Green Magic Homes?

>>1185739
>we are shooting for a budget of around 150,000$

That means you should aim for $50,000

>>1185739
>advice
get divorced, now, while you still have fond memories of each other. 'musing' is fine and good actually, building a house ain't, its stressful as fuck. And wtf is that thing - are you a fucking hobbit, or do you (or the good wife) have spades for hands, hooves for feet per chance?

No? then, enjoy life, stay in a home you are comfortable with, or, buy another one you'll be even more comfortable with - and, if that's got a big garden? give the wife a shovel, tell her to wire in, make her dream greenhouse dreams come true. But dont put every cent you have into nonsense like your pic related when you also have to build it and live in it.
>inb4 shipping container, covered in grass?

It's a plastic tube that doesn't breathe at all? So you need to run a dehumidifier 24/7?

>>1185749
>>1185751
I appreciate your responses and the time you both took to write them, but I'm really looking for advice or info from someone who has built one of these particular structures and lived with one. I suppose its worth mentioning my wife and I flip homes for a living and are not unfamiliar with building homes either. The reason for the desire for an earth sheltered design is two-fold, my wife particularly enjoys the aesthetic, and we live in a very tornado stricken area. We lost our first home in a tornado. This isn't my first rodeo, but I would like to get some info from someone who has been down this particular path. Not too interested in trailblazing this one.

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>>1185755

I have stayed in some Hobbit hole style cabbins that were build using a system like that.

you can finish the insdie like a standard house. the earth you put on the outside is your insulation, but it will not hurt to put more if / when you frame the wall.

Where i was at they had solar panels and a gas tank. water was from a well.

I have also throw around the idea. but shit racks up quick when you have to buy land and EVERYTHING inside. studs, drywall, insulation, wire, flooring... EVERYTHING.

>>1185749

like 3 seconds on google.
http://www.greenmagichomes.com/main.php

You poor a slab, assemble the house and cover it in dirt.

and who wouldent want to live in a human sized hobbit hole?

>>1185749
preach it brotha

>>1185773
Right, cost is always a factor. Luckily we have a hold of a nice piece of property to build on already, I just wanted to hear from someone that has been in one. There really isn't much testimony online available from people who have built these. Did the one you stayed in come off as well constructed, built to last would you say? Humidity is a concern as well, I would imagine with proper ventilation it wouldn't be much of a problem though. One of my big concerns I would like put to rest is off-gassing from the polymer construction, essentially, is it going to poison me, or is it proven safe with proper ventilation?

>>1185793
No different than a berm home. Value is pennies compared to any other style of home including mobile. Not anymore tornado proof than any other structure built above ground. And next to impossible to resell.

>>1185793
So a few concerns I have: windows would be awkward and expensive@ custom. Celestial windows would ruin the look of the top. I'm not sure about your specific product, but I have seen quite a few complaints that it is too expensive to reinforce the roof enough, so you can only grow grass. So it'll either look shitty or you'll have to climb it to mow it regularly.

The curved shape means that you lose a lot of living space, and have to either get a lot of fill or have empty space that invites vermin.
A bigger concern for humidity is water damage: plant roots WILl pull apart flashing and start your windows/skylights leaking.

3rd, I've actually seen a similar system done diy with a framed wood plank structure covered with PE sheeting (I believe he used contractor floor protector cover sheets, melted together at the edges and taped down with carpet tape so no holes. Made sure to cover it with 1-2" of diy sieved dirt to make sure no gravel punctures.) basically, check the type of plastic. Also, most plastic will be 90% done outgassing in 2-3 months, and after that basically open a window every few days and it should t be bad. Considering that putting the plastic shell in place is like step 2 of construction, you won't be living in it for the first 2 months anyway, and all the windows will be open @ laborers sweating.

