How to Build a Bermed Cob House | Underground Hobbit House

[@DirtyDirtbath]

I love that I only had to get 3 min into the video for the answer I was looking for. French drain around the foundation , thanks!

[@jayspell179]

I think if you hybridized cob building with earthship building techniques, you'd find several solutions. Secondly, you could use cob cored walls, covered in a waterproof concrete shell. You'd still be using cement, but not as much as with traditional building. Your wall thickness would need to be thicker, and it would be advisable to use a 10% cement composition in your cob, thus making superadobe, just to add to the resilience of the structure. Overall, I would say a laminated approach is best for building into a hill, beginning with good drainage being installed that wraps the entire build site, followed by a waterproof membrane, ferrocement skin between the membrane and structural wall, rammed superadobe for structural wall, cob for interior thermal mass for temperature control, and a good plaster for the interior finish, which could be painted and oiled for ease of maintenance and aesthetic. I'm not going to say this is easy to build, but the simplicity of maintenance over years may prove more valuable than a some extra labor up front.

[@rhondasisco-cleveland2665]

I’m so glad you put this out. You must be a super person to want to help others for nothing.

[@beetlej2398]

Flip a shipping container upside down. Paint it with red guard. Line it with vapor barrier. Then fill 2ft thick gabion baskets with ballast. Use that to keep the load off container. The floor should be able to hold up 50k lbs of earth. Put round wood door. Cedar siding and some big wood beams to fascia. Grow thicker grass on roof.

[@solid975]

This is something I've been contemplating, except i was considering more of a underground earth-sheltered home! I was thinking of excavating into a steep slope near the top of a hill, creating a concrete slab foundation, pressing tin panels against the virgin soil so I can prevent backfilling around the walls (and to keep rocks damaging my waterproofing), coating the inside of the with rubber sealant, then build the walls with concrete right against the rubber sealed tin panels, then do all the interior walls as cob (except the bathroom). It would have french drains to prevent water ever touching the cob. Then I'm planning on building a small pavilion atop the hill which should ideally sit partially over the back part of my house and direct water away. I guess it would count more as a 'underground house with cob interior' than a 'cob' house at that point though haha

[@spareamintz8708]

Check out Mike Oehler and the $50 and up underground house. You don't need concrete but you'll need wood. Then do like a stucco with the cob on the interior.

[@thiscobhouse]

Is it wood lined with plastic? I read one book on underground homes and the author said to just put plastic sheeting over the outside of the wood framing. I can't subscribe to this approach. But if his book has a different design, 'd like to read it.

[@spareamintz8708]

@@thiscobhouse yes it is that's Mike oehler. And like I said more than likely would have to do more of a stucco style inside. There are videos here on you tube that show Mike Oehlers original $50 and $500 underground houses.

[@Blackbird-zo1su]

@@thiscobhouse Oehler’s method has stood the test of time. Check out the books and vids.

[@forreal_suckers]

Im going to use this for my future hobbit house lol. Also this is a great example of it!! I was looking for this EXACT video type and couldnt find it so thx!

[@Cross_Contam]

I was digging mine into a hill with all slopes slanted away. With one Cob wall for the door/ windows. Planned on using rammed tires with a vapor barrier between to retain the soil. Also digging a French drain to deal with any drainage issues. I'm in an area that experiences snow and figure I couldn't pass up the geothermal bonuses of being in the ground. I'm attempting to avoid concrete completely.

[@alexandrasteinicke]

Thank you Chris! It was just what I was looking for.

[@meganlane3600]

Love this! On the second one you showed with the concrete as a platform, you should also put concrete on the back side of the hill and have it dug out for a "garage" or workshop underneath the house. Pretty neat!

[@danielrodriguez9778]

Nice. This is something that has crossed my mind. My situation in particular is building a "downstairs" cob room with the upstairs being a pacific dome. The site happens to have a hill so this gives me a lot of ideas with how to potentially approach it.

[@enochborozinskilampinges2422]

Man I love how you are in touch with the thoughts of and concepts of so many of us! Great job, this is exactly what I am looking to do. I will post some pics so you can see ; Thanks so much!

[@thiscobhouse]

Awesome! You're welcome. Thanks for commenting.

[@nadinegoelz6021]

Love this!

[@thewhizbang]

Love this man thank you so much!

[@TrayDayX]

Thank you for making this

[@LaurelHill2024]

why weren't the cement panels waterproofed? or a waterproof membrane to keep water from making it into the interior of the building? were dead men used to anchor the walls to the hill to keep the walls from moving?

[@oakld]

I think this video is raising many more questions than answering. Like are you sure you'd leave concrete unprotected underground? That might still let a lot of moisture to get into the house. Also, I don't have experience with cob walls, but AFAIK concrete acts quite like a water sponge and may "suck" moisture all the way up into the cob walls. I'm myself planning to use two independent protection systems (in fact three, counting insulation). One is bitumen protective water proof thick paint and the other is two layers of overlapped glued silage-style canvases. Then the gravel comes, which I don't think one can call French drain, since they have a little bit more complicated function. They keep walls away from cumulating water (soil gets easily saturated with water) and from water freezing and tearing stuff around at the top. It's important to incorporate surface draining features to avoid letting water into the gravel in the first place (don't really use it as a drain). To continue, what about base slab? Would you really build a wall without basement foots (at least in the front required) and without base slab? Another thing good to mention is, that you'll essentially end up with a passive house and thus you'll have to have ventilation to protect (especially cob) walls from humidity, which is natural to our breath. It can't be stressed enough. Another thing is - in what climate the underground house should be? If the average year air temperature (which happens also to be a temperature coming from the soil bellow the house) is lower than few degrees celsius bellow the comfortable temperature, then you'd want to also insulate the walls and the base slab. Few degrees can then span human breath and el. appliances, at least most of the year.

