Building Our Earthen Home Episode 3. Site Selsction

If we have to build a house, what we have to do is choose the location where is the best place to build a house. It's very important thing to think about this more seriously because when we make mistakes, it's a long, long time of suffering that we have to be with our mistakes until we die or until the house collapses. That's a long time of suffering. So before we build a house, we need to choose the location where to build. The most important thing about where to build a house is it has to be safe from flooding because flooding is a big problem now anywhere. Some areas, we never think that we will have floods. The water will flood in our area. It never happened in history. But one day, it can happen because now the development is so fast. Big projects can happen anywhere, anytime. For example, like one town in southern Thailand, they never had a big flood in history. But later on, there's a government project. They built a big road very far away, but that road blocked the waterway. And then it made the water flow very slow, and then the water level rise up fast. And then it flooded small towns for a very long time. So that thing can happen easily. And another thing is many low areas. It used to be the area where we collect rainwater, but now people fill up the low area with soil, with dirt more. So they can build housing or build department stores, build some big projects. That way, it can force the water to rise up higher. That can cause flooding anywhere. Or in the future, we maybe have a heavy rain that we never had before, and it can flood too. So to choose a location that there's no chance of flooding is very important. Because when we have flooding, it's so bad, so suffering. Because many times when our house was flooded, it's hard to find the toilet. That's the biggest suffering. And then after water going down, we need to clean our house a lot. So every house is not good for flooding. Avoid flooding is the most important thing. And then the next thing to think about is the flow of the air, the wind. We need to have good breeze. The air flow easily in our house. If we build a house in the narrow area, in the small valley, mainly it's very still, especially in hot climate. We want the air to flow. But if we build our house in a small valley, there's no breeze, no wind. It's very still, it's very hot, and then more humid. It's not very good to live in the atmosphere like that. So it's good to have a house on the area that the air flows easily. And the next thing is think about the view, where we can see very far away. That's very important for our thinking. Because when we can see very far, we feel relaxed. When we have a good view, we feel good. So we want to be at home longer. We feel enjoy to be at home more. Another way of thinking is if we have some place that it not look nice, some place that not beautiful, we can build a house at that place. That's another way of thinking too. Because when it's not beautiful, we can make it beautiful by building a beautiful house. It will make our land more interesting. Another way of thinking how to select the location for building a house is looking at the soil in our land. For example, our place in Chiang Mai, we live on a hill. One slow side of the hill is quite sandy. Sandy soil is easy to grow things, easy to have a garden. But the higher part of the land are rocky, rocky soil. There's a lot of rocks. It's hard to dig. In the area that have a lot of rocks, we cannot do farming. We cannot grow things easily. So we choose that area for building. All kind of building will be in the rock area. So the area that low, we use to dig a pond. The area that have more sand, easy to dig, easy to till. We use that area for farming, for gardening. So there are many ways of thinking how to select location. It's up to our condition and up to our needs too. How it will make our life easy, cheap, pay less money, make things easier. That is the most important principle, selecting the area where to build a house. If our land is in the slope area like this, where is the good place to build a house? Normally, you can build a house anywhere on the slope. But the most important thing is when we cut the slope, it's good to have a big space. If we build a house in this area, we need to have the space between the house and the high part of the wall of the slope, at least two meters. This part is very important because if it's too close to the house, it will have problem with water. And then after we build a house, it's good to make a ditch, make a canal around the house so the water can go outside. We don't want the water to go under the house because it will make the floor of the house wet. That's a problem. So if we build like this, normally we have no problem with moisture in the house. And in the same time, some people cut it down like this and they will build a house, cover this area. So this area is not one part, it's on the hill, one part in the bottom. So this area, we need to dig a canal, dig a ditch to make the water go around the house. If we dig it deep enough, the floor in the house will have no moisture. This is a technique that we use when we build on the slope, especially earthen house. We don't want the earthen wall to be wet. It's good. It's important to make the water, the rain water, to go out around the house, not under the house. This house is quite narrow, only one meter. So we make the concrete canal. That helps some, but not very good. It's good to be wider than that. And this house, this is too narrow. And then the ditch is not deep enough. It makes inside the room the floor wet. This is a problem. And then the canal is too shallow. This does not work well. This house is too narrow. It's about one foot from the wall to the high side of the slope. It doesn't work well, this one. And this one is pretty good, two meters far apart. But the ditch, the canal, is too shallow. So when we have the house in the slope like this, it's important to think about the swell or the canal to guide the water out of the house. But if we build a house in the flat area, in the flat land, like in the rice field, it's flat like this. So the easiest, the cheapest solution is just to dig a pond. And then use the dirt from this pond to make a big mound in this way. This is the dirt. Make a big and tall mound. And then we can build a house on top of this part. So if in the flat area, at least one meter above the level of the normal level in the ground, it will be safe. Because we don't know, we maybe have flood someday. But if we make the mound high like this and our house on top, you feel secure. And then if they have flood, you feel okay. And then if your house in the high mound like this, you can get very good breeze. In the rice field or in the flat area, there's more chance to have flooding. Because in the rainy season, it always has puddles in the rice field like this. Water stays there. If we build a house, it's important to make a high mound like this. This mound is about 130 centimeters above the ground. It's higher than the rice. We have to prepare this before we build a house, at least two years normally. And to make the soil settle, it will not crack much. The cheapest way is to dig a pond. Dig a pond and use the dirt from the pond to make a mound. The mound can be big and tall. That will be the good spot for us in the near future. It will make us feel good. This house is above the ground one meters. We feel very good to live in this house. Even we have flood around us, we don't have worry much. So, it's important to make it right to prevent any problem that we can think about in the future. If not, we'll worry a lot. This is our how to build earthen house books, especially adobe house. It's available on Amazon now. If you want, please check it out.