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Mother Earth News Wiser Living #4
Earth-Sheltered Houses: How to Build an Affordable Underground Home
The only how-to manual on the subject directed to mainstream owner-builders An earth-sheltered, earth-roofed home has the least impact upon the land of all housing styles, leaving almost zero footprint on the planet. Earth-Sheltered Houses is a practical guide for those who want to build their own underground home at moderate cost. It describes the benefits of sheltering a home with earth, including the added comfort and energy efficiency from the moderating influence of the earth on the home's temperature-keeping it warm in the winter and cool in the summer-low maintenance, and the protection against fire, sound, earthquake and storm afforded by the earth. Extra benefits from adding an earth or other living roof option include greater longevity of the roof substrate, fine aesthetics, and environmental harmony. The book covers all of the various construction techniques involved including details on planning, excavation, footings, floor, walls, framing, roofing, waterproofing, insulation and drainage. Specific methods appropriate for the inexperienced owner-builder are a particular focus and The time-tested, easy-to-learn construction techniques described in Earth-Sheltered Houses will enable readers to embark upon their own building projects with confidence, backed up by a comprehensive resources section that lists all the latest products such as waterproofing membranes, types of rigid insulation and drainage products that will protect the building against water damage and heat loss.
256 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2006
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205 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 7, 2013
So I save one star and five star reviews for truly exceptional cases. Never mind that the architectural style is polar opposite to mine (which is modernist) and never mind the fact that this book delivers absolutely nothing by way of design inspirations. That is more a question of personal taste.
What it does deliver is construction details of such a DIY nature as to be useless to anyone who isn't so inclined. And, in my limited experience, any DIYer is gonna have their own way of doing things anyway, that's the nature of DIY. If I was the type to build my own house from scratch and to beg, borrow or steal free labour from my friends, and spend at least four times as long to build it in doing so this book might be of some use. When I started reading the description of him and his (then) friends loading up 30' 8x8 timbers onto the back of his pickup truck I cringed with the primitive and risky (to life and limb) style of constructing a home in such a fashion. He must mention that he doesn't want "the bank to own his home" over 20 times in this book. OK... got it. Repetition only retracts from your point.
Personally, I feel steel is far more suitable to carry the enormous roof loads required by earth sheltered homes. And... if you've got a private, south facing, downward sloping aspect for your walk-out why not make it all glass? His homes are like ordinary homes with ordinary doors and windows on (just) one side with earth piled on top. Not esthetically pleasing at all and likely dark and damp places to live in.
The only redeeming features were some sections providing one version of drainage, water proofing, and insulation requirements unique to earth sheltered homes. But even those were specific to colder climates without any comment on warmer ones (I plan to build on Maui).
What it does deliver is construction details of such a DIY nature as to be useless to anyone who isn't so inclined. And, in my limited experience, any DIYer is gonna have their own way of doing things anyway, that's the nature of DIY. If I was the type to build my own house from scratch and to beg, borrow or steal free labour from my friends, and spend at least four times as long to build it in doing so this book might be of some use. When I started reading the description of him and his (then) friends loading up 30' 8x8 timbers onto the back of his pickup truck I cringed with the primitive and risky (to life and limb) style of constructing a home in such a fashion. He must mention that he doesn't want "the bank to own his home" over 20 times in this book. OK... got it. Repetition only retracts from your point.
Personally, I feel steel is far more suitable to carry the enormous roof loads required by earth sheltered homes. And... if you've got a private, south facing, downward sloping aspect for your walk-out why not make it all glass? His homes are like ordinary homes with ordinary doors and windows on (just) one side with earth piled on top. Not esthetically pleasing at all and likely dark and damp places to live in.
The only redeeming features were some sections providing one version of drainage, water proofing, and insulation requirements unique to earth sheltered homes. But even those were specific to colder climates without any comment on warmer ones (I plan to build on Maui).
June 26, 2009
Rob Roy, Earth-Sheltered Houses (New Society, 2006)
I can't remember the last time I stopped reading everything else I was in the middle of to concentrate on a nonfiction book. I'm not entirely sure that's ever happened before. And the funny thing about it is that I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, this book's target audience; Roy takes a small diversion in Chapter 2 to quote Mike Oehler: “A basement...is an airless place with few windows, artificially lighted and having an artificial feel. An underground house is not this at all.” What Oehler is describing is actually exactly what I'm looking for; I never want to see the sun again, if I can help it. Also, the environmentalist stuff goes right over my head; my interest in chasing down this sort of thing is always in the practical money-saving aspects of not having to use temperature control devices (air conditioning an 1100sf house in my area, sparingly, during the summer months can run $300 a month, while heating the same house to sixty-eight degrees constantly during one winter month is well over twice that). Underground housing would seem to be a perfect solution; anyone who's wandered through a natural cave formation (and didn't we all take field trips to them in fifth grade?) knows that temperature underground is much slower to change than it is on the surface. Add on a few other niceties and it's possible to live truly off the grid, and I know many, many people, environmentalists or not, who would be thrilled with such an idea. And there's a lot of practical advice here that even those who don't toe the environmentalist line will want to pick this book up and check out, even if they've never thought about building an earth-sheltered house (or if they're idea of underground living is, like mine, radically different than Roy's), but even that is not the reason I stopped reading everything else to concentrate on this book. That was because it's fascinating.
