Does anybody have any experience with dome homes similar to the ones found here? Www.domehomes.com
I’ve looked into ‘yerts’ and very large concrete drain tile homes, strangely enough…out of curiosity. I’d like to have something out of the ordinary down the road.
Well this is a little more traditional in type than a yert but it has me interested due to price,ease of construction,effeicency, and I just like the look of them.
As a plus…when u ask your wife to polish your dome, she can’t really get mad atcha! For real though, these and the underground homes both fascinate me…the heating and cooling efficiency is supposed to be just amazing. Aaaand their hella cool too!
Had a friend who had a geodesic dome up north (er, northern Michigan, I should say). The upside of wooden-framed geodesics is, they’re hella easy to assemble, you and a buddy can frame one in over a long weekend, they are very efficient to heat and cool, and you have a large airy space that you can partition (or not) as you please. The downside of wooden geodesics is your insulation options are limited (in a 2x4 void, R-13 if fiberglass, slightly more if going with spray foam), good luck finding a roofer who’ll even touch it so you’re pretty much stuck with roofing it yourself, trying to drywall/mud/tape all those angles is a nightmare (my friend got around this by tacking up wood trim and circles over the lines/joints after giving up on all the cracks), you waste a TON of material (plywood ain’t cheap) cutting all those triangles, and the acoustics, while amazing, do have consequences (when the dog drank out of his dish downstairs, it sounded like he was doing it in my ear way up in the loft). All things considered, I think a wooden geodesic is great for a cabin or if you live in a mild climate, but not so much for a full-time residence, particularly where it gets cold. For a more permanent setup, I’d say go with a monolithic concrete dome. Since this post is already ridiculously long, go to monolithic.com to see their excellent description of how they do it! Hope this helps…
Thanks james, I did find some options as far as insulation though and you can order the plywood precut. The roofing issue does have me concerned, but I think I know a guy lol. As far as the heat goes I plan to heat with wood and anything between moderate to heavy insulation should keep me quite cozy. Where is this friend of yours? I too am in northern michigan in the traverse city area.
I keep seeing “E.T. Phone Home” whenever I see the title of this thread.
Nice to hear you can get the plywood precut; I wasn’t aware of that. Should save time and materials then. I like wood heat; if I didn’t live in a 1950s bungalow in the suburbs I’d like to put in an EPA non-cat stove, but my floorplan prohibits any good placement and I don’t currently own a truck/chainsaw to gather wood and I sure as heck ain’t payin’ $70 per face cord down here. I’d like to try a rocket mass heater one day but since they weigh upwards of 3-4 tons it’d have to be on a slab, and my addition is on a crawl, boo. Alt. energy and building techniques are an armchair hobby of mine; I freely admit I have no practical experience but I’ve swotted up on them a fair stick. Oh, and this fella’s dome was up near Mio, not far from where my family used to have property in Elmer Twp. Suppose it’s still there but he’s on the outs with us, so I haven’t been up that way in some time…in any case, if you’ve got the materials and insulation issues knocked I say go for it. I like those monolithic domes but they’re not cheap and they have to be done by a certified installer using specialized equipment. All told they end up costing about the same per sq ft. as a conventional stickbuilt house, so it’s not exactly a DIY sorta thing…
Lol at Xander…kinda reminds me of (no offense to anyone on this forum that may have one) E.T. with a hare lip!!!
Ive lived in a yert for years, just me and the yak. Its wonderful.
yak as in short for cognac or the smelly beast?
James s I agree that a free standing woodburner (Non Cat) is the answer. I have an old David Bradley “360” chainsaw to cut, but sold my '72 c-10 truck a few years ago…so that’s my only problem. If you’re willing to do the labor, you only have to buy wood the first year…then wait for ice storms or folks pruning and generally get your wood free,( minus your labor of course). I’ve been looking a bit at alternate building styles too. Other than stick-built conventional, what would you think to be the most cost effective and suitable style of building for your region of the US? I’m roughly in the same weather region as you.
Ill bow out as this is serious…
mention an old Chevy truck and it’s "Game ON’, Bru!! hahah!
Back in the 70s I was deeply into the idea of living in a dome or other unconventional home. In 1971 some kids from Pacific Heights High School in California wrote two books about building and living in domes: Domebook and Domebook 2. They’re in the style of the Whole Earth Catalog. I have Domebook and it’s a wonderful resource. My copy is a third printing from 1974 and so used it’s falling apart. I found a copy of Domebook 2 on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Domebook-Lloyd-Editor-Easton-Calthorpe/dp/B000H02IU8 . Kind of pricey, but honestly worth the money in my opinion. Aside from the excellent information, the books are written with a nostalgic (from current perspective) love of being alive in a revolutionary culture. A related book is called Shelter, published by Shelter Publications in 1973, and reviews all kinds of homebuilt homes throughout history and across the world. This thread caused me to get my books out and thumb through them, and started to revive my interest in building and living in a dome of my own. I found all kinds of my old sketches and dreaming throughout my copies of these books. Pretty much fun. Getting close to retirement, and thinking where and how I want to live out my days, living in a dome in the desert sounds pretty damn fine. Cool thread. Good luck @Johndeere89! Keep us posted if you care to. PS - Amazon also has a reprint of Shelter: http://www.amazon.com/Shelter-Lloyd-Kahn/dp/0936070110/ref=pd\_sim\_b\_2
@Bart: The most cost-effective shelter I’ve seen is cob construction, since the building materials are pretty much already onsite (except for a few bales of straw), the best help is a bunch of people to help stomp your mixture, and you have the freedom to build any way you like, it doesn’t have to be a straight line. In fact, curved walls and corbelled openings are a lot stronger than 90-degree angles and straight lines. And while not inherently insulative, cob has literally tons of thermal mass. But cob, while having proven itself for several centuries (there are 300-year old cob houses in England and southern France that are still in use), is not recognized by most building inspectors, so it would almost have to be in a non-code area. But I’d like to play with all of the different methods someday: cob, papercrete, earthbag, strawbale, rammed-tire (earthship), you name it. I say ‘someday’ because for now I’m firmly planted in town in a very ordinary home on a very ordinary 40x140 lot, with natural-gas forced air and plain old mains electricity. It’ll have to do, there’s no extra money for a piece of vacation property off the beaten path I could experiment on…
I hear you, James. I guess having a actual plan keeps a fellow going, though. Thanks for the info.
Okay so I’ve not heard anything to discouraging so based on that and the research I’ve already done I think ill probably go through with it. Not sure yet what the total cost to complete will be but im guessing in the 60 to 80 range to build the one I want which will have about 3000 sq ft not including the basement. Over the coarse of five or six years this seems like a pretty feasable project. Ill keep y’all posted if/when I get started.
Best of luck; keep us posted on what you come up with!