Earth Home

[SPANKYDOODLE]

What about just digging into a hillside for primitive lodging? Does anyone have information
about living underground or tunneling?

[rickd203]

I have been looking but most of the books for homeowners are for earth sheltered homes. These homes have one or more sides completely above ground. I also looked for books on mining and tunnel building. These books were for engineers working on large construction projects. It is a shame that people wanting earth homes are left to trial and error because there is very little info to help them.

[SPANKYDOODLE]

I agree, I googled earthen homes, underground homes, etc. but still can't seem to find any information reguarding something completely underground. thanks anyway

[The Paw]

A few of the original settlers in this area dug earthen caves into riverbanks as their first home. That was usually when they arrived in later summer and didn't have time to build proper shelter before winter.

As soon as next spring rolled around, they would build a "soddie", stacking the cut sod for walls with the roof structure supplied by saplings. As primitive as the soddies were, they were a major improvement over the dug caves, which were extremely unhealthy to live in.

I think there is an old Gunsmoke episode where Chester is planning on getting married and he goes out and does a sod hut. He dug into the ground some with that one, but it was pretty neat looking.

It looked something like this:

http://myweb.cableone.net/4jdurham/c.../chilcote.html

[turtlehead]

Try looking for Earth Sheltered Homes
The following links are for companies that build Earth Sheltered Homes. They're in the business of building underground homes for people, not educating you how to do it yourself. Still, there's good info on their sites, especially in the FAQ sections.

http://daviscaves.com/index.shtml
http://www.earthshelteredtech.com/Default.htm
http://www.lcs.net/users/pinecrest/text/home.htm

Here is an AWESOME website of a couple that built their own:
http://www.ourcoolhouse.com/

[highlands]

There is tons of information about this on the web and in books. Whole discussion lists and forum boards devoted to it. Google:

http://www.google.com/search?q=earth...ome+OR+housing

That will give you about 30 million hits, much of it excellent info.

What ever you do, make sure the roof and walls don't cave in on you.

Also think about water and realize the earth is not really a good insulator - it's a flywheel, thermal mass and buffer.

See our house, which has thermal mass and will eventually be earth sheltered:

http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2007/11...tion-mark.html

Low cost, self-heating and minimal maintenance.

Cheers,

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org

[kitaye]

I did some searching and found some stuff:
http://www.escapeartist.com/OREQ11/Cave_Houses.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/art...beautiful.html
http://www.livinginacave.com/


And just for fun
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2397388.html

[Maura]

I think Ma and Pa Ingalls had an earth home, part cave part sod in "On the Shores of Plum Creek. Years ago I found a book on earth homes and was fascinated by them. They are tornado proof. Also quite expensive.

[Common Tator]

I love Hobbit Houses!

And if you google earth homes, then click the images tab, you will see lots of great picturee, most attached to great articles about them.

[ET1 SS]

Forrestaire Gardens in Fresno California, is a large underground home and fig orchard.

[rickd203]

Originally Posted by SPANKYDOODLE

What about just digging into a hillside for primitive lodging? Does anyone have information
about living underground or tunneling?

Earth sheltered homes have a large portion of the house above ground some of those homes don't have ANY living space that is actually UNDER the ground. The OP asked for information on tunneling which isn't used with earth sheltered homes.

SPANKYDOODLE, I started using Deep Underground Housing and Subterranean Housing. It looks more promising than searching with 'earth sheltered house' in google.

[chewie]

there is a 'hole' near us here, that is one a guy used when he first come to this area, many many years ago. then later, a horse was found, most starved, tied to a tree. seems this fella took a dip in the river, after tethering his horse, and didn't make it back out. his horse ate all the bark off the tree, and was happy to be set loose. no one ever knew the info on the guy tho.

sorry, didn't help you much, but until he went swimming, he did just fine in his 'hole'.

[sgl42]

a few links I've collected over the last several years:

http://earth-house.com/

http://www.earthshelteredhome.com/
http://www.earthshelters.com/
http://www.erdhaus.ch/main.php?fla=y...ont=earthhouse
http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0
http://www.malcolmwells.com/
http://earthshelter.com/
http://www.terra-dome.com/index.html
http://www.norishouse.com/house/
http://www.subsurfacebuildings.com/T...ryCavemen.html
http://www.countryplans.com/underground.html

--sgl

[CamM]

It wouldn't be very economical to tunnel. You'd be worried about cave-ins all the time. If you want to live underground you have to excavate all around the building site and then use something sturdy like cinderblocks or concrete (for do it yourself jobs) to build. I saw something on tv where a plastic dome was inflated and then sprayed with concrete and polyeurathane for insulation and buried. Don't know the name of the process.

If you're talking something like a dugout, that's not such a great idea. If there's any downslope leading to the house (just imagine) it'll leak into the house.

Apparently earthbag buildings have a large weight capacity. You can build a structure up to about 20' in diameter, I've read, and bury it.

[ET1 SS]

Originally Posted by CamM

It wouldn't be very economical to tunnel. You'd be worried about cave-ins all the time. If you want to live underground you have to excavate all around the building site and then use something sturdy like cinderblocks or concrete (for do it yourself jobs) to build. I saw something on tv where a plastic dome was inflated and then sprayed with concrete and polyeurathane for insulation and buried. Don't know the name of the process.

If you're talking something like a dugout, that's not such a great idea. If there's any downslope leading to the house (just imagine) it'll leak into the house.

Apparently earthbag buildings have a large weight capacity. You can build a structure up to about 20' in diameter, I've read, and bury it.

Your opinions do not reflect any of the underground homes which I have been in.

Sad.

Pretty much the opposite actually.

[SPANKYDOODLE]

Thanks to everyone for all your help! You have given me alot of information to process. That hobbit house was pretty cool! Once again, thanks.

[sheepish]

Do a google search for troglodyte france. There are many wonderful pictures of relatively modern cave dwellings, many of which are still inhabited.

[Cyngbaeld]

I've always thought Coober Pedy would be kind of a neat place. How about Petra? Isn't that mostly carved into the sandstone cliffs? Then there are the Chinese cave dwellers. Seems like the best places to do this are where there is fairly soft rock like sandstone. You wouldn't need to shore it up so much. I'd be nervous of doing it in soft ground or fragmented rock.

[quietstar]

A pure stone cave in many locations would save energy and provide a certain sense of security. I've explored a few Limestone caves that had been occupied and used for important storage. Some even had little sweet streams of water in the depths.

An earth sheltered home is a totally unique beaste. I wouldn't have one because the termites always find a way in and begin eating your house while you sleep. This is not my first energy crisis and I've witnessed the sad end that most all earth structures faced. The last one was on high, well drained land and built at great expense to beat rising energy costs. About 80 months later and as soon as the dejected owners cleaned all structure leavings and filled the hole, my brokerage company sold the land as good pasture. Termites...Glen

[ET1 SS]

Originally Posted by quietstar

... An earth sheltered home is a totally unique beaste. I wouldn't have one because the termites always find a way in and begin eating your house while you sleep. This is not my first energy crisis and I've witnessed the sad end that most all earth structures faced. The last one was on high, well drained land and built at great expense to beat rising energy costs. About 80 months later and as soon as the dejected owners cleaned all structure leavings and filled the hole, my brokerage company sold the land as good pasture. Termites...Glen

Learn something every day.

I thought that termites only eat wood.

So your saying that termites eat concrete, cool!

The Forrestaire Gardens in Fresno, where I worked for about a year while in college. has been there for nearly a century. And has not had any problem with termites.