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I"m going to be posting some articles on stories that deal with the construction of Dome Homes. Enjoy!
Building dome, sweet dome
By Kristina Lord
Herald Valley bureau
PROSSER -- Carla Willard visualized a cave when her husband spoke of his dream to build a dome home.
"I thought, 'Ugh, those were ugly little bunkers.' I went, 'Yeah, right. Fine. Go ahead.' I couldn't visualize it," Willard said.
But when she saw pictures in a magazine of an upscale monolithic concrete dome, she began to see the possibilities of what she originally thought looked like an upside-down swimming pool.
Then she was hooked when she walked into her first dome in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, last May.
"It has that cozy feeling and very secure kind of like you're-coming-home-type feelings. ... I felt very secure, kind of like getting a big hug from the house," Willard said.
Her husband, Jim Willard, has been dreaming about a dome home for almost 15 years, and when he's not busy working the family's 700 acres of asparagus, apples, cherries and wine and juice grapes north of Prosser, he's designing his dream house.
"We've talking about it for a long time, mostly during the wintertime when we're not farming. That's been when he sits at the computer, and we'd talk about house plan designs," said Carla Willard.
The Willards popped open champagne last weekend to celebrate the beginning of the project as air pumped into a huge earth-toned, igloo-shaped canvas.
Friends and neighbors dropped in to marvel at the unusual work in progress.
But Jim Willard's mother, Helen, wasn't surprised about her son's project. "Even as a kid, he was always building something," she said.
But there's more to the dome home than its unconventional shape.
"It's structurally sound, very efficient for heating and cooling. It usually takes half the energy for heating and cooling these domes," Jim Willard explained.
The inflated canvas forms the future walls of the house. The structure will be 64 feet in diameter and
24 feet high, with a 36-foot diameter two-car garage.
The two-story dome will have three bedrooms, a library, office, spiral staircase and large living room. The dome will have windows, and most of the inside walls will be slightly curved.
About 3 inches of polyurethane foam and 3 inches of a special concrete mixture will be sprayed from inside the dome onto the canvas to form the walls. The fans pumping air into the dome run throughout construction until the concrete hardens.
The brownish canvas will remain on the outside of the dome to protect the foam from the sun's ultraviolet rays, rain and snow. It will last for five to
10 years without any special coating, but Willard plans to cover it with stucco.
The Willard family has spent 23 years in a 1950s tenant house trucked in from Hanford to the end of McDonald Road north of Prosser.
The house has been cramped for the family of four, and in 1982, the Willards added an office, another bathroom and room for storage.
"When I moved in here, I didn't have a broom closet," Carla Willard said.
The Willards hired the Idaho-based Rocky Mountain Dome Co. in October to build the dome adjacent to their current house. The shell of the building should be complete in March.
Willard's monolithic dome is the only one being built in Benton County, said Steve Brown, the county's chief building inspector. A county resident applied for a permit to build a dome on Badger Road more than a year ago, but it wasn't built, Brown said.
The Monolithic Dome Institute in Texas knows of about 700 domes in 28 countries worldwide, including about a dozen in Washington, said David South, president of the institute.
South built his first dome in 1976 and is considered the father of the concrete dome. Now, he focuses on teaching and training builders to make them.
Rocky Mountain Dome Co. manager Walter Durham learned to build the domes at the institute three years ago.
"It's just a lifelong dream of mine to see domes," South said. "I tell people they're a paradigm shift in construction. They don't seem like that at first because they're made out of concrete and rebar. The insulation is on the exterior of the concrete. And it seems silly to insulate on the outside of the rock."
But the domes are structurally sound, South explained.
"It's absolutely tornado, hurricane, bug, earthquake proof. It's as close to permanent as you can make a structure without making it like a pyramid. There's nothing for bugs to eat, nothing to rot," South said. "It's kind of another shift in our country. America is built on cutting up wood and making buildings out of it."
