Any interest in documenting underground house build here?

[Tnfalconer]

Very Interesting in your build - Please share lots of Pictures

Do you have Artistic drawings of anything to come?

I have some renderings that I drew up a couple years back but this will be different than those renderings. Here in Montana, in the county that I live in there are no regulations. No building codes or requirements or inspections. Needless to say we are very rural in the mountains.

[popper]

Fins have been using in slab heating for years. Circulating water in radiators connected to ground circulation works too. Remember a Denver area house that used boulders in the basement with circulating fans for temp control. Late 50s technology. Gravel backfill will work as french drain so you need an outlet. Bro is a Arch Eng, decided to use a berm against the house for geotherm cooling. Had to remove it as it was against a wood stud wall - he should have known better - buckled the wall. He & I always been interested but hard to find/afford a guaranteed system. I've thought about the geotherm well here but cities won't let us do it.
As a kid I'd rife right seatin the Mooney to SD silos when they were being built. I wouldn't want to live in one. Dad get chewed out pretty good when we tried to land on the paved strip in front of a Martin about to touch down. We were supposed to land on the DIRT strip but tower forgot to say that.

[rancher1913]

in the middle of building our retirement house and we put in a fiberglass basement due to the high water table, my biggest concern is it floating out of the ground. we are going to incorporate mr finch's greenhouse from "citrus in the snow" and also incorporate a batch box rocket mass heater for the house. solar water system should arrive this week and hopefully I can have the cows new water system up and running before I have to go back to work. our goal is to not have any utility payments when we retire and be self sufficient.

interested in seeing your foundation walls and log building.

[rancher1913]

sorry, double post.

[MUSTANG]

I am interested; subscribed to this thread.

[MT Gianni]

Also interested. We just moved into our new build of 1500 sq ft up and down, overlooking the Jefferson and Tobacco Roots. I also have 20 acres I want to put a dry cabin on.

[MaryB]

Instead of that wood wall heat have you considered the scandinavian style wood heat where it travels under the floor and heats the concrete floors? Warm floors in winter make the whole house feel warm!

We don't plan to need any heating in the floor. Unless it was solar we wouldn't use it. This house will be a test bed for future builds. It just happens to be mine. If we do it right it should reduce our heating needs by about 80-90 percent. We heat solely with wood in the winter. We will still have a wood heater in the house but it should reduce our winter wood usage from 7-8 cord per winter to possibly 2-3... Maybe less. Being 8 ft in the ground thermo regulation will try to maintain earth temp once it stabilizes. That is cool in the summer and warm in the winter. All I have is data from other houses we have built. I have never lived in one for over a month or so.

[MaryB]

to move heat from the greenhouse down look at a thermosiphon system http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects...m#Thermosyphon which uses no moving parts unless you add a fan to the lower radiators...

[Plate plinker]

Exactly Mary. Put it this way I am a concrete finisher and have built many homes, now if my house were destroyed I definitely would rebuild with in floor heating. Floor heating is even and warm.

[Tnfalconer]

Here is the dirt work so far. About 4 ft of depth. The hole I am opening and clearing is about 60x60. Second pic is at grade to give some perspective as to where it will sit on the downhill slope of the top of our property. Full southern exposure. Not sure why it tilted the pictures, sorry about that.

[Artful]

I'm claustrophobic no thanks .

[woodbutcher]

Very interesting.I`ll saddle up and go along for the ride.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[NavyVet1959]

Here is the dirt work so far. About 4 ft of depth. The hole I am opening and clearing is about 60x60. Second pic is at grade to give some perspective as to where it will sit on the downhill slope of the top of our property. Full southern exposure. Not sure why it tilted the pictures, sorry about that.

Damn, that's quite the slope... Damn near vertical... Even the trees are growing out the side of that mountain...

I would like to have a house completely underground and then a small 1000 sq-ft or less portion on the surface as long as I could build it so that the county didn't know about the underground portion. That way, they would only tax me on the upper "shack". Of course, the problem here is that if you build underground, you will probably run into ground water issues and even if you don't, there's a good chance that you might have a problem the next time a slow moving tropical storm or hurricane heads this way.

[Tnfalconer]

Damn, that's quite the slope... Damn near vertical... Even the trees are growing out the side of that mountain...

I would like to have a house completely underground and then a small 1000 sq-ft or less portion on the surface as long as I could build it so that the county didn't know about the underground portion. That way, they would only tax me on the upper "shack". Of course, the problem here is that if you build underground, you will probably run into ground water issues and even if you don't, there's a good chance that you might have a problem the next time a slow moving tropical storm or hurricane heads this way.

The slope helps with the evacuation of any surface water. We don't have ground water here but we get lots of snow. It needs to allow the runoff of that snow melt. That is one of the reasons for building into the side of a hill like that. Add to that most of my property is on a slope of some kind. We planned this location out carefully taking into account solar exposure, drainage and grade. Using my track loader in the excavation is dicey for sure. I had to rebuild my ramp as the grade was too steep to pull dirt out and not tip the loader backing out. So far I am t about five feet of depth but it is all gravel now. I am using the gravel up on road and driveway instead of just piling it up so it is taking a little longer to do that.

[OS OK]

I'd think about running french drains around the 'dug in' part of the house and on other long runs out across the hillside and grab that groundwater runoff and put it into a cistern. A dang big cistern.

[Tnfalconer]

I'd think about running french drains around the 'dug in' part of the house and on other long runs out across the hillside and grab that groundwater runoff and put it into a cistern. A dang big cistern.

For the most part will have gravel around the entire sub ground portion. That's all the soil is here at that depth. It will be what I back fill with. I might throw corrugated drain at the bases for extra, extra, extra coverage.

[adcoch1]

This is a great idea, been looking into these ideas myself. Studied architecture and went into the engineering end, always fascinated with solar heating and passive cooling systems. Once we get moved to Montana (Drummond area) i plan on building my shop at least cut into the hillside like you're doing. Great thread and keep the pics coming...

[salty dog]

I'm interested too.

[shaper]

I'm interested. Have been looking at building a underground house for years. making a living got in the way.

[Plate plinker]

For the most part will have gravel around the entire sub ground portion. That's all the soil is here at that depth. It will be what I back fill with. I might throw corrugated drain at the bases for extra, extra, extra coverage.

Drain tile is a plus and cheap enough too. Not to mention digging up around your place a second time would suck. go for it