Earth sheltered/bermed construction
- Thread starter patrickg
- Start date
DaveM
Silver Member
Hi Patrick, Glueguy and Friends,
I've just been too busy lately to contribute much to TBN. In fact I haven't found the time to read this entire thread. But I did want to post a picture of our bearmed house. We bought it about about 1.5 years ago and its now aprx. 22 years old. We need to replace the roof this year (considering a metal roof) but other than that this place has held up quite well. Its on a concrete slab and the walls are made of pressure treated lumber. The walls are heavily insulated with fiberglass and styrofoam in addition to extensive use of polyvinyl wrap that's doubled at the corners. You can also see that it has a passive solar feature. It works reasonably well considering the weather in this part of the country. The big windows have pullup insulated curtains that hold in the heat from solar heating and keep some cold air out when its cloudy or extremely cold. Its very comfortable and we love it!
Dave
I've just been too busy lately to contribute much to TBN. In fact I haven't found the time to read this entire thread. But I did want to post a picture of our bearmed house. We bought it about about 1.5 years ago and its now aprx. 22 years old. We need to replace the roof this year (considering a metal roof) but other than that this place has held up quite well. Its on a concrete slab and the walls are made of pressure treated lumber. The walls are heavily insulated with fiberglass and styrofoam in addition to extensive use of polyvinyl wrap that's doubled at the corners. You can also see that it has a passive solar feature. It works reasonably well considering the weather in this part of the country. The big windows have pullup insulated curtains that hold in the heat from solar heating and keep some cold air out when its cloudy or extremely cold. Its very comfortable and we love it!
Dave
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yaouk
Bronze Member
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2001
- Messages
- 52
- Location
- Yaouk, Snowy Mountains, Australia
- Tractor
- Dong Feng 254 (25 hp)
Touche on my <font color=blue>faith regarding the rectitude of all things government approved.</font color=blue> Of course my point was that someone is researching these things; public servants occassionally do accomplish things..occassionally.
This link is the links page from an Australian tyre recycling machinery maker. There are a number of sources including academic articles examing uses for recycled tyres and their environmental consequences.
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.link-pl.com.au/links/links.html>http://www.link-pl.com.au/links/links.html</A>
This link is the links page from an Australian tyre recycling machinery maker. There are a number of sources including academic articles examing uses for recycled tyres and their environmental consequences.
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.link-pl.com.au/links/links.html>http://www.link-pl.com.au/links/links.html</A>
GlueGuy
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2001
- Messages
- 1,659
- Tractor
- Kubota B7500
Dave,
Nice looking place. Looks relatively conventional until you get out to the sides. Is there a walk-out out back, or is the front the only ingress/egress?
Yaouk,
Thanks for the link. One of the interesting links that it went to was <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.rma.org/scraptires/scrap_environment.html>this one in the US</A>, which describes the environmental consequences. Long story short, is "not much" if handled properly.
Nice looking place. Looks relatively conventional until you get out to the sides. Is there a walk-out out back, or is the front the only ingress/egress?
Yaouk,
Thanks for the link. One of the interesting links that it went to was <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.rma.org/scraptires/scrap_environment.html>this one in the US</A>, which describes the environmental consequences. Long story short, is "not much" if handled properly.
DaveM
Silver Member
Thanks, GlueGuy! Because of the conventional roof and the lay of the surrounding land, the fact that this is a bearmed house is not always immediately obvious to first time visitors.
No, there are no other ingress/egress options other than the ones you can see in the photo. The house has aprx. 1700 sq. ft. of living space. Three bedrooms, two baths and a workshop behind the garage. Two of the bedrooms are in the back of the house and are questionable if they are "legal". They do have skylights (as does the workshop) and glass transoms over the doors so they are not dark rooms. The egress issue for these two rooms was an issue for us when we were deciding whether to purchase or not. Our room, the master bd. in the right front of the house has a large window that we can easily get out of and since we don't have children the other two rooms were "doable" for our situation. We've thought about installing window wells and building-in a step up to them from the inside but really don't want to disturb the earth. The drainage system works very well and we'd hate to mess it up! We've never seen unwanted/leaked water inside. We could also cut openings into the closets which would give one another way out of the room (but not out of the house) but it doesn't really seem worth it since no one sleeps in them.
This place was the "dream home" of the original owner/builder. He was a carpenter and custom built the kitchen (oak) and added very nice, quality touches all over the place. We also think he did his home work when siting the house and contructing it. Unfortunately, he had to sell the place a year after it was completed due to a divorce. We purchsed it from the second owners who really loved the place too.
I posted this photo once before. I was inspired by the beautiful photos you posted of views from your home some time back. This is the view we see from any of the windows... our front yard.
Take care- Dave
No, there are no other ingress/egress options other than the ones you can see in the photo. The house has aprx. 1700 sq. ft. of living space. Three bedrooms, two baths and a workshop behind the garage. Two of the bedrooms are in the back of the house and are questionable if they are "legal". They do have skylights (as does the workshop) and glass transoms over the doors so they are not dark rooms. The egress issue for these two rooms was an issue for us when we were deciding whether to purchase or not. Our room, the master bd. in the right front of the house has a large window that we can easily get out of and since we don't have children the other two rooms were "doable" for our situation. We've thought about installing window wells and building-in a step up to them from the inside but really don't want to disturb the earth. The drainage system works very well and we'd hate to mess it up! We've never seen unwanted/leaked water inside. We could also cut openings into the closets which would give one another way out of the room (but not out of the house) but it doesn't really seem worth it since no one sleeps in them.
