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Building Your Own Hobbit Hole
Alien54 writes "Sometimes people go too far in being a fan of a great movie or of a great book. Now you can be the proud owner of a Hobbit Hole. The site offers basic plans, as well as technical resources. For example, one thing you might want to consider in your planning is Large Elliptical Precast Concrete Pipe."
My hobbit hole might get a little warm with my 4 computers all stuffed into a small, poorly circulated room. but a hobbit hole sounds fun. -)
.[[erax0r]].
Definitly need the concrete pipe here in Florida. In FL you can't dig more than a few feet before you hit water!
Some really do live down under in dugouts. The idea always seemed interesting to me.
And remember: it's not realistic unless you make the chandelier so low that wizards bump their heads on it.
"Einstein argued that [...] God is not capricious or arbitrary. No such faith comforts the software engineer." ~ Brooks
for the finest weed in the country
would be useful if I was a midgit or something
...you happen to be taller than the average hobbit.
Which most human adults are.
Now, I like the concept, but it seemed like the pipe they were using wouldn't accomodate anybody larger than a child.
Might be a tad bit of a problem getting a building permit.
Here's something else that is funny:
Sex - Find It
Bag End 2 21 Century Hobbit Hole Ok, we have all seen the movie and if you don't know WHICH movie I am talking about, well click HERE. After seeing The Fellowship of the Ring, you have probably fantasized about living in a Hobbit Hole and lazing about in the shade. I know I have. The Protoype Model (click to enlarge) That is when I started expressing my inner architect and wondering of easy, bio-friendly ways to build a Hobbit Hole. These pages are what I have come up with. The largest expenses in building a home (not counting the flat screen tv and indoor lap pool) typically are the walls, exterior and roofing system. Obviously, the roof and exterior are done away with for Hobbit Holes. However you have some staggering stress and loading issues with underground housing. The weight of the soil and flora growing on it can produce tremendous loads on a structure. It is even worse when it rains. Once you start doing the math for wooden structures, the cost quickly skyrockets. On top of high costs to support such loading, you have yet to deal with the issue of water seepage, insect vulnerabilities (termites) and wood rot. That leaves us the two building materials. Steel and concrete. With the circular nature of Hobbit Holes, one could use large steel pipe, but no source exists that makes low cost steel structures that I could find. But concrete... yes... concrete is the ticket. Elliptical Concrete Pipe With Top Flange. Can be used for skylight or chimney. All around the world, companies manufacture pre-formed concrete pipe... LARGE concrete pipe. Concrete pipe has several advantages for making Hobbit Holes. They come with an assortment of flanges, protrusions and options that allows for the creation of windows, skylights, doors, garages, fireplaces and chimneys. As one can see, using such materials for the construction of a Hobbit Hole would make for a comfy home. Or at least a conversation piece. Although the elliptical may have some aesthetic advantages, the use of round concrete pipe may be the best choice. The main reason is that you will need to have room to place plumbing, ventilation, electrical and communication hardware though out the Hole. The best solution for this is the area under your flooring. The best example of this type of construction is in naval architecture with sailboats. Plan all of your plumbing, ventilation and wiring, then figure out how much space you will need, vertically. Maybe the use of multiple styles, circular for halls and elliptical for rooms, is the best idea. The halls would need the most space for plumbing, etc as all rooms connect to it. That is the design philosophy I have used for Bag End 2. The Floor Plan for Bag End 2. The purple rooms use elliptical pipe. The green is circular pipe and the red are for junction boxes. (click to enlarge) The proper name for this type of home is "earth berm," but Hobbit Hole will be the new hot term in use by the staff at Architectural Digest any day now. I am sure of it. There are some other similar designs and building strategies for constructing homes of this type. "Rammed Earth" homes are homes that are built using spare tires filled with packed dirt. The upside is that are recycling old tires, glass bottles and other uncommon materials to build a house and low cost for heating and cooling. The down side is the incredible labor involved with packing thousands of tires with dirt. Also, there is some concern with rammed earth homes in areas frequented by earthquakes. "Earth Ship" is another type of house. These may include rammed earth construction, but the main goal is off-grid living. Typically, these homes are found the the American West and are of an adobe design.
It's good to see they've scaled the hole up to human size... That would be an expensive playhouse otherwise...
I would wonder what sort of person builds their own hobbit hole in their backyard. But it seems the second you question this sort of thing, someone's gone and done it... The whole thing is nice in a theoretical sense, but the plans come off as being downright silly. However, something like this may be useful for someone planning to do 3D models, and looking for a starting place for research (which, appropriately, most of the pictures on the webpage show).
...that or the next over priced luxury preschool...
In Toothopolis...Cavity Creeps make holes in TEETH!
Do not build hobbit holes in large metropolises with pre-existing transit systems. Cohabitation may occur.
As anyone who has visited Matamata (where Peter J filmed Hobbiton) can tell you, it's the original hobbit hole...
visit it at high speed if you must - I recommend at least 125 kph.
I am a leaf on the wind
...and play Magic "The Gathering."
And to think how much trouble some people must already have getting a date to "come in for coffee". Wow.
Then again, I want a Hobbit Hole too.
"Sometimes people go too far in being a fan of a great movie or of a great book."
Case in point:
"After seeing The Fellowship of the Ring, you have probably fantasized about living in a Hobbit Hole and lazing about in the shade."
Um... not sure how to break this to you, but NO I HAVEN'T.
*shakes head*
Too far gone, this one is.
