The present invention relates to a container kit for constructing a building.

More specifically the invention is dedicated for making it possible to easily transport all necessary materials to construct the building at a desired location and without the need for any welding or masonry on site.

This building can be a house, temporary residence, a commercial space, medical center, industrial building or similar .

Traditionally, a lot of materials are necessary for building a house, commercial space, medical center or industrial building, from brick, concrete and wood over plumbing pipes and electric cabling to bathroom and kitchen furniture .

Also a lot of masonry and carpentry is necessary. Skilled professionals are therefore indispensable when constructing a building.

Moreover, it takes a lot of time to construct such a building. All these factors make a traditional building expensive . However, in remote or undeveloped areas neither the necessary materials, professionals nor the money is available .

This leads to the situation that in these remote or undeveloped areas, the buildings where people live in or use a commercial or medical space, are of inferior quality or that they are forced to live with more people than suitable in the few buildings that are available.

It is therefore an objective of the invention to give a solution to one or more of the above-mentioned disadvantages .

The present invention has a container kit for constructing a building as subject which comprises a container in which the necessary parts for constructing the building are stored or packed, whereby the parts at least comprise wall and roof elements, roof beams, electric cables and sanitary and plumbing pipes and installations, whereby these parts are such that they can be constructed or connected without the need for welding or masonry and whereby the container itself is part of the building.

An advantage is that the container kit can be easily transported to the desired area and once it has arrived there, the building can be built.

Another advantage is that there will be no need to get rid of the container when the house is built, because it will be incorporated in the building. An additional advantage is that it is possible to prepare, process and/or predrill several parts of the building, for example wall and roof elements, appliances or other before packing them in the container so that the building time on site can be drastically reduced.

Moreover, with such pre-assembly, it can be made sure that no difficult construction techniques, such as welding or masonry, are necessary on site.

The wet areas, such as a bathroom and kitchen, and a technical room are preferably situated inside of the container .

Moreover, it is also possible to pre-install electrical wiring and/or plumbing pipes in the beams and/or wall elements and/or roof elements.

The present invention also relates to a method for constructing a building by making use of a container kit according to the invention, whereby the method comprises the following steps:

- providing a foundation;

- placing the container on the foundation;

- anchoring the roof beams on the container using the corner castings of the container; and

- using the wall and roof elements, electric cables and sanitary and plumbing pipes and installation to further construct or build the building. An advantage is that this method allows to construct a building in remote areas by simply bringing the container, with all the necessary materials, to the desired location and constructing the building from the pre-assembled parts.

As all the necessary materials and pre-assembled parts will be available once the container has been brought to place, this will make logistics much easier because the use of pre-assembled parts will make the construction much easier.

Moreover, by using the corner castings of the container to anchor the roof beams, a stable and strong construction for the roof can be realized without the need for welding, carpentry, masonry or similar.

In the most preferred realization, the step of anchoring the roof beams on the container using the corner castings of the container, comprises the following steps:

- placing a transversal roof beam across the top of the container at both edges and attaching them to the corner casting with the aid of a bolt or similar;

- placing two transversal roof beams across the top of the container at a distance from the edges of the container and attaching them to the container by means of a bolt or similar through a hole in the side wall of the container; and

- placing two longitudinal roof beam profiles on the top of the container in line with each other along the length of the container and attaching it to the transversal roof beams by means of a bolt or similar. As such, an easy to construct yet stable and strong support for the roof can be built, whereby roof elements, such as roof panels, can be attached to the roof beams.

With the intention of better showing the characteristics of the invention, hereafter, as an example without any limitative character, a preferred form of embodiment is described of a container kit for constructing a building and a method for constructing a building using such a container kit, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein : figure 1 schematically represents a perspective view of a house built with a container kit according to the invention;

figure 2 schematically represents the floor plan of the house of figure 1;

figure 3 is on a larger scale a detailed view of the part within the rectangle F3 in figure 2;

figures 4 and 5 schematically represent a container kit, whereby the container is filled with the necessary parts for building the house;

figure 6 represents an exploded view of the container kit of figures 4 and 5;

figure 7 is a cross section according to line VII-VII in figure 1;

figure 8 is on a larger scale a detailed view of the part within the rectangle F8 in figure 7;

figure 9 is a cross section according to line IX-IX in figure 1;

figure 10 is a top view of the part of the house shown in figure 9;

figure 11 is on a larger scale a detailed view of the part within the rectangle Fll in figure 9;

figure 12 is on a larger scale a detailed view of the part within the rectangle F12 in figures 7 and 9.

The house 1 schematically represented in figures 1 and 2 comprises a foundation plate 2 onto which the house 1 itself is placed.

However, it is clear that, instead of using a foundation plate 2, the foundation can be realized in other ways as well .

