In this video we have modified a 40' high cube #shippingcontainer into a 24' office, two bathrooms with toilets, sinks, urinals and a mechanical room that houses a water tank, pressure system & septic tank. For this mod, we strut-strapped the container, installed our windows, doors, and a rubberized flooring for the two bathrooms and mechanical room. The office side is finished with PVC wall panels, desks, baseboard heaters, an A/C heat pump unit, and 4ft light fixtures.
Each bathroom features a residential style pot light, as well as sink, toilet, and urinal, which all get pumped into the rear mechanical room which houses the water and septic tanks.
PRODUCT USED:
➤ Container Door and Wall Flashing Kits
➤ Gravel Guard Rubberized Flooring
➤ Exhaust Fans
VIDEO
Purchase Container Modification World Products Featured in The Video
YouTube Video Transcript
I'm Channing mccoreston the container
guy in this video we're going to modify
a 40 foot high Cube one-time use
shipping container into a 24 foot office
a couple bathrooms and a mechanical unit
to house a water tank pressure system
and septic tank follow along
so in this container we're getting close
to being ready for foam we have our wall
flashing kits and door flashing kits uh
installed on on the container doors and
that's going to retain all the
insulation and then the first door here
is already into the first bathroom so
behind this is where the water tank the
black water tank and the pressure system
is going to be and then we're going to
have two stalls in here and so this is
one of the first times we've built a
washroom this is the first time that we
built this washroom using our uh our
strut line system with the strut
strapping and and uh so we're just still
playing around with the engineers
creating all different uh return
flashings for our window and door kits
so that everything can seam up nicely
and seal up prior to spray foam when we
get the best vapor barrier we can around
after spray foam seems like the foamers
did a great job getting everything all
exposed steel from the shipping
container it's all nice and tidy around
the corners and and that was mostly in
part with how we framed the inside
corner so we have the strut channel on
the end wall on the strut channel on the
sidewall and then we put a piece of just
angle flashing in here up to our new
Corner casting cover there which is gets
installed prior to spray foam now and
that locks everything in and allows us
to go from the uh the strut strapping on
the first end wall corrugation to the
strut strapping on the first sidewall
corrugation and clean up that corner
nicely with our white PVC reline wall
panels and so there's quite a few firsts
on this job we're still working on what
ground level office envelope should look
like and and how we should frame the
container and in what interval of
corrugations you see here we have just
uh a single corrugation spacing between
this section of reline wall panel which
isn't perfectly planned out but it's the
way that it worked on this one given it
had the mechanical room two bathrooms
and then the office area so a few things
that we're trying to do here is uh we
did run some BX in the wall in the spray
foam prior and so we have a wire stopped
out and this is going to be a baseboard
heater that's just bolted right into the
strut Channel and we also tried to run
all of our plugs uh to conceal all the
wiring and have that in the wall and
then just a router around our boxes and
put our electrical right in here so
everything's super tidy there's not too
much exposed conduit in this thing the
all this BX collected into a junction
box above the panel and all that will go
in there and then we're just going to
call into it straight down into the
panel and the panel is going to be
mounted on the strut Channel and allow I
guess the customer to pipe out of there
and run electrical anywhere else that
they need after the fact and so whatever
we knew was required now is all
concealed and the rest can easily be
added later on top of the data that
should be run into the office area of
this office washroom combo
start the tour at the back end of the
container this is uh I guess it's a side
of a container but it's a side with no
windows no doors and this is going up
against another one of the buildings at
the customer's site and so they're just
going to come out of the building into
the exterior junction box here this is
mounted directly behind where the panel
is inside this container so the wire
I'll go in here there's just some lugs
or terminals for the three or four wires
to to mount here and then the
electrician can also ground from here as
well down either into a grounding plate
or sometimes you just ground right to
the bottom channel of a container just
down here so a couple options there just
the containers got so much mass in it in
itself that it's a it's a giant ground
another thing I like to show you on this
side of the container is where the
bathrooms are so the bathrooms are
inside of here and we've mounted
bathroom fans so this is a prototype
version it uses AC Infinities uh four
inch louvered vent which is a very very
