I live abroad and recently have acquired 25 acres of land. I'm exceptionally interested in alternative building materials. Primarily because the only thing they used to build here is cinder blocks (or rather they're poor third world stand in).
I have to deal with typhoon winds twice a year and earthquakes. I have been exploring dome construction. I was very interested in monolithic domes. However the cost of acquiring skilled people to actually help do a build is limited.
I was just surveying the land, and remember geodesic domes. I am almost completely sold on using them as a greenhouse for my seedlings.
But that got me thinking about building a geodesic dome home. In steel frame construction. As I can have the pieces milled for very fair rate here.
Wondering if any of you have experience with this or general feedback.
I had a friend that had a Dome Home business back in the '90s. His method was to cut the triangles out of 3/4" plywood, mill the edges at an angle to create the curvature, then attached 2x4s on all three edges. The 2x4s were drilled and bolted together. It made for a strong dome as he built one in CA and before he had it bolted to the foundation an earthquake happened. The dome went rolling down the street for two blocks with no damage whatsoever. He just picked it up with a crane and put it back on the cement foundation.
SturmUndTrinker 0 points 1.9 years ago
I had a friend that had a Dome Home business back in the '90s. His method was to cut the triangles out of 3/4" plywood, mill the edges at an angle to create the curvature, then attached 2x4s on all three edges. The 2x4s were drilled and bolted together. It made for a strong dome as he built one in CA and before he had it bolted to the foundation an earthquake happened. The dome went rolling down the street for two blocks with no damage whatsoever. He just picked it up with a crane and put it back on the cement foundation.