As can be seen from the floor plan in figure 2, the house 1 is a two family house 1, meaning that it actually comprises two separate units 3, whereby the two units 3 are equivalent in terms of layout.

This is of course not necessary for the invention. Although in this embodiment, a house 1 is build, this is not necessary for the invention. Also a commercial space, a medical post, even a hospital or an industrial building or similar can be realized in a very similar way as described below. Moreover, the invention is also suitable to realize a temporary residence, medical post, commercial space or similar .

As can be seen in figure 3, the container 4 itself is part of the house and the bathrooms 5, kitchens 6 and technical rooms 7 are housed or contained in it. The container 4 is divided into two parts 4a and 4b, one for each unit 3.

This house 1 is built using a container kit 8 according to the invention.

In figures 4 and 5, a container kit 8 according to the invention is schematically represented. It shows how all elements necessary 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 to build a house 1, are stowed and stacked into the container 4.

In order to get a better view of all the different elements 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18, figure 6 shows an exploded view of figure 5.

As can be seen, roof beams 9, support beams 10, roof elements 11 and wall elements 12 in the form of panels, cabinets 13 and appliances 14, utility pipes 15, electric cables, but also fuse boxes 16 and a ventilation unit 17.

Also screws, bolts, nuts and washers, connection strips, etc. are stored in the container and schematically represented by reference number 18.

It is possible that in addition to the afore-mentioned elements 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18, the container kit also comprises foundation elements which will form the foundation plate 2. However, it is possible that the container kit does not contain any foundation elements and that a suitable foundation plate 2 or other suitable foundation for the house 1 is provided at the location where the house 1 will be build.

The container 4 is preferably stacked, in such a way that the elements 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 can be easily removed from the container 4 and the elements 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 which are first needed, are accessible first.

It is possible that when filling the container kit 8, mineral wool, such as stone, glass or slag wool, can be used as a packaging material in order to secure or protect the different elements 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18.

With the aid of such a kit 8, a house 1 as shown in figures 1 to 3 can be built.

In order to build the house 1, first a foundation plate 2 is constructed.

As already mentioned, it is possible that the container kit 8 comprises several foundation elements which allow to construct a foundation plate 2. These foundation elements are placed in a desired location to form the foundation plate 2.

In this case, the container kit 8 does not contain any foundation elements, therefore another suitable foundation 2 is provided.

As seen in figures 1 and 3, there is a channel 19 provided in the foundation plate 2.

This channel 19 is formed by a recess in the foundation plate 2 and stretches from side 20a to side 20b of the house 1, under the location where the container 4 is to be placed.

Once the foundation plate 2 is constructed, the container 4 is placed on the foundation plate 2, whereby the container 4 is placed over the channel 19. That way, an access under the container 4 is created and utility lines and drains can be installed under the container 4.

It is possible that the container 4 is first emptied, before being placed on the foundation plate 2. However, it is also possible that the filled container 4 is placed on the foundation plate 2.

Once the container 4 is placed on the foundation plate 2, it is attached or secured to this foundation plate 2 by means of the corner castings 21 at the bottom of the container 4. This is however not required for the invention .

In a next step, the roof beams 9 are anchored on the container 4 using the corner castings 21 at the top of the container 4. In the present embodiment, this is realized as shown in figures 7 to 12.

First, two transversal roof beams 22a from the container kit 8 are placed across the top 23 of the container 4, one at each edge 24 of the container 4.

As can be seen in figures 9 and 10, these transversal roof beams 22a are provided with L-shaped ends 25, which are realized by means of a block 26 which is attached to the ends 25 of the transversal roof beams 22. Preferably, these roofs beams 22a and the aforementioned blocks 26 are made of metal such as steel, whereby the blocks 26 are welded to the transversal roof beams 22.

The blocks 26 are solid steel blocks and fit in the corner castings 21 of the container 4 and are provided with a threaded borehole 27.

The roof beams 22a are placed on the top 23 of container 4 near the edges 24, whereby the blocks 26 are placed in the corner castings 21. By using a bolt 28 which is screwed in the threaded borehole 27 of the blocks 26, the transversal roof beams 22 are attached to the container 4.

Next, a third and fourth transversal roof beam 22b from the container kit 8 are placed on top 23 of the container 4, across the middle 29 of the container 4, as shown in figures 7 and 8. The third and fourth transversal roof beams 22b are placed such that they are situated at a distance from the edges 24 of the container 4 and at a distance from each other.

It is of course possible that first this third and fourth transversal roof beam 22b are placed and afterwards the two transversal roof beams 22a at the edges 24 of the container 4.

As there are no standard corner castings in the middle 29 of the container edge 24, this third and fourth transversal roof beam 22b are attached to the container 4 in a different way.

They are also provided with L-shaped ends 26 realized by welding a profile section 30 to the end 26, of which profile section 30 is provided with a hole 31.

