New here! North GA Mountian earth home building ideas?

Hello!
So I'm fairly new to the idea of building a natural small home. And have been reading TONS on this web page, researching natural home building and such.

My husband and I own a small parcel of land in the north ga mountains that we would love to put a primitive, simple, natural dwelling on. We do not want to live there permanently. We live in Atlanta and try to go up as often as we can. But we want to use our land and have a shelter to camp at, or live temporarily if need be. We love being out doors and camping.
The land is on pretty steep mountain side, has an old unused (overgrown and steep) drive way to the top where there is a small flattened are that we can build on.

The idea is to at least be able to bring the 4 wheeler to the top, rather then spending a lot of $$ repairing the driveway (for now).
We are thinking of building into the side of the mountain like an earth sheltered home. having a natural roof and one side opened up to the outside where we can have an outdoor kitchen & fire pit. Love earth sheltered homes! We do obviously want it to be warm and water proof. But do not plan on adding electricity currently.

My concerns are:
1) Costs. we don't have tons of $$ to build / buy much of anything. We own our home in ATL and the upkeep on that is hard enough! :O)

2) logistics. Several logistical things need to be kept in mind. Getting TO the land (up the driveway) without being able to bring in heavy equipment / materials.

3) Time. This will be an ongoing project... We don't get up there nearly as often as we like, but we really want to get some kind of shelter in place ASAP. This needs to be something that we can step away from for several weeks and not worry about washing away until the next time we are up to continue working on it.

4) Building concerns. local codes? I don't know if they would even apply here. And of course the wet & humid weather of GA. How can I keep my earth home from leaking, getting moldy, washing away? What about ventilation?


I LOVE cob / straw bail homes and seem affordable and fairly easy DIY house building project. But do those hold up here?? So my next thought is the earth bag or earthship (old tires??) type homes. And does it make sense if I want to build into the land? What do I use for the walls around the earth that doesn't cost an arm & leg and is fairly easy to build? Whats the best way to water proof?

I have so many questions, concerns and ideas! Am I in over my head??? Does anyone know if there is an established community of natural home builders here in Atlanta area that has meeting/ classes / workshops? (please no Yuppy expensive luxury rammed earth ideas)

I'd love to hear some of your thoughts! And if anyone lives locally in North GA and has built something, I'd love to hear what you have done, how you did it, how it has held up.

Thanks guys!

Welcome to permies.

I am not the one to give advice on earthen homes, but there are plenty of folks here with experience in that realm.

Hopefully, somebody else will chime in here with some good advice.
I do know that rainfall/humidity in that region needs to be addressed -
- what works in the arid American Southwest will not work well in the SE.

My suggestion is to build more than just a bare bones cabin. Leave room for expansion!
You may begin enjoying it so much that you begin spending more and more of your time there.
You may eventually regret having to return to ATL and city life. LOL

I don't know about building codes in the county where you live, but many rural counties have much more relaxed codes if something is being built as a hunting/vacation cabin, rather than a permanent dwelling. It pays to investigate this with the county in question. It often also has a bearing on property taxes...a vacation cabin is usually not taxed as high as a permanent dwelling...and, don't fix the driveway until after the tax man inspects it...if he has to hike a hundred yards up a muddy driveway, its value will drop drastically in his mind !

Good luck finding some local knowledge regarding your project.

Howdy Sarah, welcome to permies!
How about something like this , maybe slightly bigger?

Miles Flansburg wrote:Howdy Sarah, welcome to permies!
How about something like this , maybe slightly bigger?

So cool! Love that, but yes bigger would be nice! but that is almost exactly what I had in mind, but normal size door and stand up space.
Thank you!

John Polk wrote:Welcome to permies.

I am not the one to give advice on earthen homes, but there are plenty of folks here with experience in that realm.

Hopefully, somebody else will chime in here with some good advice.
I do know that rainfall/humidity in that region needs to be addressed -
- what works in the arid American Southwest will not work well in the SE.

My suggestion is to build more than just a bare bones cabin. Leave room for expansion!
You may begin enjoying it so much that you begin spending more and more of your time there.
You may eventually regret having to return to ATL and city life. LOL

I don't know about building codes in the county where you live, but many rural counties have much more relaxed codes if something is being built as a hunting/vacation cabin, rather than a permanent dwelling. It pays to investigate this with the county in question. It often also has a bearing on property taxes...a vacation cabin is usually not taxed as high as a permanent dwelling...and, don't fix the driveway until after the tax man inspects it...if he has to hike a hundred yards up a muddy driveway, its value will drop drastically in his mind !

Good luck finding some local knowledge regarding your project.

Thank you! I would love to get out of Atlanta completely, but you know, work and all... But maybe some day! We are lucky to have the land.
I'll have to research building codes, although I know absolutely NOTHING about that.
And Copy You on the Tax MAn. Very good point!!

