Road costing advise or opinions!

[SamWalton]

Sam, I am very impressed with you taking on an earth sheltered home. They are amazing in so many different ways.

I had a couple of questions for you, and some insight / opinions you can take with a grain of salt.

I was wondering if you have an elevation of the house with the earth bermed on it? I was wondering how you were going to treat the roof, both in pitch and in structure? Also, what is the latest in water / moisture protection that you are finding out?

IMO you have some really interesting plans. I have not seen too many homes with the split sections (your bedrooms being extended out from the house) Usually these homes are square boxes underground from what I have seen.

A few things I would consider IMO (please dispose of these ideas as you see fit). There is a psycology that I have found with people that having earth over their heads wigs them out. I would suggest larger / more windows. Even though you house is bright, people seem to think it is going to be dark. I would consider adding a bathroom. One thing in all of this is while I am sure you have no plans to sell the house, your kids may. While it works for you it may not work for other people, so having that additional bathroom (like master bath) would greatly increase your resale value and your ability to sell the home. I think you can find all sorts of room for this in the bedroom area. To me the kids / guest rooms are a bit big, or at least they appear to be in a position to give up some footage for a bathroom. A couple of other little things, I would consider pocket doors on your Linen and Utility closet. Give you more working space in those rooms. Is that a Bidet in both bathrooms? I think that if you are sorely in need of counterspace and the bidet could be a loseable item. Finally, I would also move the position of the toilet in the spare bathroom. You can see it too easy from the kitchen, and people, for whatever reason, do not like to see a toilet and their food in the same glance.

Anyway, the house is going to be amazing. Please keep us all posted on how it goes forward. I am quite jealous as we have had to delay construction for a couple of years due to the market. Right now would be a great time to build.

If you visit the Earth Sheltered Buildings web site you will see the best design on an earth shelter superstructure design, at least in my opinion. The ceiling has a dome shape with 2100 lbs of steel and up to 14" of concrete. This provides a super strong roof that doesn't require any supports giving you the incredible spacious feel. As for the bidet, the program wouldn't draw a urinal so that is what they are. Attached are some photos of someone else's Terra-Dome and the water proofing material is shown.

 

[mjncad]

If you visit the Earth Sheltered Buildings web site you will see the best design on an earth shelter superstructure design, at least in my opinion. The ceiling has a dome shape with 2100 lbs of steel and up to 14" of concrete. This provides a super strong roof that doesn't require any supports giving you the incredible spacious feel. As for the bidet, the program wouldn't draw a urinal so that is what they are. Attached are some photos of someone else's Terra-Dome and the water proofing material is shown.

Looking at the pictures of the Terra-Dome you posted reminds me of the Hatch from LOST, and I'm wondering where the old Apple computer is with the button that needs to be pushed every 108-minutes.

As for the CAD software, I had a 30-day trial version of Revit Architecture from Autodesk, and if I were running an A/E firm I would start migrating from AutoCAD to Revit. Very impressive product and I can see why Autodesk bought the company.

Since you've been posting pictures of the road to your property, I'm looking forward to the house construction photos.

 

[SamWalton]

Today we got two loads of gravel delivered. One load was tailgated to a portion where I installed ditches and widened the road. The remainder was put on the new driveway but ran out before the end. We had a load of SB2 it has the fines in it. We are going to dig out the mushy mud directly under the footings and compact this SB2 so we have our required 300 pounds per square foot of compaction.

We also began the installation of our gate to secure the property. We were force to go and rent a jack hammer to curt through the sand stone on the left side. All three holes hit this stone. It will make for a super sturdy hinge or gate supporting side of the entry. We are installing a custom 16 gate using square tubing with a large "W" in the middle. I can't wait to secure the property. We seem to have a few that will leave their trash.

 

[woodlandfarms]

Sam, it looks like you got power, maybe a security camera would be in order... Not cheap, but worth every penny in my book. Also, what is the pad in picture 5? The home site or a shop site? Just wondering with your earth sheltered plan how the landscape is going to fit in.

 

[SamWalton]

Sam, it looks like you got power, maybe a security camera would be in order... Not cheap, but worth every penny in my book. Also, what is the pad in picture 5? The home site or a shop site? Just wondering with your earth sheltered plan how the landscape is going to fit in.

We don't have power yet and we are looking at some type of camera to catch trespassers or thieves. The cleared area is where we are building the earth shelter. The homes landscaping will be earth bermed from east to west and also a portion of the south side. View the previous PDF files of floor plans which show the four soil retaining walls. We will have great views of the valley below.

 

[SamWalton]

We hung our custom gate today. I used our tractor to lift it into place. We will install an automatic opener after we finish building our home and move in. We are going to perform a perk test to get our DEQ permit and soil testing to determine how much soil must be removed directly under the purposed footing locations to achieve the 3000PSF. Attached are a few pictures of our gate and the footing plan and Pocket Penetrometer.

 

[Egon]

Nice welding job.

 

[cjcocn]

What did you cap your gate posts with to keep out water and prevent it from rusting from the inside out?

Great thread, btw! The pics really help to see where you are at.

 

[SamWalton]

What did you cap your gate posts with to keep out water and prevent it from rusting from the inside out?

Great thread, btw! The pics really help to see where you are at.

My friend Jay has about 4 hours left to finish the main gate (shown). He has metal caps he purchased for the 4" pipes and he has made custom caps for all the top openings of the square tubing. We are very pleased with his work. We will soon have the home site secured.

 

[SamWalton]

We have our main gate completed less paint and got our 40' High Cube sea container delivered. We will soon begin the footing installation for our new home.