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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 many energy-efficient features and are often designed to use solar energy for heating and cooling. Some designs make use of recycled materials in their construction.
If you do your homework, earth-sheltered construction can be an attractive and rewarding choice in housing. The following sections—Advantages, Disadvantages, Beginning Your Project, and Cost—will answer some questions you may have. Once you've decided on an earth-sheltered house, the sections on Design, Construction Considerations, including location, climate, site, and soils, and Construction Materials can help you make the house a reality.
Advantages
There are many advantages to earth-sheltered construction. An earth-sheltered home is less susceptible to the impact of extreme outdoor air temperatures, so you won't feel the effects of adverse weather as much as in a conventional house. Temperatures inside the house are more stable than in conventional homes, and with less temperature variability, interior rooms seem more comfortable.
Because earth covers part or all of their exterior, earth-sheltered houses require less outside maintenance, such as painting and cleaning gutters. Constructing a house that is dug into the earth or surrounded by earth builds in some natural soundproofing. Plans for most earth-sheltered houses "blend" the building into the landscape more harmoniously than a conventional home. Finally, earth-sheltered houses can cost less to insure because their design offers extra protection against high winds, hailstorms, and natural disasters such as tornados and hurricanes.
Disadvantages
As with any type of unusual construction, there are some disadvantages associated with earth-sheltered housing. Principal downsides are the initial cost of construction, which may be up to 20% higher, and the level of care required to avoid moisture problems, during both the construction and the life of the house. It can take more diligence to resell an earth-sheltered home, and buyers may have a few more hurdles to clear in the mortgage application process.
Beginning Your Project
You may want to start your project by contacting the organizations that can help you locate architects, builders, and contractors with earth-sheltered building experience (a few are listed in the Source List). The experienced builders in your location can also ensure that construction plans meet area building code requirements, which can depend on a local official's interpretation. Earth-sheltered designs can present some potential difficulty, such as conformance to minimum window sizes in each room prescribed by fire codes or building codes. Other problematic areas are roofing specifications and insulation requirements specified by codes; earth may or may not be considered an acceptable substitute for materials specified. Builders can inform you of the local guidelines, and may also provide cost comparisons between earth-sheltered housing and conventional housing in your area.
Using experienced professionals will reduce your personal time investment in researching details of earth-sheltered construction. Securing financing may also be easier if you work with those who have firsthand knowledge of earth-sheltered construction and its benefits.
Cost
Comparing cost factors for building an earth-sheltered house to those for building a conventional house can be like comparing apples and oranges. Costs vary by region, depending on the area's construction activity and cost of materials. Many earth-sheltered houses are built by their owners and are customized in different ways, adding amenities that can dramatically increase final costs.
However, when you factor costs, remember to consider important expenses that occur over the life of a house, such as exterior maintenance and utility costs. Greater initial investment can actually mean your ongoing costs, such as heating, cooling, and maintenance, will be reduced. Making the best use possible of natural resources may be one of an earth-sheltered house's greatest advantages. Therefore, in comparison to standard houses, while earth shelters tend to be slightly more expensive to build, these higher initial costs may be offset by the lower energy costs after completion. And while energy savings have been documented by families living in earth shelters, attributing that savings solely to the earth-sheltered design would be difficult, because most earth-shelters incorporate a wide variety of energy-efficient features.
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