Carolina Bulk Barns
*Southern Stealth Shelter*
Here in the Southern United States on large and small farms that grow tobacco there exists a need to cure that tobacco out for sale to the Tobacco Companies. The fastest and most economical methods are in manufactured bulk barns.
These bulk barns are found all over the south in fields and the edges of woods. This makes the bulk barn a structure that is almost invisible due to its commonness.
My concept is this, to take an easily modified and transported Intermodal Shipping container that can be found in 40-ft lengths. Now most bulk barns are around 12 ft in width so this would work out perfectly for building up the exterior structure of the container to make it look like a bulk barn.
There are several different methods that can be used to fortify and camouflage the container. You can lay blocks all around the perimeter and line the blocks with rebar and fill with concrete in each course. You can weld brackets on the side to attach rebar to and use the slip form method of concrete wall building.
The one I like best is a variation of the steel stud and plywood sheet construction. You would need to fasten the steel studs to the container with an impact fastener such as a Hilti Brand impact gun. Install the rebar web using the holes in the steel studs. Then attach the plywood to the studs with galvanized screws and attach the metal roofing sheets to the plywood parallel to the ground.
The reason I like this method is that all of this can be done somewhere else, minus the concrete and then trucked to any location you want. When it is in place and braced then the concrete can be poured.
The best part about this
idea is that no matter where you are located there are
structures exactly like the bulk barn in their
ubiquity. Grain bins, equipment shelters anything and
everything.
Narrowboat
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