Underground houses?

[C95J]

Firstly, and I cannot stress this enough, you couldn't care less, not could care less.

Secondly, cellars are pretty cool if you dont mind dark and cold and feeling slightly like some sort of caveman. I dont like the idea of a whole house underground though, it would just be so dark and claustrophobic.

What about a large underground room with lighting? not all basements have to be cramped and dark I guess.

I myself do not have one as well, and I live in England.

 

[ThatPurpleGuy]

Build it.

1. save money on heating and cooling. I do not care about the hippies, you can buy more games with that money.
2. storm protection. Oh, your neighbors are hiding in the closet? HA, we are still playing our games.
3. It is very quiet. Oh yes, the silence is glorious.

If you have the time and the money, build underground.

You sound like you speak from experience. Although weather isn't really a factor here I can see some places like in the U.S where you guys get tornadoes so why isn't this more common?? Is expense a factor? I also guess that soil or ground type is a big factor as mentioned above...The impression I get here is that these tornadoes are a pretty common occurrence in the same areas over and over, yet I keep seeing the same flimsy timber houses demolished to pieces. Underground houses would make this a non issue.

I am renting now and do save quite a bit as I live on my own. I have just never seen these(in suburban form anyway)built anywhere. If possible, this is something I could truly works towards.

Ya I do. I live in tornado ally, and while we are only on the edge (mostly protected by the shadow of the Rockies) we get 2 or 3 tornado warnings a year. Living in the basement, I do not worry about leaving one ear open for the weather radio.

Ah ok cool. So your basement has basically been made into something like say a studio apartment? Or do you have to go up to the house to get everything? Still very cool either way. Who needs windows when we have games haha..I want to have something where I would have to walk upstairs to a 'hatch' of some-sort and that would lead to the outside.

 

[Gilhelmi]

Build it.

1. save money on heating and cooling. I do not care about the hippies, you can buy more games with that money.
2. storm protection. Oh, your neighbors are hiding in the closet? HA, we are still playing our games.
3. It is very quiet. Oh yes, the silence is glorious.

If you have the time and the money, build underground.

You sound like you speak from experience. Although weather isn't really a factor here I can see some places like in the U.S where you guys get tornadoes so why isn't this more common?? Is expense a factor? I also guess that soil or ground type is a big factor as mentioned above...The impression I get here is that these tornadoes are a pretty common occurrence in the same areas over and over, yet I keep seeing the same flimsy timber houses demolished to pieces. Underground houses would make this a non issue.

I am renting now and do save quite a bit as I live on my own. I have just never seen these(in suburban form anyway)built anywhere. If possible, this is something I could truly works towards.

Ya I do. I live in tornado ally, and while we are only on the edge (mostly protected by the shadow of the Rockies) we get 2 or 3 tornado warnings a year. Living in the basement, I do not worry about leaving one ear open for the weather radio.

Ah ok cool. So your basement has basically been made into something like say a studio apartment? Or do you have to go up to the house to get everything? Still very cool either way. Who needs windows when we have games haha..I want to have something where I would have to walk upstairs to a 'hatch' of some-sort and that would lead to the outside.

Only thing I need to go upstairs for is to cook food. I have a refrigerator and microwave down stairs so I really almost never need to com up. But I like your Idea to have everything underground with just a hatch. That way you would not need to take care of anything but your lawn.

But if I were you, I would look into any special maintaining work needed an underground house might have

 

[Trivun]

My last house (UK here) that I rented while at university, I live in a flat now near campus, had three floors and then a basement flat with its own kitchen, bathroom and living area. And I lived in the basement flat. It was good in some ways, because although I usually used the space in the main house with the rest of my housemates and spent time with them, if I ever wanted to have my own space and free time to myself I had a whole flat all to myself. And since my housemates were all messy buggers, girls included, it was nice having my own clean bathroom and kitchen instead of having to share with them.

However, it did tend to get freezing cold down there, even in the summer. And it was also fairly damp a lot of the time, so having a basement area does have its drawbacks as well as its good points...

 

[Wadders]

Firstly, and I cannot stress this enough, you couldn't care less, not could care less.

Secondly, cellars are pretty cool if you dont mind dark and cold and feeling slightly like some sort of caveman. I dont like the idea of a whole house underground though, it would just be so dark and claustrophobic.

What about a large underground room with lighting? not all basements have to be cramped and dark I guess.

I myself do not have one as well, and I live in England.

Yeah lighting is all well and good, but you wouldn't get any natural light, unless you somehow engineered a network of window hatches and mirrors or something...

And again, this is just me but no matter how big the basement house, I'd still feel claustrophobic if my whole house was subterranean.

 

[gigastar]

Must be said ive had the same thoughts, but for different reasons. Hate it when a hurricane shreds your house? Put it underground instead.

Anyway that was when i was like 10, now i know that there are just too many safety and enviromental factors to consider. For example, fires; in a normal house you would ideally have at least a window to jump out of if the front door is not accessible. In an underground house the only way is up, and thats where the lethal smoke is.

There is also groundwater. Special lining must be applied to the outside of the walls of your underground house to prevent the walls from eroding and that has to be protected from animals that may attempt to burrow through it.

And lets not talk about biulding a reliable foundation 20ft underground.

In short its a messy, expensive buisness that can go wrong in an instant. Because most people are only comfortable with going with what they know they will not try such an idea. And even if there is one who will go through with it, the hypothetical 'way forward' will probably be lost on most who see it.