My other sig is also a
The circular pipe is available in diameters (OD or ID, doesn't state) up to 144 inches. Now, I'm taller than average (6'2") but with a floorspace of, say, 1 ft for plumbing, electrical, and the obligatory Cat5. That would leave 11 ft of height. That would feel like being hobbit size walking around in Bag End.
Now, the other thing to deal with is your local building code. Would they let you live in what is, essentially, sewer pipe?
It would make a pretty cool bomb shelter/computer room.
No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow. - Cmdr. Susan Ivanova
Simply by supplying these plans as a package with a Thoreau's Walden, you too can be rid of the biggest smelliest most-hardcore tolkien geeks in your neighborhood. :)
click
Cover your eyes and click this link!
I do not see room for where all the cat5 and fiber is placed!! This isn't a geek house, this is hell! ;)
I wonder what wifi's range is underground?
Great. Just what a Geek needs. Something the promotes sunlight deprivation all teh more. *shakes head*
Really though, half of what makes Bag End from the movie so damn kewl was the woodwork and *THAT* isn't cheap. My uncle did it for a living (before going back to school again and becoming a newspaper editor) and the cost of godly woodwork of the Hobbit or Elf is enough to buy another whole house...
Do you know why the road less traveled by is littered with the bones of the unwary?
Dude, you're a shitty troll. You had a comment moderated to 5 just last week.
Fuckin' poser.
Build a monolithic dome and cover it with sod. Should work just as well. Monolithic domes are cool.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
Malcom Wells wrote seriously about this in the 70's. Check out The Earth-Sheltered House, a real classic.
There is no need to use a SlashDot sig for SEO...
My uncle built a rammed earth barn that's half underground and located in a part of the country where the theme music to Deliverance is still on the top 40. He's "off the grid" and lives with his horses like a wild man torn between the Gratefull Dead and his LOTR books.
If his generator powered Mac Classic could see pictures of that hobbit hole he would be on his backhoe tonight, digging pits all over perfectly good hills.
Fear the pot smoking LOTR fanatics.
Hey, if this can be done, market the sucker to celebrities that want to get away from the media...have one of these tucked into a hill...and the stalkers, paparazzi, crazy fans..won't even know they're hiding there.
or if you're extremely introverted....
Once I dreamed I lived in one of these caves, and it had a cool ethernet connection.
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
...hiding hobbit corpses in the basement.
BOUILLA!!!
he goes happy-go-jacky on the big white guy like a donkey eating a waffle...sweet sassy mo-lassy!
Nobody old is going to build one of these because
they'd feel too stupid, and nobody young is going
to build one of these because they are already
spending all their money on fartpipes and wheels
for their hondas so they can pretend they are
"fast and furious". I don't see a market for this.
The most important thing any republican needs to know.
... someone is reading a logfile and saying "wtf???"
Smart move keeping the site simple - serve it up, IIS!
"Consider yourself a member of a virtual corporation with Mr. Torvalds as your Chief Executive Officer." - Linux Advocac
It's gotta be weird to call up the cable company and say you want your hobbit hole to have a broadband connection. Good luck telling them your address. "Just drive through the woods, over the grass field. I'm three hills down on the right." Are those vans good for offroading?
Actually, all you need is monolithic.com. Can't believe I've refered to that site twice in recent comments, though ;)
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
You know, a lot of people were way ahead of the curve on this business of living in sewer pipes. Ironically, they are known as the homeless.
So when yuppies want to abandon their nice cozy frame houses for sewer pipes, may I propose they kill two birds with one stone and just trade?
Sometimes people go too far in being a fan of a great movie or of a great book.
Meh. The true freaks (or at least, the dedicated and skilled ones) work at the Weta Workshop, who was in charge of making every prop in the movie series.
Some of the work that is shown on the Special Extended DVD Edition is truly amazing.
Round doors in hills? Don't know if they were Tolkien-inspired but take a drive through Saskatchewan some time. There have been homes like this for some time.
Y2K bunker--> hobbit hole conversion kit.
Eloi are stupid, throw morlocks at them!
Just imagine a beowulf cluster of these ... no, wait. That'd be Hobbiton, wouldn't it?
i am a soviet space shuttle
...when the Internet would have a guide on how to "build" a hole.
I'll form my OWN solar system! With blackjack! And hookers!
Check this shit out. Funny stuff.
I want to know how to build my Precious! ^^
The ENIAC Demo Competition
I'd love a Hobbit Hole, but at these prices, I'm going to have to win the Lottery!
I don't need to be made to look evil. I can do that on my own. - Christopher Walken
The building codes in most states in the US require a window large enough to be used as a fire escape in EVERY bedroom. This is difficult to do in a berm house. Also, berm houses in general have a problem with moisture condensation on the interior walls, so they're not for people who don't enjoy mold and mildew.
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
If the cost of laying huge concrete pipes underground puts you bit over your budget, and you happen to be near the Calgary area, you can always console yourself with dinner at The House At Bag End, the world's finest Tolkien-themed restaurant!
i'm thinking Robert-Redford/Harrison-Ford/ would have trouble explaining his hobbit hole to chicks without them running for the door...
A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
Finally, the perfect little dwelling for me and my rich as hell friends to have Second Breakfasts, Luncheons, Tea, Dinner, Supper etc.
Merry will be pleased.
I have to say, it does sound somewhat cool (if slightly OTT) to have someone build a habitable hobbit hole. Yet when I looked at your floor plans, I gave up on it.
