Monday, December 1, 2014

The Long Awaited Container Update

It has been one heck of a summer and fall for The Compound.  One issue after another, projects that got moved up on the list of priorities, pushed the container project in the background, along with a water issue inside.

We had record rains this year.  The canal has never been this high in the 4+ years we've been here, and this past week didn't help any either (8+ inches in less than 24 hours).  We had standing water inside.  At first we were not sure where it was coming from.  You see, they're supposed to be water tight.  We actually had the walk in cooler installed and were about ready to start installing the solar panels and shelving.  That has been put on hold for months, as we tried a few different things, and frankly waited until the water level went down and the container dried out.

Our solution, tar the floor, laydown a water proof tarp (for lack of a better word, I'll use tarp), then we poured a 3" base of concrete. 

So here's a short video of the inside.


We still have more concrete to pour, but we needed the cooler up for this weekend, as we butchered our first pig at The Compound. He's part of our Thanksgiving feast.

Here's a video of the walk in cooler, refrigeration option.  FYI, I mentioned Fridgedair (the only brand they don't recommend)  We actually have a GE unit.


For more information on the system itself, here's a link to their site.

http://www.storeitcold.com/

It worked like a charm for 4 days straight!  It's a great option to the standard walk in refrigeration, which needs 208v and a refrigeration guy to install and charge.  Besides, it's expensive. We easily did this ourselves.  It could make just about any room a walk in cooler, using standard 110v and cost no more than $500 total, between the CoolBot and the AC unit.

8 comments:

  1. Woo Hoo! How did the pig taste? Did you ever find out how water was getting in, in the first place?

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    1. The pig tasted great!

      The water is actually coming up from the bottom floor. It's so disappointing as we wanted this project behind us a long time ago.

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  2. Had a similar problem. Hope yours is solved. Mine leaked thru concrete. Fix was dig an 18 inch trench around perimeter of structure. Coat structure with thick tar from bottom of trench to ground level. Back fill with dirt and gravel. Worked so far for past 10 plus years even 2005 when we had all those hurricanes. Hope you don't need this because yours is fine.
    Peg

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    1. We hope we don't need to dig it up either! It's totally buried in. The water is coming from the bottom floor. We have a section tarred and concrete on top and water was not coming up from that area so we are keeping our fingers crossed and sending a prayer up that this takes care of the problem.

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  3. Izzy,

    I hope the water situation has resolved itself with the tar and concrete section.

    What a great way to keep the cooler cool, and save money.
    I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving?

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    1. We had a great Thanksgiving with our dearest friends! I hope you had a chance to kick back and relax too.

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  4. If you buy concrete sealer that is rated for radon it works amazing. We did our basement, it is amazing

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    Replies
    1. LW, I've heard of concrete sealer, and I'll mention your suggestion to the Moose and do some investigating. Thank you!

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