Building a Passive Solar Concrete Home

I’ve mentioned before about my brother and sister-in-law who homestead in Oklahoma. As if tending to the goats and keeping up with the garden was not enough, they also decided to design and build a passive solar style home. My brother, Trevor, is building the 2,000 square foot home from the ground up using his own skills, knowledge, and strength with a few experts and skilled laborers to help along the way.

The Inspiration Arrived

For the preplanning, Trevor and Elizabeth took about two years. The book Earth Sheltered Houses helped them in the initial dreaming and planning phase. They also found a Popular Science Book on Leisure Homes that served as a jumping-off point for the design.

Elizabeth said, “The two images (below) are of the “Suncrest” home that inspired the layout and overall look of our home, although we have modified it quite a bit. We found the (Popular Science) book at a garage sale!” You never know where your inspiration will come from. Keep your eyes peeled. Browsing through treasures at a yard sale might lead you to your next project or home.

Blueprints to Building

The next step was the hunt for the right architect. Using Google to find local architects and being able to search their websites gave Trevor and Elizabeth an idea of who had a style that matched their dreams. In addition, the architect they selected cares about sustainability and liked the idea of using upcycled objects in the construction which was important to Trevor and Elizabeth.

The construction was started in April of 2018. They are looking at a two-year timeframe for completion. Of course, this house is taking longer to construct than a conventional home due to various materials such as concrete walls instead of wood frame and the fact that Trevor is building most of it himself without a daily crew of workers.

A Style of Home that Works Hard

The style of the home is passive solar. Thomas Doerr of Passive Solar Simplified explains, “Windows, walls, and floors are made to collect, store, reflect, and distribute solar energy in the form of heat in the winter and reject solar heat in the summer.”

Even though the house is passive solar they plan to have a wood stove and air conditioning for supplemental heating and cooling. Those systems won’t have to work near as hard due to the distribution of solar energy through the design of the home.

A Wolf Can’t Blow This House Down

Trevor feels strongly about building a house that is not disposable like so many houses are today, torn down in 30-40 years. He wants it to stand the test of time like Stonehenge. Although his home is not built of stones like the ancient monument, it is constructed with an expansive concrete foundation, 8 inch thick concrete walls and will be partially underground. It stands sturdy and permanent.

No Easy Task

The biggest challenge was renting the steel-concrete forms to build the walls. The issues were weather delays and timeframe restraints, more time meant more money spent. Trevor considered making the forms himself out of plywood and 2x4s but settled on renting due to less risk. The steel forms were stronger with less chance of a concrete blowout. He had help with this project due to the enormity of the task and the benefit of a concrete expert.

Details from the Inside

The flooring of the home is concrete. Trevor polished it all himself using U Polish It. He and his wife Elizabeth are resourceful in adding items into their home that have been previously used or abandoned. Such as old doors, cabinets, plus some of the steel roof beams. The larger beams were previously used to hold up a building at Tinker Air Force Base. The building was demolished and instead of the beams going to waste they are now holding up this roof. They live on! Trevor bought them on Craigslist.

Protection from the Outside

It’s a single slope roof that has metal roofing on top, an air gap in between, and another sheet of metal roofing below. In order to build the roof, welded steel beams had to be lifted onto the concrete walls, then the top layer metal roof was put on over the beams. The metal roof layer was lifted, welded and attached with help. A job too big for one man.

The second layer roof had to be screwed together from the inside of the home while the installer is laying upside down. Trev got a little taste of what Michelangelo went through. Ha! Thermal break tape is used between the layers of metal roofing. It helps to prevent the temperature from transferring and controls condensation.

For the roof insulation, they were hoping to use mineral wool but since they had a 5-foot wide gap to fill they weren’t able to find mineral wood in that width. They decided on foam insulation board which will create a vapor barrier and has less VOC than spray foam insulation. The boards will give off VOC at first and then stop. By the time the family moves into the home, the VOC should be eliminated.

The patio windows were installed professionally. The small rectangle windows were all installed by Trevor. They are thermal break windows.

Energy from the Sun

In researching solar panels Trevor says, “A solar panel company will measure your average electric use and install enough panels to produce 110% of your electric usage. This effectively eliminates your electric bill and any extra power produced is sold back to the electric company as profit. The homeowner pays off the cost of the panels by making payments that are the same as your average electric bill over 7 to 10 years.” To Trevor this makes sense since he knows he’ll be paying an electric bill forever unless he goes another route such as solar power. The big bonus is that in ten years he will be totally free of electric bills but still have power through the solar panels. Hooray!

The solar power company mentioned that a typical house only needs about 15-20 panels that are 3’x5′ so it’s only about 300 square feet of space on the roof. Even with the solar panels, it’s still an on-grid system so Trevor and Elizabeth will still be without power if the power goes out from the grid. As a solution to this, they may choose to add a battery system later on.

Take a Small Step

Building a house is a massive undertaking. There are so many hours, brainpower and hard labor that goes into it. There is no way I could list everything or mention it all. I’ve tried to highlight a few things and hopefully inspire you to start whatever project is on your mind, big or small. I think the saying is true, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” Take the first step, sign up for the class, meet someone new, draw up a sketch of your dream home, aspire to what you could accomplish then take action one step at a time.

“Start by doing what is necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” – Francis of Assisi

Advice from Trevor

“You can’t do concrete by yourself. It’s a big deal. You need a concrete guy.”

“Concrete is the strongest, not cheapest or easiest.”

“When you do it yourself it takes longer than a contractor and you might mess it up.”

That’s true, there is risk involved, risk of failure but also risk of success. The accomplishment of doing something yourself, of learning as you go is priceless. Trevor and Elizabeth are living this out. They are learning along the way. What an incredible opportunity Trevor has had to build a home for his family with his own two hands. A gift for many decades to come.

Similarly, our parents did the same thing for us. They designed and built our family home. Our dad worked for about 4 years from breaking ground to completion. He even cut down his own trees and milled them to use in the construction. How cool that Trevor is following in our late father’s footsteps. I know Dad would be so proud. Well done, Trevor.

Have you ever dreamed of building a house? How about building it yourself? What project, big or small, are you dreaming about starting?

You can view the finished home and home tour here.

(Various photos by Trevor, Elizabeth and Jamie)

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