Additional Information

Dear Friends:

Thank you for your interest in our award-winning concept of earth sheltered living. Several hundred of our homes have been built across the country, and they are proving to do exactly as we advertise. Our home is the most unique earth sheltered home on the market today, as no other earth sheltered structure offers a true domed, cathedral-type ceiling. Our clients are finding that it costs less than half as much to live in one of our homes as it does in a conventional home.

You will find that we are able to save you up to 80% on your energy costs while practically doing away with maintenance costs. Our homes are drawing a great deal of national attention. Earth Sheltered Technology, Inc. has won national design and building awards over the last several years. We are undisputedly the oldest earth sheltered builder in the nation who has built nothing except earth sheltered structures over the past 40 years. We are also the only known earth sheltered builder to offer a written warranty against leakage.

Our homes are constructed of on-site-poured reinforced concrete utilizing our exotic aluminum forming system with a reusable fiber-glass dome form which provides you with a cathedral ceiling. The dome design gives the structure nearly 20 times as much strength as a flat roofed structure. We have never experienced a structural failure due to the fact that we use approximately 2 1/2 tons of grade 60 reinforcing rod (rebar) in each module. Our homes are sealed by 5 different structural engineers. Each module is either 30'x30' (28'x28' inside dimensions) or 26'x 26' (24'x 24' inside dimensions). Each 28' module consists of 900 square feet for the first one, and 870’ for each additional one used due to a common wall between modules. Each 24' module, consists of 675 square feet for the first one, and 650 square feet for each additional one used due to a common wall between modules. The apex of the dome on a 28' module is 13'-6" and the apex on a 24' module is 12'. Any wall of a 28' module can have up to a 20' opening. It can be an arched or rectangular opening, or a single door, double door, or whatever. Any wall of a 24' mod can be opened up to 16'. If required, the entire wall can be opened up by the use of an inverted beam. The cut-away of the dome in our brochure is not a true picture of the cathedral ceiling of our homes, because it looks like a half of a barrel in the brochure. The dome actually curves up the same from all four walls like a square box with 8' sidewalls that has a bubble on top.

The modules may be poured in any number and in any direction using full mods, half-mods, or flat roofed additions up to 15’-8" in width that may be poured between or added to any edge of a mod to give the desired square footage. We can furnish you with any style of a home that will fit your desires and style of living, including a single-story, with or without a basement, an "L" shaped rambler, a two-story, split-entry or whatever you can get in a conventional home. You may use a mod or a flat-roofed addition for a garage, or we can design your home with a conventional garage attached to the home and design it to look as though it were earth sheltered. We can also attach a conventional garage or pole building to your home with the use of a tunnel. One of the main advantages in having an earth sheltered home or garage is the fact that it will never get below +50 degrees F in mid-winter WITHOUT HEAT. You will never have a frozen pipe in either an earth sheltered home or an earth sheltered garage. The home can be built on any lot. It need not have a hill or a slope, as it can be built right on the flat and then covered up. The advantages of a sloped or hill-side lot is that the soil that you excavate away to build the home can be used to cover the structure. Also a hill-side lot will give you a panoramic view, and may be less costly to buy if the lot is unbuildable for a conventional home.

Please feel free to browse our web site for further information and site designs. If you find nothing on our site that meets your desires and style of living, you may either design your own floor plan, or we will assist you with the design. We will take the rough draft and scale it out to 1/4" scale and provide you with a scaled floor plan and a perspective, and a cost breakdown, ALL AT NO COST OR OBLIGATION. You may be your own general contractor and do or hire all of the finishing work done after the basic structure is poured. The BASIC STRUCTURE SHALL CONSIST OF THE FOOTINGS, SIDEWALLS AND DOMES (POURED MONOLITHICALLY WITH NO COLD JOINT AT THE ROOF LINE). THE OVERHANGS, PARAPET WALLS, RETAINING WALLS, PLUS THE WATERPROOFING AND INSULATION. The FINISHING INCLUDES excavation, back-filling, floors, electrical, plumbing, heating, carpentry, (including doors and windows), plastering, floor coverings, kitchen cabinets, painting and staining, and exterior finish, which can be done in stucco, stone, brick, cedar, split-log or whatever you desire.

Our photo gallery shows a number of homes, and each one has an identification letter. If you are interested in a plan similar to one of them and would like a price and a copy of the floor plan, simply request it by the small letter that is stamped at the bottom of the picture of the home. You may notice that some of the homes in the photo gallery appear to be dark inside. That is simply caused by the refraction of the light on the windows. Our homes are actually lighter inside than a conventional home because of the light bouncing in the dome. A visit to one of our homes will prove that point. You will be surprised to find that our homes, with all of the many advantages over a conventional home, will cost no more than a medium priced home in your area and in many cases less. If you are thinking of building or buying, be sure to look into this unique structure that is virtually maintenance-free and will keep your family safe from most all perils.

Please let us know the status of your thinking. Contact us by e-mail, phone (507) 345-7203, 800-345-7203 or by FAX 507-345-8302. If you are considering building this year, please let us know, and we will work very closely with you in order to get you in to our building schedule. If you are planning to build at a later date, please give us an approximate date. If you do not plan to build an earth sheltered home, please let us know that also, and then pass the literature on to someone who might be interested, or give it to your local library. In any event, we would be very happy to work with you in any way that would make you one of our happy home-owners.