Ultimate Secure Home

This is an intense level of security. I would be concerned about the sacrifice of social conditions if I entered such a dwelling, even if it is entirely secure and lovely.

However, a similar style dwelling can be produced for about half the price of a conventional house, and with a tiny fraction of the annual maintenance costs and labor.'

First I would pack down earth and lay a level over an area about 30' square. I would embed corrugated metal tubes in the earth about 3-4" wide every ten feet and on top of that, lay the house's foundation using 1/2" chicken wire, suspended by small posts into square segments every several feet [5-6' square to hold up the chicken wire would be fine]. Pull the wire taut and stack more chicken wire to a point of perhaps 5-8 layers deep. Then pour in Portland cement evenly until it fills over the top at least 1/2".

This will produce a ~4-7" foundation of ferrocement capable of holding 550kg/cm2. That turns into 16500kg/foot. With a 7" foundation, every centimeter of your foundation will withstand about 17 tons of pressure before breaking. This is outstanding performance. The roof will withstand the same. You could build a normal house on top of this house, and you just might...

You can either put boards over the cement on the metal sections to continue work before allowing the floor to dry or you can wait and walkabout.

After the floor is set I would have the prearranged layout [I hope you read the directions before you started] iced up with the metal poles and chicken wire arrangements, and set in any metal pieces you'd choose onto the chicken wire and leave the window spaces. Add kitchen countertops and shelving or cabinetry if you choose. It is also possible to make swinging one or two layer cement doors. Then trowel the cement onto the standing wall chicken wire, probably two wire layers thic. The premixed cement should stick in between the chicken wire and hang there until dry.

You will also probably want to install a woodburning stove, which you can build with cement right into the structure, or if you'd like cast iron put a modest attachment, and build the cement or thickmetal pipe going up as part of your wall arrangement. You may choose to have this chimney reach 10 or 15 feet above the top of the house, for the possibility of a naturally heated greenhouse above.

Then the walls are done. Do the same chicken wire setup for the ceiling of the single-layer/floor home and cement that in as well and you are finished with the houseframe. Once this house dries, give it about two weeks to become ~90% hardened, you should bury it with dirt, except for wide portions around the windows, of whatever size you have chosen. You may also want to put reflective portions on the hills beside the windows to bring more light, or add cement shutters for those blustery days.

The roof of such a building needs to be domed to spread weight from the earth and structures above. This can be done with masses of cement or a freespace inside the cement, probably a wooden box or somesuch. You may want to put plastic over this dome to ensure that water does not leak into your home from above. That was what the pipes below the house were for too. Pipes here might not be a bad idea so long as they are sealed from the outside.

Then a layer of cement over the dome, and you're ready to totally waterproof the top portions and bury the roof. Give it about 3-4' of good earth and that earth will be good to you. If you made a side opening in the house with stairways leading up to the roof you can encase that portion and have it lead to walk on top of the house, where you will build a greenhouse.

This greenhouse might be made of wood frame with a metal framed ceiling and have the warm chimney pipe running through it to its glass or plastic roof where the smoke would disperse. This is also a good place for a windmill or solar paneling. Give the structure a 3-4' lip of cement or wood to offer some privacy and then plastic or glass walls, plant in the unfinished floor, and you've got a greenhouse.

In the home, lay down rugs, paint the place whatever color you like, and be sure to include piping and wiring in your home's internal structure. It should stay cool in summer and warm in winter without much effort or fuel.

Use methods described below to dig a well, build a ferrocement cistern next to the house, and you might want to hire someone to lay a leachfield for the septic tank. But the tank is just three big boxes with connecting holes in them and some bacteria leading to these long beholed pipes in a field. And then you've got a dang house and it's yours on the cheap. Form plain land and using only about $15-20K of building materials. The cement should be about $8K and you'll probably need about an acre and a half of chicken wire for the whole project, which should come to about the same as the cement, maybe a little more. It's home.