Ohio Bio-Enviro Settlements, Inc.
Earth-Shelter Houses
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Let's assume that, like many other people, you're concerned about the limited supplies of domestic oil and gas, the unpredictable cost, and the environmental price tag attached to the continued use of these fuels.
Is there any way to reconcile your concerns and still build your dream home? The solution might lie in earth-sheltered housing. These structures offer extreme energy-efficient features and are often designed to use solar energy for heating and cooling. Our designs make use of recycled materials in their construction. If you do your homework, earth-shelter construction can be an attractive and rewarding choice in housing. The following sections will answer some questions you may have.
Design
An earth-sheltered structure may be above grade or partially below grade, with outside earth surrounding one or more walls. Our design, places 3 of the 4 levels below grade, and earth covered on 3 side, (both sides and the rear of the house), exposing only the south facing wall. The only above grade structure is the greenhouse. Building into the side of an existing hill keeps the site esthetically pleasing while insuring very high insulation for the home. This technique also makes our homes far less susceptible to wind (tornado and hurricane) damage, and far more stable in an earthquake situation.
Elevation plans exposing one whole face of the house protect and insulate the house. The exposed front of the house, facing south, allows the sun to light and heat the interior. The floor plan is arranged so common areas share light and heat from the southern exposure. The view provided to the owner will be one of landscape, and open sky. A structure designed in this way can be the least expensive and simplest to build of all earth-shelter structures.
Construction Materials
Recycled Lumber will be used exclusively in our earth-shelter construction for both interior and structural work including floors, roofs, and exterior walls. This choice alone will save over 6000 trees per project. This wood will be coming from various sources, who specialize in deconstructing everything from barns to old factories and docks. The wood we will be using is hard woods such as oak and ash, and by their nature far stronger than pine, fir, and popular, which is commonly used in conventional frame construction. We will also be using traditional post and beam (mortise and tendon) construction techniques. Wood is also attractive for its color and warmth, however traditionally wood must be treated with chemical preservatives to prevent damage from moisture. We will not be using chemical coatings, instead we will be coating the exterior of the homes with recycled tire rubber from used tires.
Recycled Steel from the tire side walls will be used for concrete reinforcement, and a mesh made from the same steel will be used to spray the recycled rubber onto to cover the exterior of the homes. It is particularly useful because of its high tensional and compression strength, but in the past, moisture damage and rust were a major concern when using steel underground. This is not a concern due to the rubber coating all underground structures and components will get.
Insulation in an underground building is just as necessary, as it is in traditional above ground housing, and we will be making use of used tire treads to accomplish this necessity for a number of reasons. First the material is readily available as, well over 10,000,000 tires are discarded every year in and around Ohio alone. Second by recycling 4.2 million tires per project we prevent them from going to land fills and polluting the environment. Used waste tires will also be used for roads, and ground up fill in many areas.
