A big thanks for sharing your links! It is so great to see a papercrete dome!!!
I agree about your point with the shorter struts as well.
thank-you again and looking far more forwards to my project now that I have found this group!
Jackie
---In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, <Spaceman@...> wrote:
http://www.starship-enterprises.net/Paperdome/
This is a 17' diameter frame, a bit smaller than what you want. The longest strut is only 41". It was purposely made small to fall under the 160sq.ft. shed law, to avoid a permit that would have needed an expensive engineer. Now if you do the math you see that it is a bit larger than 160sq.ft., more like 225. The owner gambled that the inspector wasn't great at math other than rectangles, and he was right :)
A few years later that dome came back to me because the guy sold his house and the buyers did not want it. I rebuilt it on a 3' stem wall, then came back and slip-formed papercrete on the outside of it, using those thin triangles as the inside of the form. I'm sitting in it now as I type this.
http://www.starship-enterprises.net/spraywasher/Index.html
My area gets even less rain than you do, and the last few years much less than what's normal for here. Thankfully we don't have much (if any) snow in the winter. Typically we may get one or two light snows that usually stick for less than a day. Some years are exceptions, though. A couple of years ago it was below freezing for a whole week, with snow and ice storms. That really shut things down, including the local electric utility. They had lots of burst pipes!
I definitely agree with making the pc light. You can always come back and plaster on a heavy top coat if you live in a rainy area. A good geodesic frame is amazingly strong, and if you do the papercrete right it would be self supporting, so you get double strength. I have never been one to throw sand or dirt into the mix, and the cement ratio varies depending on the use of the product.
Thank-you for your reply!!
Yes I agree with you that the struts and hub connections would need to be stronger. I'm just thinking that basic style, but heavier steal and wooden cross pieces might work. As for the greenhouse and moisture that also is a very good point you have made. Where we live moisture is not such an issue and greenhouses become very dry since the natural moisture and rain is rather low 9 inches per summer but we do have long 6 month of winter with snow.
I'm also thinking to make the paper mix as light as possible to get the highest R values because we live in northern Canada and get -40C winters and since there would be extra support from the geodesic frame if built heavy enough as you have pointed out.
The straw bale domes in Israel are very, very interesting I must say. I will try to post a link to the readable site as well for you.
Jackie
---In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, <Spaceman@...> wrote:
I've been designing and building geodesics for about four decades, and I live in a papercrete dome.
I was not able to look at your youtube because I'm out in the boonies and my connection isn't good enough for that, but I checked out the links.
That dome frame you're considering doesn't look adequate to me. The struts appear to be 1x4" and are oriented the wrong way for any strength. The hub idea isn't bad but they make no mention of the gauge of the metal. The hardware appears to be the cheap galvanized type. I think their design would be fine for camping or a wedding pavilion. It might not be good for supporting much weight.
Most greenhouses I've been in are very humid. You should keep the moisture content of papercrete below about 18% to prevent mold, not to mention that the wetter your papercrete is, the heavier it is, and the weaker it is. You'll need to consider that in your design and provide a way to dehumidify your greenhouse cover. Humidity and moisture content are not the same thing, but if you keep papercrete in a high humidity environment then the moisture content is going to go up.
Good to see a fellow domehead here. If I can help with your project (free advice) I'll be happy to.
http://starship-enterprises.net/Papercrete/index.html
spaceman
On 11/11/2013 6:07 PM, diggingfortreasure@... wrote:
I'm glad that I see other people are thinking about the very, very same things as myself!
Here is my plan so far for a new design using papercrete. I'm wanting to use a geodesic frame the way they built using straw bales on the outside of the frame here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2NvnhLPBVM
However I'm thinking to use the hyperadobe mesh bags to hold the papercrete as the form as I see someone else here has also thought of. Now one more extra idea I've had is to then build a second larger geodesic dome greenhouse around the whole papercrete cabin similar to what this family is doing with their cob home.
http://inthralld.com/2012/10/norwegian-geodesic-dome-residence/
I'm thinking the dome greenhouse will help deal with the sealing water issues of the papercrete while creating a nice sheltered garden area. Lastly here is the hub system I'm thinking of using so far. http://domemade.co.uk/the-hub-system/
Because the geodesic frame will help with strength I'm thinking I could go very light on the sand and even use the min on cement, what do you all think on the mix ratio's I should consider for this? Right now I'm planning for the cabin to be 300sq ft with a half loft of 150sqft and the greenhouse shelter to possibly be up to a 40ft dome.
Jackie
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