nice finish it's all powder coated that
is run on the inside by there it's just
a computer fan actually but it's 120
volt so it's an axial fan 100 CFM and
that thing's controlled by the light
switch so when the lights come on and
there's an occupant in there then the
bathroom fans are running to extract any
odors so that's what those look like
we're going to continue playing around
with that design and maybe make it a bit
more residential and so maybe clean up
the the Cosmetics of it and potentially
have like a Decora style cover in there
where either you could just pass a plug
through into a nearby Plug-In or install
any sort of a you could do a switch but
what would be better I think is even a
motion sensor so if you had 120 volt
motion sensor on there and then fed
power to that then the moment it it sees
someone you can set the time that the
bathroom fan runs and then shuts itself
off so that would be cool something
we're going to play with make prettier
and and hopefully have available to the
container your home following so if
build a container home it is horrible
putting regular bathroom fans in the
ceiling you lose a bunch of ceiling
height and it just especially when
you're spray foaming it's just it's a
bunch of planning that you don't really
want to do ahead of time rather than
just stalling a vent similar to like a
big air 45 vent spray foaming up to it
and then dealing with this later so now
let's jump over to the end wall of the
container I want to show off the air
conditioner and I guess that window you
can see how that all finished up let's
at the back end of the can here we
install the condenser unit for the air
conditioner because there's going to be
a shop door right here on the customer's
site we tucked it we offset it to this
side of the container just so it's out
of the way as people angle out of their
show up we are able to mount this using
strut channel on the end wall so the
strut Channel tucks in behind the window
frame here and we're able to bolt it to
the window frame with spring nuts and
then down at the bottom we have our
exterior CSM brackets which Mount down
there and hold that strut Channel firmly
in place and then this thing installs
very well we have some gusseted brackets
those are basically our shelving
brackets at the bottom and rubberized
Mount this because these things when
they are spinning they do vibrate a
little bit and that'll just make it a
little less noisy and more comfortable
to work inside the especially the back
end of this container here and so these
um there's the uh the shutoff switch on
the back end and then the power runs up
into the head unit the plumber at site
is also going to run the uh the coolant
or the freon lines or whatever it is uh
up into the head unit as well so that's
not fully finished the plumber will do
that there at site and then finish duck
sealing all the opening but I want to
show you guys the opening here a lot of
people are thinking they need to get all
the protrusions in their container ahead
of time and I I do believe that's true
when it comes to like three and four
inch openings uh something where where
it's larger than a corrugation but if
it's just like a a two inch hole saw
hole that you got to drill then you can
uh if you oil your bit and use a hole
cut through the corrugations after spray
foam and then it's a nice neat hole
right through the outside of the
container and then through the interior
finish in this case the re-line wall
panels and you're not having to frame
around it and trim around it which is
really annoying so just finish the
interior as normal and then cut these
holes afterwards you know two inch and
under seems to be the easiest way and
what we do around here and so this here
the first 24 feet of this container is
the office portion and what it has is a
window on each side a window on the end
wall and then this mandor
relatively centered inside of it and so
these are all the container modification
World dual swinger man door and the
window kits these are the Gen 1 window
kits there's another type of window kit
that's coming out shortly sneak peek uh
but it's going to have a rain drip
similar to the man door and so that will
just help shed the water away from the
window it doesn't continue it around and
then also right now there's eight
different sizes it's going to drop down
to just 42 inch on these side walls and
48 on the end walls which is going to be
great for just you know especially
companies like us that are stocking
these things we don't need to stock
eight different types of Windows and
framing kits it's going to drop down to
like eight parts that we need to stop
which is going to be amazing for for my
competition and myself so let's jump
inside this thing and show you what it
and so this here is inside the office
we've uh got it all finished up desk
installed all the re-line done and so we
love this interior uh there's a few
things we learned as we went
um we want to make a Glo style office
where uh one style of office handles
lunchrooms change rooms and offices and
so we might change our desk Arrangement
a little bit you know all these fancy
folds are cool but they just don't work
