Planning To Build A Custom-Built Luxury Home? Consider Going Underground

If you are planning to build a custom-built luxury home, you may have not considered building the home underground. If you are thinking your home will be cold, dark, and smell like soil, then you will be surprised that this is not the case. You can also still have all the same luxuries of a conventional home. Below are four types of custom-built underground homes you could choose from and their benefits.

Underground Home Types

The type of underground home you can choose depends on the location of your home, the depth of the soil, and the construction method. Four types you will find include:

  • Atrium: This type of underground home is also known as a courtyard home. The rooms in the home are built under the ground around a sunken courtyard that allows light to shine in.
  • Elevational: The builder builds the home into the side of a hill. The front of the home is left open.
  • Post, Shoring, and Polyethylene (PSP): With this type of underground home, the ground is excavated, and then posts are sunk into the ground. Shoring boards are placed between the earth and the posts. Polyethylene plastic sheets are used for waterproofing and placed behind the shoring.
  • Constructed cave: The home is tunneled into the earth. This may be the most expensive option because its construction process is the most dangerous - soil and rock could collapse on the project. 

Benefits of Building an Underground Home

There are many benefits of choosing an underground home when compared to a conventional home. Because they are underground, these homes are more energy efficient. This is because the earth has a stable subsurface temperature. This means you can benefit from heat exchange and geothermal mass, which allows your home to stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer. If you also use a solar design when building your home, you could have hardly any energy costs.

Being underground, you are protected from tornadoes and fire so your home is a safe environment for you and your family.  This type of home blends in with the landscaping and is very aesthetically pleasing. This also reduces how much you will bother wildlife when building the home.

Talk with a home builder like Zicka Homes if you would like more information about whether an underground home would be right for you and your family and what type to consider.


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