I haven’t read much here on geodesic domes and found it interesting to see that someone is building one. Are you building it your self out of raw lumber or a kit?
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It's a prefab from Oregon Dome. I'm the GC and interior framer and finisher. I have to say that I was a little uneasy about the prefab part because most of my experience has been with more traditional construction.
While some folks may be put off by the shape and appearance of a dome, it is one hell of a structure (Ole Bucky Fuller had it right!). The foundation (10' daylight basement), rough utilities and framing to finished subloor took 3 weeks. Erected the dome in 1 day!
It's a 50' tensided and what they call a 3/8th referring to it's aspect to a sphere.
If I can ever get this site to accept my hardrive DCP's I'll post a few.
It's a fun project.
Yep, I remember. 3/8 and 5/8 sphere. Helped my brother and dad put up a 40 ft 5/8 montery dome back in '80. It's pretty exciting to see that dome frame go up so fast where there wasn't anything before then swoosh! and it's there. Neighbors gawk and cars pull over to look at it. A roar.
How high are your riser walls and is it the hub/strut method?
Riser walls are about 5'. Hub/strut method? Haven't heard that term used, but this is new ground for me. Most precarious part of raising was closing what they call the "tension ring," the final ring of pentagons before the top pentagons are installed; at that point it became self-supporting even with the big opening in the top.
This one is being built on a secluded hilltop in the middle of 50 acres. Though it has a nice view, it's not visible from nearby roads, but everyone who has come by the site has stuck around for awhile.
My own house is a 2K sq.ft. log/timberframe that is kind of spread out. The dome is nearly that same footage on the main floor, but there's an entirely different sense of space; all free-standing, 24' to the ceiling.
Oregon Dome puts a good package together; all kiln-dried framing, sheathing glued and nailed, every triangle bolted to a perfect fit. Roger Boothe, the owner of Oregon Dome oversaw the raising, worked his butt off and there were absolutely no problems.
Now it's just building, although like framing the interior of a boat at times. Lotsa fun!
I live close to one of the largest geodesic domes. It is 384 feet in diameter. Your mouth drops open as you drive up to it. The Union Tank Car Dome is not in use any more and is for sale for $500,000. As soon as I win the lottery it is mine.
http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2001-03-06/cover_story.html
KK
hey kk- interesting story. Thanks for sharing. Was hoping for a picture there. If I'm ever in Louisiana...:)
rez,
Here is pic. http://www.bfi.org/slideshtml/imag0083.htm
KK
man, what a monster! One of these days I'll learn how to post a pic.
Holy Toledo!!
Makes my project look like a garden shed!
Actually Notch, I did build a dome garden shed. But it houses more than garden stuff now. (the junkman cometh) 20 years or so back I started playing around with the dome concept. Built bucky's tension sphere and tried to design a dome model composed of hexes and pents premade panels that got bolted together. Ended up making three proto types still currently in use. A 6 foot dia and two 14 footers. Never leaked and sits on a line of concrete blocks placed loosely on top of ground without mortar. I got to quit collecting so much stuff. Seems everytime I can pick up a loose piece of building material somewhere I do and the stash grows and grows. The domes came in mighty handy. Put a little convex bubble window in the top center of the one. Somehow it looks like the 70's all over again.
Was curious as to where you're at on the dome project now. Into the sheetrock yet?Half of good living is staying out of bad situations.
Nope. Just finishing interior framing and rough plumbing. HVAC going in next week.
Owner is doing elect. and plumbing so I'll be doing flashings, siding, ext. trim, etc. 'til he's ready for insulation and drywall.
I'm pretty much a one man band on a lot of this so it's a little like watching paint dry, I suppose.
I did get my chicken house finished over the holiday weekend and had barbequed wild boar dinner with another long-time client.
I just moved back to ohio from oklahoma with a packed out 15 ft ryder truck. Local ministorage had nothing available so I put it all into my in process retro old farmhouse bungalow. Now I can't do anything in there so I'm readying to build a 12x16 storage building to house the junk. More time spent in the wrong direction. Does this ever stop.Half of good living is staying out of bad situations.
