Earthen Sheltered Home vs BOL Bunker

[Audacia77]

I recently picked up about 23 acres of rural property about 30 minutes out of town. I originally picked it up as an investment / place to shoot / place to camp with my son / BOL. I have been working with my brother-in-law on either burying a shipping container or using concrete to build a bunker / supply cache.

Over conversation with my wife the other night, she suggested we go ahead and construct a new home, on the property, to our spec's and liking. She wants the typical things a girl wants (big kitchen, her own closet, blah blah blah). I want a home that is solid, fairly easy to defend, efficient and fairly inexpensive to insure. Leading me to the idea of the earthen shelter home.

I have mentioned this to a few associates at work and seem to get a negative response on the whole idea. They either look at me like I am a tree hugging hippie or a TEOTWAWKI nut job. Irony is that most found the idea of a buried container pretty good. So I say the heck with it, I'll go someplace where some likeminded folk are and pose the question.

Earthen Sheltered Home vs. BOL Bunker?

[mrjones]

Build a reinforced basement to store everything and then a nice home with a big kitchen for your wife on top of it.

[Vic303]

Buried shipping containers have condensation issues. Also they are not built for that stress of loading. You'd have to reinforce it seriously to make it work properly.

Concrete would be my choice provided it is properly constructed to limit the inevitable cracking (in the midwest the clay soils will eventually ruin any concrete...).
If you are not looking for a large "bunker" then look at the septic tank storm shelters--they do actually have multiple sizes available.

As far as a berm home, they can be very nice if you hire a good builder. My in-laws had one for a number of years and it was very cozy.

[Nathan_Bell]

ICF construction.
I have been out fo the game for a few years, but an ICF building would run about 10-18% more to build, but you have a house built out of reinforced concrete.

Several companies offer the ability to pour the intermediate floors as well. When I had access to the software to do the # crunching it looked quite easy to have an attached garage with a thick concrete floor and a semi-secret place to stash your stuff, as most attached garages DO not have baement under it.

To deal with the clay, get a good engineer, but it is generally defeatable.

[RWBlue]

When I think about building my own home, I think about building a reinforced concrete home with bullet/impact resistant windows. It will look normal, but be much stronger.

[losbronces]

When I think about building my own home, I think about building a reinforced concrete home with bullet/impact resistant windows. It will look normal, but be much stronger.

Concrete is in use for building homes and apartments in many parts of the world. With a properly designed foundation, columns and beams they are very earthquake resistant as well.

Now the downside for concrete, the walls tend to release some water over time increasing humidity (first one or two years), access to conduits or pipes requires knocking out concrete (at least that is what I've seen in S.A.) and fine cracking in the walls is common.

[LippCJ7]

ICF construction.
I have been out fo the game for a few years, but an ICF building would run about 10-18% more to build, but you have a house built out of reinforced concrete.

Several companies offer the ability to pour the intermediate floors as well. When I had access to the software to do the # crunching it looked quite easy to have an attached garage with a thick concrete floor and a semi-secret place to stash your stuff, as most attached garages DO not have baement under it.

To deal with the clay, get a good engineer, but it is generally defeatable.

The problem as I see it and I could be very wrong is that garages have to deal with the weight of a car or truck and that's why they don't have basements, the structure to build the basement roof(the garage floor) would be substantial and therefore cost prohibitive.

I have seen in several houses here in CO including my sisters house where a custom home builder puts in a steel reinforced concrete safe room in the basement, while its not huge at 15'X20' I think its the most plausible for others since most people including myself can utilize 2 walls and a floor of existing basement concrete and add 2 more concrete walls and a concrete ceiling to form your Basement shelter/safe room fairly easily but costly,depending on your upper management(wife) of course. The trade off is that your wife would have a nice house but you get the ultimate man cave and be the envy of all involved.

Lip

[Nathan_Bell]

The problem as I see it and I could be very wrong is that garages have to deal with the weight of a car or truck and that's why they don't have basements, the structure to build the basement roof(the garage floor) would be substantial and therefore cost prohibitive.

I have seen in several houses here in CO including my sisters house where a custom home builder puts in a steel reinforced concrete safe room in the basement, while its not huge at 15'X20' I think its the most plausible for others since most people including myself can utilize 2 walls and a floor of existing basement concrete and add 2 more concrete walls and a concrete ceiling to form your Basement shelter/safe room fairly easily but costly,depending on your upper management(wife) of course. The trade off is that your wife would have a nice house but you get the ultimate man cave and be the envy of all involved.

Lip

Lite Deck. Is the product I am speaking of. You would want to run the reinforcing channels perpendicular to the axis of the car that will be parking above it. Not as Uber expensive as an oldstyle steel mezzanine type constructed concrete deck.

[torquemada055]

You mean something like these?

http://www.hardenedstructures.com/2050727/default.aspx
http://www.cement.org/homes/
http://www.monolithic.com/
http://www.undergroundshelter.net/new/home/home.php


And before you ask, YES, my wife thinks I am a bit nutty. Must be from too much time in bomb dumps when I was a young Marine and working in a prison for the last 20+ years of this lifetime.

[Mike581]

Check out these guys (http://www.bomb-shelter.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=70&Itemid=71).

