Although our house build is still several years away, we’ve started making decisions about it. I live in a tropical climate and have always felt a subterranean level makes great sense in terms of thermal insulation.
With zero experience building houses, I had not given it much thought. Structures here are built with concrete for the most part, and I was just told that I’d need to make sure I’d put in moisture protection for the subterranean part. And that this would not be cheap as nobody here builds such levels.
I’m just curious …. what’s involved in this!? How do you protect your structure from moisture when it’s all underground? And why is it different for subterranean levels than it is for above-ground levels that are exposed to the elements?
Some additional research said termites could come up through the concrete (!!!!?) and eat my (planned) wooden floor?
So now I’m wondering what other considerations there are in building underground. Any comments, links, etc are most welcome.
Best Answer
My home is built on a slight slope and my shop (attached) is partially earth sheltered, it has about 4.5' stem walls. To ensure it was water proof, I had a contractor who specialized in this, spray the outside of the stem wall with a tar like compound and then they applied Delta Dimple Mat" over that (see link below). Then a well designed foundation drain to carry away and water that seeped thru the dimple mat. Fortunately for me, being on a slope I could simply let gravity do it's job to move the water. Depending upon your topology, you may need to drain it to a sump basin and use a sump pump to pump it to a good location away from the building.
Sorry for the product recommendation, I try not to do that, but in this case, I think it's justified.
https://www.dorken.com/en/our-products/products/residential/delta-ms.php