This place was the "dream home" of the original owner/builder. He was a carpenter and custom built the kitchen (oak) and added very nice, quality touches all over the place. We also think he did his home work when siting the house and contructing it. Unfortunately, he had to sell the place a year after it was completed due to a divorce. We purchsed it from the second owners who really loved the place too.
I posted this photo once before. I was inspired by the beautiful photos you posted of views from your home some time back. This is the view we see from any of the windows... our front yard.
Take care- Dave
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GlueGuy
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2001
- Messages
- 1,659
- Tractor
- Kubota B7500
Dave,
Wow! That is a great view! Thanks for sharing! Must be a real pleasure living there!
Wow! That is a great view! Thanks for sharing! Must be a real pleasure living there!
DaveM
Silver Member
Yes, we think of it as our little slice of paradise and a long time dream come true. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
Thanks Again- Dave
Thanks Again- Dave
Dave, Curb appeal. I think that says most of it. Nice looking home, a "poster child" if you will, for modest sized earth bermed homes. I've seen a lot of earth bermed architecture but few examples any nicer than your home. Now for the bright lights and rubber hose...
1. How long since the wood was refinished in this picture? (Looks really good in the picture)
2. What treatment did it get? (I'm curious about longivity, shying away from exposed external wood due to maint)
3. How do you get supplemental heat? Wood, nat gas, propane, electric? provide gory details please.
Do you know your degree heating and cooling days? Your fuel/utility consumption?
My mom's new house isn't doing quite as good as I hoped considering the mild winter so far. So far this winter we've used about 160 gal of propane for gas log and averaging about $50-60/month for electricity (central unit is high SEER heat pump) We do not heat the house overnight as no one here likes a warm sleeping space (love the down comforter). Bring it up to temp in morning with gas log and central heat then mostly just gas log all day. Running aout 70 F. House is open plan/great room design with ceiling fan in living room space. Gas log keeps entire great room (living, dining, and kitchen spaces) very comfortable. There are three bed rooms opening into great room and if you leave a door open it does a fair job on those as well. The bath rooms stay pretty cool and the walk in closets are pretty cool except in the morning when the forced air central heat is bringing the house up to temp as the walk in closets are conditioned spaces (warms and dries the air in the closets daily, no mustiness!)
I'm hoping that when the sunroom is tightened up (walls still open at eaves and door to garage not hung) that it will provide surplus heat to help warm the house. Even with a serious draft through it when I check temp on north side of house in AM if it is aout 32 there at 0630 it will be 40 or more in sunroom. Palm trees are doing OK so far in sun room. Hope to get better slab temps in sun room when it is finished.
I was pretty "hard over" for fully earth sheltered-passive sola, long axis E-W, glass on south style building for my place to start building later this year (we hope). Now considering (reconsidering) earth bermed and partial traditional building (albeit steel reinforced concrete construction ala ICFs and or a mix of the above. Eclecticism forever!
Patrick
1. How long since the wood was refinished in this picture? (Looks really good in the picture)
2. What treatment did it get? (I'm curious about longivity, shying away from exposed external wood due to maint)
3. How do you get supplemental heat? Wood, nat gas, propane, electric? provide gory details please.
Do you know your degree heating and cooling days? Your fuel/utility consumption?
My mom's new house isn't doing quite as good as I hoped considering the mild winter so far. So far this winter we've used about 160 gal of propane for gas log and averaging about $50-60/month for electricity (central unit is high SEER heat pump) We do not heat the house overnight as no one here likes a warm sleeping space (love the down comforter). Bring it up to temp in morning with gas log and central heat then mostly just gas log all day. Running aout 70 F. House is open plan/great room design with ceiling fan in living room space. Gas log keeps entire great room (living, dining, and kitchen spaces) very comfortable. There are three bed rooms opening into great room and if you leave a door open it does a fair job on those as well. The bath rooms stay pretty cool and the walk in closets are pretty cool except in the morning when the forced air central heat is bringing the house up to temp as the walk in closets are conditioned spaces (warms and dries the air in the closets daily, no mustiness!)
I'm hoping that when the sunroom is tightened up (walls still open at eaves and door to garage not hung) that it will provide surplus heat to help warm the house. Even with a serious draft through it when I check temp on north side of house in AM if it is aout 32 there at 0630 it will be 40 or more in sunroom. Palm trees are doing OK so far in sun room. Hope to get better slab temps in sun room when it is finished.
I was pretty "hard over" for fully earth sheltered-passive sola, long axis E-W, glass on south style building for my place to start building later this year (we hope). Now considering (reconsidering) earth bermed and partial traditional building (albeit steel reinforced concrete construction ala ICFs and or a mix of the above. Eclecticism forever!