I was in a similar fix once and bought a 16 X 32 surplus Army tent, layed down a plywood deck and stored my stuff through the summer and into the Fall until I could move in. Sold the tent to a hunting club for what I paid for it.
To your point, though, I've spent an embarrassing amount of time in my life in the wrong direction...."well, I'll just put this in (or up) temporary and finish it later." (No wonder I'm never caught up).
yep, was looking for a used semi trailer to have dropped out back. But now city limits are becoming too much like community property and the city's eyes are getting bigger. So now one has to try to make things pretty pretty to appease the powers that be. Still plan a semi trailer drop only now it'll have to be way out back past the turn in the path by the orchard hidden from the road. Suckers. The city is infringing on my self imposed rural status.Half of good living is staying out of bad situations.
Check out <www.armourtech.com/~thedome> It's a 30 year old dome I reno'd about 3 years ago. When I started it had been abandoned for around ten years or so.The owners have more than paid for it with the rental deal I think. Also I know it's technically not a geo desic dome anymore but it's perty funky and fun to stay at .
So how'd the drywall work out on the 50ft dome?Half of good living is staying out of bad situations.
Forget the primal scream, just Roar!
Just returned from driving a truck from New Hampshire to Oregon coast so I'm just getting caught up. Drywallers are finishing up another big job first...should be starting Dome in 3 or 4 weeks. I'll provide an update.
Ants are communists.
Ants are communists.
Only if they are RED.
Red ants are aggressive, war-loving communists, but black ants are communists too! (Don't turn your back on them or listen to their proganda).
You had a post the other day on motion switches (and I couldn't find it on a search) but the thread got into surge protectors and someone mentioned a central surge protection device that would fit in an Allen-Bradley service panel.
This picqued my interest because the dome I'm building is going to be so full of computer equipment (DSL, servers, network equipment, etc) it's starting to look like the construction of a new Mission Control.
So I contacted the local elect. supplier and inquired about such a device for ITE service panels. The answer: Yes and it's a breaker (QSA 2020, which is a 20A breaker and a QSA 1515 is a 15A) that goes into the panel like an ordinary breaker for any 20A but protects the entire load. Cost: $160.
I'm not an electrician by trade, but was told that the surge protectors one plugs into the wall to protect computers and such is an MOV device and those are rated by their Juhle (sp?) capacity and the larger the Juhle rating, the more shots they can take. The breaker , on the other hand, is a device that shunts the surges directly to ground and though it, too, will eventually fail, is much more reliable and durable.
You, or anyone else out there have some more insight on these things?
So Rez, and Cloudhidden and others interested; I've finally got some of my photos edited to give a little tour of the dome. These photos date back to last summer but will give a brief overview. They go from before excavation to completion of the dome shell but prior to roofing, windows, etc.
As of today, we're about finished with final cover inspections so insulators and dry wall will be happening in a few days.Jules Quaver for President 2004
oh man, what a flood of memories.
Went up pretty good, didn't it?Character? I never had any problem with character. Why, people've been telling me I was one every since I was a kid.
Went up damned near perfect; I'm still amazed that everything fit!
I'll post some pics in a few days that illustrate some of the guts of the place...the utility/heat pump/water (hot and cold) supply system turned out pretty nifty....Some of the plumbing was a booger....but it's been an enjoyable project.Jules Quaver for President 2004
Nice lookin shell Notch!
must be a bugger to shingle!
TDo not try this at home!
I am a trained professional!
Pretty site. Neat lines on all those framed pentagons. Thanks for sharing.
So Cloud, I've finally had some time to edit my photos...my objective was to be able to create a slide show like you've done...found your instructions from a thread last April, made every move...several times...and finally gave up. It must be a Mac capability, huh?Jules Quaver for President 2004
Not at all limited to Macs, though that would be a fun legend to create--PC owners are so gullible (the evidence is the computer they bought!!!!!)
