jamius.com

I know these forums are young, still I’m surprised I am the first one to ask about this. Anyway, I’ll try and make this a good post so others can reference it in the future.

Following in Jamie’s footsteps, I am going to build a dome in the woods. Just a brief search online has made me realize that you don’t have to be some herculean dynamo like Jamie to build one (heck, if Thoreau can do it, I can) so I am starting to plan out the logistics. I won’t be able to do it financially for at least a year, but might as well get it organized. Below is a bunch of steps that I’ve briefly thought through. I am very much a novice at this so please feel free to correct me and offer advice. If you don’t care about the muddy calculations just skip Step 2 and Step 3.
Step 1: Land
I definitely want New England. The mid-West would have better weather, but I grew up in NE and would hate a dry, hot environment. Best places would probably be Vermont , upstate NY, Western MA or Maine. Canada could be an option too, but probably more of a hassle. Geographically these all are pretty much the same, but I still need to look into different building regulations, taxes, and just land prices in general.
Anyway, prices vary widely (so widely that I feel a bit overwhelmed), but I’d probably put down $50,000. Hopefully that would get me 5-10 acres, yes?
Another thing to consider is contiguity. Obviously they need to be together and, ideally, close to a clearing that a car could get through. How likely is it that cheap land will be accessible? I mean, do they expect you to by 10 acres and not be able to get to it without cutting through private property? Like I said, I’m trying to plan this all out, so any experts on buying land?
The land would have to have some trees for lumber and maybe a stream. If a well needs to be dug it might be a hassle, so I might buy land with a pre dug well.
Step 2: The Dome
It seems a 3 frequency 5/8 (aka soccer ball style) dome is best, as Jamie has pointed out in his videos.
Say I want a 40 ft diameter dome (without a collar, just for now).
Quick back of the envelope calculations give me:
980 feet of steel pipe, so let’s call it 1000 just to be safe.
1 ½ inch steel pipe (big enough?) costs about $3 per foot, new. I could probably get it cheaper, but I want to give a high estimate.
So 1000*3 = $3000 for steel.
Next to cover the dome would be plywood and Plexiglas, I imagine. So since I am aiming for a high estimate, let’s say I cover half the dome with wood and half with Plexi.
Surface area = about 2520 sq ft.
Plywood is roughly $1 per sq foot.
Plexiglass is roughly $7 per square foot.
So .5*2520*1+.5*2520*7= 10080. Let’s call it $10100.
So Total would be $13100. If I want to build a collar on the dome (i.e raise it on a straight cylinder like Jamie)I’d probably use about half as much additional material.
$13100*1.5= 19650. Let’s call that $20,000.

Step 3: Dome into Home
I can’t live in a skeletal building so now to make it livable.
Two floors, each about 1200 square feet. Just for plywood:
1*1200*2 = $2400.
Insulation is about 0.50 per sq foot. Let’s say I insulate the entire outside.
.5*2520*1.5= 1890, so about $2000.
Roofing tiles about $1 per square foot. (Not on the collar).
.5*2520 = 1260.
Total = $5700
There are obviously other things: floor struts, stairs, electrical, plumbing, drywall, ventilation, paint, amenities. But, right now I’m just considering the basic structure. Sort of like a cabin that one could conceivably live in. Something that could survive the weather until I finish it.
Step 4: Summing it Up
Okay, so if you want to skip all the above calculation, just pay attention to this. Just considering a basic dome, considering all new, store bought materials, ignoring labor, and high estimations on amount I get about $26000 for dome construction. With land I could pick a price, but let’s say $50,000 for a few acres. So a grand total high estimate of about $75,000 to build this thing. That would still give me $25,000 to put in amenities and other minor construction and other costs I didn’t think of and keep it around $100,000. I think that’s fair for a high estimate, especially when compare it to actually buying a pre-built house.

So what’s the point of all this? Well I just wanted to write down what is going on in my head while I’m planning the finances. This way it’s a lot easier to see where I am way off in my estimation or assumptions about building it. So please, tell me I’m wrong if you want. Tell me what I should correct or what a better estimate would be. Keep in mind, I’d rather guess too much than too little. I want this to serve as a resource for other people that might want to start a similar project and don’t know how to start planning. So how about it? Any advice?

