We know of nothing anywhere which comes even close to matching the wealth of knowledge found in this three-tape, six-hour DVD set. The design course taught in tape two alone is worth, we believe, a hundred times the cost of the set in the increased light, air and views it will afford your subterranean home, and in the home’s resale value. If you are just beginning to explore the option of underground housing, The $50 & Up Underground House Book alone will suffice. But if you are convinced you want to build below surface, or need more information to make up your mind, you need this set. It is valuable to owner/builders, self-designers, architects and contractors alike.

This is the same course author and instructor Mike Oehler has taught for architecture departments at colleges and universities across North America and England, Scotland, Belgum, the Netherlands and Germany. He has the material down pat and is able to anticipate your confusion and questions. Unlike the live workshops, the videos allow you to study the material again and again and to share it with your family and friends.

Tape 1 CONSTRUCTION
The first tape 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 tape 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.

Tape 2: DESIGN
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 DVD 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.

Tape 3 SHELTER
This third tape 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 tape continues the tour of the underground structures on Mike’s land including the earth-sheltered greenhouse.

Ordering information
Three-DVD, six-hour combined Workshop & Seminar set: $95.00
Order now with our online form, or order by mail.