Patrick
DaveM
Silver Member
Hi Patrick,
Thanks!
1. I treated the wood this past fall, which was about one year later than it should've been done. I used the same product the previous owner used, Flood's CWF-UV Clear <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.floodco.com/Products/cwfuv.cfm>http://www.floodco.com/Products/cwfuv.cfm</A>. The house faces south/southwest and the wood (western red cedar) really takes a beating. I thought about applying a stain but just couldn't do it this time, seeing that it's been clear for 22 years. I sorta screwed up when I decided it needed to be pressure washed first. I took some of it down to clear wood which really made it stand out. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif I sanded those spots and after applying the preservative it looks better. In time I doubt anyone will ever know. /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif I might change my mind in the future. Although this is a maintenance issue the good news is that there's only one side to do and it can be done in a weekend with a good roller. Also, those large windows have bad seals and need to be replaced. Will probably put in low-e glass that's even more insulated than the current ones.
2. It wouldn't hurt to do this every year but should be able to go 2-3 years between treatments.
3. We have a hot water baseboard radiant heat system with 3 zones. One for the open floor plan (kitchen, dining, living room), one for the bedrooms and one for the shop which we leave set at 50 degrees most of the time. The house came with a wood fueled boiler. It was a Swedish? brand that I can't remember the name of right now. I had heated with wood before at another home and knew that I didn't want to heat that way again. Way too labor intensive for me! We replaced it with a nice variable temperature Buderus boiler with indirect water heater and had the house converted to propane. We are very comfortable with this type of heating. Very constant with no noticable highs and lows. Water was heated with electric before this. Also had our clothes dryer converted to propane and replaced the electric one that came with the house. For these reasons I can't compare our heating costs to the original systems because we replaced them before our first winter here. Plus, now we use propane all year long. I'd guess our propane usage to be about 700 gal. per year but I haven't sat down with the bills to do the math. Our electric bill averages about $38 a month which I'm real happy with. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif Oh yeah, we also have a "heatilator" fireplace. This thing can really crank out the BTUs. It draws combustion air from the outside.
Sorry, I don't know our degree heating and cooling days figures. We don't have any kind of air conditioning and don't need it so long as we keep the house closed up and the solar curtains closed on our few really hot days. We also have a ceiling fan in the space behind the solar windows.
Our attic is insulated with aprx. 8" inches of blown cellulose but needs to be better ventilated. We'll remedy that when we do the new roof. The exterior doors with the exception of the glass slider have airlocks separting them from the main living spaces. And the house is very tight with the exception of the leaky solar windows and the glass sliding door. We're living with that for now.
Best of luck with your project!
Dave
Thanks!
1. I treated the wood this past fall, which was about one year later than it should've been done. I used the same product the previous owner used, Flood's CWF-UV Clear <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.floodco.com/Products/cwfuv.cfm>http://www.floodco.com/Products/cwfuv.cfm</A>. The house faces south/southwest and the wood (western red cedar) really takes a beating. I thought about applying a stain but just couldn't do it this time, seeing that it's been clear for 22 years. I sorta screwed up when I decided it needed to be pressure washed first. I took some of it down to clear wood which really made it stand out. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif I sanded those spots and after applying the preservative it looks better. In time I doubt anyone will ever know. /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif I might change my mind in the future. Although this is a maintenance issue the good news is that there's only one side to do and it can be done in a weekend with a good roller. Also, those large windows have bad seals and need to be replaced. Will probably put in low-e glass that's even more insulated than the current ones.
2. It wouldn't hurt to do this every year but should be able to go 2-3 years between treatments.
3. We have a hot water baseboard radiant heat system with 3 zones. One for the open floor plan (kitchen, dining, living room), one for the bedrooms and one for the shop which we leave set at 50 degrees most of the time. The house came with a wood fueled boiler. It was a Swedish? brand that I can't remember the name of right now. I had heated with wood before at another home and knew that I didn't want to heat that way again. Way too labor intensive for me! We replaced it with a nice variable temperature Buderus boiler with indirect water heater and had the house converted to propane. We are very comfortable with this type of heating. Very constant with no noticable highs and lows. Water was heated with electric before this. Also had our clothes dryer converted to propane and replaced the electric one that came with the house. For these reasons I can't compare our heating costs to the original systems because we replaced them before our first winter here. Plus, now we use propane all year long. I'd guess our propane usage to be about 700 gal. per year but I haven't sat down with the bills to do the math. Our electric bill averages about $38 a month which I'm real happy with. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif Oh yeah, we also have a "heatilator" fireplace. This thing can really crank out the BTUs. It draws combustion air from the outside.
Sorry, I don't know our degree heating and cooling days figures. We don't have any kind of air conditioning and don't need it so long as we keep the house closed up and the solar curtains closed on our few really hot days. We also have a ceiling fan in the space behind the solar windows.
Our attic is insulated with aprx. 8" inches of blown cellulose but needs to be better ventilated. We'll remedy that when we do the new roof. The exterior doors with the exception of the glass slider have airlocks separting them from the main living spaces. And the house is very tight with the exception of the leaky solar windows and the glass sliding door. We're living with that for now.
Best of luck with your project!
Dave