Housing ideas Wow, Great Ideas. You have gone much further than I have in this investigation. I have been for a while also thinking of how to use these nice seal-able steel containers. They were designed to keep the salt and humidity out of the products on ships in the open seas. My thoughts in the past have been along the lines of 4 bolted or welded into a square or rectangle, partly under ground or not depending on the soil. Connect so as to be able to move from one to the other. Dirt could be piled up on the outside up to the roof to help hold it in place. Maybe other units totally hidden for supplies in case of retreat due to overwhelm by STS gangs. If partly under ground don't know what to do about potential seepage due to all the water. The rectangular configuration would give a protected open area in the middle for entrance and exit. Also, for fighting from - like the old covered wagon pull them all into a circle days. Could have some small well protected windows facing inside so can look out and up at the sky during PS. The foam idea is very interesting hadn't thought of that. Would provide heat/cold insulation, and ability to hang things after shaking stops and some sound absorption deadening inside. We would need to be careful not to use a product that will continuously out-gas toxic gasses like formaldehydes, etc. I personally don't trust the spray foams I have played with. Could consider prefabricated foam sheets, Some investigation may need to be done to choose this. Should it be open cell, cell tight, firm, or soft? I ran into some ecological (low out-gassing) building products a couple of years back. I just looked and unable to find it. Might be easier to do Internet search. I was thinking of using body padding to protect the body this would move with me in case I am outside when the shaking starts. I just got another Idea which may be even simpler. Take 4 storage units bolt/weld them together side by side, doors at opposite ends. With a passage way to get from one to the other cut through the walls. Placed on a open rectangular frame work base made of I-beams that sticks out about 10-12 ft on all sides. I-beam structure would be setting on the top of the ground with the storage units welded/bolted on top of this. Supports from the edge of this base back to the roof of the nearest storage unit, would make a strong triangle, to support this outer edge. This would be placed in an open area so that if it slid around a lot during PS, you wouldn't care. Doubt it would tip over. Would want to keep it away from water, flooding areas. Having some doors on one end and some on the other end would prevent all doors from being blocked due to plowing up dirt as it moves. May want a small escape hatch on top. Another thought without the base it may slide around just fine without tipping over? May want a small escape hatch on top. We will need to kick all these possibilities around some more before it stabilizes into a recommendation. What are your thoughts. Hopefully, this will give you some more ideas. Clipper, we have had a party good flow of ideas going. Had one today that I like the best of all so far. This one could be called Noah's Ark. Put one or more shipping containers (depending on your need) side by sided alternating ends, bolted/welded together with connecting passage ways. Put this on top of a flat bottom concrete steel reinforced slab shaped to look like a symmetrical flat bottom boat. The slab would be square and stick out well beyond the container(s). All outer edges of the slab would have a taper of say 30 or 45 degree angle like the front of a flat bottom boat. On the outer edge the slab could extend up above the top surface to form a concrete curb or rail around the perimeter. Drainage slots would be cut in each side to allow water to run off. This concrete boat would be able to ride the waves of rippling land and survive the liquefaction (soil turning into a liquid) that is likely to occur in many areas. Depending on the ground conditions this could be built differently. In soil that is not very deep to bed rock. One could not worry about sides and possibly the slab thickness could be less. In places where the soil is sandy/fine particles (don't know exact criteria) and very deep to bed rock then slab gets thicker and sides higher and possibly the slab is a little larger overall. This would have use after PS as a excellent closed water tight storage to keep out the Humidity or as continuing housing. Design considerations: Until we can get a structural engineer to look at it. I am going to estimate roughly a 14" thick slab for a bottom over liquefaction and about 8-10" slab for a bottom close to bead rock. Use lots of large reinforcing rods and wire mesh. Use supports from roof top to slab to make a triangle. Fasten storage units securely to bolts welded to large plates embedded in the concrete. Make sure the slab is done at least 6(?) months before "D" day for maximum strength. Just a note: I wouldn't want to be underground in an area of liquification where the land is suddenly a raging sea of motion looking like an ocean with turmoil and breaking waves of soil. Now that I look at it I don't know of any soil shaking for a time at 15 on the Richter scale that wouldn't liquefy. -------------------------------- Subject: Housing Ideas My intention is to find and develop many workable ideas to there fullest in descriptive words, the graphics will come later as things settle down and it stabilizes into a