He said all sorts of people choose the domes.
"We don't appeal much to the fashion conscious, yet. If you're going after the middle American housewife, you'll get a bloody nose. She's not ready. They don't look like a house," South said. "It's a fashion thing."
But domes are being used more and more for schools, churches and gymnasiums, he said.
"We get a real mix of people. We're getting some really high end. This one of Willard's is going to be a nice home."
Jim Willard is keeping mum on the cost of his dome until it's finished, but Burnham said the average expense is within 10 percent of the cost of a conventional house.
The agricultural market could affect the pace of construction. The family is saving money and building as they can. Electricity and a septic system already are in place.
"When apple prices went down, we knew we were not going to do this as soon as we wanted," said Carla Willard.
Jim Willard remains a bit more optimistic. "We hope to move in this year, maybe in the fall or summer," he said.
But his wife will be happy if they move in before their son, Michael, 16, graduates from Prosser High School in 2002.
On the Net: www.monolithicdome.com
n Reporter Kristina Lord can be reached at 509-786-7133 or via e-mail at kmlord@bentonrea.com.
This story was published 2/18/2001
www.tri-cityherald.com/news/2...y1.html
Building dome, sweet dome
By Kristina Lord
Herald Valley bureau
PROSSER -- Carla Willard visualized a cave when her husband spoke of his dream to build a dome home.
"I thought, 'Ugh, those were ugly little bunkers.' I went, 'Yeah, right. Fine. Go ahead.' I couldn't visualize it," Willard said.
But when she saw pictures in a magazine of an upscale monolithic concrete dome, she began to see the possibilities of what she originally thought looked like an upside-down swimming pool.
Then she was hooked when she walked into her first dome in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, last May.
"It has that cozy feeling and very secure kind of like you're-coming-home-type feelings. ... I felt very secure, kind of like getting a big hug from the house," Willard said.
Her husband, Jim Willard, has been dreaming about a dome home for almost 15 years, and when he's not busy working the family's 700 acres of asparagus, apples, cherries and wine and juice grapes north of Prosser, he's designing his dream house.
"We've talking about it for a long time, mostly during the wintertime when we're not farming. That's been when he sits at the computer, and we'd talk about house plan designs," said Carla Willard.
The Willards popped open champagne last weekend to celebrate the beginning of the project as air pumped into a huge earth-toned, igloo-shaped canvas.
Friends and neighbors dropped in to marvel at the unusual work in progress.
But Jim Willard's mother, Helen, wasn't surprised about her son's project. "Even as a kid, he was always building something," she said.
But there's more to the dome home than its unconventional shape.
"It's structurally sound, very efficient for heating and cooling. It usually takes half the energy for heating and cooling these domes," Jim Willard explained.
The inflated canvas forms the future walls of the house. The structure will be 64 feet in diameter and
24 feet high, with a 36-foot diameter two-car garage.
The two-story dome will have three bedrooms, a library, office, spiral staircase and large living room. The dome will have windows, and most of the inside walls will be slightly curved.
About 3 inches of polyurethane foam and 3 inches of a special concrete mixture will be sprayed from inside the dome onto the canvas to form the walls. The fans pumping air into the dome run throughout construction until the concrete hardens.
The brownish canvas will remain on the outside of the dome to protect the foam from the sun's ultraviolet rays, rain and snow. It will last for five to
10 years without any special coating, but Willard plans to cover it with stucco.
The Willard family has spent 23 years in a 1950s tenant house trucked in from Hanford to the end of McDonald Road north of Prosser.
The house has been cramped for the family of four, and in 1982, the Willards added an office, another bathroom and room for storage.
"When I moved in here, I didn't have a broom closet," Carla Willard said.
The Willards hired the Idaho-based Rocky Mountain Dome Co. in October to build the dome adjacent to their current house. The shell of the building should be complete in March.
