[Christ]

Originally Posted by elhigh

I've got an uncle with an earth-sheltered house and I am going to share some of his hard-earned wisdom with you:

Be damned positive about your waterproofing. If you think reroofing is a pain, try having to excavate your roof before you can even start the roofing work.

Oh, I plan on it... I don't want to have to excavate behind the house to stop water from coming in the walls, since it's a masonry home.

Actually, I plan on digging back further than I need to, building the first (retainer) wall, then putting up membrane and felt-backed protection board, then back filling with crushed stone, for proper drainage.

Outsulation gets placed against the retaining wall, then the block wall gets put up in front of that.