if you want to utilize the same desk for
maybe a bench seat or you know a taller
eating table so there's a little change
there and then maybe just stiffening up
the brackets on how they actually Mount
into the strut Channel another thing we
want to look at here also is we want to
half of the strut channel so instead of
putting 20 inch chunks of reline in
between here we'd rather do 42 figure
it's going to be about half the amount
of work uh so it'll save either a
customer's money because we're investing
and also just maybe make it a little
less expensive so now that we've
steel stud bracket we can actually put a
inch and 5 8 steel stud in between here
so we still have structure halfway in
between to mount these reline panels so
everything will be good there but then
also just yeah just saving the expense
of the strut Channel itself and the
strut strapping so these here
are our 36 inch window and if you look
here we have basically three inch uh
flashings on either side and so if we
now change this window to be a 42 inch
we won't need any interior flashings on
the side or on the top and bottom
because we run a strut Channel across
and that there is going to make the
window install but actually it will just
interior finishing around the window so
simple uh so lower cost we've deleted
some parts and less labor again so just
picking away you know we here at the
container guy I think we're the the
biggest critics of ourselves of our
quality and the way we do things and why
we do things and and uh you know how
much material we use so we want to have
the best envelope but also just minimize
the unnecessary expenditures to save
money for our customers and just come up
with a very common system that's easy to
train for employees to to assemble and
uh yeah just minimizes the cost for
here I talked earlier about the junction
box and how the panel is going in this
is it installed so we got a couple
chunks of conduit running down from the
the junction box into the panel I think
it's just a home line Schneider panel
what I'd like to see is I think the
maybe the stabbing panels are uh 20
inches wide so that actually fit they're
the same width as this junction box and
fit in between the strut channels and my
opinion would be a bit cleaner of a look
and more industrial of a look so might
play around with that again but what's
nice about this is this is all
surface mounted so if the customer needs
to change something and add something
they can prime example here plumber said
they needed a plug for the the Basin
water heaters underneath the sinks the
electrician gave them a plug like they
asked so 15 amps turns out it requires a
120 volt 30 amps so they need to run a
number 10 wire that's not through the
wall spray foam is all done oh now we
have to add two different circuits over
to those sinks luckily we were able to
do that because we don't have to
pull a random circuit out the front face
of the panel we can just come out the
junction box or the side of the panel
there's The Knockouts here and then pipe
over to uh each one of the bathrooms and
run the the 30 ounce that the plumber
requires there for the the on-demand
electric water heaters another thing to
look at is these partition walls so this
is our galvanized partition wall that
actually bolts right into the strut
Channel and so you can't even tell this
thing's all finished on the office side
of this container with our re-line
panels and there's structure that allows
us to mount into the panels and then
wherever we're mounting a desk or
something or if we know something's
going in there we can also fur it up or
Shore it up with some uh some plywood
inside of that partition wall and then
this is insulated with just a back
insulation rather than spray foam
because that's better for dampening
sound and given that's a bathroom if
someone's working here they might not
want to hear what's going on in there so
that'll just help keep it a bit quieter
uh but yeah that finishes up really
nicely and then so it gives you the
industrial galve look on the one side
and then the nice office finish on the
other which is especially important or
nice when when you're building like an
office storage combo so there's just
office on one end and storage on the
other you get your clean finish and then
your your very durable finish on the
other side and so as we move along same
goes a strut Channel and we have our uh
baseboard heaters these are electric
baseboard heater they're especially
important when it gets below minus 30
Celsius we do have the very efficient
heat pump AC unit which worked up until
about -30 but after that there's just no
heat left in the air which is crazy that
there's heat in the air at that but then
these have to kick in and so this is a
lot of times you know the backup heat or
if the door opens up you know it can
kick on but a radiant Heat's nice too it
kind of Heats objects rather than the
air and so makes it feel warmer than it
is here also the flooring in this thing
we left the stall container floor
which is nice on this end uh the far end
of the can we get the goose neck
attachment where it's a steel floor and
