Geodesic Dome Home

[BeeHopper]

OK, who lives in one or knows someone who does ?

I've been researching this type of dwelling for some time now and based on Construction methods, cost, climate control efficiency, intregrity against massive storms and other things, I find the Geodesic Home to be ideal for my future endeavor. Does it live up to it's claims ? Anyone  :?

[hardwood]

Never lived in one but I built two back in the 70s. Cool structures but hard to fit cabinets/furniture in.

Scott

[Michael Bush]

I've built  some.  Having built conventional homes and a geodesic, here are my observations.

On a typical home you cut the ends of the plates and the ends of the sheets of plywood that hang of the ends.  Your shingles you cut only where they hang off the ends or in the valleys.

On a Geodesic you're cutting every side of every single board.  Both ends of every strut.  At least two sides of every sheet of plywood.  Two sides of every sheet of sheetrock.

So you end up with a lot of scrap when you get done and you do a lot of labor to make the scrap.

The upside is the Geodesic is very appealing (at least to me) and very efficient on surface to area so they are cheaper to heat (but not all that significantly).

The other downside is all of that efficiency falls apart when you add another dome where in a rectilinear house you can add on very efficiently.

[BeeHopper]

Thanks for the insight, I've been in construction in the past and found there were ups and downs in all types of structures. The Geodesic is appealing to me from the interior perspective more than the outside.  :-D

[Michael Bush]

In my opinion, they are beautiful... but then I'm probably more attracted to things that are round than things that are square.  I love my tipis... and a Geodesic looks like a big sweat lodge...