Willard's monolithic dome is the only one being built in Benton County, said Steve Brown, the county's chief building inspector. A county resident applied for a permit to build a dome on Badger Road more than a year ago, but it wasn't built, Brown said.
The Monolithic Dome Institute in Texas knows of about 700 domes in 28 countries worldwide, including about a dozen in Washington, said David South, president of the institute.
South built his first dome in 1976 and is considered the father of the concrete dome. Now, he focuses on teaching and training builders to make them.
Rocky Mountain Dome Co. manager Walter Durham learned to build the domes at the institute three years ago.
"It's just a lifelong dream of mine to see domes," South said. "I tell people they're a paradigm shift in construction. They don't seem like that at first because they're made out of concrete and rebar. The insulation is on the exterior of the concrete. And it seems silly to insulate on the outside of the rock."
But the domes are structurally sound, South explained.
"It's absolutely tornado, hurricane, bug, earthquake proof. It's as close to permanent as you can make a structure without making it like a pyramid. There's nothing for bugs to eat, nothing to rot," South said. "It's kind of another shift in our country. America is built on cutting up wood and making buildings out of it."
He said all sorts of people choose the domes.
"We don't appeal much to the fashion conscious, yet. If you're going after the middle American housewife, you'll get a bloody nose. She's not ready. They don't look like a house," South said. "It's a fashion thing."
But domes are being used more and more for schools, churches and gymnasiums, he said.
"We get a real mix of people. We're getting some really high end. This one of Willard's is going to be a nice home."
Jim Willard is keeping mum on the cost of his dome until it's finished, but Burnham said the average expense is within 10 percent of the cost of a conventional house.
The agricultural market could affect the pace of construction. The family is saving money and building as they can. Electricity and a septic system already are in place.
"When apple prices went down, we knew we were not going to do this as soon as we wanted," said Carla Willard.
Jim Willard remains a bit more optimistic. "We hope to move in this year, maybe in the fall or summer," he said.
But his wife will be happy if they move in before their son, Michael, 16, graduates from Prosser High School in 2002.
On the Net: www.monolithicdome.com
n Reporter Kristina Lord can be reached at 509-786-7133 or via e-mail at kmlord@bentonrea.com.
This story was published 2/18/2001
www.tri-cityherald.com/news/2...y1.html
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Dupont and Katrina: The Category 5 Dome
Mon, December 19, 2005 - 12:18 PMDupont and Katrina: The Category 5 Dome
September 13, 2005
by Freda Parker
For many days after Katrina, I tried reaching someone in charge at the Dupont plant in Delisle, Mississippi, where last year we had built a 50' x 18' Monolithic Dome specifically as a hurricane shelter.
This morning I finally got through to Dupont's engineer, Jack Seybold. He told me that Katrina did more than $100 million of damage to their facility and that this Category 5 hurricane nearly totaled their plant.
Through it all, 30 of Dupont's Hurricane Crew -- professionals who assess damage as quickly as possible after a hurricane -- sat secure and comfortable in the Monolithic Dome they originally called the "Hurricane Shelter."
That dome now has a new name: The Category 5 Shelter. According to Mr. Seybold, the renaming came about because Katrina convinced the crew that their dome can stand against anything.
DeLisle experienced Katrina as a Category 5 hurricane, with embedded tornadoes and a water surge 27 feet high. Water rushed over the dykes and came within 150 feet of the dome. Debris, including uprooted trees, pummeled the dome shell.
Mr. Seybold said that, through it all, their Monolithic Dome performed admirably. He said the people inside felt so safe that, several times, they opened the dome's door to get fresh air. He concluded by telling me that early in 2006, Dupont will ask Monolithic to do a presentation for their civil engineers.
www.monolithicdome.com/domene...na.html
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Building Ecoshells in India
Mon, December 19, 2005 - 1:48 PMby Peter A. Tower
"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."
I have built log homes, geodesic domes, steel frame kit homes and remodeled several older homes, but all of that pales in comparison to building simple Ecoshells in India.