I have never done this, so take my comments for what it is worth.

Your land estimate looks more than reasonable. I am not familiar with your area, but it isn't hard to find land for those prices. The best land prices I see are around $3,000 per acre.

The other thing I think should be noted is the difficulty in sealing a dome. If you notice what Jaimie did, he didn't keep the strict dome structure on the outside. He put a fairly flat roof on top and the sides don't follow the exact curve of the metal skeleton. This might cause you to underestimate the cost here.

Hopefully someone experienced with this can give you better advice. Those are just the two things that came to mind and I could be off base. Good luck.

P.S. You may want to think about the foundation a little. I saw pictures where Jaimie constructed his with stone. He may have added cement later. You definitely should make sure you have something solid to build upon.

The only thing I can think of right now, is that dome calculators only give you the strut length (aka hole-to-hole length) so you would have to add more than 20 feet. If you already incorperated this into you equations, nice, and if you didn't, here ya go!

I have also thought about the sealing issue, and Jamie used little wood pieces that stick out and used zip ties to fasten them to his frame. On those wood pieces, he mounted panels that were supposed to go on a greenhouse. The problem he ran in to were that those panels were pretty crappy stuff, and started to fail in less than a year. I've thought about using wood struts that would attach to the frame with pipe strap. Not exactly like the picture below, but you get the idea.



I'm not sure on how covering the vertices (where the pipes come together) would work..

Hey bro,
This project sounds awesome, please be sure to keep us updated as you make more discoveries in this area, I'm designing a 'Dome' style building utilizing a few methods from Jaimies videos and building techniques used in Earth-Homes (I like the idea of Adobe/Natural clay and 'tire walls' as they add insulation.) All my designs are on paper but I recommend learning how to use AutoCAD or something along those lines to add with any designs you might be planning. It definitely helps having something to cross-reference with and check your designs against. Even if you create in 2D it still helps as you can do everything to scale. I hope this helps and good luck! =D

I find the following design idea interesting, although the music is irritating.

Yeah, land is definitely the big X-factor. I’m just throwing $50,000 out as a number because I know I could get more than enough land for that amount. I also know I could get 5 acres for $20,000, but I’m erring on the side of caution for my estimate. It’s just a matter of land quality, location, and development (next to a road, pre-dug well, cell-phone tower access, etc). Better to realize I could do everything and save $30,000 when I actually start the project. Of course, I still have a lot of research to do, finding reputable property realtors, figuring out land loans (I hear banks are usually wary of giving loans for residential land just to build a house), digging and construction rights, etc, but if I start discussing this stuff now, all the better.

I was planning on doing something similar to Jamie with the roof too. Add some sloped plywood around the top of the dome. The dome could basically just act as a support structure. And for sealing I had actually sketched out pretty much what folypers posted. Sealing the vertices is tricky and unfortunately a lot of the dome stuff online is either about stuff like greenhouses, where ceiling isn’t a huge issue, or premade domes, where they are factory made with pre-cast parts.
Foundation is something I need to decide about to. Conceivably I could just sink all the poles a few feet into the ground and concrete them in place. At worst I could just ad steel struts at the base for stability. But stones and concrete are cheap. Another option would be to build them into the walls of a cellar, but I just want to focus on structure before I worry about digging anything.

For calculation I did use hole-to-hole length, but I doubt the cost will differ too much. Say I have a 6 inch overhang on either side, so that’s a foot for each pole. 120 poles (not all of them will overhang). So 120*3*1.5 =$540, which isn’t too much.
Clay/Natural walls would be cool to, but I’m not sure they could withstand NE weather. Of course, I could always sink the dome and use the ground as natural insulation, but digging that much seems significantly harder and more complicated (not that there’s anything wrong with a challenge ).

I definitely need to train myself on AutoCAD or some drafting program. Whenever I draw something just on paper it’s really sloppy and not to scale. I can understand it just fine, but with a program I could draft it and send it to people to review.

And something I didn’t mention before is tools. Big tools would probably include a drill press, table saw, and arbor press (to flatten the pipes, unless there’s something better) plus a few small tools. But together it’ll probably be around $1000 for all of it. Of course another big investment will be solar panels, but the prices for those will probably be less by the time the dome is built.

