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Martian
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# Posted: 28 Apr 2013 09:04am
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I'm looking for information on building into a hillside. Anything you can share will be helpful. TIA.
Tom
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exsailor
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# Posted: 29 Apr 2013 12:33pm
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I can't help you with a great amount of detail. My brother built his house into the side of a hill, with a walk out basement and garage. He excavated the entire building site. Built his foundation, installed drainage around the prepared foundation, and poured his floor. Once that was done he stacked block the height he wanted. He tarred the block wall and foundation down to the installed drainage for waterproofing. I don't know if he used tar paper or waterproof membrane on top of the tar. He had the house all most built before he back filled the trench or open space around his house. You literally had to walk the plank to get inside for a while. His procedure is pretty much the same as everything I have read about building on a walk out basement. The key point is installed drainage and water proofing your buried walls before back filling. I would add reinforcing rods as I filled thee holes in the block if it was me.
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ShabinNo5
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# Posted: 29 Apr 2013 01:57pm
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Martin,
In our situation we built on bedrock, this allowed us to build using piers. Each of the 18 piers has three pins imbedded 12-18 inches into the bedrock. You can review our thread below.
Steve
http://www.small-cabin.com/forum/6_618_0.html
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WY_mark
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# Posted: 29 Apr 2013 10:09pm
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spend some time looking up earthships - same idea.
we ended up building mostly on our hill as we had a very limited budget and the excavation would have been prohibitive for right-now construction....I SOOOOO wish we had waited a year and saved and dug more into the hill. being more underground would have saved a ton of stress heating/cooling and really isolated us from the wind.
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Tobit
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# Posted: 30 Apr 2013 05:36pm
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Look for a book titled "Earth-Sheltered Houses: How to Build an Affordable Underground Home" by Rob Roy. It explains everything you need to know about earth-bermed houses which is what you are looking for info on. I have read it several times despite not earth-berming much on my project. I will also be taking his class this July.
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Martian
Member
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# Posted: 30 Apr 2013 11:08pm
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Sorry for the slow acknowledgement of some great information.
I'll look for that book. Thanks, everyone.
Tom
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cbright
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# Posted: 1 May 2013 03:54pm
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I'm currently digging into a hill (by hand) to partially set back my 12'x16' shack ...
About 5' feet of the 12' side will be set into the 45 degree hill. I'm building a concrete block wall along the back that will retain the hill. Will be posting pictures of the construction soon.
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Martian
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# Posted: 4 May 2013 12:27pm
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The book arrived yesterday; I've read most of it. The biggest drawback to earth-homes seems to be water ingress and condensation.
One material that I noticed was missing from his roof sealing methods is fiberglass. I'm toying with the idea of rolling out an 1/8" layer of mat, saturated with polyester resin, over the concrete roof.
I'm also thinking that by extending the concrete roof 2-3' beyond the walls a great deal of the problems with moisture against the walls could be eliminated; especially if a plastic sheet were buried into the slope to carry runoff even further away from the structure. I would still install a French drain below the footing/wall joint for added peace of mind.
I know it creates more work, but pouring curbs for such things as skylights and chimney would negate leaks around those openings and strengthen the roof structure, too.
As I see it, a major expense would be in forming the walls and supporting the roof pour. At 150#/cuft wet concrete is damned heavy, but a 6" thick, domed roof would be really strong. I could probably cut that down to 4" thick and still be plenty strong. Figuring $100/cuyd for concrete, each 40'X8'X8" wall would cost about $1000, including rebar. Please check my figures. The roof would cost a couple of grand in materials plus forming. I can do a lot of the work to keep labor cost down.
Bottom line: depending on excavating cost, I think a finished structure of less than 1600 square feet could be built for around $50,000. I'm thinking about it.
Tom
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