>>1185940
Oh, for ventilation and light, go with celestory windows instead of skylights. Not quite as pretty, but you can open them in mild rain depending on design, and they don't leak like skylights do. South facing for light in northern hemisphere.
Also, I would look at straw bale construction. I've been looking at it myself for a while @ good insulation and cheap construction. It's a little more expensive in terms of labor, BUT 90% of it is easy and can be done with Home Depot guys or family members, because it's basically stacking straw bales in the insulation cavities. Tests show that it takes longer for fire to spread than regular wood frame construction, and you can frame up drywall in front of it. The downsides are basically that window wells are deep because the walls are, and it limits you in terms of exterior because the straw needs a permeable cover that will keep rain off it but let it dry out from humidity. Usually stucco or adobe is used, and need to have cracks patched every year.

The plus side is very good Rvalue, the straw bales are crazy cheap if you can find a farm, because they're usually burned as waste, so you basically have to pay the costs for gas and baling twine.

Also, added to the international residential code in 2013 for 1 story structures, so shouldn't be hard to get permits.

Also, per the FAQ on the website, the green homes finish outgassing st the factory before they're shipped.
Also also, I was wrong, they say you CAN plant shrubs or small trees at spots that are properly reinforced.

Downside is that the windows they out in are single pane, and I'm guessing curved in the shape of the dome.

Honestly, as I look into it, everything I see says that you would have a better time going after other diy bunker construction methods and just do it above ground.
E.g. A large drainage culvert covered with PE tarp and then earth as described above.

>>1185958
Another one that works well and supports weight is school busses partially or fully buried. They're generally well maintained and sold when the engine dies, but the frame is in great shape. Get 3 and weld together in a T shape and you've got a reasonably sized home, or put them side by side and make doorways. You would want to have "downspouts" in that case to keep water from pooling between the two "roofs".

They can be had for a song, depending on your area. $500-1000. There have been quite a few cases of trailer parks adding them as tornado shelters. Some do a staircase/she's to the back door emergency exit, some add a ladder/ladder stairs to the emergency air vent exit in the roof. Honestly, it would also be a fairly cheap way to add a backyard root cellar now that I think about it.

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Hi im interested in building a vacation home. I saw a post on here about a year ago about complete kits to build sizeable (wooden)buildings.
Im interested but i also have a lot of questions. Does anyone have experience with those?

Is this possible to diy without having build a house before? How easy/hard are thet to asemble? Are those kits worth it? Can you link to the website of the company you have experience with? Do you have other info ?

>>1185739
it may not be as pretty,but i'm planning on using shipping containers to make a house with.
steel is pretty green as building materials go and pretty cheap.
$2000 or so for 40' steel shipping containers.
buy six and stack them two per level three stories up like a jenga tower for $12k.

Seems like mommy blogger nonsense. Get her distracted by something else before it's too late.

>>1185739
Where did OP find shipping containers with arched doors?

>>1186193
Log homes should be assembled by a contractor experienced with log homes. There is a host of things that can go wrong.

>>1185739
I looked into these before. Here's my impressions of looking at the photos on their website:

http://www.greenmagichomes.com/magic-homes.php

1: These are being built directly on a cement/concrete pad.
2: These are built as low to the surrounding landscape as possible.
3: These are actually "green roof" tech, not underground tech.
4: They offer solar tech.

What does this mean:

1: Not much insulation from the ground. A floating floor will reduce your ceiling height. Installing or changing your wiring and plumbing may be bothersome or more expensive because it can't simply be hidden in a crawlspace under the floor. A fix for this would be to raise everything up a few feet and install a vapor barrier.

2: They do this because it is "cheaper" and faster than building a wall foundation and using a proper floating floor with crawl space. Cheaper because in order to have the house be built up on a slight elevation requires compaction of the fill dirt and the poured pad will invariably crack over the years due to subsidence of the fill dirt. Having the house so close to the surrounding elevation can also create flooding issues. A fix for this is the same as #1 plus a wide french drain around the entire house. They just raise it up using more cement/concrete, depending on the slope of the surrounding area (back side is level with surrounding area while front side is 1-2 feet off the ground).