Edited 1/5/2003 8:58:08 AM ET by Cloud Hidden
Ya Notch, I saw cloudhidden's website. If I were one to let myself be given over to envy that house would certainly rank as the tempter. Beautiful. Oh, that was for Andy's post. Anyhow... The Oregon Dome is a grouping of prefab triangles that are bolted together to form the hexagons and pentagons? I can see that. Haven't studied their brochures to know their concept. The Monterey Dome I mentioned in the earlier post came as precut color coded two by four struts that had a slot cut on the ends that a single arm of a metal spider looking hub would slide into and be bolted to through predrilled holes. Then the framing members inside the resulting pentagons and hexagons were also precut and color coded and nailed into place. The sheathing came as precut triangles that were nailed to the two bys after they were up. I saw one dome outfit with a similar method only the hubs had two brackets to each arm that fit on the outsides of the two bys and bolted thru. I am curious as to what type of roofing material will be used on the Oregon. The Monterey used a three tab architectural style asphalt or fiberglass shingle with an uneven wavy kind of cut on the bottom of the tabs. It'll be going on 25 years now and tho' the roof is still ok my brother/owner is not looking forward to a reroof. Do you, or any others, know of a spray or roll on product for roofing going over the existing shingles to get it some worthwhile additional life? (we're older now and his two oldest boys are heading into teen years. A few more years and they'll be old enough to grunt and roof:)
I'll bet your Oregon will have a balcony with windows shining in. A great place for hanging plants. Brother had an asparagus fern that use to drape down to the first floor from the top of the balcony rail.
Edited 6/21/2002 12:42:18 AM ET by rez
So I'll try to continue the dome string by passing on my limited experience with the construction aspects on my current project.
To begin with, I had a typo on the riser wall height; it's 3 feet. The dome has ten sides, 5 are 10' 1 7/8" at the outside of the rim joist, the other five sides are 20' 3 3/4". The short sides contain vertical walls with either doorways or windows. In the dome itself, there are 6 triangular skylights and one rectangle. As Rez stated, the dome is constructed of prefabbed triangles which include 2x4 studs and are sheathed with 1/2" OSB. The components are built on a jig @ Oregon dome and the mating surfaces are beveled to the arc of the dome and predrilled for 1/2" machine bolts. All the structural components are glued and stapled or nailed. Weyerhaeuser Paralams are used for window and door headers.
Since the construction is of 2x4, to meet insulation codes, the interior is insulated with unfaced fiberglass, but included with the dome kit is an exterior insulation package consisting of a repeat of all the triangles made up of 1" rigid insulation bonded to 1/2" OSB. This is installed by the roofer.
The roofing applied to this dome is Malarkey brand high wind laminated asphalt/fiberglass shingles. High wind shingles, as many of you probably know, are more flexible in texture and lay over the many hips of the dome very nicely. In addition, Ice and Snow Shield roll roofing is put over the tar paper at all the valleys and short roof sections of the vertical walls and both of the two dormers.
The roofer we hired is a guy by the name of Josh Kinkaid of Springfield, Oregon who does nothing but geodesic domes pretty much all over the US and more. I have nothing but praise for his worksmanship, his good humor and the way he treats his Beagle. It's a bias from past experience I guess, but believe me, if you find a GOOD roofer, treat him nice!
So now it's just framing the inside of a house with angular walls, like fitting a big boat and I personally love the challenge of making nice fits on irregular or non-standard surfaces. The owner is a great guy, an engineer with limited building experience, but very determined to construct his dream house to the best of his ability and resources. He's doing the plumbing and electrical while I do the woodwork.
I'm not a shill for Oregon Dome, but I have to say, they produce a nice assembly, and everything fits and everything was there and THEY are there to assist on raising day.
My only pick with them was in the very beginning when they were trying to sell the owner on a treated wood foundation (subject for another post). I pleaded with the owner to go with concrete for a host of reasons and, to my great relief, he agreed.
The last thing to mention is the initial difficulty the owner had in getting a construction loan: Apparently the banks have taken a skeptics view of non-traditional construction such as domes and log homes and, ultimately, the owner, while being a solid credit risk, had to wait a LONG time (6 mos) for approvals and had to pony up more of his cash to make the project happen.
