this video series. Thanks for doing it! Another question would be, what if you wanted humidity inside, like for a root cellar? Much more niche, but I'm wondering if you could skip the spray foam, keep the bottom open, and just use pond liner around the outside/up top.

Very Informative by the both of you and having Ron on here is also a major bonus, Happy New Year guys.

Can't wait to see this installed. Excellent !!!

GREAT VIDEO, I ENJOY SEEING PEOPLE WITH NEW IDEA'S, AND RON WORKING WITH INDIVIDUALS AS WELL SMALL COMPANIES BECAUSE RON HAS AN IDEA SELLING PARTS AND THAT IS A GREAT MOTIVATION 👍

Since Ron is pushing for and said he would be a member of a code and regulations organization, he didn't look all that pleased when you said "it would suck if we were just coded right out of our industry". Maybe I read too much into his body language and facial expression. 🤷🏼‍♂️ You guys are doing great. Keep it up!

Yes!! Been waiting for this vid for a year, ever since I thought of doing this! Well done you two pros!!

Very nice...I like the fancy animations. You guys are killing it.

It's a great Idea. I think an ICF system would be a good cost effective solution with fiberglass rebar as a mono pour.

Looking forward to seeing how ya do this! Blessings and Happy New Year ❤

It’s very important to use perforated drain tile around the perimeter of the container and don’t forget the slope along the back and towards the front to properly drain the buried container so to avoid water pooling around the unit. It is also wise to add a bit of slope not only to the prepared bed of an in hill installation but to the container as well in case Murphy sticks his finger into the build. If your doing a bitumen seal around the container, use extreme care in backfilling the instal, it can scratch and allow water in that will attack the steel over time.

Good info…lots of the info will help me hopefully do my maintenance building.

Atlas’ owner is a “mensch”. Collaborates with another great guy so everybody wins -specially consumers👏🏻

Great video guys. I'm looking forward to what you all come up with. I would love to see more collaboration in the future. Maybe you can put one of Ron's NBC filtration systems in your build, and an airtight door with a dirty room?

Nice collaboration! I follow Atlas too. 😃👍🏻

Awesome video looking forward to the end result 👍.

You should recommend pressure treated 2x4s for the outside framing as well and plywood also comes in pressure treated as well.

When Ron say you did a good job, I never see something like this … well it’s said a LOTS! Congrats

My best friend buried his container in the sand in Florida, the walls collapsed when he backfilled and he never used his shelter, so here is what we what we did, we buried three 40 foot hi cube shipping containers side by side, we started with a base 12" of 1-1/2" clear washed stone, then set and leveled the containers, then set 12" (cement core) ICF (insulated concrete forms) around the two sides and the back, installed rebar, then poured the walls with cement, then set metal deck panels crossways across all 3 containers, and setting on the outside ICF cement walls, we over lapped the panels at the container seems for extra strength, then poured 8" of cement on the lid over the metal panels, Then installed 2 layers of 2" extruded polystyrene, then installed rubber roofing EDM over the entire lid over lapping the sides about 12" over drainage, we also waterproofed the ICF walls with Total Wall's waterproof cement base coat. then we poured wing walls like in your video on each side of the doors, then back filled and also covered the lid with about 12" dirt, 10 years later it is still solid as a rock and no leaks whatsoever. we left the wood floors as is and cut walk through doors between each container so they are all connected and accessible once you are inside. The ICF's create a super strong insulated shelter.

The sleeping potato was a great touch 😂

It would almost make more sense to flip it over and seal off the cracks in the floor and just pour concrete for the roof and install a new floor on what used to be the top of the container. Also the floor and the four corners are the ones rated for holding the load kinda like a pole barn

My Brother's Basement, is backed into a Bank. The Front Wall (Sun Face & Door) is 4" Thick Poured Concrete. The Side Walls are 6" Poured Concrete. The Back wall is 8" Thick Poured Concrete! It is on a 24' x 24' layout, and the Back Wall, has a Sloped "Corbel" included Mid Point of the Wall! Hard to believe that was done when I was a Young Boy, over 50 Years Ago!! Its still holding up well! Not sure what I heard here will hold up to Sloped Earth Pressure, & Hydrostatic Pressure, but, time will tell!

