Offering 6,284 videos in 230 categories! ...and 9,756 customer reviews!
Your Account |
Help |
Review this video!
The first DVD explains the Post/Shoring/Polyethylene (PSP) method of building underground with the warmth and charm of wood. The secret is a layer of plastic which protects the wood from the damp of the earth. The original structure built by this method as an experiment in 1971 is still in service. Instructor Mike Oehler invented it, built it and lives in it today. He is now at work on the stunning PSP underground Ridge House with its twenty-mile views. The second part of the DVD is a slide presentation showing construction and completion of a number of underground homes built by this method. Construction costs can be as low as 1/10th the cost of normal construction -- sometimes even lower.
(about 120 minutes)
This is the heart of the workshop. Using chalk board and the same scale models he hauled for years to universities across North America and Europe, Mike Oehler teaches his revolutionary methods of underground design. Rejecting for the most part the four common methods (the foolish four: skylights, atriums, vertical window wells and the disastrous first thought design) he teaches instead twelve methods which guarantee light, air and views from any and all directions of the campus in each underground room. No more dark, airless, basement-like underground buildings! As Mike likes to say, "An underground house has no more in common with a basement than a penthouse apartment has with a hot, dark, dusty attic."Students of the course actually design five underground homes during the screening of this tape using the included copyrighted design kit. These hands-on excursuses not only drill the methods home, they are actually fun! Those who complete this course wind up with a better concept of underground design than the vast majority of practicing architects today. In the second part of this two-hour tape, Mike takes you on a personal tour of the four underground or earth sheltered houses on his land. You see real life applications of the Royer Foyer, Hollywood Wings, Up Hill Patios, Basic Designs and more.
(about 120 minutes)
This third DVD teaches how to build an astonishingly inexpensive shelter which can take your family and friends through nuclear fallout, tornadoes, hurricanes, raging fires and even earthquakes. After a catastrophe, if surrounding above-ground houses have been destroyed, it may be lived in and used as the starting point for an underground house. In normal times the shelter may be used for a root cellar, spare bedroom, workshop, tool shed or kids play house. The cost of this 12x12 shelter will run from $100 to $1500 depending on how many recycled materials are used and how much of the work the owner does. Comprehensive shelter diagrams are included at no additional cost. The second part of this tape teaches how to design and build a spectacularly effective earth sheltered greenhouse. The prototype for this, invented and built on Mike Oehler’s 40 acres in mountainous North Idaho, 30 miles south of the Canadian boarder, has been in service for nearly a quarter century. Without any other heat source than sun and earth this greenhouse takes tomatoes into the second week in December and hardies like cabbage and kale clear through the winter year after year. The greenhouse is resistant to the ravages of gophers, moles, deer, rabbits and most other plant predators. It can even collect its own irrigation water. A 10x30 greenhouse should cost between $200 and $3000 depending upon materials and labor. The third part of the shelter DVD continues the tour of the underground structures on Mike’s land including the earth-sheltered greenhouse.
(about 120 minutes)
This video was added to our catalog on August 02, 2006 in Construction::Housebuilding.
Product availability: available now, ships immediately!
This video was very disappointing, There was no actual building of underground shelters, or demonstrations of actual building techniques. The video was approximatly 2 hours of classroom discussion with a tour of the authors underground shack at the end. You may get some basic ideas from this video, but i doubt it. This review was for video 3 only, and based on this video, I won't be renting the other 2.
I bought this over 10 yr ago. It is outstanding when viewed 1-3. It details exactly how to design and build this type of building method beautifully
This video is produced entirely in a community college classroom and is literally a film of his lecture series. With that in mind, the video series is a good companion to the book, "The $50 Dollar Underground House." The lecture series has a number of helpful updates and improvements to his original design. The lectures cover a number of ideas about building modular underground homes framed around the original idea formed in his book. If you are actually planning on digging yourself a house, the video series would probably be a helpful companion to the book.
Actually I was quite hesitant about renting this DVD set based on previous reviews on this and other sites. To my surprise it was much better than I expected. In fact the information was superb. Based on the three DVD set I am going to build a greenhouse here in Washington state this spring. Everything was here to be able to do the design work! Thanks a lot and I would recommend it to everyone.
Mike Oehler is a great instructor with an uncanny wit about him. I think anyone could design and build a greenhouse based on this information. He was so far ahead of his time when he filmed these videos that the rest of the world still has not caught up with him. If you want to build a low cost greenhouse just about anywhere watch this DVD set. Afterwards you will have the tools for the design work and the ability to pull it off. That is exactly what my wife and I are going to do early this coming spring, build our first earth sheltered greenhouse! We feel confident after watch Mikes set on underground housing that we will be able to pull it off!
Fair, the rants of Mike Oehler went on and on. The three DVDs could have been consolidated into one if the author had stayed on point. It was like watching your absent minded grandfather tell a story about his role in the war. Not bad if you like that sort of thing. Videography was amateur at best. Good info just not delivered well. Smartflix was excellent, they delivered.