Your fantastic elliptical tubing is still leaves you with the problem of curved floors. There are 3 solutions to this. 1) fill the room with enough dirt/concrete/whatever so that you make a flat floor. But this severely reduces you headroom, which is already at a premium. 2) Cut open the tubes and only use the top half + some square walls. But here you loose all of the advantages of prefab that you mentioned. 3) live with curved floors. While you might be able to live comfortably, the only place with enough headroom will be in the middle of the room. As well, anyone who has ever had to pick out furniture for a curved wall can tell you what a pain it is; furnature for a curved floor would be a nightmare, it would all have to be custom and wouldn't be easily relocatable within the room.
One other thing, do you have an entrance/exit othe than the garage?
Sorry, but cut/paste from the site is as generous as it gets today. Feel free to extract and format to your heart's delight.
However, calling it a hobbit hole turns it into a time and money consuming quest to prove to everyone in the neighborhood that you'll never breed.
The only reason I keep my Windows partition is so I can mount it like the bitch that it is.
I don't know about you, but I prefer to watch old porn flicks and imagine I'm the pizza delivery boy...
A hobbit hole! Now THAT would help me woo the ladies!
I do security
look at his schematic! if you have over 8 guests, you apparently need to use the master bathroom, cause its way bigger! ;)
"Old man yells at systemd"
I don't know if it's still there, but there was house tricked up to look like a Hobbet hole on Rt. 206 North of Princeton, NJ twenty years ago. Round doors and windows would have made it a little hard to sell without a major rehab. The owner was an early adopter.
Every geeks dream, a hole to live in.
Then we could just urinate and defecate in our rooms and it would be expected, after all, it's in the ground!
Somehow I doubt the thing would be "Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort."
Bunkers, airplanes, and now hobbit-holes. There's a trend going on here!
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Hobbits usually put their pipeweed *in* their pipes to smoke it, but rolling it in joints and hanging out in pipes will do in a pinch, I suppose, as long as you're not overly adventurous about it and it doesn't make you late for dinner...
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Maybe I shouldn't do this, but all that sewer pipe housing idea just makes me want to go...
COWABUNGA!
-- Tino Didriksen / projectjj.dk
My boyfriend always calls me a Hobbit, and says I live in a Hobbit Hole (even though I live in the dorms). It's nice to see that I'm not the only one out there who lives in one! My boyfriend even made me a foam sword and told me to name it "Sting."
Troll?! They aren't supposed to appear until page 32! (Hobbit, Methuen edition) CUT! CUT! Everyone get back in your places please. Ready, camera! Action!
People, I honestly don't think I've seen anything as pathetic as this poster.
Instead of working on a unique project requiring lots of engineering knowledge, creativity, and imagination, people's dreams stop at buying some pre-made car, as if that makes them important. Or hording lots of money showing how good they are.
Instead of just watching a film tonight just fantasing about doing something, I urge you to go out and do something, and stretch yourself!
I think most grown men already have girls, money and cars. What you describe aren't really the dreams of grown men anymore than living in a hobbit hole. Besides some of us have done that whole "being a grown up" thing and are getting quite bored with it all.
If you want to dream that you are a hairy headed Mel Gibson why shouldn't this guy dream he is a hairy footed Elijah Wood? To each his own I say.
Haven't been around slashdot very long eh?
heh
--DarkFrog
If the dead rise again, we're going to have some serious population control issues.
http://www.mtv.com/onair/realworld/
I'd rather have my own dark tower. It impresses the neighbors and strikes fear into the hearts of travelling mormons.
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
Judging by the Yoda-speak
"Yoda-speak" you can call it, but the technical term is "OSV typology", for "Object Subject Verb".
J.R.R. Tolkien's hobby was building fictional worlds and languages. The Lord of the Rings began as his back-story for a book about Elvish tongues. Some of his languages might have been OSV, but most were SVO like English.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Sounds like your bf is a git.
- But when a grown adult man daydreams about living in an underground wizard cave instead of about girls, money, and cars, I believe that there is a problem.
WowDeeK
I saw the history channel show about this and I thought it was one of the coolest things I had seen in a long time. But now it's for sale... check it out...
underground fortress
But when a grown adult man daydreams about living in an underground wizard cave instead of about girls, money, and cars, I believe that there is a problem.
I don't doubt he dreams about girls; but some of us need other, more realistic dreams. Cars just aren't everyone's thing. He who truely dreams about money is lost; they get to spend their life in the cold and heartless chase of cash.
I doubt any of us live on grounds that are vast and mountainous enough to actually build one of these holes.
You doubt that any one of the tens of thousands of slashdot readers lives near a hill? Go back to geography class; just because you live in Kansas, doesn't mean we all do.
being a hero and saving everyone from a death by drowning. [...]imagine that you're a sexy, long-haired Mel Gibson.
Because these are such realistic goals. Instead of dreaming we're a hero in the ancient past, let's dream we're a seductive commoner in the recent past (who, IIRC, only saved one person) or a sleazebag who lies, and steals his way to the top and is a complete cad, but it's all right, because he has charisma and is Mel Gibson.
You offer us the sad myths of the modern world instead of the great myths of fantasy. Sorry, not interested. I'll try and take my modern world straight, and let my fantasies go where they may.
Concidering that "Progress" has torn and abused most of the land that humans have inhabited. I don't see much of a green future for the Hobbit House that would have lush hills for it to be situated in. Though it is quite a neat idea for housing, being underground I'd imagine it's more insulated then an above ground house.