My assumption was that starting a dome building company in India would be difficult, but it wasn't.
I also thought that semiskilled labor would be readily available to do this, but it wasn't. However, the time it took to train three work crews was shorter than I anticipated.
The work ethic of a motivated crew building with new technology is phenomenal. My crews are proud to work twelve-hour shifts, seven days a week, if needed. I don't ask them to; they insist on it.
There is a certain pride and definite ego component at work here. Being able to tell your friends and relatives that you are working for a Westerner in India using Western technology means something to the India worker. We pay higher than the average, but we also expect quality work. We have achieved that standard in spades!
We started working on the grounds of a horticultural exhibit center south of New Delhi called Samak Farms. This exhibit center is owned by an American-trained horticulturist and landscape architect. It is meant as a showcase visitors center to promote education as well as his plant and landscaping businesses.
I sat down with Athul at a garden center he owns near where I live, and seven minutes later he signed a contract to build three demonstration domes to house exhibits. He spoke perfect English, by the way. He immediately understood the value of Ecoshells and was intimately familiar with building with rebar and concrete, since that is practically all construction, large or small in India.
The normal fashion here, whether for house or office complex, is to build piers of heavily reinforced concrete, place horizontal forms, or shuttering as it's known here, between them, pour a floor on top of the forms, which are held up by vertical logs and then finish the walls by building with bricks between the vertical piers.
My business partner, Vivek Tiwari and I set about recruiting a crew with an eye toward having them trained as supervisors, if this little dream became a success. We started with his father, a 25-year veteran of the building trade, then his uncle, another veteran and left the choice of the rest of the team up to them. Our primary purpose was to make sure we had trustworthy personnel, since equipment here tends to grow legs and walk away, and I was funding this on my own dime.
We got our basic equipment together, which meant running all over the hardware market in Delhi, looking for things that I was used to having and India doesn't use. It was especially difficult trying to bargain with the person who could provide me with the exact hammer drill we needed, but who thought I had more money than I actually did.
After we walked out and got in our car, we got a reasonable deal, which meant I only paid twice as much as an Indian national would have. You may ask why I didn't just let Vivek do the bargaining while I stayed away. The problem is that he is not familiar with equipment specifications, load factors, etc. and I was afraid of ending up with something akin to an AA battery-powered screwdriver trying to drill and fasten in four inches of concrete.
So we, not so merrily, trooped back to the jobsite, unloaded our gear and prepared to get organized. This simple step is not normally practiced to a great degree, and in India things tend to get staged as you need them, not in an anticipatory fashion.
Teaching the crew to set up and use a checklist was interesting. The language barrier and the fact that to them my word was literally their law and livelihood made me aware of the vast status difference between us.
It took several weeks for anyone to gently suggest that perhaps I might consider, only if I felt like it of course, a different way to do this particular task. They were always right, much to my chagrin, and as we grew to trust each other, I relied on their expertise and intelligence more and more.
There is a word used with pride in India, it's known as "Jugar" and refers to the ability to adapt, invent, modify, extend, improvise or copy even when you don't seem to have the needed resources to do so. Basically it is being very clever and making do. I learned to love this concept. It is a measure of the intelligence and cleverness of Indian workmen that they view this type of adaptability as a matter of course and shrug off compliments when it is successfully employed.
We started by marking a circle 10 ft. radius (20 ft. diameter). When I went back to check on the measurement, it did not vary by even 1/8th of an inch. They removed the turf inside the circle and I rechecked. Same dimension. I thought that this boded well, and I was right.
Unlike the instructions, we first dug a trench 18 inches deep and 12 inches wide. Yup, you guessed it; it was spot-on all the way around.
We had to make our own stakes, and that was the first time our crew had seen a circular saw in action. They gathered around and muttered when they saw the power and speed of one of these puppies. Previously a carpenter and assistants would have hand sawn the points on the stakes, and it would have taken all day. This took about 20 minutes and amazed them.
