Terra-Dome Earth Shelter Build

[sajurcaju]

I like that big sun window in the ceiling. Your house should be nice and cool in the summer. I'd like to see how that concrete dome is done.

Here you can find pics from construction of our house in Maine:
new house
Each module is poured in one go--walls and dome.

We moved in June and had to run the heat for a couple of days. All summer the house was 10-15 degrees below outdoor temp. We often opened the windows to warm things up a bit.

Steve
Maine

 

[MarkV]

Wow Sam, Bob did you good. Sounds like I would have to buy him dinner sometime.

MarkV

 

[SamWalton]

Here you can find pics from construction of our house in Maine:
new house
Each module is poured in one go--walls and dome.

We moved in June and had to run the heat for a couple of days. All summer the house was 10-15 degrees below outdoor temp. We often opened the windows to warm things up a bit.

Steve
Maine

Great Pictures and Awesome house! I would like to see more pictures on the area with two levels. Please explain how it was built and your purpose for this area. Thanks

 

[KubotainNH]

Here you can find pics from construction of our house in Maine:
new house
Each module is poured in one go--walls and dome.

We moved in June and had to run the heat for a couple of days. All summer the house was 10-15 degrees below outdoor temp. We often opened the windows to warm things up a bit.

Steve
Maine

That's pretty cool. Any completed pics?

 

[tommu56]

Here you can find pics from construction of our house in Maine:
new house
Each module is poured in one go--walls and dome.

We moved in June and had to run the heat for a couple of days. All summer the house was 10-15 degrees below outdoor temp. We often opened the windows to warm things up a bit.

Steve
Maine

Steve neat pictures!

It almost looked like you were building an igloo in the begning!

tom

 

[sajurcaju]

Great Pictures and Awesome house! I would like to see more pictures on the area with two levels. Please explain how it was built and your purpose for this area. Thanks

Hi Sam,
The barn has 12' sidewalls instead of 8'. I dearly wish I'd done this to the shop as well, but what's done is staying done.
The upper floor is for a hayloft. The upper floor is engineered 2x12's and is supported around the perimeter and in the stairwell region by lally columns, which are cast in the concrete floor. The upstairs doesn't have a lot of headroom, but does its job. Terra dome wanted to hang the floor from rebar in the dome (1/2" rebar...), but I was pretty uncomfortable with the strength of that method.

I'd be happy to shoot some pics if you want more specifics. Some more completed interior shots are attached to my next post.

Steve

 

[sajurcaju]

That's pretty cool. Any completed pics?

I've been remiss in not posting these earlier. We moved in June, stuff is gradually settling into place.

The drawing of the modules does not show overhangs and parapet walls. All outside edges have a parapet wall to hold the dirt on the roof; also, the entire front has a 4' overhang.

The kitchen is galley style. It doesn't look very deep in this pic, but the floor tiles are 12" sq. I think it is 19' including pantry.

The hallway goes into the MBR module (MBR, sewing room and bath). As you can see on the drawing, there is another module with two BR, bath and laundry that I don't have pics handy for. All the floors except my daughter's BR are in tile.

We've got in floor radiant heat, which works great. My daughter wanted wood flooring, which doesn't work well with radiant. As a compromise we got Pergo flooring. The module with her BR in it has its own zone with the thermostat in her room, but she was still getting too much variation in temp. The thermostat regulates air temp but also has a floor sensor for max floor temp. I raised the max floor temp from 75 to 80 and that fixed her temp regulation problem.

Steve
Maine

 

[beppington]

I'm guessing you Terra Dome home owners can slam your doors without shaking the whole house! :laughing:

Very interesting reading/ viewing!

Have you seen the Vals, Switzerland house built into the side of the mountain? Vals has thermal springs/ spas, & the govt doesn't want new buildings mucking up the views. So the home owner built into the hillside:

Incredible Underground Residence in Switzerland

 

[sajurcaju]

I hadn't seen the Swiss house, thanks. Reminds me I need to put some railings on the roof next spring.

The house doesn't shake when the door slams, but the door is warped. I'm not happy about this, especially when I dug through the Jeldwyn docs and realized that the guarantee allows 1/4" warp. It's sure enough to break the door seal and let some wind through, though.

The solution I'm going with (other than buy another Jeldwyn door) is a brush seal from these folks:
Door Seals Weatherstripping Door Seals With Industrial Brush Weather Strip
They don't mind small orders, have nice products, but it ships oversize, about $25.

Steve

 

[beppington]

The house doesn't shake when the door slams, but the door is warped.

Must be wood? Our metal doors are perfect-o. From HD, not sure what brand.