How To Install a Big Air Sky Light Roof Vent on a Shipping Container
How To Install a Big Air Sky Light Roof Vent on a Shipping Container | The Container Guy
Channing McCorriston, The Container Guy, will show you how to install a Big Air Sky Light Roof Vent on a Shipping Container.
We like these skylight vents because it ventilates your sea can and provides excellent light inside the container.
It’s perfect for providing much needed light at the back end of a 40’ shipping container. Passive ventilation requires both an intake vent and an exhaust vent, so use at least two skylight vents or combine one skylight vent with two Big Air 45 vents.
Container Modification World Products
Big Air Sky Light Roof Vent
Big Air 45 Gable Louvered Vents
If you want to start your own container modification, go to our Mod Planner Tool, planmycan.com
For more information on The Container Guy, go to tcg.ca
YouTube Video Transcript
0:00
Hi, I'm Channing McCorriston, The Container Guy.
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Today, we're installing a Big Air Skylight Roof Vent.
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After landing a deal on national television in 2011, where his team pitched their idea
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of modifying shipping containers, he went on to start his own business. Since then,
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he's completed thousands of container modifications for clients in every major industry.
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Now he wants to teach you everything he knows about container modifications
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and accessories. Channing McCorriston is The Container Guy.
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These vents are actually really cool. When we first got them,
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we were a little skeptical about them, but once we installed it and had this thing out in the sun.
0:46
Wow! It's like staring into, like, a 200 watt bulb.
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So this thing kind of kills two birds with one stone. It
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ventilates your container and provides you excellent light. It's great for 40-foot
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containers where, say you put this at the back end of your can, you get lots of light when the
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doors are open during the day, but you don't get much for light at the back end still so.
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One of these with two Big Air 45 vents on the side of the container,
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that's a great combination and something we sell quite often.
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So what -- what Container Modification World has done is uh created the vent frame that
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installs into the roof of the container and attached into the corrugation so.
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If you look and see here, one thing that's really cool
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is it's pre-laser cut with these guides -- these are actually just
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guides -- to show you that these need to hit the upper corrugations on the roof.
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So if we lay it back down, you can see that those line up with the upper corrugations.
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In this position, you know you have it right. Your rivets
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are going to install in the upper corrugation. There's this bottom flange here that will
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stop the water on this lower corrugation and allow the water to flow to the one side or the other.
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If you look here, in the wrong position, you'll see yeah nothing's lining up here, so.
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Hopefully, you know, you follow the instructions and install this thing
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the way that it should be. It really only likes to go in one way.
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Now for the vent, it also only goes on one way. It fits nicely that way, it doesn't fit this way.
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If you were to install this, you want to make sure you put silicone
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all along this flashing, set your vent in place. You can silicone again, and then install.
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These also only go one way, hopefully I got them right. Yep! So.
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And you'll have to drill through these holes, through the plastic. The holes
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are laser cut perfectly on the other side as well, and then just rivet this vent in.
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This is all done after the frame -- the main frame -- is installed in your container.
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Now, for marking the vent out, we've made sure we've
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centered it side to side in the container and between the two upper corrugations.
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So it's quite simple. The frame itself is your marking tool,
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so you just drag your pen as straight as you can with your marker down along the side.
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Sometimes you can just mark your top corrugations and then finish the other ones off.
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Same goes on the other two sides, get it marked out nice and square.
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Once you got it marked, use your measuring tape. Make sure your dimensions are the same as
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the dimensions that are going to slot through the hole. If everything looks good,
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measure twice, cut once.
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So we've got our hole cut out now and our frame in place.
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Before we silicone it all in, just so you're not making a mess, we'll uh pre-drill the holes.
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I'm gonna throw just a couple of rivets in just for an alignment.
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And now, when you drill all your other holes, it's not going to go wonky on you.
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The edge that we're not able to get at after this is installed is the the top corrugation, so
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we can hit these now with some silicone.
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Drop our rivets in.
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You'll have to, yeah, prep the vent for the top flashing. It's clear plastic, so.
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Take my drill and just pre-drill holes where the rivets will go through.
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You can even just set a rivet in there temporarily for alignment.
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Now that those are done, you can actually start siliconing all around the perimeter.
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And then also, there's just a few laser slot holes, that while you're going through
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the silicone, you might as well put a dab there and there just clean that up.
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Here, here, here. Same goes here.
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Just yeah, do the perimeter, kind of,
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even where the screw holes are just so you know you're sealing them up.
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The final step is to place your top flanges on there, get it aligned with your rivet. Next one.
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And then it's just pretty simple from here, just finish riveting it up.
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Final step is to silicone the perimeter of the vent.
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One thing to note, and we've learned, is don't use just straight caulk. Like you have to use
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something with a silicone in it, otherwise the caulking will uh crack and leak over time so.
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Something, you know, outdoor rated silicone that does the best job, and just
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go around the perimeter. Use your finger or glove or whatever and clean it all up.
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Make sure you get everything nice and sealed up
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because that's what's stopping the water from penetrating into your container.
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Okay, so we're back here now. We got both the skylights installed in this container.
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As you can see, they're letting in a ton of light.
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We'll just lock ourselves in here right now.
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We've got the doors closed just to show how much light is actually coming into this container
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just from these two lights.
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This container's actually been repainted on the interior, so it's a darker color than they're
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normally, so it would be even brighter in here if this was a stock container interior color.
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So that wraps up our Big Air Skylight Vent installation. If you're interested in getting
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additional ventilation for your container, head to PlanMyCan.com, browse the different options,
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and use the 2D Planning Tool to place them exactly where you want them.
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Don't forget to smash that like button, subscribe, and ring the notification bell.
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Leave any comments or questions below, and check us out at tcg.ca.
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Hope you learned something.