Roy has built two major earth-sheltered houses, and he takes us through the building of each. (Not separately; in the chapter on foundations, for example, we get both examples.) One is a more “normal” rectilinear house, while the second is a round house, and Roy talks up the advantages of round-house construction throughout the text (though he does warn that you'll run into more problems with the bureaucrats, who aren't used to such things). And, as I said, there's lots of practical advice, but to me, the book's real strong point—especially for those who are just picking it up to read—is that Roy is simply a good storyteller. How-to manuals are not generally known for their readability, but when it comes right down to it, this is a how-to manual, but it's one that will have you saying “just one more chapter”. As far as I can tell, that makes it an unique book, and one that's worth your time even if you've never thought about building an earth-sheltered house. Now, can someone find me one about building an underground bunker? ****
I can't remember the last time I stopped reading everything else I was in the middle of to concentrate on a nonfiction book. I'm not entirely sure that's ever happened before. And the funny thing about it is that I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, this book's target audience; Roy takes a small diversion in Chapter 2 to quote Mike Oehler: “A basement...is an airless place with few windows, artificially lighted and having an artificial feel. An underground house is not this at all.” What Oehler is describing is actually exactly what I'm looking for; I never want to see the sun again, if I can help it. Also, the environmentalist stuff goes right over my head; my interest in chasing down this sort of thing is always in the practical money-saving aspects of not having to use temperature control devices (air conditioning an 1100sf house in my area, sparingly, during the summer months can run $300 a month, while heating the same house to sixty-eight degrees constantly during one winter month is well over twice that). Underground housing would seem to be a perfect solution; anyone who's wandered through a natural cave formation (and didn't we all take field trips to them in fifth grade?) knows that temperature underground is much slower to change than it is on the surface. Add on a few other niceties and it's possible to live truly off the grid, and I know many, many people, environmentalists or not, who would be thrilled with such an idea. And there's a lot of practical advice here that even those who don't toe the environmentalist line will want to pick this book up and check out, even if they've never thought about building an earth-sheltered house (or if they're idea of underground living is, like mine, radically different than Roy's), but even that is not the reason I stopped reading everything else to concentrate on this book. That was because it's fascinating.
Roy has built two major earth-sheltered houses, and he takes us through the building of each. (Not separately; in the chapter on foundations, for example, we get both examples.) One is a more “normal” rectilinear house, while the second is a round house, and Roy talks up the advantages of round-house construction throughout the text (though he does warn that you'll run into more problems with the bureaucrats, who aren't used to such things). And, as I said, there's lots of practical advice, but to me, the book's real strong point—especially for those who are just picking it up to read—is that Roy is simply a good storyteller. How-to manuals are not generally known for their readability, but when it comes right down to it, this is a how-to manual, but it's one that will have you saying “just one more chapter”. As far as I can tell, that makes it an unique book, and one that's worth your time even if you've never thought about building an earth-sheltered house. Now, can someone find me one about building an underground bunker? ****
November 14, 2013
When I was 12, after a trip to the Colorado Rockies, I daydreamed about having a house built into a mountainside. I did not believe I invented the idea, but neither was I influenced by something I saw. A semi-interred house just seemed a practical solution for building on a slope. For years, when bored in class, I would work on floor plans and designs for my earth-sheltered home. So it is not unsurprising that I purchased Rob Roy's book when my husband and I started discussing building a future home.
Not far into the book, I realized French zoning and building laws will probably prevent our ever constructing our own earth-sheltered home from the ground up, as it were, but I still found this book immensely fascinating. Which might seem strange since it is full of schematics; formulas for calculating pressure per square foot for roofs, load-bearing walls, retaining walls; and many other concrete how-to's and illustrations. But I read all of it, impressed and intrigued about all there is to know when one wants to build one's own bermed home. I haven't read other books on the same subject so I can't speak from experience, but this book seemed very thorough to me and a good read for anyone interested in building projects, earth-sheltered or otherwise.
Not far into the book, I realized French zoning and building laws will probably prevent our ever constructing our own earth-sheltered home from the ground up, as it were, but I still found this book immensely fascinating. Which might seem strange since it is full of schematics; formulas for calculating pressure per square foot for roofs, load-bearing walls, retaining walls; and many other concrete how-to's and illustrations. But I read all of it, impressed and intrigued about all there is to know when one wants to build one's own bermed home. I haven't read other books on the same subject so I can't speak from experience, but this book seemed very thorough to me and a good read for anyone interested in building projects, earth-sheltered or otherwise.
January 31, 2008
The latest in our dirty hippie, be-debt-free scheme. This book is awesome. We're going underground! Probably not for most people . . .
May 12, 2017
Seems to contain a lot of information for those about to build their earth sheltered house. Contains the mathematical formulas needed to figure out a variety of things, such as what kind of support is needed for the weight of the roof and more. The author has built several earth sheltered homes and gives his opinions on the various options available to a builder. I will likely purchase this book when I am closer to building our earth sheltered home.
April 1, 2016
didn't actually finish reading it but looks like it's basically a more in depth account of how to build a house in the earth shelter vein that is sometimes covered in his other books.
Will definitely read again if I get closer to the reality of being able to do so.
Will definitely read again if I get closer to the reality of being able to do so.
October 10, 2010
Very focused study on subject matter -- would have much more preferred a bit more of a macro view.
June 5, 2015
This is not quite a "how to" book but does bring up many topics of consideration for anyone considering building an earth sheltered home.
August 18, 2016
Useful, if I was building the house by myself. Yet, good information and full of ideas that I will surely look at later. The section on living roofs was quite useful.
Read
April 30, 2014Nice narrative, was expecting more detailed plans.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews