to the forum, Tiger and thanks for making your first posting on the Underground Complex.
We have a few members from down under. Don't hear from them too often but enjoy it when we do.
Flat land is not too bad if you have machinery. You can build a mound around the same construction. A few hundred years from now they will be able to write history about the mysterious mound builders in the outback.
Cost is a bit hard to nail down. I'll break it down a bit with some good guesses. I have purposely kept costs down as a protest against the American System of government prescribed housing, using materials built by companies willing to spend thousands on testing so that their materials will be able to be required by the codes.
We recently stopped a government septic scam that would have possibly cost every California homeowner and new builder thousands for testing every few years and around forty thousand or more for a system that had to be monitored. They even brought the guy they were in bed with to the town hall meeting. It ended with them having to leave towns with police protection as they tried to sell their scam. People were actually throwing things at them.
So - with recycling - such as the corrugated from the old mine building (famous down under I hear) we have kept costs down. We use things that are given to us, made by us or recycled. The local glass shop as well as a few gave us most of the glass. I bought some of the logs from a local logger - his seconds. I brought a few eucalyptus from our other property in the valley and used them in a few places as a test.
I would say in cash outlays for the main bare structure we have around $6000. Much of this cost was for purchased logs to speed up the process. That is the basic shelter.
The solar power is more expensive. Lets forget experimentation costs and guess as if I knew what I was doing. Batteries - set of 8 is the minimum required for our size system - around $2000.
Inverters - we have a large system as I wanted to make 240v to use our existing pump. New they would be around $6000 - I think we have around $2400 in the pair of Trace 4024s buying them used from a friend and Ebay.
Wind generator - around $2500 and I made the tower.
Tracker - $200 materials - I built the rest.
Solar panels - around 3200 watts at around $4.00 per watt but the last 500 watts (3700 total I think)was at around $2.50 with a regulator. Round it out to $16000 might be close.
I use a welder for a generator but already have several -
The above guesses don't count the other equipment that I already own anyway. Bobcat - medium truck cranes - backhoe.
The point is that this can all be done by hand but at a slower pace - smaller- more friends help - etc.
Man can shelter his family at a relatively low cost when he gets away from the illegal limits imposed by the good ol' boy system of government codes, corporate materials mandated because they paid off (through exorbitant fees)testing agencies and owned lawmakers wrote regulations requiring them, and sticks firmly to his God given right to provide shelter for his family.
I think codes are OK for people or others who hire outside contractors - to protect them from unscrupulous ones. They provide a minimum standard of safety. The safety rules are good for anyone to follow. I feel that they are ex-post facto law for owner builders who do their own building for their own families with what money they can afford. It is a very gray area that they do not push here in the mountains. We just sent our new building director packing for trying to citify us up here, and rip us off for every money grubbing parasitic opportunity he could find.
I firmly believe it is illegal for them to limit ones sheltering their family through monetary means and tricks regarding property laws and their right to regulate us on our PRIVATE PROPERTY making it an impossibility to provide shelter or make a living. That fact that some of us succeed in spite of them is nothing compared to the ones who don't even try because they know it is impossible for them.
My RV garage was built for about $200 - about 14' x 24' x 2 stories plus a full loft upstairs. It could have been made livable.
In my estimation, cost goes up when speed is desired or recycling goes down. If you need new, it costs money. The electrical system is a convenience but not necessary to sustain life. Depends on your needs. As I said - cost is hard to nail down.
My shop above around 1000 sf original- steel was all recycled or left over from jobs. The main cost there was the concrete floor - about 10 yards at $125 or so - $1250. Boat docks are used for some of the roof framing - free plywood between them -
I will continue a review of the CBRI light duty concrete floor I am now doing under the fireplace area and the rest of the great room. It costs way less than a slab floor.
So far I would say I have about 2 yards of sand at $20, 5 bags of cement at around $10, 2 bags of fibermesh at about $6.50 and one roll of jute netting at about $80 (except two additional given to us free) Sassy's digging labor - (she's cheap) OK - so I worked at it too. Color for the top $30 -
Total looks like around $200 with misc boards - nails etc for 400 sf or about $.50 per square foot for the floor.
The hard claystone is dug out only as necessary for the wood. We find that dry areas do not seem to have much problem with deterioration of the wood or insect damage even with little or no protection. Wood preservatives are not good in underground spaces. The active ground layer from the surface to about six inches or a foot down is the most destructive or areas that get wet and stay that way.
Where there may be a possibility of excessive moisture the wood is protected with plastic. The gray-green clay in the top pix gets very little moisture. The board around the inside of the wall and the floor sections are screeds I leave in place. They will later be sanded and varnished. The boards are direct nailed to the clay ground with 60d spikes. Nailing to it is similar to nailing to wood. We have successfully had untreated screeds in place in ground contact in the other section of the house for about 7 years. If the bugs get them - big deal - tear them out and install another one. About a 30 minute process I estimate.
