So I’ve been wondering for a while now and this video kind of provoked me to ask the question. How do people feel about underground homes, the so-called ‘hobbit homes’.
It seems like a rather cheap and environmentally friendly way to build a place for yourself. Are there any drawbacks apart from the lack of light and moisture?
If you build it with wood I imagine you have a harder time preventing rot than above ground. And bugs would be more common. Ventilation, maybe?
I still want to try something like it.
Watching the likes of “Grand Designs”, it would seem that most successful homes with some element of hobbitness have a concrete shell, drainage, wooden frame, and then internal walls. The grass and soil are then spread over the top and held in place by concealed retaining walls. Unfortunately, these are often quite ugly “modern masterpieces” to look at, but the theory could be used, I believe.
It’s also worth keeping in mind that the hobbit-hole wasn’t like a rabbit warren or anything: In a hole, in the ground, there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, smelly hole such as foxes live in…
I am not entirely sure I get the comparison.
From what I understood here is that building on a slope is very useful in terms of drainage and keeping the excess humidity under control. And yes, it is good to use concrete for the underground bits as it will probably do a far better job keeping the mites and moisture out than wood would.