The Earth Sheltered Dwelling

[Tibbs735]

These are similar to the zemylankas that the jewish / polish resistance built in the woods.

[Mortblanc]

that seems a very labor intensive structure for a temporary dwelling. All the digging and framing and it looks like drainage would be an issue.

I will stick with a simple log cabin if I am called to build with no help from a sawmill. I have put up several cabins at historic sites and know that two men can put one up ready to use in two days if they have a chain saw. I have seen 4 men put one up in a weekend with only hand tools as a demonstration.

[ObongoPox]

A chainsaw is an absolute necesssity.37cc is lightweight and will do logs the width of the 18" bar,so long as you don't force it.My only concern is noise.Even in northern Sweden I was being buzzed by ranger choppers daily.In the UK, all chain-sawing for a stealth-build would need to be nocturnal and ideally under cover of wild weather.

[ObongoPox]

8" dia logs = optimal.Only cited 18" to show what a feather-weight,frugal saw can do.Ridge poles might be biggish,though.Just thought I had to qualify that before I'm corrected by the obligatory suburban clown pedant.

[Highlander]

I often think that we try a bit too hard at times,..ok, so this is a lovely set up, but as already has been said it will take a lot of work, especially if you have limited tools, and limited man power

Many people of the world have lived in `permanent` shelters that take just a couple of hours to put up, and can stand the riggers of a hard climate,.. take the North American Indian, their shelters were strong, warm, weather resistant, easy to put up,..and even easy to take down and move somewhere else.

Even early stone age man made shelters easier than the one shown, and all that was used was tree branches and mud,... we should resist looking at something that is beyond us, keep it simple and use designs that have shown to be well tested over the centuries

[Straight Shooter]

Totally agree HL , on a resent visit to St FAGANS museum (WELSH LIFE ) on the outskirts of Cardiff....I well recommend a visit, early structures of a round houses were being erected ...dead simple, easy to maintain , strong and warm , and easy to camouflage to, after all WTSHTF what would permanent really mean ?

[bigpaul]

once TSHTF i think we will have plenty of empty buildings to chose from without going to the hassle of building something from scratch.

[Straight Shooter]

That is very true BP , but along with a building ....is a road or track leading to it and more prone for some bugger to walk down it , or drive down it, just to check it out !

[bigpaul]

(2 May 2013, 17:32)Straight Shooter Wrote: That is very true BP , but along with a building ....is a road or track leading to it and more prone for some bugger to walk down it , or drive down it, just to check it out !

true, depending on how far out in the sticks you are, but even fields and woods have tracks into them and run off a county road somewhere.

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i've been looking at the price of land recently, went to look at some land a few days ago, no vehicular access (good in some cases i know) but it was all too steep and had a PUBLIC footpath running down one side of it, so we scrubbed that one.