Any tips on doing this affordably?
P.S. What is the white wall made of in the picture? I love the look of it.
P.P.S. Am a hammer virgin plz dumb down.
>>1017419
Obviously underage, go back to school
the white wall could be timber, could be stone, could be concrete, could be anything painted white
Build a house and dump dirt on it.
>build a little shack
>throw land on it
>hope it doesn't collapse and bury you alive
why is diy so obsessed with underground dwellings
>>1017435
Not underground. I want it to look like a hill.
>>1017429
I am 18. I just have never actually built anything. So if you could please stop being a nigglet that'd be great.
You have a lot to learn about buying land, and unless you are in a rural area you need to figure out any required building permits, power and septic. You need to know if your desired land will perc test for septic, or if you need a different waste system. You need to learn the details of zoning and permissible uses. You should have your prospective lot professionally appraised and be there with the appraiser to discuss your intended use.
You should speak with realtors and contractors about what you are after. Full DIY is probably unworkable but partial DIY can save you mad cash.
The term "hobbit hole" means NOTHING specific. You need to understand why you want a partially in-earth home and WHAT you want to do with it because that will determine the best size and construction details,
It won't be cheap. It could certainly be reasonable. You need to search the fuck out of the internet and will probably have a couple hundred hours information gathering alone.
BTW funky weird niche amateur construction doesn't tend to resell very well.
You could make an impressive partially in-earth home. I've visited this shop and it's outstanding. I can't be arsed to hunt more pics, but if you are serious, you will: http://www.gwenfrostic.com/the-shop If you are in driving range I suggest a visit, and bring a good camera. They used to do tours.
You should mention your income and how much you want to spend and if this is a primary residence. I doubt you have the slightest idea about most of this but you'll learn a lot studying as an exercise even though you are wildly unlikely to build the home.
I would look into precast reinforced concrete suppliers. They have a variety of shapes, small buildings and equipment shelters, which you can buy, have delivered, seal then partially bury for the look you are after. You must pay attention to drainage, manage runoff from your roof, and ensure you don't build in a low spot which would flood in heavy rain.
>>1017443
>I am 18. I just have never actually built anything.
Gain some life and trades experience. Unless you have a LOT of spare money to throw away on something you won't live in for many years, this is a bad idea.
You were wise to ask, that's how we learn. You haven't been on the planet long enough to tackle such an advanced project with no applicable skills or experience, but DIY is a lifestyle so begin with different things while you further your education and career.
If ya wanna live innawoods and KNOW you will stay employed long enough to buy property, begin with a trailer or mobile home. It will cost a lot less than a custom in-earth home and you could set up your lot quickly.
Power, water and septic will be essentially the same for hobbit hole as trailer or mobile home. Living next to your project is the only way you'll have time to do it.
Is there a special reason you want to fuck with this instead of seeing the world and making a future? This building is a toy. It has potential to be cool, but settling down at 18 is retarded. Your life has barely started.
What you CAN do by way of DIY is take community college courses in the trades and gradually accumulate tools and equipment while you gain skills. Electricians stay busy and can be highly mobile. It's a good springboard for your own business. My pipe welder bros make stoopid money and have plenty to put into their homes when they return from the road.
>>1017444
Absolutely terrific response thank you. I actually do have experience installing many septic systems as well as wiring houses so im saved in that aspect. Would you recommend buying property in which electricity and water is readily available? When I do buy a property I want as much of a fixed price as possible to avoid any confusion. I also have 10k saved for this at the moment, would it be wise to wait until I have 50k and buy a small plot of land to build my hut (Assuming the land is 30k)?
>>1017448
Well, being in a military family my whole life I've travelled quite enough for my taste. I just want a small and calm permanent place to live. Therefore I am planning on buying my own plot of land to settle in, I just need tips on making it as affordable as possible to start off with.
>>1017448
I also don't want to spend money on something that I will later throw away. I want to be as efficient as possible in the development of the lot.
In case you haven't seen it yet, here's the article where the picture on OP was taken from.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2039719/Simon-Dale-How-I-built-hobbit-house-Wales-just-3-000.html
It has a bit of information on how it was built and pictures of the building process.
The white walls you see I think are straw-bales with earth plaster.
>>1017435
By that logic NORAD isn't underground.
>>1017465
But of course, building a house is not simple. There's MANY things to take into account if you want it to last long (to make something to "settle down").
If you're not too worried if the building's going to last 50 years, yeah sure, go ahead.
If you want something with good conditions I suggest contacting an architect to help you with the project. There's people that specialize in low budget materials (like earth, straw, bamboo). If you keep it simple you might take the project and build it yourself, on your own.