Thanks again for some input.

It appears that both cob and earth sheltered homes can get code approval in GA...
...it has been done !

Here are some links that may be of interest:

EARTH HOMES:
!
http://magazine.gsu.edu/article/new-earth/
http://www.northgeorgiamountainrealty.com/homes/227269/

COB:

http://onlineathens.com/stories/110908/liv_352964740.shtml#.Vk5YM_ltnIU
http://www.manta.com/c/mxfwp5p/this-cob-house

And, right here on permies.com (old thread): https://permies.com/forums/posts/list/3989#33838

This is what I want to build

Oklahoma Man Cave

This guy may be more familiarized with the codes http://www.georgiaadobe.com/

What is the soil like where you want to build? Is it the Georgia clay, sand, ?

A pole structure goes up the quickest and cheapest, especially if you have the trees. Billboard tarps can be picked up free or cheap from sign companies. There ought to be plenty available in Atlanta. The billboards come in 10x30 and 14x48. You can quickly cover your building site when you are done with one, not to mention using it as a building material.

You have a lot of rainfall there, so drainage is important. If you go underground, I'd put in a french drain. One advantage of underground is that perhaps a tax man might not be able to find it.

What type of trees do you have? Are there any 9" to 12" in diameter, especially a hardwood like oak or sweet gum? Sweet gum twist terribly when sawed into boards, but they make excellent post when left whole. When I lived in Louisiana the temporary bridges they built when repairing the original ones used untreated sweet gum as post

Underground is my favorite building structure. I've toured the Earthships in New Mexico and I'm friends with Mike Oehler and have toured his houses here in North Idaho. I love the endurance and performance of Earthships, but the amount of labor and expense to build one is out of my league. Oehler's structures (and Paul Wheaton's WOFATI'S) are much more accessible for a poor person, and the supplies to build one could be skidded up a mountain trail by a four wheeler. If you walk Mike Oehler's property, it is steep! The kids rode in the back of the truck to the top and I thought they were going to slide out. He has several structures on the steep mountainside that he packed everything in by hand.

He has plans for a 10x10 survival shelter he built that is in his DVDs and workbook, and I believe he has it in the Hippies Survival Guide to Y2K. One of the neatest structures I took pictures of was a little shelter that was built in a 3 day workshop. A couple with a small child lived in it for over a year. I've got pictures on my blog of it and some of his other houses.

sarah herren wrote:Hello!

Hi Sarah, I know this thread is a bit old so I'm curious if you had any luck here? We're looking to build in Pickens County GA soon.

Hi Sarah and Justin,

I was just wondering if you have taken any steps yet with rammed earth, etc. My situation is similar to Sarah's - I live and work in Atlanta and I want a place for the weekends, preferably rammed earth.  I've been looking at some property in Ellijay, Blue Ridge, etc. but I want some experience with rammed earth building. Thanks for any info!

hello. Am just a bit north of Chattanooga.  Am looking seriously at doing rammed earth.  Seems like a simple way to build a quality home.. Just takes a bit of thought.  Paying attention to the mix so have to do a few test blocks as one goes.  I note no one actually talks much about water sedimentation so you get an idea of the actual amounts of clay sand and aggregate.  It would appear to me that even with a bit of portland not knowing what the soil composition is one will have walls that are flaking off.    Apparently one other thing I keep seeing out of Australia / New Zealand is that they add a bit of silicon sealer to the mix to act to stablize and keep the walls from having some crumbling problems.  

In the midst of working with a local architect.  I think he may actually be a great resource as he operates a planning service and retail that is designed for alternative construction

Hello! I am moving to the mountains & was wondering what you decided to build on your property? I am interested in straw homes & earthships. Thanks!

I am not sure what county you are in, but what you are trying to do is quite popular here in which is the most Northeastern county in Georgia. I can only speak for the codes here, but I am sure other neighboring mountain counties such as Towns might be similar. The main thing here is the septic. We are a county with tons of mountain streams and waterfalls. So naturally that is what they are trying to protect. A leach field here will almost certainly be more extensive than what you are expecting. However once you get it permitted and signed off, your are golden. The local codes enforce very little beyond this which is kind odd considering this area has some of the most expensive homes in the state.

The best thing to do is to check with your local permitting office. Also, I do agree that you should think bigger than what you are planning especially if your county is a pain to deal with. I know that sounds backwards, but you do not want to do it again. If doesn't work out for you, give this a read: https://www.claytongarealestate.com/buyers/how-much-acreage/  before you buy again. Also, from my research (we did a similar sort of build with utilizing a barn) if you are looking for more laxed codes, I would steer you and others away from Fannin county, GA and Macon county, NC. I also have heard Gilmer county is getting a lot worse than they used to be. Good Luck!