Build Your Own Dome: Part II

by

DOME MAGAZINE: Winter 1991-91,  Vol. 4| No. 2

Would you like to build your own dream dome, and are you relatively new at the building process? Perhaps the following will answer some of the questions of “what do I do next?”

This list assumes that you have secured a building site, selected a dome plan, and have the necessary financial commitment.

Suggested Construction Sequence

  1. If you are building in an area requiring permits, pay a call on the appropriate governmental division that handles the building permits. If possible, sometimes this is a good time to meet your building inspector to see if he has any quirky ideas about dome building.
  2. Clear your site, and stake out the location for your dome home.
  3. Excavate your site, and trench out the footings. Excavations should be about two feet larger than the diameter of the dome. At this point, it is important to firmly set the center point, as you will need this reference point throughout the construction.
  4. Trench out any under slab plumbing, heating or electrical work.
  5. Install well and septic, or hook up to city water and sewer, and install rough plumbing in the floor.
  6. Apply fill and footing material, and level to grade.
  7. Install Permanent Wood Foundation.
  8. Install main floor supports, joints, and sub-floor.
  9. Pour concrete floor, or install permanent wood floor.
  10. Backfill your site, after installing drain tile around the outside of the basement.
  11. Install the dome shell. This is the fun part.
  12. Install all door and window openings. Also any extensions, roof vents, chimney and plumbing jacks. Also install cavity ventilation detail, as per plan drawings.
  13. Install doors and windows.
  14. Install roofing material, as per choice.
  15. Apply exterior siding, as per choice (Guess what! The outside is virtually finished.)
  16. Frame interior stud walls, loft and stairways.*
  17. Install rough plumbing and electrical*
  18. Insulate dome, and very carefully install vapor barrier.
  19. Install sheet rock, interior panels and underlayment.*
  20. Install cabinets, countertops and vanities.
  21. Finish plumbing, heating, electrical.
  22. Install finish flooring.
  23. Get final inspection, if required.
  24. Move in, if you haven’t already.
  25. Party Time!

*Depending on your locality, these steps may require a visit from your local building inspector. Check the requirements in your area.

Please note: You are about to undertake one of the most rewarding, and most arduous tasks of your life. Be prepared to spend a good deal of time on it. A good rule of thumb is one and a half man-hours per square foot of finished floor. The bigger the dome, the longer it takes. Good luck.

Affordable Housing

Since becoming associated with the dome industry in 1975, I have been moved by the thought of providing shelter for those who are left out of the main stream of affordable housing. Various ideas have surfaced in the past twenty years to that end but they do not fully comply with that concept. Habitat for Humanity is one.

The idea behind the humanity concept is excellent, and flies in the face of the conventional housing market, since the system they use keeps the banks and the mortgage  moguls out of the mix, thereby saving a bundle for the home buyer. Yet, when Habitat for Humanity had an opportunity to include the dome in their program, they denied all of the advantages of dome construction, saying “the dome was too complicated.”

The original idea was to find a highly efficient system that could be purchased below the cost of conventional structures. That concept, the geodesic dome, so aptly patented and promoted by Bucky Fuller more than 50 years ago, seemed in the ’70s to hold the possible answer to the dilemma of high construction and maintenance costs. Those problems are even more prevalent today.

Correction of Misinformation

Those were the pioneering days in the development of the dome and, as then, like now, little general information was available. And some of the information that is available today is questionable.

For example: A recent writer in DOME magazine made some statements about dome connectors and cavity ventilation that were questionable, if not untrue.

Certain criticism has been leveled against metal connectors, as being depositories for moisture. The fact is that the possibility of the collection of condensation on the metal connection system is almost reduced to zero by the use of a positive cavity ventilation system. It is also alleged that the connector area is not insulated.

The connector areas are filled with fiberglass, and is NOT an uninsulated area, as suggested by some writers.

To enlighten the reader, I will identify a system that is available in the marketplace for low-end dome buyers.

The first decision we made was to use standard building materials. Wood. In spite of Jay Baldwin and Stewart Brand’s objections, because it is a renewable resource. Trees replacing the lumber to build a dome, before the dome has outlived its life, made sense to us. That reason, plus the fact that working with wood is relatively easy. As an architect of mine once quipped, “wood is forgiving.”

It may very well be true that some dome designs function well in moderate climates. We have found that in climates of radical temperature changes, from –20o F to +100o F, the need for a cavity ventilation system was paramount.