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
Nothing like a sewer pipe though, depending on what you had to drink, it may start to look like one...
If your children ever found out how lame you are, they'd murder you in your sleep
You, sir, are a fucking idiot.
mstyne: real name, no gimmicks
There are technical solutions to all the other problems. You can insulate or even heat your walls to avoid moisture problems. If you put a moiture barrier and insulation between your walls and the the air inside you should not have condensation. Who wants to look at concrete walls anyway? Fire, flood and proper ventilation and lighting are real design concerns, but they are balanced by thermal insulation safety from storms and man made hazards. The author's design had large windows or doors on every large room.
I'll admit, I want to live in a bomb shelter. The author's design was not roomy or sturdy enough for me. Culvert is not cheap either. Still, it's a nice effort.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
As anyone who's read the book knows, hobbits do not accept human authority in any way, shape or form. They generally like to stay out of sight of humans, particularly the tax collecting and permit inspecting variety - and living in a hole in the ground certainly is consistant with that end.
Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the War Room!
[o]_O
The way to go is tunnel liner, bolt-together segments used for making tunnels and small underpasses. Diameters to 6 meters are available standard, and to 36 meters by special order. Various cross sections are possible by mixing curved sections of different radii. You can get a nearly flat floor if desired.
Armtec's tunnel liner system isn't particularly good looking inside, but there are nicer ones, such as the ones used in newer Jubilee Line stations of the London Underground. The Tube is a good place to look for ideas on how to use curved underground spaces.
Would it be possible to position mirrors perfectly to bounce sunlight around throughout the entire thing?
It would be kind of cool to have my server room under my backyard.
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
Wow. What can I say?
Wish I could buy one.
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
An ObviousGuy surely has incite; You are a adroit.
Not many trolls have the timing and skill as you, a first post even.
to death, just so my bint of a girlfriend and go
of and marry someone else. No thank you.
Watch, What Women want, and imagine i've got Mel Gibsons looks plus telepathic powers, but then
only use them to become even more pussy whipped
than a regular joe.
I do believe that was genuine woman poster either that or someone totally whipped, only
a woman would think that mens dreams ought to be
about selflessly serving woman.
--
"we live in a post-ideological world..." - Billy Bragg.
actually, there are millions of people out here in "flyover country" who live in just as "real world" situation as any mega-urban dweller, but consider living in some man made high rise uhhh "targets" we think of them in the middle of millions of other people bathed in 24/7/365 mega pollution and noise to be lots stranger than a hobbit hole. Lots weirder and lots stranger. To each their own and stuff.
With that said, an alternative to the concrete pipe is to use a large diameter galavanized road gutter pipe. They can be quite large as well. These are in place all over the nation right now, useful as tornado or bomb shelters, or to use day to day as practical root cellars. Yes, some people grow most if not all of their food and need a place to store it. What a concept, almost like having a "store" out in the back yard. It's kinda nifty really.
Really, the hobbit hole is just a cooler way to do a "basement" one with a superior roof than a flammable building. Now I think living in a novel fantasy world is silly, but the concept of cave-as-shelter is quite robust in human history, as it has quite a bit of practical value. After all, our manmade buildings are just that, artifical "caves" of a sort, square, tall, whatever, it's still the same sort of concept, "stuff" around you that protects you from the outside elements. This guys gig is just fantasy art as shelter, sort of day to day performance theater I guess you might classify it as. Who knows he might find his fantasy chick to dig it with him. Ever been to a scifi con? Ain't as many grrls, but there's *enough*.
You deal with moisture/condensation problems in earth bermed or completely underground shelters by using an air heat exchanger/condenser. In a pinch, it's actually usefull to recover the moisture, as it's distilled water. They do similar I *think* on high tech space craft. Ya never know when water might come in handy and maybe the ole tap ain't working. Stuff happens. Airplanes into buildings. Maybe sometime we get nukes in cities. Maybe sometime soon, too, BTW. Or something like that. Hope not. I won't bet against it though, not the way this old whirrled is shaping up. I think michio kaku nailed it. Misuse of element 235 and it's cousins is gonna more or less slow down the old human race to a desparate crawl sometime. Well, and to that I'll add the modern day Dr. Frankensteins and their biocootie inventions. Another subject another day.
I thought the novel Dune had interesting survival aspects to it, the stillsuits were a cool idea.
Screw being a hobbit, I want to be a ninja turtle in _my_ sewer-home.
Can you get DSL in a Hobbit Hole???
I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
So that's where sink holes come from... when people move?
I would imagine if one lined the sunlight "tubes" with mirrors, and get the light to focus into single beam, and then use creative refraction to scatter the light throughout the room. True sunlight during the day, through an entire house, would be pretty damn cool.
Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion house is not completely underground but it does look cool...
//WARNING: Flash site
Dymaxion house
This space for rent
"All Hobbits had originally lived in holes in the ground, or so they believed, and in such dwellings they still felt most at home; but in the course of time they had been obliged to adopt other forms of abode. Actually in the Shire in Bilbo's days it was, as a rule, only the richest and the poorest Hobbits that maintained the old custom. The poorest went on living in burrows of the most primitive kind, mere holes indeed, with only one window or none; while the well-to-do still constructed more luxurious versions of the simple diggings of old. But suitable sites for these large and ramifying tunnels (or smials as they called them) were not everywhere to be found; and in the flats and the low-lying districts the Hobbits, as they multiplied, began to build above ground. Indeed, even in the hilly regions and the older villages, such as Hobbiton or Tuckborough, or in the chief township of the Shire, Michel Delvig on the White Downs, there were now many houses of wood, brick, or stone. These were specially favoured by millers, smiths, ropers, and cartwrights, and others of that sort; for even when they had holes to live in, Hobbits had long been accustomed to build sheds and workshops."