potential solution. Many levels of solution is what we should target for right now and not get fixed on any one solution for now. Just simply take them as they come up and develop the possibility fully then move to the next one. So far a dome or more than one dome securely fasten to a concrete slab designed to handle liquefaction looks best to me. Unless your rich enough to own a submarine which may be a slightly safer solution. Could be out in open water just under the waves riding smooth and safe. Would probably be vary loud and nosy, sound carries very well under water. So along this line I am jumping in with more potential Ideas: Subject: Housing - Concrete boat uses of Due to potential Liquefaction, a land with no soil may be safer during a PS. However, after the shaking stops it becomes much harder to grow food. For those who will chose to live on soil that is likely to undergo liquefaction during 15 Richter earth quakes, a concrete flat bottom boat as described previously(hyperlink) could have some interesting uses. The following is some ideas to get one started thinking on the subject. If one lives near the coast now and because of job, family, and economics can not move to some safe place. Then, one could buy or rent a parcel of land safely inland at an appropriate minimum altitude. Make a appropriate sized concrete flat bottom boat on this the land. Meanwhile live and work in the city till sometime frame near PS. During this time select and buy an escape vehicle such as a moving van, truck, house trailer, recreation vehicle, motor home, Van, or etc. Beef up the structural frame top to bottom. The concept of this is like Role bars commonly installed however, in this case it needs to be much stronger and more of them. Add extra metal and fire proof insulation to the roof. Possibly a double roof. Wind proof the top and all sides. The unit is stocked up with food water, supplies and whatever other conveniences you can build into it. Can be tested before hand by taking an occasional vacation with it. At or near the last weeks you simply take a vacation from your job, pile the kids and family into the vehicle and take off. Drive the vehicle to the center of the boat. Let the air out of the tires. The vehicle is securely fastened to the concrete boat with large cables through rings welded to the sturdy frame structure built as described above. Many cables run from the top of the vehicle to the edge of the boat. Large bolts attached to plates were previously pored into the concrete as ankers. As the nut is screwed down on these long bolts it tightens the cable. The axles are secured to the slab by cable, chain, or other methods. Cables are tightened as much as possible. Vehicle springs partly compressed. Then the tires are then inflated to insure all cables are tight. Variations on this theme include: (depending on resources, time and distance to sight) * Have before hand, an "on sight storage" secured on the boat that is well stocked up with provisions. The escape vehicle size could then go down in size. * Building a geodesic dome, or other structure in the middle of the boat stocking it with supplies and driving to it near the last week in your family car. * Build a tight fitting garage on your boat to put the vehicle in. Securing it with cables or clamps. Subject: Moving vehicle as a survival capsule during PS and housing afterwards The following is considerations on using a modified moving vehicle as a survival capsule during PS and as housing afterwards Note: The only thing simpler than the above is coming up with some yet to be defined portable boat or supports, and taking it with you. For example drive to some likely hard spot put out your pontoons or supports. Could be as simple as inserting 3-5" diameter removable steel pipe into a slightly bigger pipe welded to the frame or undercarriage. These removable pipes would fan out on all sides, back and front. They are pined or bolted (goes through both pipes) in place. The pipes would be pre-bent in a curve toward the ground. By jacking up one side of the vehicle inserting the pipes and unjacking it all pipes are tight against the ground. On the end of each pipe is welded a flat plate that rest on the ground. The final result looks like a big spider. Not the safest solution but is much better than without it. Most vehicles are designed to take a lot of stress if they don't tip over. Would recommend reinforcing the upper, and lower frame of the vehicle and doing the modification described above. Could use large boat ankers or concrete slabs to cause you to always be pointed into the wind with your back side which has been welded up with plates to be wind resistant in a triangular plow shape. Wedge you car, rv, etc into a crack in the ground, ditch or between hills. If no polar shift happens, then you have had an interesting safe vacation. The above is an ideas assisting gradient list for those who are not sure enough about the polar shift or do not have the resources to stop everything and go into a full all out high-tech preparation. wind considerations: put weight in back of vehicle. ZetaTalk@aol.com wrote: > > This discussion on containers has gone outside of a survival rig, and into an > form of housing - a form that would provide good earthquake and firestorm > protection during the shift, and ALSO be something to live in for awhile > afterwards! > > New icon, etc. I think you are correct. I just got excited about the brainstorming that was taking place. Clipper