Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #707887 in Books
• Published on: 1994-12-31
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 148 pages

From Booklist
According to Roy, underground or "earth-sheltered" houses are unexpectedly livable. Judging by his book's attractive pictures, that's easy to believe. The house he bases his point-by-point guide on is indeed a showplace. Its homey touches are just that, though, and Roy's main concern is creating such a house, from drawing up the plans to surveying the site to the actual building. Roy's instruction is insightful and comprehensive; for example, he writes that he has poured the four-inch cement floor over the waste plumbing in all the houses he has built and has had no trouble yet, but he also suggests another strategy for those leery of not being able to get at the pipes in an emergency. Throughout, he covers construction and installation details that are extremely important for nonprofessionals brave enough to undertake building their own homes. Mike Tribby

Customer Reviews

Great Book
The book gives great details and ideas on building an earth sheltered home from site prep to actual construction. Some of the information is a little out of date but none the less this is a great book and i would recomend it to anyone intrested in earth sheltered or earth bermed homes.

Tasteless Architecture!?
There is lots of good stuff on building underground in this book, but whoever designed some of the homes shown inside has no taste when it comes to architecture, so unfortunately I can see a few people being turned off by some the photos, and deciding not to build underground. There are more in depth books on building underground, so don't just use this one book to build your underground home with.

Great ideas, beautiful pictures, simple advice
If you like underground houses, then you should appreciate the images and plans here. However, the 'how-to' part is very general so unless you know your house building, this book will not help you much in the practical issues of home creation. It will give you ideas and suggestions that you can then use to find a good contractor and keep your eyes on the company you hire. It is very difficult to find books about underground or even earth beamed houses now, which is sad because they can be very energy effecient and lovely. This is a good start and Rob Roy is well-known for his work and his workshops on home building.