Posts by George Runkle
Shipping Container Homes – The Pain and How It’s Done
This morning a good question came in to me by e-mail. It was: Can you give me the ins and outs of purchasing a container home and having it built and buying land? Can you give me the ins and outs of purchasing a container home and having it built and buying land? How long is the…
Read MoreVacation Home in West Virginia Made From Repurposed Intermodal Containers
This is one of our latest designs. It’s an existing cabin that the owner is putting an addtion around it made from shipping containers. In this design, I’m not touching the existing structure for the most part. The only modification I am doing to the existing structure is adding a beam in the basement. The…
Read MoreHow We Design Buildings from Repurposed Shipping Containers
In this video I cover the procedure we use to design shipping container buildings. It really doesn’t matter how big or small the building is, the way it’s designed is still the same.
Read MoreHow US Building Codes Work
In college professors never explained how building codes work. Supervisors never explained Codes to me anyplace I worked. I’m going to save you trouble and layout how Building Codes work here in the US. This is of crucial importance to us as designers. This should help if you are working from another country, or just…
Read MoreArt2Park Intermodal Container and Steel Structure in Tampa, Florida
This is a project we are wrapping up on. It should begin construction around October 2021. It’s a combination container structure and structural steel, with a concrete deck for the second floor. It’s a creative combination of different types of structure (concrete, masonry, steel, containers) to provide an attractive design. The containers from my standpoint…
Read MoreBetter Travel for the Road Warrior – Easing the Agony
In the past year, many of us have had to restrict our travel, but it still is a fact of life for many of us. It’s hard to accomplish everything over Zoom, so I found business travel to be a necessity. Even in the worst of the epidemic, I did have to make one trip…
Read MoreMy Recurring Nightmare in the House From Hell
I have this nightmare that repeats itself over and over again. It is slightly different, but the theme is the same for each one, and I wake up shaking. It’s not about my time in the Middle East, or any of the horrific things I’ve seen, it’s more mundane that makes it so terrifying. The dream is about an awful house that I can’t get out of, and the worst thing is it can really happen.
Read MoreAluminum Exterior Cladding, CDC, Atlanta, GA
Our client, Seco Architectural Systems, Inc, was to provide aluminum screens for the parking garage exterior. Here is a typical elevation view of the panels: To develop this, we designed a system of aluminum sheets supported on aluminum tubes. Then, in the design process, we developed the wind and dead loads. Using those loads, we…
Read MoreUnderground Detention – The Best and Practical Way to Design
The Project: This project was an underground detention pond that we designed with reinforced concrete. I have seen large underground detention ponds, but never one this large made from concrete. With this one, the desire by the developer was burying the basin, with soil cover and planting. The Challenges of an Underground Detention Pond: Loading:…
Read MoreWhen You Don’t Want To Do That Foundation Repair
Surprisingly, it’s not necessary or advisable to repair every defect in a house. Normally what I will do in that case is give a number of alternatives in my report and layout the pluses and minuses of each alternative. Many times it is flamingly obvious that repairing the house defect will cause more problems than…
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