That's from the prologue in the fellowship of the rings.
I actually did a screen grab from the Lord of the Rings extended version set, on the 3rd disc, there is a floorplan for Bag End from one of the creative designers of the movie.. it's a much nicer design than this
I'll email the picture per request (here)
"I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
We got these http://www.sunpipe.com/ currently available which do just that: pipe the sun in where you want it.
First rule of holes; When in one, stop digging.
Too bad there would be no other computers to network with. May have to count on setting up a lan party.
I guess it would be cheating, but I think it would be much easier to build the Hobbit hole on a flat piece of land. You could start by building an ugly, yet very strong, steel and concrete structure that is basically a whole bunch of rectangles. Then on the inside you build your fancy shmancy wooden interior framework. Then you rent a dumptruck and pour a whole ton of dirt on the damn thing, landscape the top, and make sure only the pretty wood parts stick out. Ta da! You have yourself a beautiful, safe, and most of all ceiling-friendly house! It could even be two stories. In any case, it would be much easier and much prettier then digging yourself a small sewer to live in. (and gasp, it might even have a front door) And just to nitpick... how does your car fit in that garage? Espicially if you have an SUV (oh well, we just wont worry about those idiots). Silly shlashdotter, sigs are for wimps.
Ma and Pa drive by, "Look Pa, there must be a nest of Geeks movin in." "Git ma gun from the rack Ma!"
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
According to the floorplan we have:
the Zen room,
2 bedrooms (really the same room with different lightbulbs - pink for sluts and blue for assholes),
the Master bedroom (chains included)
the living room where hobbits folk dance,
the dining room,
the Foyer, (why is the banister sticky?)
and the Library. (this man has no fucking neck!)
Note that Hobbit Holes don't have phones, asshole!
-
- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
I want to make it clear that this is extremely clever, and now I want one! But, here's a few ideas I have.
I don't think ceiling ductwork is optimal for the application - in fact, placing everything subfloor may be more optimal for aesthetic value, especially for the CAT5 and electrical. (Rather than have things plug into the ceiling or have the wall outlets run down from there, wire them up from the floor. Less intrusive.) It might help to raise the floor a couple of inches to accomodate everything, but the impact if you remove the ceiling (as it were) should be trivial. on the other hand, if you are required to install sprinklers by your local building code...well, still drop everything else below, but keep a trivial ceiling to accomodate the sprinkler system.
For acoustic purposes, the builder would be advised to place some kind of padding on the walls. Yes, I know, acoustic tiling is expensive and carpeted walls went out when the The Gobbler was torn down, but something should be done, or you won't be able to discreetly make love on the opposite end of the house from your guests with your SO.
Furnace and water should be placed centrally to all used utilities. In the floor plan, you will notice that the builder has the utility closet placed between the pantry and the secondary bath. I think if I were me, I would place the utility closet off of that unused corridor, facing into the center of the oblong there. It takes it a bit farther from the kitchen, but it puts it significantly closer to the master bedroom, and unless you heavily insulate the pipes, heat lossage will be cut down significantly by doing this. The problem can be countered of course by installing secondary heaters as appropriate.
The chimney in the kitchen is a very smart touch, but an exhaust system in the bathrooms would be very optimal to keep those after-use odors down. =O.o=.
Take that secondary bath away from that side corridor. Put another attached to the bedroom/study/zen room branch, and another on that other corridor that is not used in the floorplan. It may seem redundant, but you don't (for one thing) want bathrooms *too* close to the kitchen or pantry, and you'll find a bathroom closer to the bedrooms and common areas of the home to be of significant convenience.
And where's that fireplace in the living room, hmm? =^_^=
As mentioned in another post of mine, make sure you install an electro-osmotic pulse system to keep those walls dry and intact.
This sig no verb.
Why strike fear into the hearts of passing travellers, when you can strike lightning into their hearts instead?
Fiberglass is the way to go. Concrete in the ground isn't too good. My dad works for a fiberglass company, mainly in the area of manholes. He's shown me a lot of pictures of concrete manholes that basically rot out of the ground. Sure it'll be good for a few years, but you want to protect your investment! Fiberglass tanks can come just as big. Just need to put something on the inside so you don't get the itches.
OK, OK, you can get a wide load permit, a lowboy trailer, and a rigging company to move big cement pipe sections around.
Just live outside of the city limits. In general, building codes are something cities foist upon their inhabitants mainly because the close living arrangements of a city mean that an oops by one person can affect many. Some counties have building codes; some have fairly minimal codes (e.g., most barns in rural areas would not meet building code).
My in-laws live in a quaint little area that was once the bustling city of Rosita, Colorado. The silver ore ran out about a hundred years ago and the town pretty much went away. Its now considered unincorporated Custer County. No building codes although some areas do have CC&Rs. Population of the whole county was about 3,600 in the last census so LOTS of room. Lots of people living off grid or semi-off grid. One of their neighbors even has a below ground concrete house that probably comes pretty close to a hobbit hole adopted for Homo Sapiens. Even at an elevation of 8,800 feet they still manage to meet most of their heating needs with passive solar.
