How would you build your future home to withstand anything?

I used 40' semi trailers and had to build an internal framework of piping to keep them from crushing. Conexes are a much simpler shape and size to reinforce...but I was doing this 20+ years ago when conexes were not nearly as common on the surplus market.

Some people aound here have used large septic tanks (unused) for underground storage etc.

As far as choosing land, homesite, etc...

We looked at good soil for growing, a steady supply of water (on a river where it joins a creek and an artesian spring on property) and enough forest to keep us supplied with firewood. Our homesite is out of sight of the road and with controllable access from the road. Other than that, it is all in the design and construction.

EDIT: I should mention the trailers are not for living in except possibly a short time in an emergency...they are primarily hidden storage with one set up as a shelter also.

 

All good input, sorry it's been a while since my last reply. However with this being said, I have been taking everything mentioned into careful consideration. Since I've last posted I've read about a third of the book "When All Hell Breaks Loose" by Cody Lundin, and have been taking notes along the way while reading this book. Has anyone read this book before and do you have any input on it, anything you really agree with or disagree with? So far in my opinion not a bad book at all I'm glad I made the purchase for it, and I recommend this book to anyone and all (But that is just my two cents.)

Now input on this next part would be terrific,

Here's my thought process so far as to how the house will be built. Basically I will be looking for a bit of land to have mostly oak (for firewood), a stream or creak that flows year round but doesn't flood up to house level, and enough flat land to put crops and animals on. As for the house itself I would like to find a hill (overlooking a flat plain where the crops, animals, etc would be) in which the house would be on/in. I want the house to be a monolithic style home with two stories of height to it, the house would be buried into the side of the hillside to where part of it (the front) would still be exposed at the base and the back of it would be embedded into the hill itself and the dome covered with earth. The reason this is, is to follow. The front will be mostly glass windows (the design I haven't figured out yet) and will be facing south, the reason why is because I can now naturally heat up the house using the suns energy by way of the glass windows and suns rays shinning into the house. To make full efficiency (to my knowledge so far) of this concept the floors will be made of more than likely stone and tile. The paint on the walls will be impregnated with mica (a highly reflective rock). Then I would like for a couple of car ports/access mono domes to come off of the main building to the right and left, these will also serve as rain catchers that will be gravity fed into holding tanks (I haven't done much thought on water yet, as I am still trying to finish up the shelter subject first) and also be barriers just in case a tornado decides to take a dump on my front yard. Glass will all be hurricane glass (If anyone has any objections or other ideas as to what kind of glass would be best, any ideas are welcome -this is the best one in my opinion so far though-). As for another/alternative method of heating I was looking into the idea of some sort of wood stove that would be centered in the middle of the house. I originally thought of a fireplace, however this would be very inefficient and a wood stove would be much more efficient and practical. I know survival isn't about looks, however since I have some prep time and I want this to be a family get away if needed then I might as well do what I can (the first time). I'm looking to get a wood stove to take on the resemblance of a grand circular fireplace in the center of the house. It would be made of stone and rock with a wrap around wood hearth, does anyone know who makes something like this, or would make something like this? Lights in the house would all be L.E.D. (Anyone have any other ideas for this? -best idea for lighting so far- however interested in other lighting methods as well, I know the front of the house will be well lighted in the day but not at nights and the back of the house either. Looking for long term lighting.-)

So far thats what I have as my future home? Thoughts, input, ideas?

Thanks

 

ive been looking into cob construction for building my hobbit hole
quite interesting
just wish i could find some close to definite answers regarding mixture percentages
was wondering how adding calcium carbonate would affect the durability of the cob

 

first off it your money build what you want .

second point remember this spend the money doing it right the first time not the second time around..

third point is asked question about the project intill you have the basic answer inside you head ..because it you who is paying the bills on the project not the person who doing the work

four point remember the statement look at the work each time before signing off on the check because after that you go no one to complain about the work ..

then after all that done and said read up on the basic of how things are done and that way you can see if the work is beening done right ..


when i went to the people who i had do my place and explain to them what i wanted done they where like ok we can do that and we did bult heads over a few thing because of my willness not to rethink a idea and i cost me money and we had to redo a couple of my ideas and along with a few diff things

so think about and draw your ideas out on a paper intill you have your basic design and then figure it out again ..

my place is buried in the ground and the place can not be seen from road inless the hatch is open along with the air intake's and exhaust system are hidden inside the area topside ..the place stays the same temp along with beening warm when it cold outside and it cool when it hot outside..

it best design for me as a all hazard home as i can make with nbc filter & other things design into make it a all safe haven for me ..