When researching to do an underground bunker myself I came up with a method ive not seen anyone else do before that I wouod like to try. Essentially dig a straight hole a couple of feet wider than the shipping container and weld a top hatch on the container. Waterproof the heck out of it with dpm/ tar paint/ etc and prep the base of the hole in the same way as this video. Now the different approach: using pond liner create an inner shell liner INSIDE the container. As you pour the concrete along the exterior of the shipping container(between container and earth side), fill the lined inside of the container with water, balancing the pressures as the concrete cures. After a week pump out the water inside, remove the liner and you have a concrete bunker without the need for retaining fom walls. Now the density of water and cobcrete isn't the same, so worse case you have to fill the water to concrete in a ratio of 2:1 and do the concrete pour in two goes Hope someone sees this comment and can provide any insight into my idea.

Friendly warning about regulations: Whilst well intended, you don't want them. Regulations kill industries, small businesses, innovation and improvements. As can be seen looking at the over regulated hellhole that is Australia, everything MUST be done by a licenced professional TO the standard. That means absolutely NO deviating from the standard. Sure you might be a qualified engineer who can prove its safer to go beyond the standard - but you can't! The law sets the standards as the only way it can be done, not the minimum. Standards tighten annually for minor things, but, for any major changes - that's a once a decade review that NEVER happens early. Standards also automatically prohibit any and all DIY as the profession and work becomes legally "regulated". Regulations / Standards also create a boutique industry of "inspection" at every stage of the process. Not all, but many inspectors will leak details from one business to another so kiss any permissible IP goodbye (methods, layouts, etc.). Regulations / standards also are by design used to keep small businesses out of the industries: * The cost to buy the standard is usually $8000+ for anything major * The costs to be approved to build/design to the standard (i.e. compliance licencing) start around $25,000 per employee per year * Each inspection can cost up to $10,000 because you can't do anything without the inspections, nor can you have an "in-house" inspector * Annual re-training/update/refresher courses 3-5 days every year cost ~$5000 per employee per year - becomes mandatory to remain qualified And all that's on top of any existing professional licencing and update/refresher courses and continuing professional development (CPD) which are required to remain qualified as a licenced engineer. Put this all together and you get a situation where one or two idiots who don't care about quality and safety ruin it for everyone and only the existing big names can continue. That's how it all plays out, that's why is damn near impossible to do much of anything in Australia without the direct assistance/involvement of a giant multi-national corporation who's permitted to do it. The best solution is to make it easy to hold the company / individual 100% liable if what they did fails or has issues. American's love to sue, that process needs to be made easy in such cases where the product failed or had issues. When I say liable, I don't just mean the business, I mean someone who's liable for signing off unacceptable/insufficient work.

Im glad im not the only one that geeks out about shipping containers! haha

Good job and keep up the great work. Also, burry it ABOVE ground and you eliminate many of your problems and still get a tornado shelter, nuclear blast shelter (if 5+ miles away from blast) and radiation shelter. Why burry if you don't have to?

I really like your ideas. Since you have the platform to try things here are some comments. My rules of thumb. Keep it simple and safe. DIY, positive ROI. Better. Make hole 2 feet larger all around container. Set container 1 foot off ground on temporary blocks on 4 corners. Remove wood floor. Place first foot of closed cell polyurethane pour foam under container. Replace floor. Pour foam is less expensive than spray foam, more diy, water barrier, insulation, no need for gravel base. Foam supports entire container. Maybe add studs or rebar around container for reinforcement. Continue adding lifts of foam between container and dirt wall which is the outer form. Cover top of container with 2 feet of foam. Cover with 1+ feet of top soil. The pour foam is the insulation, water/moisture barrier, and structural support. Since the density of pour foam is much less, the force of the soil pushing against the container is balanced. May need to put more soil on top to keep the container from " floating" out of the ground. Adjust to fit.

Geotextile pond underlayment over the container and down to the pea gravel under the subfloor level will help moisture mitigation. Place over your foam exolayer like a hood. Air ventilation system might be good for a domicile or office

It looks awesome!. One concern... Will TERMITES get into the plywood you are using in the ground?

What kind of strut system are you using, are you using unistrut, tele-strut or b-line

My question has always been when you have a container like that how do you, or is it intended to stay inside, and lock the door? I would rather incorporate a exit door somewhere that can be locked from the inside. Correct me if I am wrong please.

Amazing!!!

Steel Quonset hut covered in spray foam and helix shot create over that is more economical with it's naturally strong arch shape.

what cad app , are you kids using , kinda looks like sketchup pro. though didn't know it could do animation. ty anyway nice job.

Do you do plans for container homes . Using 5 for a 1 level , 3 bedroom and 2 bathroom with a laundry and pantry.

Another idea is to use ICF blocks along the sides of the container, but then why even buy the container?