Then I let Vivek's uncle try cutting some plywood sections. I showed him how to adjust the cut depth, all by demo, not much Hindi in my vocabulary, and taught him some cautions, including kickbacks. I was glad OSHA was not around, since the preferred footwear, even for welders here, are rubber flip flops. Few people can afford shoes, or even like them, since the climate in northern India is basically desertlike -- up to 120 degrees and 5% humidity interrupted by seasonal downpours.
It was with some initial trepidation that I watched that spinning blade near dark brown toes, but my fears faded after witnessing the accuracy and care with which it was being employed.
We screwed down the sections. An aside here: it had taken us three days to find drywall screws and their speed and power made another impression. Didn't take more than ten minutes of teaching and they got it. Again, done to exacting precision, every single time.
Next, we hired two guys from the local village whose specialty is placing rebar steel. They were intrigued with our technology and asked lots of questions, translated by Vivek, of course.
The way rebar is delivered is that the 30-foot lengths are bent into a bow, stacked in a truck and then dumped at the site. First you straighten them, then you have to cut them to length. This is done with a chisel on a block of steel. If you are skilled, which I'm not, two blows with a very large hammer does the trick.
We explained that we wanted a grid of steel, 15 inches on center for the foundation, and we wanted it placed two and a half inches off the ground to make sure we were in the center of the poured foundation. Needless to say that it was emplaced exactly like that, first time. Jugar came in when he measured the circumference of the airform at 15 inch heights and formed large rebar circles ahead of time and wired them in exactly. A neater, and faster way to emplace the horizontals. Less stress on the airform as well. Altogether, an elegant solution.
Screwing down the Airform using too-short Tapcon screws was a nightmare. We had to resort to sleeved concrete anchors, and they worked very well. We also decided to have long, curved brackets made for us instead of having to use the short, straight ones supplied. Easier to use, faster and more hold-down power with fewer screws needed. Jugar, indeed.
Inflating the Airform was a challenge. Due to power fluctuations and the lack of a return airflow blocking valve, the pump had to be kept running constantly and turned off when it reached our homemade pressure gauge limit. When the diesel from the site generator ran out, the entire Airform would deflate until it was restarted and refilled. We opted to buy a Honda generator for our own use and that solved the problem. The exasperation of having to monitor the air pressure and turn the pump on and off constantly to maintain correct pressure remained, and it was the only truly frustrating part of the entire building process.
Placing the first layer of concrete was a challenge, solved by my jumping in and demonstrating this procedure. Since I am the company head and am only supposed to show up once in a while, instead of actually working, this action was unprecedented in their experience and caused some consternation. The implication was that they were incapable of doing their job and implied harsh criticism. Vivek gently explained that the Westerner was crazy, liked to be hands on and to just humor him.
This diplomacy seemed to work, and we had no other crises like this. Again, shown once, they did it perfectly, and we shortly had a complete dome.
When we deflated the Airform, much heavy thumping on the shell resounded and Vivek's father sheepishly admitted that he had had his doubts about the strength of one of these, but now he was convinced.
All of the workers on the exhibition center now swarmed the site, since we had taken down the yellow warning tape and much conversation and opinion expressing ensued. To a man, and woman, they all thought this was really cool and when finding out how much Ecoshells cost here, they all wanted one.
I left those negotiations to Vivek, and we are working on doing some sort of communal building deal to keep the cost way down. Since we are building 27 more of these on the site, we have time to figure this out.
The plastering crew set to work with a vengeance and our third dome only took five days, start to finish.
Subsequently we have started some sales efforts in the Tsunami affected areas in southern India and now have our own crews there building. A visit from the President of India, Dr. Kalam, brought us a ton of publicity, and we now face a very bright future indeed.
This technology is precisely suited for this economy, climate and use, and I want to thank David South for helping to make it happen.
www.monolithicdome.com/galler...ex.html
