Geodesic Domes any of you have them or dealt with them?

JOCCO · Dec 30, 2018

Yes those weird golf ball looking buildings. They had a run of it quite a few years ago don't see them much now. There are a few small greenhouses build that way. Seems they had roof issues and condensation. Also was told they were an insurance and zoning nightmare. Kind of thought one would be neat for a house or cabin. Any opinions or stories.

JF in MI · Dec 30, 2018

A friend, in the construction business, got a job repairing a leaking roof on one. Re-shingled the whole thing and said it was the worst job he ever had. Petty sure he said he'd never do another. Said the design is just destined to leak.

Oliver 500 Wa · Dec 30, 2018

Absolutely the worst building design I've ever worked on. Wife's cousin has one and it leaked. Leaks caused rot. I tore out all the rotten crap and rebuilt the spots. You better be good with figuring angles to figure out the cuts for framing and such. New roof still has one leak that the roofer has not been able to figure out. May end up having to cap part of it with some kind of membrane.

Next bad thing is how much wasted material you end up with. I figure that 30% of the sheeting was wasted after you cut the triangles out of a sheet of plywood.

If you have ~3 compound miter saws that you could set to the common angles you'd save lots of time cutting framing boards.

jm. · Dec 30, 2018

Next place up the lake from here bought a high dollar , aluminum kit. I forget how many panels but the room it created was like 28 feet in diameter. Original cost was high then he had to go thru two different contractors to get it built. Had a fortune in it when completed and they could never get it to not leak. Spent about three years trying, finally sold it ot a guy from Florida who sent a crew in here and took it down. Do not know how he came out with it but neighbor said it cost him over 100 thousand to find out it was not what he wanted.

JOCCO · Dec 30, 2018

They did indeed use some membrane for them nearer the top, there was also some concrete panels or some such coating used.

coshoo · Dec 30, 2018

I had an employee who lived in one. Because of the changing slope of the roof, the shakes had some space between one row and the layer underneath. Turned out this was just the space that bats wanted- so they always had bats living in the roof. The bats would make their way into the house, so she eventually bought a badminton set and stationed the 4 racquets in various places around the house- she said she and husband got pretty good at whacking them out of the air. It also leaked, and they were glad to move out when they could afford a better place.

rrlund · Dec 30, 2018

It's been a long time since I've been to Grand Rapids,but there used to be one along the west side of 131,south of Rockford,that you could see from the road. I don't know if it's still standing or not.

JOCCO · Dec 30, 2018

100 thousand to find out it was not what he wanted. OUCH

JOCCO · Dec 30, 2018

RR Another one years ago was those A FRAM type buildings. One dome near me was a small business for years when the old woman died they tore it down. Not sure if it had issues but was on a major road and seems like would have been prime real estate for house or another business now its a ghetto.

rrlund · Dec 30, 2018

Ya,my cousin built one right up the road. That was years ago and as far as I know,they still pretty much live in the basement. Like my uncle said,they should have used longer lumber so it stood higher. Looks to me like they never had much room due to the roof coming in too quick.

On that note,when TSC first came to town,they set up shop in a former Chevy dealership that had an A frame office area. They were in there for a few years before they built the new cookie cutter corporate type building that they're in now.

JOCCO · Dec 30, 2018

Was not crazy about a frames. They were for places with massive snow load. Unless they are huge you only have the first or ground floor. In hot weather some could be a sweat box too. They were big in the hippie era, both houses and camps

john in la · Dec 30, 2018

There are a couple of dome houses around here.
One I know of is in a high risk area near the coast.
Do not know about leaks or other problems as I have only seen it from the road.
What I do know is after Katrina came threw it was the only thing still standing for miles around it.

Goose · Dec 30, 2018

When I was in the Marine Corps in the late 50's and early 60's, we used a lot of them for temporary buildings.

When we deployed to a Nationalist Chinese Air Force Base on Taiwan in 1958 we had several for the various squadron purposes. We had one for our Avionics shop.

I'm not sure these are the type under discussion here, though. These were an aluminum framework with a fabric membrane inside. There were leads (?) that pulled through holes with a locking device at the junctions of the aluminum framework to secure the membrane.

We also had one as a storage unit back at Atsugi, Japan. I recall once a typhoon came up and our OIC (a Mustang 2nd Lieutenant who set the Corps' all time record for brown nosing) decided we should drop the membrane to keep the structure from blowing away in the typhoon. My crew wound up doing it. And me being a good Staff NCO who wouldn't tell his men to do something he wouldn't do himself, I was the one that wound up at the top of the frame releasing the membrane. After the membrane dropped, I was hanging onto an aluminum frame, 30' off the ground, in the middle of a typhoon while the Lieutenant stood in his office window in a Class A uniform and watched. Sheesh!

I don't recall that my crew and I even got thanked for it. But, my crew made up for it in other ways. I can tell another story about that crew, but I'll start another thread.

JOCCO · Dec 30, 2018

From what I gather there has been a resurgence in areas like you describe. They can be a very strong structure.

Mike(NEOhio) · Dec 30, 2018

There's a Geodesic near me but I don't know the occupants or who built it. jocco, I live in an A frame. Four gables with a second floor in three of them and the first floor has full headspace all the way to the edges. It's all in the design and your personal preference.

Bret4207 · Dec 30, 2018

Several domes in my area. Lotta problems and wasted space in them from what I gather. They were kind of a hippie thing. The A frames tended to be down in the mountains. They were put up back in the 60's as rentals for the ski areas. I've worked in a couple. Wasted space doesn't begin to describe the ones I was in.

Russ from MN · Dec 30, 2018

I would think a rubber roof would work well if properly installed.

Mike(NEOhio) · Dec 30, 2018

Full basement, too.

hd6gtom · Dec 30, 2018

Olderfolks I knew. put up one. Total nightmare.

oldsarge · Dec 30, 2018

They work great with a RadaR antenna spinning around inside!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

John Deere D · Dec 30, 2018

We winter in the area of Biosphere 2....Oracle Arizona..
Google it...Interesting ..

I have taken several tours of biosphere 2......

Design was influenced by the late Mr. Bukmimister Fuller..(spelling?) The king of modern day Geodesic Domes.....In 1967 Mr. Bukmimister Fuller designed the USA pavillon at Exp0 67...Canada:

Bob...

Roger in Wisconsin · Dec 31, 2018

I wired a residence one in 1977. I thought it was a bad idea. They basically built a house inside it because it was too many angles to use the outside walls as room walls.

SVcummins · Jan 1, 2019

Wonder if flex seal would give a guy a better deal on a semi load of the stuff to try and fix the leaks 😂?

Geodesic Domes any of you have them or dealt with them?

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