# earth sheltered home



## lonelyfarmgirl (Feb 6, 2005)

I would like to hear comments on earth sheltered homes. We are looking at a property that is a valley between two high ridgetops. The house is junk, so we were speculating the idea of building into the side of the south facing ridge.
I googled for some info on it, but surprisingly didn't come up with much. Has anyone here done this?


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## SolarGary (Sep 8, 2005)

Hi,
I've collected some material on earth sheltered homes and earth ships:

A section on earth ships:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/SolarHomes/Earthship/Earthship.htm

This is an earth sheltered home that Cristian from Romania sent in a very detailed description on --he goes into quite a bit of detail on the thinking behind his design:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/SolarHomes/Romania/CristianHouse.htm

We stayed a couple days in an Earth Ship in Taos -- these were my thoughts on it at the time:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/SolarHomes/Earthship/Visit/EarthShipVisit.htm

Some more on this page:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/SolarHomes/ididitps.htm

I think the Earth Ships that Michael Reynolds does out of Taos are pretty impressive from the point of view that they are not only thermally efficient, but they are totally independent of all utilities and do well on the water harvested from their own roof even in a climate that only gets 8 inches of rain a year. I think its a well thought out design. 

I would definitely recommend that you arrange to stay in an earth sheltered house of the type you would build before you commit to building it -- seems to me that one of the most important things is for a house to feel right to you, and earth ships have a different sort of feel -- some people like it, and some don't.

Gary


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## lonelyfarmgirl (Feb 6, 2005)

Those are some pretty neat looking houses. I will read the links in greater detail, thanks! But none of the photos I saw are anything like what we want to do. Everything on there, except one I think was built, then earth dumped around. We want to imbed into a ridge. I wonder how it would differ?


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## wy_white_wolf (Oct 14, 2004)

Haven't seen speedfunk post lately.

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/showthread.php?t=332056&highlight=house


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## farminghandyman (Mar 4, 2005)

if you do go the earth shelter design, 
Do a proper job of water proofing of the structure before covering, (I have read that some of the early designs, and most problems with basements are do to improper water proofing procedures, 
(the number of times I have been asked about wet basements and pealing paints and damp spots on basements and even water seeping in under walls, over the years) 
and you can not do a proper job of water proofing from the inside, you need to stop it before it enter the area,

CONCRETE, IS NOT WATER PROOF, and cement block is very porous, 

yes concrete will hold water but not water proof,

and since to properly water proof some thing takes time and money it is many times over looked or not done properly, (also the water proofing methods have improved greatly over the 30 years),

but what ever you do, DO not cut corners in the water proofing area, even if your in a dry climate, 

One more thing have the roof designed by a structural engineer, if it is going to be earth covered, DIRT IS HEAVY, up to 120 per cubit foot, (normally between 75 to 120) so if you have 24" earth covering on your roof area, that is a 200+ pound per square foot load or possibly more if wet,


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## SolarGary (Sep 8, 2005)

farminghandyman said:


> if you do go the earth shelter design,
> Do a proper job of water proofing of the structure before covering, (I have read that some of the early designs, and most problems with basements are do to improper water proofing procedures,
> (the number of times I have been asked about wet basements and pealing paints and damp spots on basements and even water seeping in under walls, over the years)
> and you can not do a proper job of water proofing from the inside, you need to stop it before it enter the area,
> ...


Another kind of water problem you can run into with earth sheltered homes is not having enough insulation on the outside of the concrete, which causes the concrete to run cool enough that it condenses water on the inside.

Gary


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## Sparticle (Nov 1, 2004)

We're building an earth sheltered house now. Our green roof will have 3-4 inches of growing medium over an Enkadrain drainage mat over a 45 mil sheet of EPDM. We're using 2x12's on 12" centers and forked over big bucks for an engineered LVL beam. Using lots of drains all around the house to keep water out. Insulating like crazy to prevent any condensation and energy bleeds.


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## sideoutds (Jul 19, 2011)

Get the book Earth Sheltered Houses By Robert Roy. His book is one of the best i've come across. It is pretty detailed on the water proofing and and load bearing parts of the book.


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## SuperMom (Jul 18, 2011)

This is some good information, thank you for sharing! Anyone here actually have their own Earth Ship? Am very curious how these sustainable homes actually are to live in....


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## kvr28 (Feb 15, 2009)

we use a 1/2 cord of wood to heat our earth sheltered home, we love it


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## speedfunk (Dec 7, 2005)

wy_white_wolf said:


> Haven't seen speedfunk post lately.
> 
> http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/showthread.php?t=332056&highlight=house


Still here I am. We have done quite a bit , we look to be finishing up this next month and 1/2. Its becoming crunch time for sure. For more updated pics ( I will update the homesteadingtoday thread when I bet a bit of time for sure)

http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=5690.0


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