Building a Dome out of Paper (and steel...and cement...)

Step 6 Equipment Setup

After letting the dome dry for weeks after pumping in the paper and more time after plastering we brought in our solar gear. We just welded angle iron to concrete anchor bolted plates and against the rebar of the dome. We also had to hack up some pallets for the batteries.

We tried all sorts of home made paints. In the end we used a white roofing sealer and tinted into brown using brown umber oxide. The home made prickly pear paints and lime washes were simply not robust enough to handle moisture. Again this is due to our limited knowledge in plasters and finishes.

At the time of this submission the dome has been finished and running all of our PV solar equipment for nearly a year. We are quite happy with the thermal performance of the dome as well as the asthetic look. It cost about $10 a square foot for raw materials to put it together. We have since started a 20' diameter dome (~320 sq. ft). It has been quite simple to assemble although extremely time intensive. We plan to make three more domes. Feel free to make some suggestions as to how we can improve, speed up, reduce costs, etc.

Comments

[crazycloud]

 To make a dome that is almost free, earth quake proof go to the Cal Earth website.  They have done some amazing stuff.

[middlenamefrank]

It wouldn't be nearly as earth-friendly as your technique, but one thing I've thought about for years now is 1) buying a small, inexpensive yurt, 2) erecting it on a platform with enough room underneath for plumbing/electrical (if needed), 3) pre-mounting doors and windows, and 4) spraying the whole thing on the OUTSIDE with expanding spray foam insulation. It could be skinned over on the outside when it cures or just left free-form. Plumbing and wiring could also be mounted in the walls before blowing the insulation, but maintenance of the buried parts might become rather nightmarish. Not as cheap, environmentally sound nor as recyclable as your technique, but I'd think very much faster and easier. The one thing I'd worry about would be the structural strength, but a mechanical engineer would be able to figure that out very quickly. The foam might have to go on in layers, strengthening as it hardens.

[edziak]

Perhaps you could use paper tubes to create ducts for your plumbing and wiring. Or maybe a box shaped trough that could be uncovered completely for maintenance.

[middlenamefrank]

Ya, I've thought about a lot of ideas like that, but one fo the coolest things about that expanding foam is how well it fills every crack and void. Putting holes in it just seems to defeat the purpose. Anyhow, I guess I'm thinking now that maintenance wouldn't be that difficult. That stuff is pretty easy to dig out, then after you make your repairs, just spray in some more foam and let it fill everything in again. It might actually be easier than repairing plumbing/electrical behind drywall.

[kuchinskas]

It's gorgeous -- and so tight and together. I fool around with cement and am glad to have learned about waste paper as an additive - although in Berkeley, we can recycle anything paper. Instead of paint, you could try mixing clay or earth into the last cement coat; or old latex paint people want to get rid of; or rusty water.

[rimar2000]

Excellent work, congratulations!! A home made painting (a Russian friend gave me the recipe, I did not tried it, but he praised it a lot) is: portland cement, to add skim milk (it is important it be skim) until it acquires the desired consistency.