lcortez

Have recently been reading about "cave houses" in Granada province,around the area of Huescar,look like an attractive proposition,considering they can go for as little as £13,000 (unreformed),with a discount thrown in for multiple purchases i some cases
Does any one on the forum live in one of these houses,or know anyone who does?
Are they mortgagable (shouldnt imagine unreformed are,owing to no utilities).
Also,does anyone know what the region is like,business wise,are there many opps for work,trades etc?

PS:Presume there all legal,council would have bit if difficulty knocking one down

Same Difference

Mitzy and Xtreme may be able to help you when they come on line.

Mitzyboy

Yes I know of a few people that live in them, and if you want to know a bit more look on my site.
There is at least one person here that lives in one .... I've been there and its quite amazing to see. I stayed in one in Huescar last year and enjoyed it, the unreformed "holes" look a little daunting at first but when you see what can be done its quite a suprise. If you look in my gallery there are pictures of the one I stayed in somewhere.

My experience is only of Huescar, but the cave houses stretch a long way and we were seeing them still not far from Granada. Hiescar is quite a bit inland, Xtreme lives there and he'd be able to tell you about the work situation, although I do seem to remember his sons having difficulty getting work

scampicat

There are also cave houses in Guadix near, or maybe even in, Almeria Province.

cafeconleche

Great pictures Mitzyboy
Cave houses are one of the things we want to explore some time when we are over in Spain.

Mitzyboy

Gracias

XTreme

Caves! What can I tell you? Many Brits in this town live in caves....I don't, though I may well consider one in the future.
Banks give mortgages for caves as well, because cave living is a traditional part of this region of NE Granada.
There's caves in virtually all the towns and villages in the region, so you'd be advised to take a good look round the area.
Work in Huescar? Virtually none I'm afraid....it's a very small town. Nearest bigger town is Baza....approx 50kms away. But you could hardly call that a thriving metropolis.

lcortez

Looked at the photos on Mitzyboys,caves certainly look very impressive,if somewhat isolated (presume internet is via satelite).
What sort of figs would you be looking at to get a unreformed cave up to the standard shown?

XTreme

Each one would have to be looked at on an individual basis. Plus you have to bear in mind it's quite specialised work involved.

I have some traditional Spanish cave builders on my books as website customers. I can't specify any particular one because it's not right of me to favour one client more than another when they're in the same area of business.
All I can suggest is look at my website (which is in my signature) go to the portfolio section and take your pick.

lcortez

Thanx for that,certainly will do

Mitzyboy

I'm talking about the same caves as Xtreme in effect. They are sort of isolated, but only a few minutes from Huescar town centre.

lcortez

Might be a stupid question,but,say you lived in a 2 bed cave,and wanted a 3 bed,could you just carve out another room (presuming you dont dg into next door of course!),would you need planning permission etc?
Also would imagine the air temp in a cave is fairly constant,would central heating be strictly necc?

XTreme

Carving out other caves? Yes....that is done! But should not be attempted by DIYers. Get a professional to advise on where it's possible.

Temp is constant 18-20 degrees all year round. Most caves use a log burner in Winter though.

tallbob

We live in a cave in Huescar, and we would not go back to living in a house
the temperature is constant all year round, so cool in the summer warm in the winter
We do have a log burner but we have only lit it once in the past 10 months or so, we have a couple of oil filled radiators which we put on occassionally

We have Sky tv ( full package ) Telephone and Broadband ( 1 Meg ) is by satellite, but we did have Telefonica but I cancelled it as they charged me for Broadband did not install it so credited my next bill then cut me off as I had not paid the bill that was in credit

Mains water and mains electric and a couple of times we have had problems with the electrics the developer we bought from was straight round to sort it out, we are still on builders supply, but I think that is more to do with the developer not getting around to registering with the utility companies so he doesn't have to pay his taxes yet

We have a full escritura as well as the certificate of habitation

In theory for extra rooms you can just knock a few more metres of wall down but as Xtreme says it is a very specialised trade, and one cave around our way has totally collapsed due to a brit doing some diy extending, but you do need permissions ( like you do for everything ) and the difficulty would be in our little area were does another cave begin,and I do have full architects drawings showing what is mine so suddenly increasing that area could be a bit tricky
I have a couple of water pipes jutting out slightly into one of my back rooms and they belong to a cave 3 doors away who curves around the back of us

to sum up a very happy couple of trogs

XTreme

Actually today I was shooting a short video for one of the Estate agents in my area....showcasing a particular cave.

Once I've edited the film I'll get it up on YouTube so you guys can see it!