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.
Ben
Few weeks ago some kid in a honda with a fart pipe and all the other crap they put on those things pulls up beside me at a light and start revving the engine. Next thing I know I hear this BOOM!!!!!!!!!
and his hood is sitting crooked. The light turns green and just to be a dick, I floor it and unleash all 128 ponies under the hood of my saturn and squeel the tires a little. Later on I'm cruizin back through so I pull in to sheetz to get some smokes and his car is there dead. He's there with all his white friends. They all have that "blackcent" thing going on like they grew up in the hood. Turns out he had NO2 hooked up on a wide open throttle switch, and blew his engine in neutral like a dumbass. Hopefully he can get mommy and daddy to buy him another engine.
here!
Tomorrow, the farmer who owns the land that Hobbiton was built on, in The rolling farmlands of Hinuera in the Waikato will be opening for tourists!
Much of the infrastructure is still there.
Just thought you would like to know.
The preschool was situated in the mostly underground basement of a church and was quite damp and stinky as i'd assume a hobbit hole to be.. oh and there were lots of big trees.. (huh?).. maybe it had to do with all the little people running around.. who knows.
"If you are going through hell, keep going." - Winston Churchill
If you drive along Highway 280 from SJ to SF, a few miles past the intersection of 280 and 92, if you look to the right, you'll see a curious white hill-looking house made out of foamlike material. A almost identical replica to the "Hobbit Hole" described therein (in form, not in color, I mean).
My high school bio teacher's parents live (or lived) in there, IIRC.
There's 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
The Ballad Of Bilbo Baggins
In the middle of the earth in the land of the Shire
lives a brave little hobbit whom we all admire.
With his long wooden pipe,
fuzzy, wolly toes,
he lives in a hobbit-hole and everybody knows him.
Bilbo! Bilbo! Bilbo Baggins
He's only three feet tall
Bilbo! Bilbo! Bilbo Baggins
The bravest little hobbit of them all
Now hobbits are a peace-lovin' folks you know
They don't like to hurry and they take things slow
They don't like to travel away from home
They just want to eat and be left alone
But one day Bilbo was asked to go
on a big adventure to the caves below,
to help some dwarves get back their gold
that was stolen by a dragon in the days of old.
Bilbo! Bilbo! Bilbo Baggins
He's only three feet tall
Bilbo! Bilbo! Bilbo Baggins
The bravest little hobbit of them all
Well he fought with the goblins!
He battled a troll!!
He riddled with Gollum!!!
A magic ring he stole!!!!
He was chased by wolves!!!!!
Lost in the forest!!!!!!
Escaped in a barrel from the elf-king's halls!!!!!!!
Bilbo! Bilbo! Bilbo Baggins
The bravest little hobbit of them all
Now he's back in his hole in the land of the Shire,
that brave little hobbit whom we all admire,
just a-sittin' on a treasure of silver and gold
a-puffin' on his pipe in his hobbit-hole.
Bilbo! Bilbo! Bilbo Baggins
He's only three feet tall
Bilbo! Bilbo! Bilbo Baggins
The bravest little hobbit of them all
I was MUCH rather build something like Sauramon' tower. Which I'm sure violates every building code there is, but hey.. ;-) tower!
I wonder if it truly does pay itself off.
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
On the concept picture, it looks more like a cave. I mean, common! If you read The Hobbit, it clearly states there that hobbit holes are not caves, that they are very comfy and all rooms except the storage rooms have WINDOWS.
;)
I really don't see a lot of windows on that plan. The one in the movie was a real hobbit hole. But this one? It looks more like a hobbit prison
If a train station is a place where a train stops, what's a workstation?
Does it come with gardening instructions on how to grow your own genuine Hobbiton weed?
/. tradition.)
(Obviously I have not read the article in true
...There lived a slashdotter.
oh, wait a minute, they live under bridges.
Sig (appended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars)
The building codes in most states in the US require a window large enough to be used as a fire escape in EVERY bedroom.
Can you trick them with vidcam + plasma panels?
Lisp is the Tengwar of programming languages.
Awesome movie too. (Although it may not exactly cater to the Slashdot crowd...)
A.Your a woman and you read slashdot
B. You like tolkien etc.
C. Your really a woman.
And your boyfriend teases you with that, c'mon your a lesser goddes to most of the ppl here
I actually saw an underground house on TV - it's somewhere in the south of the UK. It was suprisingly large, airy and light - with a huge central room roofed with a dome of glass. Benefits included virtualy zero heating costs, an constant year round temperature (warm in winter, cool in summer), and minimal environmental impact. Plus you can have your garden on your roof !!
See: [Living Underground]Hobbit holes have to be comfy. Read the last part of the Lord of the Rings... You shouldn't even use concrete, I guess, to be authentic. And forget computers and cables.
I'm not getting the connection here. Could you explain?
and it's been around for years. This is just one way to implement it.
Earth sheltered construction simply means that part or all of a structure is below ground. There are lots of benefits including lower heating and cooling costs, less exterior wear, less noise from outside, and better integration with the environment. Issues such as condensation need to be dealt with, but don't present insurmountable problems.
A prefab concrete pipe is one way to go, but there are many other ways as well. I always thought that building a concrete "shell", using an arched shape for strength, covered with earth, (or built into a hillside), and finished on the inside to look like a regular house would be great. Lots of options for windows and doors, courtyards, etc. Doesn't have to seem like a hole in the ground.
