Earth Bermed or Shelter Home

jhambley · #1 08/19/12, 05:19 PM

Anyone lived in or built an Earth Bermed or Earth Sheltered house? Did you have any problems or can you make any suggestions as to what you might do differently if you had the chance to build again.

I'm think of building basically a walkout basement with a roof. So, three sides will be buried and the front side (facing south) will be traditionally framed. We are located in east central Kansas.

Thanks for any input you could provide.

NELSELGNE · #2 08/19/12, 05:42 PM

See previous postings:
Bunkers, shelters, earth berm homes?

jhambley · #3 08/19/12, 05:51 PM

Thx NELSELGNE. I've already read through those posts.

JH

tarbe · #4 08/19/12, 06:00 PM

Check out passive annual heat storage.

Earth Sheltered Homes | Passive Annual Heat Storage

Callieslamb · #5 08/19/12, 07:04 PM

We've planned several earth bermed homes and love the idea of them. It's just always been cheaper to buy a house that's already built. Drainage in the back wil have to be addressed. Light in the back rooms would be a problem. We thought of covered window wells (it's a law here that every basement bedroom have a window well) with lighted scenery in them. Or even a row of those glass blocks at the top of a wall. We designed storage rooms back into the hillside behind the house. Tricky in a wet climate but doable.

Danaus29 · #6 08/19/12, 07:37 PM

Before beginning make sure you put in more drainage than you think will be necessary. Our walkout basement has a terrible drainage problem which would never have existed if there was some basement footer drainage system set up before the walls were built.

There is a house down the road with a downstairs walkout, split level, earth sheltered. We passed on purchasing that one. But one of the previous owners had a horrible ventilation problem with the downstairs. Also probably caused by the drainage issue.

Waterproofing on the inside has not worked with either of our homes. Drainage and waterproofing on the outside would have been most helpful.

salmonslayer · #7 08/19/12, 08:58 PM

They are real popular in Missouri due to Tornados and some of them are great with a very open layout and great front porches while we have been in others thats like being in a weird looking cave. But Callieslamb has a very good point, make sure they arent death traps in case of fire. Most of the newer designs have a secondary means of egress from the bedrooms but older ones or self built ones may not depending on local zoning.

They do appeal to me though.

Mallow · #8 08/21/12, 08:34 AM

I've been living in mine for about 3-4 years now. I would only change a few small things:

1) Whole house dehumidifier (I currently run one on each end of the house and am planning on switching it to the entire house version)

2) Switch a few things around in the utility room but overall it's not to bad of a setup.

Here is the links to my build threads:

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/gen...lans-pics.html

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/gen...intensive.html

FreeRanger · #9 08/21/12, 11:19 AM

Two things in our walkout basement type ranch home that I would put in any berm design:

#1 Whole house fan system with heat exchanger. Bring in fresh air to super tight modern houses. this is located in the basement with exhaust ducts to every bathroom, the kitchen and the mud room. Runs on low most of the time with a short timer switch in each room that turns it on HIGH, plus has 24/7 timer built-in to unit so that you program on HIGH for the times when high moisture is generated; such as the morning showers, evening cooking etc. This allows you not worry about the children using the bathroom timers.

#2 Make the basement ceiling over 9 foot high so it doesn't feel like a cave.

jhambley · #10 08/21/12, 11:56 AM

It appears a major challenge is keeping these homes from getting damp. In an off grid situation, an air conditioner or dehumidifier are not very practical unless you want to run a generator all the time.

Billie in MO · #11 08/21/12, 02:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhambley

I'm think of building basically a walkout basement with a roof. So, three sides will be buried and the front side (facing south) will be traditionally framed. We are located in east central Kansas.

This is what we live in. When we moved back here we looked at 3-4 earth bermed homes before we chose this one. Make sure the ground at the back slopes away from the house and put in a drainage system. Some do seem to have problems with dampness/mold but some do not. My dad built an earth contact home in 1988 and still lives in it. He's 20-30 minutes from me. He has no issues with dampness/mold at all. My cousin built an earth contact home almost identical to my dad's and he has no issues as well.

jhambley · #12 08/21/12, 02:13 PM

Thanks for all your replies!