Not to mention my having to donate my first born to get bank-approved as the GC.
How big is the dome at the South Pole and how is it constructed?
If I can ever get this site to accept my hardrive DCP's I'll post a few.
DCP? Digital camera pic?
The trick seems to be to give it time to actually upload - this forum sw doesn't much indication that it's uploading - patience seems to be the key_______________________
"I may have said the same thing before... But my explanation, I am sure, will always be different." Oscar Wilde
Write to "cloudhidden" who's always on this site. He did one down south that he lives in and its drop dead beautiful and I know he has pictures on line. Even was featured on HGTV a short time ago.
I visted Bucky's tomb in Boston a cpl of years ago and was impressed with the "tiny" stone..with a geodesic imprint etched on it. Very great man who's STILL ahead of this time.
Be well
Namaste'
Andy
It's not who's right, it's who's left ~ http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
Edited 6/20/2002 9:24:45 AM ET by Andy Clifford(Andybuildz)
>He did one down south that he lives in. Even was featured on HGTV a short time ago.
Thanks, Andy. This Sunday it's repeated 8:30 PM EST. But as buildings go, a thin-shelled concrete dome has more in common with an ICF house than with a geodesic. Kinda like a compound curve ICF where the foam is sprayed-in-place rather than coming in prefabbed blocks. Ours are rebar and shotcrete, while geo is usually wood. And the thin-shell has monolithic insulation and vapor barrier, while waterproofing a geo is a bit trickier. Viva le difference! Lots of people on earth and lots of neat types of houses to go around.
Still, if I could ever talk FHB into an article on thin-shells, I'd try to make the case to the editors that the more apt comparison is to an all masonary house (alas with compound curves) than to a stick-built geodesic. That'd make it easier to explain the structural and energy benefits.
It's fun to read about Notchman's experiences with geo's and I look forward to more of them.
Andy- Ever see the domework's table top book collection of photos from a wide variety of domes. One photo I remember seeing showed a guy that built what looked like a 3/4 egg on the side of a steep rock mountain, somehow pinned in there overhanging the rock foundation beneath. I'd have a hard time sleeping at night.
Can you believe, the drywall is done, the painting is done, the cabinetry is ready to install...Monday, I'll be laying tile backer (we're going with Denshield Tile Guard on the floors) and underlayments.
Another post brought this thread to mind. I haven't been to the site in a couple of weeks....owner is really happy with the drywall job. I look forward to seeing it and I'll post some pictures.
Ya, and you never did.
be late or never
You're right....and I lost all the pics when my hardrive got formatted about 3 weeks ago.
I'll will be visiting the HO in the next 2 or three weeks....and get some pics....just for you!
and I didn't know that notchman had been reincarnated as wormdrive.
be new
If you'd read the damned profiles that you (and I) and others are so keen on, you'd have known that! :-)
Since my hard drive fiasco (legal action pending, BTW), I changed a bunch of things, including passwords and a re-registration here.
So, consider me a "newbe" with moss on my back.
It's kind of cool to see that I'm up to 95 posts!
I think Piffin is due for a refresh!
So while I've got your attention, help me get Fink to establish a Masonry category. I posted a suggestion on "forum suggestions" and got one response (not Sysop).
So, as Piffin suggests in his tagline (with my interpretation), with waning apprenticeship training available in the country, we rely upon ourselves here to teach and guide and query each other.
One of my "avocations" is masonry; I've done concrete block, stucco, complete home foundations, brickwork, a lot of stone work (mostly natural but some manufactured) and some tile work (mostly showers).
I have some good mentors, but, with regional limitations and "well, that's how we've always done it" mentality, I think Taunton would benefit by providing a masonry forum. Personally, I think the Taunton concrete books are lacking (they suck!), with the exception of the concrete countertop book and the tile book.
If you search the web, let me know if you find ONE decent masonry forum (the John Bridge tile site the one exception).
