Earth-Sheltered Houses: How to Build an Affordable Underground Home

by Rob Roy

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0865715211
• ISBN13: 9780865715219
• Release Date: April 2006
• Publisher: New Society Publishers
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

The best available guide I've found yet

An excellent reference for those who are interested in Earth Bermed and Earth Sheltered houses. His attention to detail in the excavation and foundation chapters is worth the price of the book alone. Especially when there is a lack of in depth internet resources available for those wishing to build their own earth sheltered house. Although this book deserves the 5 stars for fulfilling its basic promise, I wish he had devoted some time to discussing plumbing for a simple structure. But overall, he gives this reader 90% of the information necessary to start a small sized earth bermed house. If you are looking to have an earth roof, you will need to purchase his other book "Timber Framing" where he goes into rich detail the structural engineering requirements of load and tension and compression. With these 2 books, you should be able to complete rough plans for a structural engineer to review and stamp with little or none modifications. Also, for those searching for energy efficient stoves, I recommend aprovecho.org's institutional rocket stove or Ianto Evans Rocket Stove which are both 300% more efficient than traditional wood stoves. On a conclusionary note. I priced out timber framing members for the roof section of a square 30'x30' roof and it came out to over $9000 in timber alone ( not including the tongue & groove planking). Compare that to a traditional 8/12 pitch roof somewhere in the $3000 price range for rafters, ridge, and plywood. Put a metal roof on that and you should be good for over 30 years atleast. Sure the earth roof is better for the ecosystem and eye but a regular roof allows placement of rainwater collection, solartubes and solar heaters/panels as well. For the cost conscious, I have come to the conclusion that a traditional roof that is superinsulated along with the earth berming techniques in this book will allow people to have their own energy efficient house for less than they think.

Good for cement lovers

This is where I started when I began exploring of building my house underground. What bothers me is so much cement. I like Mike Oehler better. Check him out too and decide for yourself.

Inspires Confidence, Crystal Clear, Makes the Option Very Attractive

I went to some trouble to survey books centered on both underground or into rock dwellings, and also earth sheltered homes, and this book is the best I could find. It has proven to be everything I had hoped for. This book deals with earth-sheltered homes, which are homes generally built on the ground, and then covered with natural dirt and growth on the roof only, or on the roof and the berms of earth piled against at least two of the sides after the fact of building. This is a really excellent offering. 12 chapters, 4 appendices, and an annotated bibliography. A number of really nice color photographs on eight pages in the middle of the book, many black and white photos as well as really excellent understandable diagrams. Take-aways include the need for extremely careful but not over the top load planning, radon as a factor to take seriously, and ANYONE CAN DO THIS. The book covers waterproofing, insulation, and drainage, to include waste drainage where gravity rather than pumping is strongly recommended. It does not cover electrical and plumbing installation. It covers energy in relation to sunlight and windows and heat retention curtains, but does not include coverage of skylights (except as an energy loss factor), interior lights and other "plumbing. The bottom line in the book is that a solid earth-sheltered house can be built for $10K to $20K inclusive of appliances, plumbing and so on, which makes it a lot cheaper and greatly more sustainable than a double-wide trailer home, and better in most respects than your average rambler. With Peak Oil now upon on, the energy saving features of the earth-sheltered home are not to be taken lightly. The author document going without a need for heat from wood burning for almost an entire winter, and documents getting through any winter with 2-3 cords of wood. The home is cool in the summer without airconditioning, in part because of the natural respiration and evaporation of the earth roof with grass, moss, and wildflowers. I want to end with praise for the publisher. Five or six times now I have bought boooks based on my interest in their content, only to find that New Society Publishers is the provider. They now rank with Wharton Publishing as one of my favored publishers, and I will be keeping an eye out for anything bearing their imprint.

A must have for those interested in this type of construction.

Mr. Roy has experience. He's built a few of these earth shelters. And, rather than telling you only how to build them, he gives you reasons why and lessons he's learned from those experiences. With an emphasis on safety, Mr. Roy explains in laymen's terms the in's and out's of earth shelters. I found this an easy and informative read which conjurs up plans and dreams for a earth sheltered house of my own.

A thoroughly practical guide to building homes with earthen roofs

Former contractor Rob Roy presents Earth-Sheltered Houses: How To Build An Affordable Underground Home, a thoroughly practical guide to building homes with earthen roofs, for a dwelling in greater harmony with the environment that leaves less of a footprint on the planet. Other benefits of an earth-sheltered home include low maintenance, as well as protection against fire, earthquake, and storm. Modern technology has made strides in solving difficulties that plagued earth-sheltered homes of the past. Earth-Sheltered Houses covers basic design principles; critical concepts to keep in mind when excavating, laying foundation, installing the floor, building external walls, framing timber, and more for earth-sheltered houses; interior considerations; and much more. Black-and-white illustrations and diagrams round out this absolute "must-have" for anyone considering building or owning a sturdy earth-sheltered home.