There used to be something called the "Underground Space Center" at the University of Minnesota, that had a lot of material on earth sheltered construction. I found references to it when I searched, but couldn't find a link. A Google search with "earth sheltered construction" turns up a good list of links to start with if you're interested.
I always thought that well designed and implemented earth sheltered houses nicely integrated into natural surroundings would be totally cool. If you're going to do it, however, I suggest you do so before you get married. Most women don't seem to see the appeal...
Take a look at Neuschwanstein castle. They didn't even finish decorating it because it was so expensive (and King Ludwig took an unexpected swim with the fishes) but the bits they finished are quite tasty; some rooms took several years to decorate.
Now that's just plain stupid. There is more living space waisted in the halls than alloted for the rooms! Also, WHY?
This is the funniest/most distrubing thing I have ever seen.
My cousin built a house similar to this in the late 1970s. One year he went on vacation while his teenage son stayed home for the 2 or 3 weeks he was gone. The fans in the ventilation system were shut off accidently and the son never turned them back on. When he came back, the rooms in the rear of the house were filled with mildew, lots of mildew. It was on the walls, the beds, and in the bathrooms. This house is located on a farm in central Illinois.
Peter says he saved the human-sized Bag End set and might find a place to put it someday. He found it a rather nice relaxing dwelling.
Try visiting Mesa Arizona, the mormons built a pretty good sized temple there.
I'm pretty sure Sauron lives in the tower in Salt Lake City though, he's been sending a steady flow of dark riders out on mountain bikes for some time now.
12 feet is the "circular equivalent diameter" of their biggest pipe... which I read as the diameter of the circumscribed circle around this elliptical shape. Cut that circle in half, and we've only got six feet.
Since we're dealing with an ellipse, cutting it along its major axis will give us even less than that for headroom.
Hobbits only, please.
to play while building your own hobbit hole. (clicky)
So, you're short, you overeat, and you have hairy feet?
Nerd Alert!
.. you know about guys with big feet...
Hobbits are big where it counts for the ladies...
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
I grew up in an underground house. My parents weren't hippies, just environmentally conscious and interested in alternative building and heating methods. The house was designed in the late '70's. It is built into the side of a hill, so one side is fully exposed. The house is made mostly out of concrete. The floors and walls were poured, and the roof is made of precast beams (about 3' wide apiece). There is a large atrium in the middle of the house, covered by an A-frame that sticks up above the ground. The roof of the A-frame is made of passive solar panels, which lets in lots of light and heats the room fairly well in the colder months.
Some answers to common questions:
- Isn't it dark in the house?
A: Not at all. In fact, it's much lighter than most normal houses. The entire front of the house is open to the side of the hill, and is mostly windows. Each room on that side has probably 12' to 15' of windows in it. Furthermore, the atrium in the center of the house provides much more light than even the biggest skylight could.
- Isn't it cold and damp?
A: No. The exterior of the house was well-sealed when we built it, so moisture isn't a big problem. (There have been leaks over the years, but for the most part they've been easy to fix.) As for being cold, the fact that the house is underground helps regulate the temperature. It is easier to heat in the winter, and easier to cool in the summer because there is less house exposed to the outside conditions than with a normal house.
--Josh
It used to be Star Trek fans that scared me so much with their fanatisism. Now it's lotr fans. What'll we call these new equivalents of trekkies? Lordies? Ringers?
I love lotr, great books and (so far) great movies. But just like Star Trek fans sometimes people go too far. Normally I'd say this guy needs to get out his mom's basement and get a life. But if he plans to build his own hobbit hole he should get back in his mom's basement. In fact, she shouldn't let him out without adult supervision.
Hi all! /. I have gotten a lot of good feedback and ideas on how to make the structure better.
First I wanted to thank whoever posted this to
But allow me to make a few observations and corrections.
There are eight fire exits and they are listed on the site.
Six rooms, the ones most used, have direct sunlight. You may not be able to see the windows in the pictures, but you have windows in the master bath, master bedroom, living room, foyer, kitchen and dining room. Plus you have skylights in the zen room and the study.
The space under the floors is at least 18 inches deep which can leave you up to 9 feet of headroom. I think that is enough. The curved walls can also be used to build closets and trunks without taking up floor space or clog the halls.
I have some concerns with other building methods because of the crushing weight of soil that would need to be dumped on the structure. The plan would not be to excavate, but to find a somewaht flat ground, lay the pipe, apply several layers of moisture barrier and then cover with many feet of soil and landscape. Rain itself would add several TONS of roof loading in a matter of minutes. Also, the point of this is to have a LOW amount of labor-hours. Most rammed earth structures takes years of spare time to build.
The use of pipe means you can configure the dwelling anyway you want; ringed, linear or multilevel. for example, if you build it as a ringed structure, you can have an open-air garden in the middle with all rooms being open to it. My example is just ONE example.
My goal for this site was to simply come up with yet ANOTHER idea for home construction that is not based on the traditional house. Who knows if anyone ever builds it? As I said on the site, I am just "expressing my inner architect."
Storm Bear Williams
Mirror, anyone?
...so I could drive him insane by constantly refering to him as Tinky Winky. Time for Teletubbie Bye-Bye...
Yeah, I am posting this late, but I couldn't resist.
Bammkkkk
www.sguil.net
The Analyst Console for NSM
I imagine your wife would have no problems with me showing up with a backhoe, digging a bigg hole, throwing you and ALL your computer shit in it, and finally covering the hole back up again?
