Building an underground home

Hi Everyone,

This is my first post so it’s nice to meet you all. This site is a treasure trove of information and I am pleased to have stumbled upon it.

After purchasing Mike Oehler’s books on the subjects, I am planning to build my own underground home and underground greenhouse. Ideally, I would like to do all of the building myself (maybe I could hire someone to do the designs). The home could be as simple as Mikes original home, since I will be the only one living there it doesn’t need to be big or fancy. I imagined the greenhouse would be the bigger challenge.

However, I have absolutely zero experience in construction, design, or really handiwork in general tbh. Is it possible for me to build an underground home and greenhouse using Mikes books as well as other books, videos and informational resources, or would I need to hire someone to build it for me?

You don’t have to sugarcoat it, you won’t hurt my feelings. Would I be stupid to try to build these myself relying just on book and video knowledge?

I think you can do it.  It isn't hard at all to build an Oehler-style building.  Any person following Mike's book that has rudimentary carpentry skills and ambition can probably do it.  The problem in my mind always comes back to the same thing, how to keep the posts that go into the ground from rotting.  If you can figure that out, you're golden.

How did Oehler get around this problem? His house has been standing for 50 years now

The house has, but not sure about the posts.  I know in his book he talks about replacing posts.  If I were going to do it, I would pour pillars made of concrete that came up 6 inches or so above ground and set my posts on those.

I believe the first step is find underground houses in your area and go visit them.  

There are many ways to build them but to get permits and clear code can be another thing.

I like to start with a wheel that is working and then duplicate it if you like it.

Many underground homes on youtube to look at,  and also a look at earthships may also be another option for you.

However, I have absolutely zero experience in construction, design, or really handiwork in general tbh.

I'm not going to try and talk you out of it, but I would recommend getting some practice building other things first. Every tool and technique has its own learning curve. If you're dealing with the learning curves for all of them, all at once, you are setting yourself up for a world of hurt.

Start small. Build a doghouse or chicken coop. Build an above-ground shed. Build a tiny underground storage space. Then take a realistic look at your own abilities, stamina, and commitment to the project, before you decide to make that leap.

And if/when you are ready to make that leap, post pictures so we can cheer you on!

Thanks yea that makes sense to me. I’ve been reading Mikes book and thankfully it doesn’t seem too complicated aside from putting the posts in the ground. Building a shed first should help prepare me for sure