GRANDE POINTE -- The advantage to living in an underground house like Don Hnatko's is the fact that natural earth makes a wonderful insulating quilt for cutting energy consumption.
An underground house is also soundproof, weatherproof, largely fireproof, and doesn't requite a lot of maintenance--no reshingling, painting, or cleaning eavestrough.
Don Hnatko says the underground house is a regular house made of concrete and covered with dirt.
On the downside, you do have to mow the roof once in awhile.
Hnatko owns the only underground house in Manitoba, and perhaps Canada, as far as he knows.
From the back, it looks like a grassy hill. In front, it's got a door and glass windows and garage. Inside are appliances and furniture like a regular home.
You'd think you stumbled on to the hiding place of Bilbo Baggins, the head hobbit of the J. R. R. Tolkien fantasy books, who also lived in an underground house in the side of a hill.
"It's a regular house except it's made of concrete and covered with dirt," is Hnatko's over-simplified explanation.
Don Hnatko walks on the roof of his underground house in Grande Pointe
Hnatko, a retired engineer, purchased the underground home when it came up for sale in 1999. The house had been damaged in the 1997 flood along with much of Grande Pointe. Although completely restored, the elderly owners chose to sell.
The home was constructed in the early 1980s with the help of University of Manitoba engineers. A bank of picture windows in front face south to gather the maximum solar heat. On a sunny winter day, solar heat can warm room temperature to 10-14 degrees Celsius, while it's minus 20 Celsius outside, Hnatko said.
A four-foot overhang blocks the sun in summer when the sun's arc is higher, and that prevents the house from overheating. On this day, it was 26 Celsius outside and 17 Celsius inside -- as welcoming cool as a basement.
It's a concrete house. The walls are made of poured concrete but the ceilings are specially designed concrete slabs with hollow tubes inside to reduce their weight.
It's built at grade level. The sod covering is about two feet thick and comprised of soil, gravel, a Styrofoam layer for insulation, and a special underlay for keeping out moisture. The sod covering has an extraordinary insulating effect.
It seems to work well. There is no staining of the walls whatsoever from moisture, or any mold.
One challenge is ventilation. You can't cross ventilate such a home so it has a special power ventilation system that sucks air through the house, Hnatko said.
And while there are no windows on three sides of the house, the south-facing windows throw plenty of light throughout.
Hnatko, who dabbles in real estate and owned up to eight apartment blocks at one time, bought the house as a bit of a hobby. He'd read several books on underground homes and then the Grande Pointe house came up for sale.
It's been a good investment. He paid $90,000 for the home in 1999 and said its value has more than doubled. Grande Pointe is undergoing a development boom, thanks to a $7 million ring dike which is supposed to prevent another flood disaster like in 1997.
But Hnatko doesn't live in it, except for maybe a few nights a year, and lack of yard upkeep has been an issue with neighbours. He's vague at to reasons why he doesn't live there, but also owns two other homes.
The underground home is 1,200 square feet, plus a 400-square-foot attached garage. The garage has a wood stove and vent system for heating the entire house but Hnatko has never used it, although he intends to try one of these days.
He doesn't know what the energy savings are from the passive solar heat but estimates it could cut energy costs in half.
Hnatko thinks he's on to something. "Generally, people have been building what I call McMansions, huge two-storey houses that suck up a lot of energy," he said. "One of these days, people will be building houses like this."
Hnatko has had inquiries about the home but said he is not interested in selling at this time.
bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca
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