Thanks for the video and information, but how you make sure, if you use it as an shelter, you can lock it from the inside, without be able to lock you in, from the outside?? I think that's a big thing if you do not only use it as a storage. Any ideas for that?

Can you just make a concrete room out of ICF for the shipping container to sit in? Then you don't have to worry about anything pressing up against the sides, you can control the moisture / humidity of the chamber, mount the shipping container on springs (like cheyenne mountain bunker), and you can make the room large enough to access in between the shipping container and concrete chamber to do inspections and maintenance for something that last generations.

That’s awesome and I agree with a lot of comments here about having a secondary exit point. Would it be possible to have a hatch on the roof, but having it stick up further out of ground disguised as a tree stump or something that looks like natural habitat? Then if something bad did happen and you got stuck you could cut that exit point with a grinder and get out. Great video looking forward to the real thing

Metal fatigue is a thing, there will be constant force on your shelter eventually causing structural failure. Only metal is not a suitable material for underground shelters I think, though pillars to absorb shock is another case. I would rather make an artificial cave than stay in a metal box like canned food. Though if not underground it would work well enough. For underground, stonemasonry, cement, strong isolation chemicals, a thick coat of petrochemicals(even a thick layer of plastic for moisture isolation perhaps would be much more functional for long term. So a stone structure with no sharp corners covered with thick plastic sheets welded to leave no point open. Consider wrapping those containers in plastic when you are actually putting them underground, even a coat of recycled barrels would do wonders, for increasing product's durability to elements.

i have question how tight are they on this in ontario? im been considering building a container camp maybe bury one or 2 containers

I'm appreciating the computer graphics!

ya gotta modify the shiping container so much, wouldnt it be cheeper to just build from scratch?

What kind of spray foam do you use?

awesome thanks!

You can almost see Ron coming up with new ideas as he walks around

I’m curious how you did the animations. Very cool. Please explain.

What about 'air flow'? I'm assuming this is for storage only and air flow is the rezult only when the doors are open or dis you have something else in mind?

Nice!!! Loved the biden dig lol

So utilizing that steel and concrete reinforcement technique would also be good for an above ground container home? Especially if it's in an area that is located in a hurricane or bad weather zone? Also, could you do that to 2 40' shipping containers that you put together?

Burying hollow objects requires "Buoyancy Calculations" if you anticipate any level of ground water interfacing.... Also (obvious) the deeper you got the more PSI against the wall and it goes up quick farther down you go.

I would like to suggest that insulation layer may be redundant or preventing you from taking advantage of passive heat from buying underground

It would be cool to see you guys build a staircase that replaces the doors do it could be buried and a plate to mount on the roof to run a ventilation pipe.

Which software do you use for phasing animation?

Looking forward to the experiment. Sheet of plywood might buckle out and/or pull completely out from outside studs when pouring concrete.

Would have to find alternatives to the toxic spray foam and PVC, that's a no-go.

I wasn't expecting Ron to be FOR regulations, glad he is though. Makes him seem more trustworthy for sure. The worst nightmare would be to be in one of these bunkers and have them cave in on you and bury you alive. Not many ways to die that are worse than that.

The results of unintended consequences, over reach and incompetence that will stem from regulating a currently unregulated industry will far outweigh the mistakes and costs of people doing these themselves. At some point you have to be responsible for yourself and the decisions you make. Call it dangerous freedom or whatever you want. What you guys are doing here will have exponentially better benefits to people wanting to build a shelter than any regulation would hope to have. We began teaching children how to avoid structural problems by telling them the story of the 3 little pigs. How many people even know that story and understand the lesson. Thanks for the video.

Do you sell insulated containers and ship to the US?

This shits cool as fcuk glad to see a good ol boy from central canada doing it

Since shipping containers have Basically a open bottom What'd it be possible to flip a shipping tuner over and just weld both Open bottoms together

Be careful codifying shipping container as structural building code. It is already difficult to compete with well designed steel framing and moment frames. Especially when project requires structures of wider than 8’ clearspan, shipping containers are claustrophobic. Most shipping container clients put up with 8’ restrictions for cost saving. With the popularity of shipping container shops and reduced availability you will kill your own industry, and there won’t be no turning back. Less government regulation is good, find business differentiation with engineered solutions not squashing new businesses. I am a retired Green Building contractor and clean tech entrepreneur. Let youngbloods flow into your industry. I remember when you were a young buck trying to sell shipping container ideas.