[txfireguy2003]

My brother is currently in the process of putting an addition on his home. He is using styrofoam blocks that you stack like legos, then fill with concrete. Once it's finished, you have a 6" thick, steel reinforced concrete wall surrounding the house, with 2" of foam on both sides. There is a provision for the cieling/roof structure to be made the same way, but he chose not to take that route for whatever reason. The material cost is signnifigantly more than standard wood frame construction, BUT it is feasible, if you have a moderate knowledge of tools and construction, to do the whole thing yourself minus the pouring of concrete. There is a little savings there, from not having to hire a framing crew, but the real savings comes when you live in the home for several years. A family just up the road from him built their entire house with the same foam product, and they claim that, in Central Texas, middle of the summer, their electricity bill to cool the 3000 square foot house, is around $100 a month! This when I'm paying in the neighborhood of $400 a month for a 1500 sqft house of normal wood frame construction with brick facia. It's basically like living in a styrofoam cooler, once you get it cooled off, it stays cool for a long time, and once you get it heated up in the winter, it stays warm. HVAC barely has to run at all if you seal the doors and windows etc. When I get around to building my home, I will be using the same stuff, building a small basement/man cave/shelter/gun room/reloading room, and putting the house on top.

[Outlander Systems]

If it's in your budget, go for a monolithic dome.

http://www.monolithic.com/

I believe they were initially designed as economically viable/sustainable homes for refugees.

http://photos.mydomesite.com/000/001/326/medium/cutaway.jpg?1239856959

I've been dreaming/lusting after one for years. In a nutshell, the home is constructed via a concrete pad. After the pad is cured, reinforcing rebar is installed, and an "airform" is inflated, which is essentially nothing more than an inflatable template for the home's layout. After the airform is inflated a mixture of concrete and IIRC, nylon, called "shotcrete" is hosed out of a pressurised sprayer onto the form/rebar. Construction is rapid, the home is literally bulletproof, and can withstand ungodly psi/wind. If I'm not mistaken, little to no special requirements are needed to partially submerge the house, and backfill over it for a subterranean setup.

It's been awhile since I've actively investigated the technology, but I also believe the monolithic domes are self-regulating, in terms of temperature, much like an earthen shelter.

The only caveat is that banks are loathe to finance anything that makes sense, like a MD.

http://photos.mydomesite.com/000/001/110/medium/spencer1.jpg

http://ursispaltenstein.ch/blog/images/uploads_img/the_monolithic_dome.jpg

http://blog.neomajic.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/disneylanel.png

http://photos.mydomesite.com/000/000/002/medium/pic02.jpg?1239873581

http://photos.mydomesite.com/000/000/007/medium/pic11.jpg?1239873525

http://static.monolithic.com/domenews/2005/trent-L.jpg

[lalakai]

buried or underground houses work very well, as long as you plan for them, and accept the initial up front higher costs. As someone already pointed out, structural requirements are more due to the added weight, so your footings are critical. Room design and layout need to be carefully considered, to maximize air movement throughout the house, which will go a long way towards reducing the "musty-ness" that commonly occurs. If you incorporate a buried heat pump/exchange, and solar abilitiy, you can come very close to going completely off the grid. "lighting" is an issue, but I was in a home where the contractor had done some amazing things with fiber optics.

If i had the land and the financial ability, I would definitely opt for a buried house.

good luck.

[HES]

Great minds think alike. Im in the architectural field and this has been something I have been looking into for some time now, mainly as a way to save a buck. The fact that you can have an eaisly defended site is a bonus. An earthen home makes a lot of sense from a environmental / expense point of view. Do it right and your utilities costs can be dramatically reduced. There are a few web sites that specialize in this (as torquemada055 pointed out), but you will have to search hard for an architect that specializes in this type of construction to ensure you don't wind up with a big oops.

One of the questions you need to address is where you live. Your location, its climate, and geography will determine in large part what type of structure you have. If you live in a majority of the US, you may choose to have the exposed side of the structure facing south to catch the warmth of the sun. However if you live in Florida, you may want to face the exposed surfaces to the east or north to minimize your solar absorption. For water you can grade and shape your earthen roof to collect rainwater for drinking and add a solar cistern to have hot water for showering.

Then you have to consider how many people you want such a structure to support. The larger the structure the less in cost savings operations wise you will realize. If its just you and your wife and you can deal with 1,200 to 1,800 SF you are probably in the sweet spot.

Then you need to think about the type of earthen home you want. There are all sorts of types. There are those that are built above grade which are then burled. They can be built along traditional lines or you can use a series of interconnecting domes (excellent example by TheLandlord) or you can build them out of interconnecting freight containers. Or you may want to build below grade. Or use straw, or adobe, etc... There are a lot of different construction methods and materials. Again cost, geography, geology, and climate will help dictate what you wind up with.

Or course as others have said, if you want a conventional home there are options out there. One is pre-stressed concrete. Basically the walls are poured and cured in a factory (and can have the openings for doors and windows pre formed) and then they are assembled on site. The walls are solid and should be able to withstand anything a major hurricane or tornado can throw at them debris wise (this does not include the roof). The total construction costs are about the same as a standard cinder block built home you might find in Florida. Another option are the Styrofoam blocks that you fill with concrete.

I'd love an earthen home. When I wanted one when we were younger my wife said no way. Back then we could have started out small and added on over time. But she said no. Now she wants to. Some times I want to bang my head against the wall till it bleeds. Now it looks like we'll have to wait till we are empty nesters in about 10 years :(

[larry0071]

We used Superior concrete walls: http://www.superiorwalls.com/
Also, the garage is two story (under the 2 story house) and we used 8" parking garage slabs for the floor of the 2nd level garages.

[Rooster15]

http://www.monolithic.com/

These are what I would go with.