The container 4 itself is provided with corresponding holes 32 in the side wall 33, near the top 23, as shown in figure 8.

A solid steel block 34 is provided on the inside of the afore-mentioned side wall 33, opposite the afore-mentioned holes 32. In these solid steel blocks, a threaded borehole 35 can be provided. However, it is also possible to provide a normal borehole and to use a bolt and nut instead.

Bolts 36 is used to attach the transversal roof beams 22b to the container 4, by placing them through the hole 31, hole 32 and the borehole 35 of the solid steel blocks 34. By using the transversal roof beams 22a and 22b, there is no need for drilling holes in the container 4 itself, such that the structural integrity of the container 4 is not affected.

Next, two longitudinal roof beam profiles 37 from the container kit 8 are placed on top 23 of the container 4 and in line with each other along the length of the container 4 and are attached to the transversal roof beams 22a and 22b.

The longitudinal roof beam profile 37 is made up out of two parts to make it possible to store it in the container 4.

How the longitudinal roof beam profiles 37 are attached to transversal roof beams 22a and 22b can be realized in many different ways.

In the example shown in figures 7 and 9 and in detail in figure 12, it is realized by means of bolts 38 which are guided through a hole 39 in the longitudinal roof beam profiles 37 and into threaded boreholes 40 in a massive steel block 41, which is situated on the transversal roof beams 22a and 22b and can be attached to it for example by welding .

As can be seen in the figures 8 and 11, a polychoroprene (or neoprene) slap 42 which is also part of the container kit 8, is provided between the transversal roof beams 22a and 22b and the container 4.

For the transversal roof beam 22b in the middle 29 of the container 4, as shown in figure 8, this polychoroprene slap 42 is placed against the side wall 33 of the container 4, over the hole 32, so that is situated between the container wall 33 and the profile section 30.

For the transversal roof beams 22a at the edges 24 of the container 4, as shown in figure 11, this polychoroprene slap 42 is placed on the corner casting 21, whereby the solid steel block 26 will be guided through this slap 42, for example via a hole which is provided for this purpose.

In this way, the polychoroprene slap 42 will be situated between the corner casting 21 and the transversal roof beam 22.

After the roof beams 9 have been installed, both side walls 33 of the container 4 will be opened over a distance A as indicated in figure 3 in order to open up the wet areas and make them accessible from inside the unit 3.

In order to achieve this, the container 4 is provided with removable side panels and supporting columns, which can also be removed if necessary. The supporting columns can be provided with bolted connection in order to make them removable. Both these side panels and supporting columns can be reinstalled later on if necessary.

It is off course possible that the side walls 33 of the container 4 are opened up first, before the roof beams 9 are installed. The removed side panels and supporting columns can be stored behind the wall elements 12 of the house 1 and on the top 23 of the container 4.

Then, the wall elements 12 and roof elements 11, electric cables and sanitary and plumbing pipes 15 and installations from the container kit 8 are used to further construct or build the house 1.

Preferably, the roof elements 11 are installed first, followed by the exterior wall elements 12. The roof elements 11 are attached to the roof beams 9, whereby the height of the wall elements 12 is slightly less than the height of the longitudinal roof beam 37 in such a way that a gable roof 43 with a slight pitch is created.

Around the roof 43, an enclosed frame 44 is provided, to realize an open roof gutter.

Also the partition wall 45 between the two units 3 inside the container, as shown in figure 3, will be installed. This wall is preferably made of EPS fiber reinforced concrete .

The mineral wool, which was used as a packaging material, can be re-used as a soundproofing material. In the present example, it will be installed between the top 23 of the container 4 and the roof to provide a noise barrier between the two separate units 3 of the two family house 1.

Also the electric cables, sanitary and plumbing pipes and installations are finished, interior walls are placed and the kitchen and bathroom elements such as cabinets 13 and appliances 14 are installed.

Since the bathrooms 5, kitchens 6 and technical rooms 7 are contained in the container 4, a lot of the cables, pipes and other installation elements of these rooms can be already pre-installed, thus requiring very little work on site .

It is clear that a container kit 8 according to the invention can also be used to build a one family house, commercial space, medical center or other.

Moreover, it is not necessary that the container 4 is divided or dividable into two parts.

As already mentioned, due to the use of the transversal roof beams 22a, 22b, there is no need for drilling in het container 4 itself for the mounting of the structure of the roof.

Therefore, it is possible, some time after the family house 1 is build, to disassemble it again, to reinstall the side panels and supporting columns in the container 4 and to store all the elements 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 in the container 4 again. The container kit 8 can then be transported back to a storage location or to another location where the family house 1 can be build again . The present invention is in no way limited to the form of embodiment described by way of an example and represented in the figures, however, such a container kit for building a house and a method for building a house using such a container kit can be realized in various forms without leaving the scope of the invention.