>>1017419
Just find an abandoned quarry and stick a generator in it
>>1017419
If you Google earthship you'll get some ideas from hipster hippies who like to build shit out of recycled shit, if you take your time and research loads you should be able to build a nice earthed home for a few thousand bux, maybe less if your lucky, it's not impossible to do so. Good luck Frodo
Your easiest and laziest option would be a network of buried shipping container's converted into a house
>>1017419
I watched a youtube video of a guy who built an ungrounded house. But he built it under this huge outcropped rock and reinforced it with concrete. I thought it was pretty neat.
>>1017472
I doubt if OP wanted a hole full of worms and oozy smells.
![coober-pedy-9[8].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/Ic9nkUP.jpg "coober-pedy-9[8].jpg")
>>1017419
just move to Coober-Pedy Australia. The whole damn town is underground.
>>1018721
>LOTR meets spaghetti westerns
>>1017419
If I were you I would take up some smaller carpentry projects first like making saw horses, cabinets and sheds. Buying land and production needed is probably out of your ability though as you sound quite young. Land could be over $10,000 for a vacant wood lot and having a foundation poured could be another $1,000. If you could convince a relative to let you build your "hole" on their land and lived without electricity, running water and internet this might be doable for you.
To make a simple "Hobbit Hole" you could simple dig out a hill, lay a foundation in the hole, build a small house(framing, flooring, roofing, wiring, plumbing, ect), then wrap/side the house in plastic sheeting, finally fill in dirt around the house and cover roof with moss.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-Shed/
>>1018770
Foundations cost more than a grand, fuck head.
>>1017419
Look into green magic homes.
Their system is modular so you can buy a small or large house. and do an addition fairly easy.
They deliver but i think you have to build it yourself.
If you want a nice cozy feel and are willing to loose square footage you could build walls inside and put drywall up.
>>1017435
They are a bunch of hipsters
![20160707_215504[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/ouMucQJ.jpg "20160707_215504[1].jpg")
I'm designing log cabins atm, But the missus wants her own little hobbit hole. I came across this yesterday in one of my books. May be of interest to you.
>>1019221
Good use of culvert. If want you could copy hardened aircraft shelters and pot the culvert in reinforced concrete. Lots of thermal mass and unless the neigbors punch through it with a JDAM it will last generations. Not cheap but if you live in tornado country you won't need a shelter.
The green magic design is slick and obviously easy to erect.
>>1017419
Lime plaster.
>>1019221
Nog OP but very nice. Do you have any recommendations for books?
>>1017443
i saw it done once.they had almost no money. hardworking, kind and magic people. eventually it became a farm...and then fell apart. but many inspiring years. much hard work, but work well directed.
>>1017440
You wanna live like a friggin' teletubby?
>>1020555
I'm not to sure what you are after/into exactly. If you haven't read to much, I'd recommend this as a start. It's pretty old (1989) but still a classic. Covers most thing and it's quite thorough. I'm half way through it. Happy readings anon.
https://www.amazon.com/Alternative-Housebuilding-Mike-McClintock/dp/0806969954
>>1017452
>Absolutely terrific response thank you. I actually do have experience installing many septic systems as well as wiring houses so im saved in that aspect.
Good! Now go through the catalogs and websites of your precast concrete septic tank makers and research additional precast shapes. I think I've found you a solution. Precast is often used for military shelters in the Middle East and I recognized many shapes as used in storm drains and septic systems.
You could pour a slab (don't forget a central floor drain for washdown even if you never use it, since they are easy to cover) or slabs to size (remember expansion joints and that they do not have to be straight to work!) then seal the areas where your precast segments will touch the floor. You could pour higher footings on the slab to get height you want, but I'd look into precast shapes instead. You could contact precast makers about buying defective items (mold shifted, forklift guy smashed an area) for cheap. If you have septic tank bros those trucks can deliver a variety of items. (Their hoist design was common on utility trucks in the early decades of the last century.) You could seal the joints with industrial sealer like 3M 5200 marine sealant. Check with precast makers for recommendations.
>Would you recommend buying property in which electricity and water is readily available?
YES, especially with a HIGH water table because wells can get expensive. In SC where I live I can manually drive well casing to 20 or thirty feet and get plenty of water. Study your proposed area.
>When I do buy a property I want as much of a fixed price as possible to avoid any confusion. I also have 10k saved for this at the moment, would it be wise to wait until I have 50k and buy a small plot of land to build my hut (Assuming the land is 30k)?
Save 50K so you have some choice, and so you can buy a larger property which may come much cheaper per acre. You can always slap a trailer on it while you work.
>>1017462
>I also don't want to spend money on something that I will later throw away. I want to be as efficient as possible in the development of the lot.
Best bang for buck may not be intuitive! Crunch the numbers and even compare options you don't like so you covered ALL your options.
You can for example make a nice permanent workshop from a shipping container, paint it camo, and it will vanish behind shrubs and trees. You could live in it easily under reasonable camping conditions. My uncle lived in a tiny shed while building his rural house and shop. (He grew up in Depression-era Oregon country and wasn't a pussy.)
