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."

Comments

The pipe could be big enough

[Flounder]

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.

Re:The pipe could be big enough

[inode_buddha]

FYI: as a 3-year concrete worker and a 10-year construction worker in the US: the diameter refers to the ID, like all other pipe commonly available here. Hence, the 144-inch equivalent diameter would be 12 feet. I bet it could be finished and furnished comfortably with room to spare. If you can stand to live in what amounts to a straight-line home the only limiting factors (besides your budget and time) would be the local zoning board. Large energy savings are possible, since the temperature of the Earth's crust is fairly constant at about 53 deg. Fahrenheit. Take advantage of thermal mass, I say.

Bummer about the missiles/bombs tho... it's fairly routine to penetrate (greater than or equal to) 16 ft. thick concrete with conventional munitions... Also, I'd check out the local earthquake/flooding history in your area for the last millenia or so.

Having said all that, it would make a lot of sense to me to do one of these... if only I could get the financing.....

Malcom Wells wrote the book

[digitect]

Malcom Wells wrote seriously about this in the 70's. Check out The Earth-Sheltered House, a real classic.

Re:Sounds cozy, unless...

[jcoy42]

...you happen to be taller than the average hobbit.

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..

Just try getting it approved

[El]

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.

Re:Definitly

[JabberWokky]

I grew up sleeping underground in Florida.

Some notes: I grew up on a barrier island called Singer Island in a split level house. The hill it was placed on was almost certainly artificial. My bedroom window was about two inches above the ground. On a couple occasions I had very large insects (including two wolf spiders the size of a man's hand) come inside.

That said, I got a book for my birthday, "The $50 and Up Underground House", a very out of print (I think) book written by an old school serious hippie environmentalist. You don't see his type around because he actually practiced what he preached and went off to live in the hills. Very fun and interesting book about how to build a cheap house, basically single handed, that is very good shelter. Lots of 'out of the box' thinking, and highly original (solves all the problems associated with underground houses like drainage and pressure but completely rethinking and reinventing the idea). His houses are built with the entrance facing *up* a hill... but they work for very non intuitive but very common sense reasons. Nifty.

--
Evan

actual quote

[Daytona955i]

"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.