Earth Covered Building

[smiley]

To me the major disadvantage of a house in ground like that would be the lack of windows. I need natural light.

Actually it had the best natural lighting of any house I've ever owned. If you notice, The entire south side is windows and the porch is only 6 ft wide, designed to allow direct sunlight in when the sun was low in the winter and then cut it off in early March. All habitable rooms ran the full 24 ft width of the house and had 2 large windows in front. Only the baths and utility rooms behind the bedrooms had no windows. The only heat was a gas brick type heater that we might turn on a half dozen evenings per winter when we'd have several days of cold damp weather. It also was very quiet, easy to heat and cool and no storm worries. One night we knew it was storming because of the thunder and lightning and a 40-50 ft pine tree came down on the right front corner and we slept through it. A tornado had come up the driveway and flattened over 40 of those pines. we had an awful mess to clean up. Finally had the fire dept come and burn them.
We loved that house and wish we could have one like it where we are now, but at 6.5 ft above sea level, I don't think it'd work.

 

[bruce1955]

Put one in 7 years ago, no problems yet. I aluminum cool sealed the exterior and laid 6" of gravel under it for drainage. I finally framed out the inside and poured 6" of concrete on top and then a foot of soil. It stays cool and is a great root cellar. I did put in a small de-humidifier this year which makes it even nicer. After the concrete dried for a few days I removed the interior framing and painted everything bright white marine enamel.

 

[nue2farm]

Iplayfarmer, I understand your wanting natural light. One way of getting it is to install "solar tubes" in areas you want natural light. Just an idea. Have fun and stay safe....

 

[ron45]

The other advantage of subterranian construction is the temperature regulating properties of the dirt... I.e. root cellar.

You got that right. Some folks build houses that way. Add some south facing glazing and you have free heat that stays put. But you have to plan for that in order not to have too much glair from the south side. There are ways to keep the heat from leaving at night.

Ron

 

[Iplayfarmer]

Iplayfarmer, I understand your wanting natural light. One way of getting it is to install "solar tubes" in areas you want natural light. Just an idea. Have fun and stay safe....

I've heard of those solar tubes. Does anyone have first hand experience? It seems to me like something that works great in the store, but after a few years installed the reflective inner surface will get dust or corrosion on it and not work as well.

 

[ron45]

I've heard of those solar tubes. Does anyone have first hand experience? It seems to me like something that works great in the store, but after a few years installed the reflective inner surface will get dust or corrosion on it and not work as well.

In a word Astonishing. A friend had one in a bathroom. The part you saw was maybe a foot or less in diameter and it filled the room with light. I'm pretty sure they are sealed. So the shouldn't get dimmer over time.

Ron