3: This means it will need to be watered a lot or all the vegetation will die out on such a thin layer of soil. You won't be able to use that area for anything really (unlike a proper underground house.) This is purely aesthetics with high maintenance (removing unwanted weeds/trees, cutting/trimming grass and plants).

4: They solar panels are mounted off the house, in the yard, taking up even more landspace. They should be mounted on the roof of the house to reduce how much land is being used.

>>1186585
Continued...

What would I do if I were get these (I'd never get these)?

I'd raise them up 4 feet and set them on a stone wall (stone for aesthetics). I'd have a standard wood floor with large crawlspace and proper vapor barrier and insulation. I'd have the solar panels on the roof if I wanted them. I wouldn't put a greenroof on it. Those are too much hassle

FYI, the curved space is fine and you feel like there's more room than with a standard square/box room.

>>1185755
If you want serious protection you'd go with reinforced concrete. If you build and flip homes for a living you'd know to contact the manufacturer then contact clients for their opinions, not /diy/.

You could use the shell as a liner then pour reinforced concrete over it or go ICF. Your external earthen berm will remain for landscaping but there will be a lot more protection underneath. You should not be impressed by a thin layer of earth. That's not protection.

You should include a windowless safe room which can simply be a large room without external windows.

Tornado proofing isn't just a cutesy hobbit hole, it's making a proper fucking reinforced concrete bunker, but you can certainly combine the two in an attractive manner. You can form it in stages and hire a concrete pump truck to fill the forms, for example vertical walls then the curved transition and roof.

Eye the design with intelligent skepticism instead of lust.

Ignore everyone who suggests containers and buses because those niggers haven't built shit with containers or buses. Owning a shop bus convinced me they suck and their shape and design is a huge space waster. Retards see bus but not the complexity and limited space. If you see a bus advocate, kick them in the gunt then smash a pick handle into their mongtarded skull.

Buried containers rust. Ignore everyone who advocates burial below grade and unless you live in a desert even above grade is begging for failure. They also crush. This weekend I'll be coating the roof of my container shop which I should have built with "one trip" containers instead of decent but older used High Cubes. Coating is easy, but removing the old shit and the rust under some of it is tedious. I love containers for shop space and want more, but faggot shiteaters who never worked with them need to shut the fuck up. My nice one trip will be good externally for another twenty years before requiring coating maintenance as a ride-through bike garage.

>>1185741
This is underrated advice. Always plan on it costing twice as much, taking twice as long and looking half as good.

>>1185773
That much water, how would it not rot eventually? I imagine you'd have to build a concrete bunker entirely, water seal it best you can on the inside, fir strip the interior walls and interior decorate from there.

>>1186193
It's possible to build a house without having built a house before.
How easy/hard to assemble they are depends on the kits, some of them go all the way up to prefab building sections shipped in on truck that you put on foundation with a crane and bolt together.
AFAIK the cheap ones, which are pretty much lumber cut to length and a box of screws and instructions, are 2x the price of big box hardware store lumber and screws, so 3-4X what you could order from real suppliers.
OTOH the real benefit is that the kits usually come with stock forms/assistance getting permits, which can be more than half the cost of a DIY house.

>>1186592
>go ICF
Yup.
Dig perimeter of house, lay out block, use nylon fabric footings (fastfoot), used helix as a substitute for most rebar, pour concrete, use concrete decking for roof, spray with a fluid applied membrane, apply 'bubbled' backing to alleviate water stacking up on the walls (used in basements), profit.

These people with concrete 'domes' are doing it the hard way. Yeah, domes are stronger than a box, but engineered concrete is strong enough. To build a dome you have to use 'shot crete' sprayed onto a mesh - which costs more in labor and doesn't pack as well as formed concrete.

Watch this guy's timelapse videos. He's building a ballar concrete 'underground' house and a mix of buried quinsonet hut, shotcrete domes, and ICF.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKo1x0vX-wajgcoD85r6moA

>>1185739
>the wife
>not my wife
already a great relationship