so if the customer wants to finish this
up with anything they can but uh all in
all you know if you put a nice
smooth coat of something on here it
might actually get worse it's relatively
grippy but up to the customer and for
now it's insulated underneath and so you
get to keep this super durable super
rugged industrial flooring that's that's
uh definitely going to handle the office
chairs cruising around it and so let's
go check out the air conditioner
here's the head unit prior to the cover
being installed so it shows you the
wires coming in and then the plumber
still needs to vacuum out all of any
moisture that's potentially in the
system and then release the refrigerant
so they come pre-loaded with a they're
new what is it says right here R4 410A
refrigerant which I think just maybe a
bit more environmentally friendly and
they're also Wi-Fi enabled which is
really cool so if you get the app you
can actually just see the temperature in
from your phone wherever this will have
internet in here and also adjust it from
your phone or get any alarms if for some
reason the temperature dropped like this
thing froze up but that's why we put the
backup heat inside of this thing so
that's really cool another thing to
notice here we have the 60 inch window
which is larger than what we want to
switch to we want to switch to 48 so
we're going to sacrifice a bit of window
on this Anvil but we won't have these
massive interior uh return pieces on
both sides and so that there is going to
make again yeah the interior finishing
of this so much easier and then we'll
just do a strut channel right close to
the corner and then another one and then
it's going to be like a 42 to 44 inch
gap of a re-line where where there's
nothing but that's gonna what we feel
uh we also have some new Corner casting
covers in the top these are a prototype
uh these there just allow that two
inches of foam around the corner casting
and that was installed prior to spray
foam what we're going to do is now
create that so it's a full eight inches
so eight inches this way eight inches
that way and install after spray foam
and and we've actually just insulated a
can with that maybe I'll grab some
footage and just show you that here we
are in the other container that we're
working on with our second version
prototype of these Corner casting covers
when we're strut strapping and strut
lining containers not when we're still
studying and these here as you can see
there's just going to be a lot less work
trimming around this with reline so we
can just put a angle iron coming down
and then J up to it on one side or
potentially we'll have aluminum or
galvanized angle flashing that just fits
right in there and we don't have to do
any uh relining in the corners which
would make this very very simple to
install so this is uh yeah the very
first one that we've built and it seems
to fit in there nicely so we'll get that
glued in and screwed in and then start
finishing the interior of this thing and
and so yeah this this is the dream
envelope here with the strut Channel and
the reline we've got some tweaks we want
to make but all in all super happy with
the way this came out uh now let's go
check out the bathrooms one thing I
really want to concentrate on is the
lights that we put in there we did a
residential style pot light rather than
these four foot fixtures we did these in
here just in case we know they want
light where they're working but in the
bathroom side let's see how they turned
out and if they're cleaner and if we can
conceal a lot of the wiring and also
again save costs you know it's 20 bucks
a fixture instead of 100 and some
so here's that four inch LED pot light
fixed here these are just a flush mount
so all they need is just a tiny or like
an octagon or even just like those a
little surface mount plates there so uh
yeah they're really nice install they're
low cost and that should provide ample
light inside of here especially with the
white walls and not being a very large
um yeah that might be uh a staple of of
achieve going forward and then we can
just have multiple lights in a can
rather than just two three four fixtures
we could do eight to ten of these things
inside of offices and more evenly
distribute the lights so that's
something that's cool and then here's
the the bathroom and so one thing I'm
not super pumped about is uh the
customer hired their own plumber for
this and so the plumber came to our site
and worked but uh I wasn't in charge of
the quality and so there's certain
things in here that that I don't like we
have all this strut Channel
which is meant to be strapping things
like pipe or Plumbing lines and a lot of
the stuff's just freestanding and and
not necessarily mounted uh how I'd like
also the urinal here there's urinals
where the Trap comes straight down and
is exposed but for some reason they got
one that goes through the back so I
think he made a frame here out of just
steel stud to mount this thing but it's
shaky and so another thing I'm
not super impressed with uh and even
just the way that they strap these I
think these are half inch straps with a
three inch PEX line like that doesn't
