Below is photos of the Pallet Emergency Home designed for people who are homeless / living in war torn regions / recovering from a recent tsunami / etc. It Can Be Built in One Day With Only Basic Tools.
Or so says the (idiotic) websites promoting it as an emergency place to live. It was designed by an architectural design firm which apparently doesn't know what wind and rain are - and are clueless about heating - and are selling the building designs for $75 a pop. I can guarantee the people buying the designs are equally foolish to fall for this badly designed bit of architecture.
Honestly, while I like the concept of quick buildings that anyone can build, there are some inherent design faults with making a temporary house out of old wooden pallets.
#1. No fireplace or chimney.
So how are you planning to keep warm inside there because it also has no electricity. You can't build a fire, the place would start on fire. And adding a wooden chimney - again, fire.
#2. Pallets will be incredibly drafty.
Lets face it, they're designed with lots of holes in them. Sticking some plastic up the middle of the pallets does NOT solve the draftiness problem. It needs to be well nigh air tight to prevent drafts from sucking out all the heat.
The design firm does say you can add insulation / better walls to the house, but that would be if you wanted to try and make it more permanent. The concept here is for a temporary house. Adding proper insulation would be a waste of time and money for something you are planning to garbage later.
#3. Where are you supposed to find 110 pallets in perfect condition?
Brand new wooden pallets cost at least $50 each. Old pallets are going to be broken, falling apart, in shambles. The designs call for roughly 110 wooden pallets - so where is a person supposed to find 110 wooden pallets that are in good condition? Purchasing them would cost you at least $5,500 for 110 pallets. (And don't forget this is for a temporary home that you will trash later.)
You can buy two large train shipping containers for less than $5000, and they will be steel - not drafty - and you can add a fireplace to the place - and it can be made into a permanent structure instead of a temporary home.
#4. Pallets are not made to withstand weather.
Pallets are designed to be cheap ways of carrying things inside storage facilities using a forklift. They are not designed to withstand the elements. They break easily. They're not meant to be rained on. The wood will start to rot / grow mildew. They're not the right type of wood to be used for building something outdoors.
The mold and mildew would make you sick after the first rainstorm and the building would become unlivable.
#5. What about snow?
The original idea for the pallet house was for refugees returning to Kosovo to build temporary structures using wooden pallets (where are thousands of refugees supposed to find millions of wooden pallets???) and the designers apparently ignored the problem that Kosovo is a place that gets snow 4 months of the year.
A single strong snowfall on top of the pallet house would COLLAPSE THE ROOF in on anyone living inside it (assuming they didn't already die from the cold) and any survivors of this faulty design would need to build a new shelter that can withstand heavy snow and keep them warm.
#6. A tent would be infinitely cheaper.
If you are looking for a place to temporary live in then a very large tent would be better than a pallet house. Not drafty, cheaper, faster to erect, more space, and when you are done with it you can sell the tent. (Try selling old broken pallets from a pallet house... good luck with that!)
You can get a 12 person / 3 room Ozark tent for just $325 on Amazon.com - so that is pretty cheap.
CONCLUSIONS
A temporary house made out of wooden pallets is neither cost effective or a good place to live in. It would be an unlivable place to live in after the first rainstorm, unable to withstand heavy snow, impossible to heat and a death trap.
If you need cheap temporary homes think tents or shipping containers. At least with shipping containers you get way more benefits and the possibility of turning it into a permanent structure.
Welcome to Project Gridless!
Hello! Project Gridless is dedicated to off the grid living, foraging / hunting / gardening for food, traditional survival skills and modern tips for alternative energy. Please Follow, Subscribe or Like.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts during the Last Year
-
Okay so " Outdoor Boys " is a YouTube channel created by Luke (last name unknown) and frequently featuring his sons and his wife. ...
-
This list is mostly for my personal reference, with respect to dating old Bear bows. They are sorted by the years released. If you know of a...
-
Wood Homemade Bow Press So awhile back in October I made a note of writing a post titled " How to Make a Homemade Bow Press "....
-
Honestly the process of buying shipping containers is easy. They cost between $2,000 and $5,000, depending on where you buy from and size....
-
Here is a list of laws for bow hunting in Ontario. #1. You must be over 16 years of age and have a valid Ontario Outdoors Card. #2. You ...
-
Now because there are many types of bows I have decided to limit this particular list to ONE PIECE recurve bows. In the future I may do a 2n...
-
Within the sport of archery there are people who make their own bows and their own arrows. Such is the norm with many sports, there is alw...
-
So I was repairing a compound bow for a client, in this case the Bear Cruzer shown below, and I decided it was an excellent opportunity to c...
-
Okay so to find the year of my "new" recurve bow, a vintage Ben Pearson Renegade , I needed to do some in-depth research. During...
-
For years now I have been pootahing the idea of going bear hunting because I felt that bear hunting is mostly for people who are interested ...
Search This Blog
Learn more about archery in Toronto by visiting the Toronto Public Archery Range Facebook page
or by joining the Canadian Toxophilite Society.
This Week's Popular Posts
-
This list is mostly for my personal reference, with respect to dating old Bear bows. They are sorted by the years released. If you know of a...
-
So I was repairing a compound bow for a client, in this case the Bear Cruzer shown below, and I decided it was an excellent opportunity to c...
-
Wood Homemade Bow Press So awhile back in October I made a note of writing a post titled " How to Make a Homemade Bow Press "....
-
Let us pretend for a moment that you are the type of person who likes to travel and are okay with eating fish on a regular basis (because ...
-
Honestly the process of buying shipping containers is easy. They cost between $2,000 and $5,000, depending on where you buy from and size....
-
Here is a list of laws for bow hunting in Ontario. #1. You must be over 16 years of age and have a valid Ontario Outdoors Card. #2. You ...
-
I am a big fan of DIY homemade archery targets, so when a guy and his son mentioned making archery targets out of old tires and foam, I aske...
-
Q Hi there! I have a vintage " Barnett wildcat C5 crossbow " the string's broken needs being replaced , can you fix it ? ...
-
Within the sport of archery there are people who make their own bows and their own arrows. Such is the norm with many sports, there is alw...
-
Submitted by Sam Jacobs. Written by Jake Beaty. Editing Additions in Red. Living Off-Grid: A Guide to Self-Sufficiency Do you dream of l...
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments containing links will not be approved. Contact lilithgallery@gmail.com if you want advertising.