How come more people don't build homes underground?

[TitanDiddly]

Mental health.

I think it's a great idea. If I ever become rich and famous, I'm going to have my house in a bunker so 'Cribs' can over and be like 'WTF'?
It will have a shooting range.

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: RedRooster
Con:
Neighborhood children would find it funny to pee in your chimney.

Solution:
A 10 foot tall elctrified chain-link fence covered in concertina razor wire.

 

[RedRooster]

Originally posted by: Brutuskend

Originally posted by: RedRooster
Con:
Neighborhood children would find it funny to pee in your chimney.

OK, well there's one I hadn't considered.

Whenever anyone has a plan or idea, they should always take into account the most evil ruthless bastards in the world. If your plan still outsmarts them, it should be a gooder.
Such as, two pricks decide to stuff gas filled rags down the four or five ventilation tubes you have setup, and then smoke you out.
Those tubes and chimneys would be like shiny objects to little babies, anyone looking to make trouble would be drawn towards them.
The only way to make underground work slightly better would be to build it into rock, instead of soil. Then your reinforment costs would be less.

I watched a show last year about an old guy in Montana or up here in Canada, I forget which, who build his house into the side of a large rock. His house was huge, like 5000+ sqft, and it looked really nice and comfortable. A little dark, but he had a couple bay windows higher up the vertical rock face which helped. It was really nice, but probably really expensive to drill it all out. And all your "Pros" were what he enjoyed.

 

[RedRooster]

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: RedRooster
Con:
Neighborhood children would find it funny to pee in your chimney.

Solution:
A 10 foot tall elctrified chain-link fence covered in concertina razor wire.

I think any proud homeowner nowadays should consider one of those regardless.

 

[slag]

Originally posted by: Brutuskend
I can think of MANY advantages to this.
Quiet.
Never have to paint.
Never too hot or too cold, so you save BIG on heating and AC.
Major space savings. You could build your garage right on top of your house. I'm thinking you could just have a elevator in the garage to take you down to your living space.
Security against break ins!
Security against storms!
Never any broken windows.
Privacy!

On the other hand, I can think of very few downsides to this...
Only one that comes to mind is sewage disposal. But I'm sure there is a way to over come this.

another downside.. few windows.

People like to open their homes up to air them out and like the light and the windows.

 

[Baked]

OP is a spy from the Crab People.

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: slag

People like to open their homes up to air them out and like the light and the windows.

You mean the windows can open?!

:Q

I dunno, sounds a tad risky.

 

[nakedfrog]

I've always been fond of the idea myself. Get a few air purifiers and dehumidifiers, make sure all possible entrances for pests are sealed, and then go ahead and put out ant/spider/etc traps anyway, just to make sure. Cleverly disguise ventilation shafts by running them up through trees or rocks, or something similar.
I think I'd still have a trailer home or something else with a very humble appearance on the surface. But in the bedroom, you'd pull on a book or something and the bookshelves would slide away to reveal the Batpoles

 

[Mday]

water table anyone?

 

[rahvin]

Most states building code requires that any bedrooms have windows so that people can escape in the event of fire so you would either need some really deep window wells or it isn't going to happen.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Originally posted by: Brutuskend
I can think of MANY advantages to this.
Quiet.
Never have to paint.
Never too hot or too cold, so you save BIG on heating and AC.
Major space savings. You could build your garage right on top of your house. I'm thinking you could just have a elevator in the garage to take you down to your living space.
Security against break ins!
Security against storms!
Never any broken windows.
Privacy!

On the other hand, I can think of very few downsides to this...
Only one that comes to mind is sewage disposal. But I'm sure there is a way to over come this.

the US gov sells abandoned missile silos (they have tons of left over generators and whatnot in them).
150k to buy, 150k to fix. grand total of 300k for ~16,000 sq. ft. home

 

[everman]

There are plenty of very large underground complexes that demonstrate the feasibility, but it's just too expensive. Costs for heating/cooling would be very low though.

 

[rh71]

I wouldn't be able to catch my neighbor's dog pissing on my ... house.

 

[piroroadkill]

Originally posted by: mobobuff
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODING. Unless you buried it in a mountain side or the top of a very large hill.

Yeah. Flooding. It would blow find yourself drowing in the middle of the night.