You can live in it, and if you prefer hammocks as I do you can carabiner your hammock to the roof tiedown eyelets in a moment. I don't live in my shop but if disaster struck I'd be comfy. Containers are a meme because most Anons would rather be blinded by a flaming penis than do basic research.
My 20' standard height storage container. Decal (original) peeled off after ten years. The shrubs on street side of the driveway make it invisible from the road unless you are stopped and looking hard to find it.
My nice camo shop containers are mostly blocked by my steel building so I've no pretty pics of them. While this was my artist wife's camo, copying military camo works very fucking well. What people don't know doesn't make them curious.
>>1021169
BTW that 20 is on blocks, not on the earth. Railroad ties are even better but blocks were handy and it hasn't sunk. If it did, I can slide a Simplex or a bottle jack underneath on some wood blocks to lift and shim. My machine shop sits on steel beams.
Wow this thread is still alive.
What the fuck. Building a hobbit house is a technical challenge that is more expensive and more difficult than a normal good looking functional house. There is literally no merit other than A E S T H E T I C S and a fucking roof you can grow some grass on.
A container house makes more sense than a hobbit house, that is how stupid this idea is.
Sorry I don't know the exact term(english isn't my first language) but I'd translate it as dome house, these are pretty cheap to build and you can easily add some dirt/grass on top of them and make them looks troglodyte. For like 30k euro you can make one if you already have the land.
The only problem is most of your walls will be circular so you'll either have to make the furniture yourself or lose a lot a space buying traditional ones.
Also it looks pretty easy to build using the "voile de béton" translated into concrete shell but not sure about this one.
It's a technical challenge if you aren't a fierce autodidact who loves to research multiple disciplines and skills which most people think are unrelated.
If you become that sort of person it changes your life for the better as it does for many /diy/ers.
If you live in Tornado Alley it's a fine idea. If you don't want to replace a shingled roof it's a fine idea. (Even if you do your own roof as I do, roofing SUCKS!)
If you exploit what it is good for while studying to reduce its LIMFACs it can be a fine idea. So can a container house, but the WAY people attack both problems on this forum is from a perspective of ignorance (curable) and often desire for an outcome either solution does not suit.
Relax. Think. Study. Learn. A structure isn't just a response to need, it's a response to available and affordable materials.
Industry and the military use container houses, shops, and other structures because you can fab them in one place, offload them at a jobsite then use them for as long as necessary. They work, but they are not a McMansion.
The military uses a variety of concrete bunkers and shelters from guard shacks to hardened aircraft shelters. They work well and last indefinitely.
Say I wanted a hobbit house because I live in a hot climate. Slabs are easy to form and float. Nearly every house in the Southern US is on a slab. Footings of many shapes are easy too.
Since I don't just study things I'm immediately interested in, I know the septic tank outfit down the road has a yardful of tanks since the Recession ended. (Not hypothetical, I drive by it every day.) I also observe the many concrete shapes used in highway construction. I web search and make some calls. I know precast panel buildings exist and are typically used as electronics shelters. I know I could further seal and bury one, though dat flat waterproof concrete deck roof would be comfily usable and I could bury/landscape/stonescape the box so it wouldn't look rectangular viewed horizontally.
>>1021189
I know I can build in discrete stages if I plan for (essentially) modular expansion. Slabs can abut slabs and large slabs require expansion joints anyway.
Shapes bought cheap can be trucked to site and left in the weather if not immediately emplaced though it's neater and often cheaper to unload onto spot if you coordinate heavy equipment rental.
I know I can systematically collect useful large metal shapes over time if I watch like a hawk and have the truck and trailer to move them. If you build, you need a truck and a decent car trailer or similar at minimum.
You can rent big trucks if needed. Rental centers are heavily used by contractors. Know what they have and know their rates and deliver policies where relevant.
Any of you fuckers reading this thread can do more than you think you can and learn a lot more than you know now.
>>1021196
Have some real world dome:
http://www.monolithic.org/benefits/benefits-survivability/a-testament-to-the-dome-shape
Of course you can integrate that dome with other concrete shapes. You can cut and seal concrete shapes to blend with each other.
If anyone is serious about this they should research timber framed tunnels and that sort of thing, and then build the actualy thing by himself with timber, rather that buying prefab shit
Real hobbits didnt have concrete.
>>1017435
It's the call of /k/
>>1018721
>Coober-Pedy Australia
i just took a little tour of there via google maps and holy shit it looks like a wasteland
>>1017435
Because when you live in a basement, you only want to be underground.
>>1021203
This. If you do a hexagon shPe with it you can even make them modular. You need tons of wood though. I actually saw something like OP wants in an architecture and living magazine but finding it online seems impossible.
>>1017440
Why?
People rarely spend any time actually looking at their own home, majority of their time is spent looking out of the window.
>18
>no skills
>no experience
>want to build a teletubby house
>clearly no reason or logic involved this entire time
This is obviously a troll thread
Just pile soil up the sides of your house
