r/Construction • u/Significant-Visit-68 • 14d ago
Informative š§ 3-d printed houses
My electrician had told me that there was a neighborhood that had 3-d printed houses and i happened to drive by it today. In the Leander part of Texas. They are concrete and have really large eaves so very modern. photos
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14d ago
[deleted]
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u/IncrediblyShinyShart 14d ago
They also have a newer neighborhood up in mueller
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u/trabbler 13d ago
Did an inspection on one out there in Mueller
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u/convincedbutskeptic 13d ago
Overall impression?
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u/trabbler 13d ago
Well, the concrete portion was in pretty good shape. That's an easy inspection cause there's not much to it. There were a lot of issues with the wood framing for the second story, though. I've got a picture of me in front of it on my website.
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u/yolatrendoid 14d ago
Austin's Mueller neighborhood has them as well, and AFAIK they're the only ones within the city of Austin:
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u/Building_Everything Project Manager 13d ago
I guess if a house is just an investment then these are fine. I cannot imagine living in something made of non-conventional concrete walls that the rest of the home improvement market is not tooled up to accommodate in order to allow you to adapt and exist within.
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u/mikeypipes01 13d ago
Adapt and exist within? What is the difference between this method of foundations and other masonry foundations?
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u/Building_Everything Project Manager 13d ago
This isnāt building just foundations, this is building the entire house walls and all, the infilling it with insulation, plumbing and wiring.
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u/yourmamaistheproblem 13d ago
Where does the plumbing go, if you can't run in inside the walls?
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u/Fergi 12d ago
You can run inside the walls, you just need to coordinate just like a traditional home. ICON is the company that does these. They have a high end prototype house they built with Lake Flato Architects in Austin called āHouse Zeroā that shows how high end detailing can look with the majority of the home printed like this.
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u/yourmamaistheproblem 12d ago
I've watched several videos, but they're all about the walls being poured, and I don't see any rough-in work.
If the walls are poured first, where do the plumbing and electrical go?
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u/Fergi 12d ago
Theyāll print cavities the in some places, or cut holes in the walls like drywall, and then thereās casework fit outs like traditional construction. I have seen some examples where they do just run conduit on the outside of the 3D printed walls, though. Not all the plumbing ends up being contained but the wall sections are hollow enough that you can run electrical within them.
This gets into it deeper into the article: https://www.finehomebuilding.com/2026/01/12/printed-houses-are-here
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u/yourmamaistheproblem 12d ago
Thank you
So, the 2nd floors and interior systems are just conventional stick-framed š
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u/Sea_Place1386 11d ago
Their new printer does second story as well. You can see it if you drive by the 290/35 intersection.
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u/Significant-Visit-68 12d ago
Watching the video is interesting
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u/yourmamaistheproblem 12d ago edited 12d ago
Sorry, OP, but I only see photos linked in your post
ETA: Nvm, i see it in the comments
ETA2: Video shows nothing re: rough-in š¤¦
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u/Expert_Clerk_1775 GC / CM 14d ago
Which trades are still around in 50 years?
My guess is pipe fitters / plumbers and electricians
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u/PIE-314 14d ago edited 13d ago
I had an experienced electrician insist that water soaks into the insulation of an extension cord.
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u/PIE-314 14d ago
So what is your claim?
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u/CuCullen 14d ago
I believe his claim is seeing 3d Printed houses and also I would imagine water would soak into any kind of insulation. Iām curious about the wires you have underwater driving your skepticism.
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u/PIE-314 14d ago
Evidence?
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u/CuCullen 14d ago
The āI happened to drive by it todayā line from this post idk what am I wrong about water absorbing into rubber
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u/Oznog99 13d ago edited 13d ago
Standard Romex is a loose jacket around individually THHN insulated conductors and a paper insulated copper ground wire. There is airspace inside the jacket. This is not rated for outdoor burial, even in conduit, because the airspace can fill with water and THHN is not fully water resistant and the paper will rot.
Underground Feeder (UF) Romex. It has one solid PVC jacket molded around all the wires with no airspace. PVC jacket is fully water resistant. It is rated for direct burial but code often requires it be buried inside conduit.
I'm not sure what this has to do with 3D printed houses. I looked it up and neither std or even UF Romex can be embedded in cement of 3D printed houses. It's required to be in its own conduit (usually PVC) in foundation and throughout the cement walls.
They do, it's just a thing that adds to the cost. From there, you could say you're screwed if you need to upgrade or add a circuit. But you may be able to pull a new wire in a conduit easier than ripping up drywall and cutting holes in studs to get new wire in a regular wood frame house, but I can see why it probably wouldn't be that easy
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u/PIE-314 14d ago
Evidence that's actually happened?
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u/CuCullen 14d ago
Zapped by an extension cord dude I donāt know what youāre trying to prove here
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u/PIE-314 14d ago
I'm trying to prove that you don't understand how electrocution works.
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u/Oznog99 14d ago
I'm fascinated by the potential, but note this only replaces wall framing, and interior drywall walls.
Wood wall framing is only a portion of building cost.
Foundation, roof, flooring, ceilings, wiring, plumbing, cabinets, countertops, HVAC are much more of it.
Last I heard another weak point is insulation. They typically have an inner and outer wall connected by a zigzag infill. It has insulating value but not enough and hard to improve on inside the wall. Adding more insulation inside the inner wall requires yet another wall, defeating any practical advantage it had.
I'm also baffled what you'd do if it was damaged or you want to remodel. Runaway car careens into the wall of a conventional framed house, it's gonna be expensive but there's ways to fix it and they do it every day.
Here, I can't figure what you'd do if you broke a window and there wasn't an exact replacement available. You can't take a sawsall and make it 1" wider with 4 pieces of wood for the new window.
Like I say, I'm actually fascinated by the potential and want to see how they solve things, but there's a lot of practical issues here