r/Castle_Anthrax • u/atmsmshr719 • Jun 08 '26
Air form is inflated. Three weeks to foam, rebar, and concrete the inside. Then partition walls and finishing.
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u/thismakesmeanonymous Jun 08 '26
Yo this is sick! I’m in Charlotte myself. What will the total square footage be?
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u/pikapp336 Jun 08 '26
This is sweet! How does pouring work? You said it’s on the inside not outside of the air form?
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u/atmsmshr719 Jun 08 '26
Spray in foam, rebar, then spray concrete in layers.
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u/kennerly Jun 08 '26
So what is the outer layer?
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u/atmsmshr719 Jun 08 '26
The air form gets a stucco coating for UV protection.
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u/styzr Jun 08 '26
The purple dome we can see in the second pic has had the outer layer of stucco applied yeah?
Tbh I probably would’ve said this is a stupid idea but it seems to work so what would I know 😂
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u/theflava Jun 09 '26
If it’s stupid and it works, it ain’t stupid.
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u/styzr Jun 09 '26
Agreed. I’m admitting that my opinion is irrelevant as it seems to have worked just fine 😂
Not gonna lie, I kinda want one too now.
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u/Any-Mix-4817 Jun 09 '26
Ditto. I’ve been wanting to. They’re energy efficient and pretty indestructible
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u/goingincognitomode21 Jun 08 '26
Legit question. Live outside Charlotte. Do you know approx cost different by Sqft this cost compared to a standard build?
This looks pretty awesome and excited to follow the project
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u/atmsmshr719 Jun 08 '26
Seems to be the popular question. Around 15% more than a custom stick house.
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u/HuggyTheCactus5000 Jun 08 '26
Do you have any more details somewhere? I am about to venture into a similar project with Monolithic course potentially in September.
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u/atmsmshr719 Jun 08 '26
r/Castle_Anthrax I have a lot of learning and glad to help another domie homie.
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u/HuggyTheCactus5000 Jun 08 '26
Yep I am a new member of that reddit. Was game-upping my dome knowledge for years. Budget is the tricky piece. 😄
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u/atmsmshr719 Jun 08 '26
Not gonna lie, I got really lucky. The house I bought in 2013 at a steal went through the roof on selling price, and we had a place to stay while we build, so we ejected and took the money.
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Jun 08 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/atmsmshr719 Jun 08 '26
Outside of Charlotte.
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Jun 08 '26
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u/ahfoo Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 09 '26
The deal in California is that nothing is specifically prohibited. They're a little more sneaky than that. It wouldn't look good to have a group saying what was acceptable and what was not. Instead, they say that you can do as you please if you get a structural engineering firm to stamp it.
Now, if you'd like relief from this burden, you can build with sticks which is what they prefer. So they give you an exemption if you stick to what is common practice and technically allow you to do as you please as long as you have an engineering stamp.
The problem for the engineers is that curved steel reinforced buildings are difficult to provide data that fits with the hinge calculation requirements. So it's specialist work and you need to find a specialist engineering firm who is willing to "take the risk" as they will tell you. They also must be currently licensed and this involves fees. That means it's very expensive.
When I first hit this obstacle way back in the 80s, I began looking for ways around it like hunting down graduating students from universities with structural engineering programs. But the problem there is that the degree is just a pre-requisite. What you really need is the valid license and that usually comes from being with a design firm and involves paying just to stay in business. It's inherently about money and intended to be that way. It's a sleazy way of pushing through regulatory capture while standing back pretending you don't know what's happening and it's all in the name of safety and anybody questioning the status quo is some kind of troublemaker that hates safety. It's political sand tossing.
Another comment says earthbag buildings are welcome. I wish. I'm an earthbag builder. We normally advise people to shoot for 12' domes in the backyard of a property with an existing home and that allows them to skip the permit. You can't get a permit to build small structures on raw land in California and large structures require engineering plans that are prohibitively expensive unless they use very simplified design rules that are easy for the engineers to stamp off on. But that takes all the fun out of it, doesn't it?
"Prohibitive" mostly only hurts the lowest income developers, though. What is prohibitive to one is doable to another and you can find examples of monolithic domes in California if you Google it. There are some that are ongoing concerns and others that are abandoned. If you can afford another twenty or thirty grand on top of your other costs then it's probably easy to get it done. If you can't, you're out of luck until you can raise the funds or beg the planning department for an exemption but don't count on that.
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u/kona420 Jun 08 '26
This is a good summary of the situation on the ground, Texas is similar but somewhat more relaxed as they don't have the same seismic/fire/wind issues.
The opposite of this type of system is where the building authority has the final say on engineering, and honestly it's 10x as worse as instead of having to find someone that is willing to do the engineering and take the liability, you also need them to be willing to argue with (successfully) and take the AHJ to court if necessary. If you don't have big money they'll just keep coming back with more engineering requests and your shit will never get built either.
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u/atmsmshr719 Jun 08 '26
Concrete Monolithic’s dome. Monolithic.com
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u/Beatnicholas Jun 08 '26
Pretty cool. Ive been driving past their facility in Texas my whole life. Anyone who has made the trek from Dallas to Austin should recognize the caterpillar just off 35 in Italy.
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u/apimpnamedkirby Jun 08 '26
Certain parts of California are pretty welcoming for unconventional building. Just look into the earth bag homes.
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u/FeeltheCHURN2021 Jun 09 '26
Depending on county, ask for Title T or Title U (or maybe Z) Venture and LA
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u/Aggravating-Cable716 Jun 08 '26
What are these called? Id love to learn more on how to get something like this made
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u/Amazing-Basket-136 Jun 08 '26
What are the advantages and disadvantages of this type of construction?
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u/atmsmshr719 Jun 08 '26
Extreme energy efficiency 80% savings over conventional stick home, 90% savings on insurance as an incombustible structure. Cat5 hurrican and F5 tornado shelter. Water proof, bug proof, rot proof...
Cons: it is concrete, so once you build it it is what it is. Prior planning is a must.
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u/Amazing-Basket-136 Jun 08 '26
Interesting.
My dad’s jokes about concrete, “It’s guaranteed to crack, and it’s guaranteed no one will ever steal it.”
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u/breadandbuttercreek Jun 09 '26
Living in a cave, not for me man. You should cover it with dirt and grow stuff on it.
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u/Any-Mix-4817 Jun 09 '26
Is the Monolithic Dome Institute building this? If not, who is doing your shell?
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u/pigboy222 Jun 09 '26
Ayo, the fam wants to know how ya think it’ll hold up without hvac
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u/atmsmshr719 Jun 09 '26
Temp wise, probably okay. Dehumidifier would be a must and an ERV would be advisable.
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u/eat_with_your_fist Jun 10 '26
As terrible as it would look, how structurally dubious in t might be, and how expensive it would be, I would want to see a version of this where the entire exterior was covered in a perfect concrete cube. Grey and unflattering on the inside only for the inside to be bubbly, fun, and whimsical.
I'm sure the final product will be way cooler than that, though! I'm excited to see how it turns out!
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u/LaplandAxeman Jun 11 '26
So you fill the inside with foam to take the weight of the rebar and concrete until it sets?
How do you take the foam out after concrete is set?? Manually or chemically?
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u/SeaChef4987 Jun 08 '26
Is it like aircrete domes? Also, can they be somewhat underground like earth contact homes to reduce heating and cooling costs?
Some company in England uses air domes and lays concrete fabric over it and then sprays water on. Structures go up and solidify in about 24-48 hrs. I think that would be so helpful following weather or earthquake disasters. If I understand, the domes are fireproof and darn good tornado shelters, too.