Leah White

This is a pic of one of our stone walls

Thanks Glenn,

The rock here is volcanic and irregular. It varies a lot in density but we can select dense and crack free stones for building. A local stone mason has broken a lot of our boulders into manageable sizes (i.e.. just about small enough for two people to maneuver into position, down to small enough to lift alone.) We also have two 5’ x 5’ boulders nearby which could be foundation cornerstones.

Do you know how the wooden frame is attached to it’s rock base in your friend’s house? We built our house with a Japanese foundation influence. We placed big rocks in the ground, drilled into them and put in steel rods which are attached to the bamboo that frames the house. I’m wondering if a similar concept could work here though the earthquakes could be a problem..

I’d be really really interested to see photos of your friend’s house if you have any!

Hi all,

I've gleamed a huge amount of priceless information off this site so thank you all for sharing your invaluable knowledge!

I'm trying to figure if its possible to build a stone basement, partially underground, with a wooden cabin on-top. Ideally, I could build a stone retention wall that can also support the weight of a wooden cabin.
We have built many dry stone retention walls on our steep property, generally 50cm wide with about 20cm infill of smaller stones before back-filling with tamped earth. Of course I've never built anything on top of them and it seems logical that it would need more support in the form of columns and bond beams?

The footprint would be aprox 12' x 20'. Basement height 6.5'. The back of the basement entirely bermed, the sides partially and the front open air. We live in the sub tropics so we get 4-5 months of rain but the site has little to no run off. No freezing to worry about. It's also an earthquake zone.... I've wondered if building a semi circle rather than a rectangle would work better? The basement's use would be mostly as a cellar/pantry, secure lock-up and wood storage.

Is the combination of stone and wood just a bad idea in an earthquake zone? Would earthbag or tires be a better fit?
I'm very much in the ideas phase so any 'through it out and start again' type ideas are welcome too!

Great info and photos, thanks for sharing.

I'm hoping to build a Sepp style cellar as a first structure on my land but I keep bouncing a few question around my head...
1. Can this be built into a steep slope and if so could the back wall be used as a retaining wall? How would surrounding drainage work so as not to create a damp structure?
2. Could a cellar like this be designed into a basement cellar? Again, thinking of building on a slope so the house will probably step up the slope in small sections with the cellar being the first and lowest.