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Consultant Dash Morris' home nears completion in Leavenworth
Shipping containers are in place for Dash Morris' home in Leavenworth.
A 3D concrete printed structure by MudBots
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WENATCHEE — What do shipping containers and 3D concrete printers have in common?
They would make homes in the Wenatchee Valley more affordable, according to speakers at Wednesday’s NCW Regional Housing Summit at Pybus Public Market.
It’s a third to two-thirds of the cost to build a shipping container house compared to a traditional one of the same size, said consultant Dash Morris of Dashael Vincent & Co. at the summit. Similarly, it’s about $5,000 to create a 40-by-40-foot 3D concrete printed space, said Tom Derpack, Caliber Home Loans consultant.
Derpack added the final cost of a printed home would be unknown until one was built in the area. Morris said he could build a container home starting around $200 per square foot, but the cost would be more to make it aesthetically pleasing.
Both said prices of interior or exterior materials would not change, like options of drywall, fixtures and flooring, but the cost of labor is cheaper because fewer people are required than are needed for a traditional home. The cost of materials, like shipping containers and concrete, also are cheaper, they said, and both are fire resistant.
“I have spent hundreds of hours over the last two years, looking at alternative housing because of the crisis that we’re in, in this country and around the world,” Derpack said.
A 3D concrete printed structure by MudBots
He also said he and others in the community were “in deep conversations with” a Utah-based 3D concrete printing company MudBots, planning to tour the plant and buy a printer for the Wenatchee Valley. Derpack is in the Chelan-Douglas Housing Solutions Group facilitated by nonprofit community organization Our Valley Our Future, but OVOF isn’t involved in bringing a printer to the Wenatchee Valley, according to Steve Maher, OVOF coordinator.
“We are crawling before we walk and we’re walking before we run, but make no mistake, we will have 3D printing coming to Chelan and Douglas county sometime within the next year,” Derpack said.
Morris’ and other shipping container homes are already in the Wenatchee Valley, such as those by Syndicate Smith or One-Way Construction NW.
Morris built his own container home in Leavenworth, first by buying and shipping five from Tacoma-based Drybox to the land for $12,500. Then, it was $1,200 for a large crane to come and lift them into place.
Shipping containers are in place for Dash Morris' home in Leavenworth.
One of the issues Morris said he faced was getting financing and planners to approve his home.
“There’s a common misconception, especially with financing and county planners, but this is kind of what they think of when you’re talking about a container home, it’s just a steel box. So I think we need to redefine the word ‘container home.’ ”
He said he went to 20 banks and just one would finance his container home, and one out of the 15 or so private and county assessors he contacted assessed the property.
Consultant Dash Morris' home nears completion in Leavenworth
“The issue is there’s no comparables, so they don’t know how to value this structure, but they do now,” he said.
Besides being cheaper than standard homes to build, he said container homes were structurally sound, fire resistant and could “survive Category 5 hurricanes while bobbing up and down in earthquake conditions.”
The rectangular structures can be configured however someone wanted, he said, as in his own home, where he ordered steel beams and placed the containers in them “like an erector set,” so the home could be built quickly.
Dash Morris will host a free house tour from 5 to 8 p.m. June 8, at his shipping container h…
“Basically once you realize that versatility, well, I thought, that’s just big Legos,” he said.
Feel free to reach out to me with story ideas at 509-861-2174, thornton@wenatcheeworld.com or on Twitter @EmilyK_Thornton.
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