But what about stucco (the original, not the "Drivit" stuff of lawsuits), lots of application in renovations and even in new construction. Or more than a TOH approach to laying CBU's, or some of the innovation in pavers, or stamped concrete, etc. etc.
It's all an integral part of fine homebuilding.
I'm currently doing a fireplace using "Cultured Stone Dryfit ledgestone" and if not for my "mentor", it would be a real booger. The manufacturers instructions were apparently written by somone who never put the stuff up!
Help me out here Rez....er....Razzman! (Stand on your head with your arms at your sides if you have to!).
Be Aggressive!
Edited 4/12/2005 9:18 pm ET by Wormdrive
>Cultured Stone Dryfit ledgestoneHey Notch, that's what I used! Love the stuff. My plasterers gave me a good mud recipe that included a bit of acrylic base coat and a little extra portland for greater stickiness. I kinda enjoyed that project, especially when someone else was mixing and hauling the mud!
Yeah, I'm getting into the groove with it and it's turning out great, but the modular aspect, for the uninitiated is a bit daunting! Lots of cutting and trimming to get those mortar-free joints.
I come home at night and my hair (what little there is) is like the hairdo on a cable TV preacher.
Be a dust mask wearer. (I'm trying to get into the Rez thing!)
roar.
Pix, my friend!
Patience! That Geo did turn out nice inside. The owner, a good guy and friend has some medical problems so the landscaping is on hold.
And I'm currently buried finishing up a small mcMansion, but I WILL post some pics!
View Image
sobriety is the root cause of dementia.
Here's a couple shots of the F/P....finally complete with a little pointing and cleanup left to do....
The HO had purchased one of those premade crownmold mantels....I talked her out of it....she turned me loose to play....(it's always a treat when they do that!)
(Drystack ledgestone chardonney, to be exact)
Edit: Sorry the pics are so dark....
Edited 4/22/2005 1:55 am ET by Wormdrive
Lighter.=0)
A person with no sense of humor about themselves, has no sense at all.
The first 3 pics remind me of WabiSabi masonry in Anasazi country - from inside the kiva.
Edited 4/22/2005 4:06 am ET by Pierre1
Thanks, my friend....
You're welcome.=0)
A person with no sense of humor about themselves, has no sense at all.
Thanks for those! I always like seeing your work.BTW--to take a left turn--if you ever thought about making giant rocks/boulders, I know a course in your area that's scheduled at a big discount. I have wanted to do the inside of my garage that way--make it truly look like a cave--but can't make it to this course. Still, an opportunity if you know someone who wants to go. http://www.itsa.info/Convention2005.shtml
Lorane's near where I grew up, and about 100 miles from me now.
That looks like a good event to attend.
Artificial boulders fascinate me too; the creative building applications are endless!
Up north of me on the coast, in Newport, there is a first class saltwater aquarium (where Kiko, the Orca was kept for awhile). The facility is littered with massive thin-shelled boulders that are absolutely convincing.
hey hey hey ok...
sobriety is the root cause of dementia.
Believe it or not, I actually started a novella about that pic, back when the big NE blackout happened....wrote it out on paper longhand with intentions of putting it here.
You get me my Masonry forum and I'll get your Novella started (here).
Do Novellas....and get SYSOP off his derrierre!
And let's get a thread started on "silent explosives....." Pretty cool stuff!
Edited 4/12/2005 10:17 pm ET by Wormdrive
"silent explosives....."
http://forums.taunton.com/tp-breaktime/messages?msg=56337.1
sobriety is the root cause of dementia.
WRONG!
I'm doing masonry now....let's stay on subject here!
Break things quietly.
I'm thinking the next time Andy E is on a post that a question could be put to him about how the suggestion process works at Taunton when dealing with forum design.
There might be behind the scene reasons why the forums aren't categorized more.
It would seem Sysop has too much stuff going on all the time than to get involved with independent responses. View Image
sobriety is the root cause of dementia.
BTW, I finally countered DW's passion for Feng Shui by adopting the discipline of Wabi Sabi. (Fung Chewy is toast!)
See beauty in imperfection!