Dang, and I have the perfect farm with a hill to drop that into. Barely an hour out of Saskatoon I'd love to volunteer space for them to experiment and install one he he he.😂❤

It would be interesting to see how tank containers hold up underground.

You are clever 👍

Note: swiss bunker doors are essentially solid concrete slabs of several inches thick. that allows them to act as a shield when the bunker is sealed up.

Has bunker flood top we’re buried is there other ways have air in cause happens

What movie is that damn break clip from? 5:17

One problem is the doors only open outward. Heavy snow, mud, or even intentional blocking could make your shelter into your tomb. Maybe offer a kit that allows an inward opening standard size door to be inserted into one of the container doors. An emergency exit could be put in the roof, pull some pins a trapdoor would swing down, it would dump a few feet of dirt into the shelter but you could get out.

Retaining walls higher than 4’ are required to be engineered according to North Carolina code. Doesn’t matter where it is or what it is for. Obviously out of sight out of mind, but it is still a thing here. Good job on the video. This project will still cost 10’s of thousands of dollars. Not a cheap build. I completed a 32’x48’ basement all in for $25,000 this year. Including waterproofing, slab, concrete rebar and excavation. Another $10,000 would get me a roof system if I choose to bury it. This is cheaper than a container build, IMO.

Can you do this for me in Florida?

how would you do a double wide container?

I have a corrugated pipe at the end of my drive way for the past 35 years. I run over it everyday with my car. It is holding up just fine. The metal is a lot thinner then my shipping container and with no ends on it to support the weight of the gravel driveway and the car, it's doing just great. I don't think all this work is necessary. I only need the container to last my life time not for eternity.

I dreamed about bunkers 2 weeks ago

What problems would I run into if I say, dig a giant hole. Drop some engineered rock in the very bottom. Dropped in a container with sealed doors, ventilation, interior supports built into it and tube with a ladder coming out the top to a hatch elevated to be above ground level.(obviously check for level and make sure it is fully supported before moving forward), drop in a some smaller rock and push it into the gaps under the container using air pressure or water. Place a water proof liner(like what is used on top of commercial roofs) over the top and all four sides of the box. And then fill it with concrete till I can’t see the container anymore. Once the concrete has cured I fill in the rest of the hole with soil. Is the interior framing and concrete not enough strength? How important/helpful would it be to add a rebar cage around the top of the container? In this video it seems like he is avoiding the use of concrete? Is there a reason for this? I don’t have a ton of experience in construction and none with concrete but from what I do know about it I would assume it would be the perfect material to surround the container. Why are they using so much spray foam in this video? If the container is surrounded by dirt then you shouldn’t need any insulation, and I can’t think of any other possible reasoning for using it.

You could in case that hole container with spray creat witch is used for swimming pools that is very strong

Maybe look into spray foam the outside then shotcrete with helix steel before burying it.

Ah good thing I have equipment for doors like this ⬇️⬅️➡️⬆️⬇️

would hope a fire doesnt start in one of those containers, that pvc and foam will go up so fast! - one thing many people don't think about is fire safety. houses built to code (at least in australia) need to have certain flammability requirements.

That's very niiiiiiiice

Interesting in setting two 20 ft containers into the side of a hill setting side by side with an 8 inch gap. Then waterproofing the outsides and insulating foam on both, then enveloping them in concrete with steel reinforcement with about two foot of dirt overhead. Only the doors would be exposed with poured concrete wings.

Hi, instead of concrete with sand mix , you stipulate concrete and stone dust and rebar your encasement will be stronger and waterproof as sand is porous and stone is not such as ferrocement boats.

Come posso comprare il pannello con la ventola x scaldare dentro il container?

Why aren't you utilizing the open space under the container to install drainage? Seems like a missed opportunity, and an easy way to pull water from the sides of the structure and push it out the front, underneath the door. Gravel tends to make a really good natural filter for rainwater, too. You may consider channeling it into a rainwater collection basin, or even a sistern.

Ron knows what he talks about and builds it's said he gets a lot of hate from people online that think they know better or have no idea how much steel costs, welding and other. Containers are never really any good for putting under ground for a lot of reasons. You end up spending so much your better off to use ICF or something other than a container.

Quonset hut would work better?

Where in canada are you located

Have you considered burying a non working reefer? Just need to reinforce the outside. Already have a thermal barrier and insulated floor. Non corrosive interior as well.

Q: Would it be better (and worth the extra expense) to go with a container meant for refrigeration?

The problem with use of steel is it can rust and that rust is consuming the oxygen. Major problem