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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."
Definitly need the concrete pipe here in Florida. In FL you can't dig more than a few feet before you hit water!
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
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...
Those concrete pipes come in sizes up to 144 inches. That would be 12 foot.
I think you'd fit.
The problem I have with the idea is basically you would be designing your home in the likeness of a sewer..
Never trust an atom. They make up everything.
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
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.
Just watched it last night. What I got out of it was that stepping backwards into the chandelier was scripted, but turning and slamming his head into the structural beam of the hobbit-hole was not in the script at all.
"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.
actually, if you go here and go into my Photo Album, the pic is in there
The full size one is still available per request
"I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
Yes. The head bumping was an accident, but Jackson referred to the bumping AFTER the chandelier. Gandalf hits the rafter as he turns. If you look once more you will see that he does not "bump his head" in the chandelier, he just backs into it.
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.
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.
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.
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