 

when i build a place, its all me
i learned many years ago..
if you want it done right, do it yourself

 

YouTube - ‪Modern hobbit house: a tiny cob home‬‏

Beast here's one cob Hobit home

 

Ok, thanks again for everyones comments. And sorry that took a while, just got back from Alaska and it is truly gorgeous up there! Now changing subjects, lets go with water. I was planning on buying land close to a creek bed or stream so I can pump water from there up to my house (Monolithic style) and have two car ports that can collect water as well and even use the suns energy to heat that water up and gravity feed that into the house. Then I would like to build some sort of water mill contraption to be able to grind wheat or to produce power. (any ideas) Also a well sounds pretty nice as well, with an electric pump and a hand pump as backup. Now open for thoughts and ideas as to water.

 

I have this: Amazon.com: The Hand-Sculpted House: A Practical and Philosophical Guide to Building a Cob Cottage: The Real Goods Solar Living Book (9781890132347): Ianto Evans, Michael G. Smith, Linda Smiley, Deanne Bednar: Books

and I just ordered this:

Amazon.com: Building With Cob: A Step-by-step Guide (9781903998724): Adam Weismann, Katy Bryce: Books

The percentages for cob vary slightly, but it seems to be 90% sand (clean, not salty), 5% straw and 5% clay. Mixture depends a bit on the clay, more than anything. There has to be enough clay to thoroughly coat the straw and the sand so that it all sticks together, but too much clay and it will crack, because clay shrinks drastically as it dries. So you really just want enough to coat the other material and make it stick. You can also incorporate lots of other material into the walls, burying a rock, brixck, or chunk of concrete here and there adds some bulk fairly quickly without compromising the integrity of the wall. Burying logs in it to be used as "dead men" for attaching things to is recommended.

Personally, I want to build concrete footers, window, and door openings so I can have very regular openings to mount the windows and doors in, as well as metal mounts for hinges for door and shutters. I'm thinking a concrete basement that doesn't extend all the way to the outer walls of the house, so that the VERY heavy walls don't cause it to bulge inwards. By setting the walls back severl feet from the basement edge, I can also pour a concrete slab for things like my kitchen and bathrooms, and eliminate potential flooding problems with built-in drains for areas with plumbing. On the southern side this slab also creates solar mass (finished nicely with tile, most likely.)

Add a steel roof and it's essentially fireproof externally. The walls are bullet-proof (cover, not just concealment, at least for a while) and proper shutters make it completely storm proof and very difficult to break into.

As for solar, the most useful book I have found is: Amazon.com: The Solar House: Passive Heating and Cooling (9781931498128): Daniel D. Chiras: Books

He includes some rule of thumb formulas for latitude, efficiency when orietngin a few degrees off south, the ratio of glass to floor space and how much thermal mass you need, length of eaves by latitude, and a bunch of other handy resources. It's not hippy-dippy tree hugging, it's a practical body of knowledge for creating a house that has the proper attributes for the number of degree-heating-days in your locale.

 

cob house in the shape of a geodesic dome.

i think that could withstand the wrath of gawd hisself

buckminster fuller designed the dome and if it is made of cob it is infinitely repairable should anything happen

 

You probably wouldn't want a cob dome. And it would be monolithic, not geodesic (mot made of panels). The straw does form a very sturdy 3-dimensional matrix inside the wall, but any cracking in a dome roof would likely cause it to fail catastrophically, and cob is VERY heavy.

If I were making a concrete dome, I would go monolithic as well- no point in joints if you don't need them. As pointed out, uneven thermal expansion, sealing issues- who needs that?

The cob also must be protected from rain, unlike a concrete dome. It works fine as long as you have proper eaves, even with rain blowing fairly sideways, it appears to slough off about an inch per decade (unplastered), which is plenty of time for re-plastering on a 24" wall.