I’ll definitely update as this thing gets off the ground. It’s funny, 2 years ago I had no idea I’d be so determined to do something like this, but now I can’t believe I hadn’t considered it before. Had I known, maybe I would have studied Engineering or Architecture instead of Physics, but oh well, I’m learning as I go.


And that straw dome is really creative. I hope they called it something like "Operation: First Little Pig"

Good luck to you man. I also had dome-fever after watching Jamie's video's. I already knew about dome homes as monolithic domes (also very nice domes, maybe I'll post something about them) and buckyballs in chemistry, which are geodesic spheres if you take out all the triangles except their bases and you are left with 'empty' pentagons and hexagons. So I did a lot of designs and thinking, and the pipe strap idea was one of them. I also want to build my home myself, and I am really excited about geodesic domes (who knows, it could turn out to be the best of all designs eventually) but that's all a very distant dream. I'm still too young to buy land, so I'm going to make a 'mobile headquarters' with 'exterior power supplies', 'storage bays' and 'living quarters' over the next years to eventually go for it! It's also posted on this forum, maybe your Physics skills could help me out a little!

MultipleMiggs wrote:And that straw dome is really creative. I hope they called it something like "Operation: First Little Pig"

As a straw bale home owner/builder I can tell you that they did not. The three little pig references are so numerous and tiring that references of it made to straw bale home builders are usually met with a level stare and silence.

Wikipedia has a good description of geodesic domes. It lists some of the benefits and disadvantages.

One of the things I have heard about geodesic domes is you save about 60% on building material compared with a conventional home. Some of that has to be weighed against the added time it takes dealing with shapes that aren't square, but when you are done, you get a structure that is much stronger than a conventional home.

I would definitely use a lot of what Jaimie did in the construction of his home. In constructing the geodesic sphere, I think Jaimie advised Ellen to construct it upside down and then roll it over. That wouldn't be an option for a large building, so I am interested in the sequence of construction. You you just start building the sides and work your way up? Do you go part way, construct the top most part on the ground, and wench it into place? Maintaining the geometry while you build would definitely be a priority. Ellen's sphere needed some persuading to complete it. A big structure would require a lot more persuading.

Sounds like a well thought out plan bro, my dome plans are incredibly budget which is why we're choosing to bury our first floor underground (I'd need to show the plans for this to even start making sense but I promise to upload some CAD Drawings once I find a suitable program, I did have AutoCad but switched up to 64-bit windows shortly after and now I need to buy another version because it doesn't work.) We rely a lot on natural clays and wood from the forest. We'll be using some metal in the construction of the upper part of the building and our budget solution for flattening the ends was similar to Jamies idea. He seems to just have something similar to a can crushing mechanism but on a larger scale. If you were able to set something up I.e. A massive weight enough to flatten something, connected to a handle for lifting it and dropping it, you'd be able to save yourself $$$ when it came to a press. Obviously an actual press would be good for future projects but just setting up a first building with this little makeshift kit would probably be easier. I wouldn't know how to approach the other tools on a budget but I imagine if you added a point to the bottom of your weight, TA-DA hole punch. Another money saver. And it would also help you learn how to really use the most basic of basic and work your way up to the expensive stuff, its always nice learning as you go!

In relation to AutoCad, it's a very very good program. I'm gutted that my version doesn't work anymore although I should point out it does require some training to use to its full potential. I was lucky enough to have a friend that used it at university so he taught me a few things. Their are other Cad programs out there but after using AutoCad it is very difficult to familiarize yourself with a new system. For now I reckon your best bet would to be download something simple for free just to see how you feel with it, if CAD isn't your thing then there's plenty of other ways to design buildings on a computer, some much simpler. Let me know how you get on with your chosen CAD software and I'll post up some links to some other software.

Expect long replies from me on this topic, usually anyone I talk to about Dome's looks at me as if I'm crazy. Its so awesome having somewhere to 'vent' all this and help others in the process. I really hope I can contribute to this project, it sounds awesome.

(Maybe further down the line they'll be a Dome section, seems like this is a hot topic!)

Edit: I think Jamie built his dome and then wrapped a steel wire or something around the base to make the structure stronger, like the wire pushes the dome in causing more rigidity. You might need to check this but is definitely something worth looking into, especially for the roof, I reckon that'll add some extra weight.