Hand-Build an Earth Sheltered House For $5,000
Cash, that most basic element of our economy, can be in abysmally short supply for new young families scraping by on marginal jobs.
Sustainable housebuilding may not be foremost in their minds.
But one young couple in Wales managing on an annual income of just $10,000 went ahead and built their own cheap home anyway, sustainably, mostly out of materials from “a rubbish pile somewhere.”
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They had wanted to spend as much time as possible at home while their two children were young. Their nearby woodlands ecological management work would have been impractical if they were paying a mortgage.
So they enlisted some help from family, and sometimes just from people passing by, and from any of their friends who stopped by to visit:
The result was their very low impact homemade house. A hand built unique setting for a charmed life for their two young toddlers. I’ll bet they’ll remember this first home for the rest of their lives.
Four months of hard work and they were all 4 moved in and cozy.
Total expenditure? $5,000. Tools? A chisel, a chainsaw and a hammer. Building expertise? Simon Dale says:
“My experience is only having a go at one similar house 2yrs before and a bit of mucking around in-between. This kind of building is accessible to anyone. My main relevant skills were being able bodied, having self belief and perseverance and a mate or two to give a lift now and again.”
Sustainable design and construction:
- Dug into hillside for low visual impact and shelter
- Stone and mud from diggings used for retaining walls, foundations etc.
- Frame constructed of fallen trees from surrounding woodland
- Reciprocal roof rafters are structurally very easy to do
- Straw bales in floor, walls and roof for super-insulation and easy building
- Plastic sheet and mud/turf roof for low impact and ease
- Lime plaster on walls is breathable and low energy to manufacture compared to cement
- Reclaimed (scrap) wood for floors and fittings
- Other items were reclaimed from “a rubbish pile somewhere”: windows, wiring, plumbing
(Maybe there should be a new LEED rating just for building so inexpensively: Sustainable Financing. This is one mortgage bill that’s not going to be haunting their mum and dad for years.) Inside there’s a wood-burner for heating - waste wood in the old-growth forest is locally plentiful.To get the most of the heat, the flue goes through a big stone/plaster lump to retain and slowly releases the warmth.
There are just a couple of solar panels - just enough for for lighting, music and computing. It’s a simple life. A skylight in the roof lets in enough natural feeling light, and water is fed by gravity downhill from a nearby spring. There’s a compost toilet. Roof water collects in a pond for gardening
Says Simon: “Our house is unusual but the aesthetic appeals to lots of people and perhaps touches something innate in us that evolved in forests.”
Want to try making one too? Simon will show you how.
Images: www.SimonDale.net
Related stories:
Berkeley’s Homeless Build Paleolithic Barbecue Pit
Earthsheltered Home Construction Work Exchange
Wildfire-Proof Prefab Camp Closes Up When You’re Gone
Hard Lessons in Sustainable Living
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Uncle B is a frelling moron
Since America is not a free country, you will be asked to bring this house down. Best thing to do is to take your idea to a remote piece of land by the beach somewhere in South America and build it there.
I wouldn’t mind building or living in one of these myself. Get away from everything, grow my own food for a while. That’s living.
Keep on keepin’ on!
It is a shame that in this day and age we are surrounded with “green” options that are trying to make our current consuming, technological lives sustainable. However, a sustainable life, to me, is going back to our roots. Live off the land, live simply, and live in harmony with the natural circle of life. Thank you for setting an example that society ought to follow in order to save us from this environmental crisis!
Cheers!
Well…looks fascinating. What does Dad do for a living? How is it he has so much time, and where did the LONG trees come from to sustain the weight of the house..? NO..please do not tell me that he cut down trees…! LOL..yes he did. And burns them also. Did he reforest as he cut? Does he have an emission scrubber for his chiminy…?
Nice concept. I suggest we all go out and try it and see how far we gt befor the neighbors complain and the building department orders a cease on it(providing we already OWN the land).
Or not.
Made for interesting reading though, and was great ‘mental floss’.
Lovely. Probably the first environmentally friendly house that has appealed to me. I’m guessing the building one twice as big wouldn’t cost all that much more. All I need is some suitable land first (and planning permission!)
How would this house avoid being eaten by termites within a year?
Seriously, I like the idea, but there needs to be some long-lasting way to keep the wood from being in contact with the damp soil or else it will deteriorate in a short time.
every day and with growing sincerity i say to my husband that i want to go live in a cave. the way of the world makes me want to wrap my arms around my young daughter and take her away to a world with simple pleasures. i want to be surrounded with nature and dig in my own garden. this could be my last computer experience, this message, and i would happily walk away to live as you are. it’s amazing what you’ve done. an absolute inspiration!
Wow this looks exactly like a hobbit house. You might as well get a door w/ a handle in the middle
This would not be practical in Michigan (where I’m from) due to the harshly cold winter. But its still an interesting concept.
A dream of a house–especially for a young couple’s first home! I’m so impressed with what they were able to do!