Domes are efficient from the standpoint of surface/volume ratio, but there are many other considerations. Domes are more difficult to construct, requiring some kind of intermediate supprt during construction. A cob wall requires no particular engineering expertise to assemble. Just keep stacking and poking the cobs into place, and let it dry. Trim it after installation if you need to square it up a bit.

If you made your cob walls round, it's conceivable you could put a concrete dome cap on top, but I am much more in favour of a lighter roof, what with the possibility of earthquakes and all.

A monolithic dome house of concrete, properly constructed would probably do better than a cob/concrete hybrid with a concrete roof from this point of view. Concrete is much more expensive than cob, which is the main reason why I am considering hybrid walls (I also think it'll be more architecturally interesting). The secondary reason as I mentioned is for secure intrusions like windows and doors. I think shutters on sturdy iron hinges mounted in concrete (inside the window opening and therefore inside the shutter) is a better idea than windows mounted directly in dried mud, Even with a fire hose it would take some time to get through 24-36" of thoroughly dried cob, but a window or door hung to a wooden deadman in an opening in the cob wouldn't be too hard to get through with a hatchet in a few minutes. Concrete also eliminates the need for discrete headers over windows and doors. I also plan to put courses of rebar inside the cob wall, it's not that much more expensive and forms one more barrier should someone be trying to effect a quick entry.

When I wire and plumb the place, I am planning on using 3" or 4" PVC inside the wall to run my wires and flexible plastic pipes. Especially for the plumbing, I think the ability to pull out a section (even somewhat laboriously) justifies the added expense. Doubling the protection from a leak inside the wall is important because you can't just pull off the drywall and replace something inside the wall.

 

Ok, I know it has been some time since I've been on here last but I have taken everything yall have said and am learning from it... So next question, what about a food source, what all do you have in mind for that? Cattle? Goats? Bait deer in? Farm? What are yall's thoughts and inputs on the whole idea?

 

Goats, rabbits, Muscovy ducks, and chickens. Gardening and planting ONLY productive plants - fruiting trees, herb garden instead of flower beds etc. IMO

 

i'd like to see a pic of what it looks like with it all closed up. Err....see where it Supposed to be LoL

 

Still working on being totally of grid and getting back to more of the last century tech. Earth sheltered green houses, new root cellars, alt water systems and human waste composting, being more of a greyman.

 

The 2-3' under the soil is an excellent insulator.

 

1 word: ADOBE!
My aunt and uncle had a old ( and I mean ancient) farm house in Pueblo Colorado, that was so old ( how old was it?) it had 3 separate roofs on it!
( we estimated it to be at least 150 years old, back in 1962-63)
Those walls were 24-30 inches thick! They never had to worry about the summer heat or the winter cold. They had all the warmth year round, as I swear it stayed a constant 65-70 degrees all the time! It was very quiet, and more than likely (I never tested it personally) bullet proof!
Whoever built it originally, knew what they were doing, as it has built in alcoves and shelves in the walls. It had one fireplace, and it was hardly ever used except for Holidays, like Thanksgivng or Christmas, just to be more festive!
If I had my druthers, I'd build my own home the same way theirs was!

 

such is not possible, so forget it. Anyone can slip up at night, use Molotov cocktails, poison gas, etc, to make you exit, or just wait from 300 m away and quietly snipe you when you come out for whatever reason. Food, best scatter/bury some 50 gal drums of hard winter wheat, molasses, salt,, they will keep forever. Other stuff only lasts 2 years, but it's so cheap that you can just discard/replace it. Legume, beans, other grain, all very low cost if you buy from local farmers. It will be dirty, but you can use the wind or a big fan and toss it on a sheet, a handfull at a time, until it's dust-free.

You can dehydrate "throwaway" fruit and its juice, from farmer's markets and grocers, and deer aint hard to snare, nor is it hard to "jerk" their flesh. Bury some drums full of jerky, dried fruit, and cans of Crisco veggie fat, which also keeps for years. Total cost is under $600 per person, to include the cost of the metal drums, for a year's supply of good food.