[@MH-xf9wh]

This is so cool. Just wondering. Wouldn't an underground ROUND cob house work even better as far as drainage goes?

[@FearMyLadyBits]

I know with earthbag houses they recommend a curve of an 8-15ft radius for underground building. Was also wondering if that could apply to cob, as long as a water barrier was in place.

[@emma24ism]

The simon dale house looked like it was underground, its worth looking at,

[@andrewmorris5947]

Hi thanks for the content! Quick question… What about structural bamboo reinforced cob/concrete? And have you used graphene in your concrete mixtures yet?

[@ratedmark4704]

I've been digging into earthship homes, but the tire walls are just too much labor and time - want a vacation type home that I can spend some time working on but not have to live there to complete it. I like the idea of an underground fish farm basement.

[@ADAWC]

You are insightful and have many helpful ideas 👍 Would it be better if the drain is built a couple feet away from the wall and not too close to the structure? I've seen the drainage next to a school was done that way. By doing so, the chance of the water banging on the wall is minimized. The hill was a lot taller than the back of the school. It had a big slope. It was done that way to relieve the water pressure and avoid landslides. My hometown has a lot of hills and very limited flat land. The techniques to channel away the water was a serious matter and the law was tough.

[@Kerm448]

I'm curious if you would need concrete if you were berming from flat ground, i.e. build a structure then pile dirt up against so all the slopes of the berm run away from the house. Instead of building the house into the hill, building the hill into the house.

[@whycantyouwakeup]

What if the walls were rammer earth? Do they do good underground?

[@HollieDepp_85]

Could you replace the concrete with tire, like an earth ship?

[@jacquelinefrost6807]

Having a house like that could potentially also allow for the collection of water for off grid.

[@garyweatherholtz5082]

How about building a underground house or garage with the roof covered with dirt with only one or two sides of the building exposed ????? something like 80 ft x 40 ft with approximately 5 to 10 ft of dirt on top

[@elaineinmaine7971]

Also I wonder if anyone has attempted to build a rammed earth above ground dome?

[@nomadterry6146]

Can granite rock be used as substiute majority of concrete ; with concrete motor be binding jam in between granite rock

[@t.v.4529]

I'm new. What is Cob?

[@edancassidy245]

@thiscobhouse-Could you use bricks or stone with mortar in between? What about roman cement?

[@edancassidy245]

Instead of the concrete^

[@ethanmakai]

How would earthbag in place of the concrete hold up in a temperate climate? I know in desert areas folks will do underground earthbag structures but never heard about how that would work in a temperate climate

[@thiscobhouse]

I would only recommend this in desert climates. You'll have water leaks in wet climates with earthbags underground.

[@ethanmakai]

@@thiscobhouse thanks!

[@FearMyLadyBits]

@@thiscobhouse have you considered a pond liner between the earthbag/cob walls and the hillside?

[@mypersonalemail8980]

would something like this home idea work in a climate the gets a fair amount of snow, like new england

[@thiscobhouse]

Yes, I think so.

[@roevswade]

What about high snow

[@elaineinmaine7971]

I am thinking a rammed earth underground house that's very different from Cob

[@tamaraelliott8612]

Can I incorporate rebar pillars that hold up my concrete roof into my Cobb walls? Thanks

[@thiscobhouse]

Sure

[@albongo3949]

Shouldn’t the foundation that the cob sits on have a lip in the middle of the cement form for structural support of the cob built on it?

[@thiscobhouse]

Like a channel, or "key-in" sort of thing in the middle of the stem wall?

[@dwried]

Wizard towers won't be a good candidate for cob. I was trying to mock up a concept idea, but there's not really a good way to keep rain off it without looking super weird. I guess they need to stay stone like in most drawings. A pagoda might work, but each level would have to be the same dimension going up. Not to mention I guess the walls would have to be wider than 2 feet due to height.

[@tamaraelliott8612]

Also I'm in Nepal now. There are earthquakes!

[@carrerasrivera]

Biovivienda from spain. Look it up

[@esoterraearthenbuildingbys5366]

Check out zane Green under ground cob hobbit geodesic dome house 😆

[@thiscobhouse]

That's in the California desert. I don't recommend building cob underground, unless you are in the desert. If his dome building were built on the east coast, it would just be a big hole filled with water.

[@esoterraearthenbuildingbys5366]

Yeah I didn't mean it as a good example. If you follow up till the monsoon season his pond turns out great 😂🤣😂

[@esoterraearthenbuildingbys5366]

I really like your computer mock up Alex and this beamed design is something I've been knocking around solutions myself as I have a perfect hillside to adorn with cottages

[@thiscobhouse]

@@esoterraearthenbuildingbys5366 Thanks man! :)

[@robhamilton4736]

Hey say Robust more often. Also, if you run the concrete steps like that then why not just finish the entire 3 sides with concrete only and just do rammed earth on the front if you insist on rammed earth. Seems like a shit ton of work to me when you can just frame of some forms, poor concrete and be done with it. Sure rammed earth looks cool but I like my time better. Dumb shit stuff