That sort of accident happens more often than you'd think. For some years I did bits and extras. Last production I worked on was "Darkman". In the carnival scene where Our Hero's face melts and he goes running off across the tarmac, he smacks into an innocent bystander's backside and keeps on running.
:)
Well, the bystander was *me*. It was not only not scripted, I had no idea he was coming my way (I was looking the other direction at the time, and we peons hadn't been told anything but to stand over yonder and act like we're chatting)... and because of the mask, Our Hero couldn't clearly see where he was going, either. Hence.. *clonk!* "WTF?? Hey, watch it!"
They did 3 or 4 more takes after that, but this was the shot they used in the final cut. More than likely there were several takes for the scene with the Gandalf vs. the low ceiling incident too. But as a rule these accidents (which are even more common in series TV) lend an extra realism to the scene above and beyond what good acting and good scripts can manage, so if all else goes well, they're very likely to be the shots that get used.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
Check it out. Problem solved. monolithic.com
Actually, with appropriate permits to allow for road closures etc, you can move anything that 1) the roadbed will support, 2) can fit between existing obstacles without damaging them, and 3) can be got under overhead power lines (tho for a suitable fee, the utility companies will usually unstring them for the duration).
I've seen large 3-storey houses, a brick office building, and a full-sized barn being moved. (I have a photo of the barn as it goes down the road in front of my place.) Here in SoCal, the rate to move a single-storey house is about $150 per square foot. Some specialty developers move and renovate classy old houses (which are often free for the hauling) as it's often cheaper than building a new house from scratch.
Anyway, size is not really an issue; there are companies that specialize in moving oversized loads of every description.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
The biggest problem I can see in the whole thing is egress. Most current building codes require at least two direct means of leaving a bedroom, and some require it for other rooms as well. Now this isn't an issue in standard contruction, you have windows. however in that design there there isn't anything but a door back for the rear two bedrooms...
Although I think this an interesting idea I think it has some issues that would need to be worked out.
Well, personally I've always wanted a treehouse. Not the most practical in most climates, but damn, the view is good!!
;)
When I was a kid we built a sort of two-storey treehouse with a stairway on one side and a trapdoor on the other. Too bad adults can't have that much fun.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
My mother used to run a coffee shop in the basement of the Iowa State Campus Lutheran Church called "The Hobbit Hole" in the 70's. So Friley, (it's the only dorm dark enough to be called a hobbit hole) cannot be. Anyways, Friley is much too large and complex to be a hobbit hole.
Look under the 'cross-section' link at the bottom of the page.
-T
Their main building material is tires rammed with earth, and a wood roof on top. They build it into a hillside facing South (if you are in the northern hemisphere) and put big, double paned windows in it. Then the whole thing is buried (except for the windows, obviously).
-- I have monkeys in my pants.
Ok. I am an idiot.
Note to self: Read entire article before posting.
-- I have monkeys in my pants.
--yes, I have suffered this before, all it takes is *one* squash plant too many and all of a sudden the local economy is thrown into mass chaos turmoil, "here, have some free squahs", "no,I insist, try some of mine". Never fails, then you have squash ice cream sqaush casserolle, squssh salad, baked fried boiled raw stewed whatever SQUASH until you are ..well.. squished and squeamish of squash.
Not to mention but I will anyway the dreaded "now what?!?, I grew some watermelons now I have 500 lbs of watermelon that needs eating like right now".
yep, been dere, done did dat.
better a git than an AC.
Where's the passion in your life, lady?
Best Slashdot story ever. Construction slated for January.
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
I'm short, I don't overeat, and my feet are not hairy, but the nickname sticks ;).
Rather than living in a sewer pipe, I'd much rather live in this underground house.
Input error. Replace user and press any key to continue.
I was one of a handful of outsiders who got to go into the shelters. The corrugated steel plates were exposed, and the overall effect was more Das Boot than LOTR.
In their rush to beat the impending disaster, the Church did a poor job of preparing the soil and backfilling around these structures. The shelters ovalized a bit more than they should have, and a few of their fuel tanks broke open and leaked. Any hobbit-hole builders who want to avoid this kind of problem should check out the Handbook of Steel Drainage and Highway Construction Products for advice before you build.
This isn't a hobbit hole, it's a habitrail!
This sig no verb.
Hi nigger.
YOU, SIR, are WORSE THAN HITLER, and if I ever meet you, I WILL KICK YOUR ASS!!!
Fight the Troll Blacklist
The locals live under ground.
e dy .shtml
http://www.walkabout.com.au/locations/SACooberP
Just do a google search on "Coober Pedy" and read away.
ln -s
Another book on Earth Sheltered Housing is The $50 and Up Underground House book by Mike Oehler. He has a site at Undergroundhousing.Com where you can read about how he does it. It looks like a truly innovative way to build one of these for very little money and a great deal less work than rammed earth construction. Worth checking out!
"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." - Hanlon's Razor
THE STORY OF CREATION
...
or
THE MYTH OF URK
In the beginning there was data. The data was without form and null, and
darkness was upon the face of the console; and the Spirit of IBM was moving
over the face of the market. And DEC said, "Let there be registers;" and
there were registers. And DEC saw that they carried; and DEC separated the
data from the instructions. DEC called the data Stack, and the instructions
they called Code. And there was evening and there was morning, one interrupt
-- Rico Tudor
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