seem right there's got to be some sort
of strap four packs and then
one thing to concentrate on though too
if we just don't look at the actual
routing of the plumbing but just look at
the item we have these Sani flow toilets
so these are a macerator toilet they uh
uh discharge into a basin in the back
and then there's a macerator pump that
pumps the waste into the septic tank and
so that can pump vertically so from here
it's just a three-quarter inch line and
that'll go over and into the tank and
um yeah just basically rather than
the whole container skirted and heated
underneath here for Gravity flow
Plumbing now the sink the urinal all
flow into the Basin plus the toilet once
it hits a level pump kicks on and pumps
it into the septic tank which we'll show
you next there's actually two of the
same bathrooms that were able to fit
inside this 40 foot container plus the
mechanical room or the the septic tank
housing room here so yeah we're very
happy to be able to fit an office two
bathrooms and this mechanical room here
the water is going to slowly fill from
the other building's existing pressure
or water supply and it'll
it'll fill the holding tank and so it'll
have floats in here a high and a low so
it'll know when to kick on and just
slowly keep itself at a at a level
that's comfortable a lot of times you
want to match your water tank to your
septic tank but in that instance we're
not filling one and draining the other
and so it's less important that the
water tank honestly it doesn't even need
to be this large it could have been
something like 80 gallons instead of 300
I think there's a 400 or 440 or
something gallon septic tank here and
this here has got a three inch now banjo
fitting here for the septic truck to
just quick connect and hook up to and
pump this thing out very quickly we're
not too concerned we were thinking about
maybe like an access hatch through the
doors or through the side of the
container to hook up to this but it's
it's going to be so quick and the Heat's
going to be retained in the water and
then in the sewer as well that this
thing like even in the middle of winter
you just crack the one door hook up pump
it out and then close her up we are way
overpowered with our heater for the size
of room but we've got our we really like
these heaters they're a garage style
heaters and we're able to ceiling mount
them to the strut and so this is
hardwired in and then we also gave them
a redundant plug for a construction
heater so we have here right beside the
switch uh just a second plug-in so if
they are concerned about this ever
freezing up and they want to just throw
a heater on at a lower setting in here
just in case that's there for them we
just threw that in and then so the
plumber still has to come in here and
finish hooking up the pressure system
and all that so we'll be able to show
you that and uh but other than that yeah
pretty good idea of what this thing's
gonna look like the the vent line comes
from both bathrooms and connects to the
the stack above this tank and then we've
installed that uh three inch abs for the
plumber prior to spray foam so it's a
solid seal around that with foam and up
on the top of the can so that we don't
have any water landing on the roof or
snow melting that's going to leak back
into this thing so there's not a ton to
see here other than I guess how pretty
these uh container door flashing kits
look once they're re-lined here so this
uh these doors nicely and they come
right up to the wall flashing kits on
these cans so you know I'd be surprised
to see anyone come up with a cleaner
better insulated way of insulating these
containers keeping them operational and
as operational as they were right out of
the factory so we love this so clean
looks good everything in here it's
beautiful another thing to note we also
did a black rubberized flooring
inside uh the mechanical room here and
then also the both bathrooms so we
rolled on that's a difference of the the
office side we just left it because this
is kind of grippy and and for your
office chair to roll around I don't know
might be okay I guess but just another
expense too to put it over there and
it's something they can always add later
but that just kind of waterproof this
and avoids any spills or anything just
from slowly rotting away the teak
flooring but that there pretty much
wraps up everything I'd like to show you
on this mod it was a pretty in-depth mod
it took us a bit longer than we uh I
guess the customer wanted us to take but
we definitely use it as a learning
experience and we are able to adjust a
lot of our 3D models and make better
products going forward and so this is
even something that we could rebuild and
sell to other people if you're looking
for a uh office washroom combo and feel
like we have the design quite dialed in
one thing I'd like to do is just get my
own plumber and have that all drawn up
in our model ahead of time so that we
make sure everything's mounted nice and
stiff and solid and utilizing the strut
channel the way that it should be so
that there pretty much wraps it up if
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