# Are Monolithic Dome Homes a joke?



## I'd_last_a_day (May 12, 2015)

I never heard of them until recently. So here is the hype - they are all concrete with rebar, very tough. They are fireproof, termite proof, and so wind resistant that they are ideal in tornado/hurricane areas. *They are incredibly efficient, 50 to 75% less cost to heat and cool your home.* Obviously very low maintenance being all concrete. They are priced about equal to a standard home to have built., the reason is that, although steel and concrete are way more expensive then newer cheesy home material, the building technique is very simple, so the price washes out. SO, the reason I am thinking that they are a joke is because you would assume that a forum like this would never stop promoting them. What am I missing? What is the catch? For all of the proposed advantages you'd think there would be a thread a day created to talk about how great they are in a place like this.

https://www.youtube.com/user/mdi01/videos


----------



## A Watchman (Sep 14, 2015)

Here are the cons as I see them.

#1 - cost is not conducive to a BOL budget.
#2 - Concrete cannot be delivered poured in a practical manner to remote locations.
#3 - Not obscure and able to blend in with the adjoining landscape.
#4 - Like a Hi-Point, damn ugly.


----------



## Chipper (Dec 22, 2012)

Non conforming to local building codes. In my area you can only build a stick built ranch style. County won't give a permit for underground, earth berm, pole barn or foam block concrete house. Fricken zoning.


----------



## Jakthesoldier (Feb 1, 2015)

dont know, but this one (not a home, I know) looks like titties


----------



## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

There are a couple around here. To me, the only attraction is how they can withstand a tornado.


----------



## RJAMES (Dec 23, 2016)

Those homes make a lot of sense but as others have pointed out check zoning/ building laws before you go to far down the road. Many do not like the concrete on the walls, my wife insisted I put up drywall against the exterior walls of my straw bale addition. Bought a 1962 800 sf ranch 2 small bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen with eat in kitchen, living room and full basement. I tripled the size 2 1/2 baths,  5 bedrooms, craft room , upstairs laundry, tv room, porches on three sides - one in-closed, attached green house and a 20 x 40 great room kitchen and dinning. Could not or at least easily built in a zoned area. 

Just remember if you buy or build in a county with no zoning that means no inspections done on anything. Sounds good until your roof starts to come apart because the house was not built right. I know a whole neighborhood that has that problem. Anyone who knows construction looks at those things and says wtf. So look it over good especially the electric. 

If where you want to build will allow it and you can afford it then I would hard at it. 

As far as making them fit in in a rolling hilly area you could put some waterproofing over it and then cover with soil and native grass or at least some color in the concrete to enable it to blend in. There is a lot to be said for being insect, fire and tornado proof. 

I have a concrete house near me that has straight walls with a concrete roof that was poured in place. Also there is a building system of foam blocks and rebar where you stack the block walls insert rebar then pour, the blocks are the form for the concrete. I have a neighbor do that when he put on an addition using that method. 

In a remote area you can build a small cord wood cabin pretty easy. If you site has water, wood that you can cut into 24 inch long , 4 to 8 inches in diameter you can haul in the concrete one 50 lb bag at a time even if you do it by mule or backpack.


----------



## Illini Warrior (Jan 24, 2015)

I follow Monolithic for their water filtration .... as already mentioned - the local zoning will most likely give you problems up the ying yang .... wouldn't be building one in the northern climes at all - especially if looking at a residence build with all kinds of window/door opening - a WI bakery company built one in the Valpo IN area as a new factory - freaking disaster of a building .... an ok build in SW USA or an arid clime elsewhere in the world with high priced conventional building methods - nice eazy DIY or minimal talented labor project ....


----------



## RJAMES (Dec 23, 2016)

In the midwest if you want to blend in you can also re-purpose old grain silos. Older/ smaller are no longer used so you can pick them up pretty cheap . See one sitting just stop and start asking who owns it and if you can buy it. I have seen two of these done with spray foam insulation inside. Taller ones with stairs and upper floors. Even if you do not live in it getting one for unheated storage is pretty nice.


----------



## LunaticFringeInc (Nov 20, 2012)

Chipper said:


> Non conforming to local building codes. In my area you can only build a stick built ranch style. County won't give a permit for underground, earth berm, pole barn or foam block concrete house. Fricken zoning.


There is your big killer right there!!!

I will tell you from experience they are pretty awesome although the interior walls can be akward in shape as you divide them up. I still think they are a great idea though. In Atsugi most of our Magazine Storage Facilities were dome shaped structures that the Japanese originally hid thier Zeros in so they were pretty good sized. One of them could have easily housed a family of 4-5 in comfort with space to spare. They had about 2 feet of soil on the dome. They had a pretty decent ventilation system and didnt get all that cold in the winter and were pretty comfy during the 90-95 degree summer heat. As wet as Japan often is there was never any water or moisture accumulating in them. They were perfect for storing pallets of ammo and explosives in.

It would take a pretty good amount of concrete and rebar to build one. The up side is that there would be little to no maintenance on them like a conventional home. But the biggest challenge would be getting one past building code enforcement and the permit to "live" in one. Besides a municipality can get more in the way of taxes off a typical 3500 sqft McMansion than they could justify taxing you on one of these and they aint about to miss out on a penny of tax revenue!!!


----------



## LunaticFringeInc (Nov 20, 2012)

In fact...I was so impressed with them I "mis-appropriated" a copy of the blue prints before I left that command!!!


----------



## A Watchman (Sep 14, 2015)

They would need to be engineered by a PE (professional engineer) and be site specific. They do not conform to acceptable building standards, therefore any code department cannot correlate them to any structural or MEP (mechanical, electrical, plumbing) requirements.


----------



## Illini Warrior (Jan 24, 2015)

RJAMES said:


> In the midwest if you want to blend in you can also re-purpose old grain silos. Older/ smaller are no longer used so you can pick them up pretty cheap . See one sitting just stop and start asking who owns it and if you can buy it. I have seen two of these done with spray foam insulation inside. Taller ones with stairs and upper floors. Even if you do not live in it getting one for unheated storage is pretty nice.


the whole problem with that sort of retrofitting is the re-sale value - don't even begin to believe you'll break even on the deal - and you'll be on the hook 100% and the new buyer will be self financing - no bank or the agencies will ever talk to you ...

and being in the Midwest - all the conventional building materials are super cheap and readily available around the corner ....


----------



## RJAMES (Dec 23, 2016)

Illini Warrior said:


> the whole problem with that sort of retrofitting is the re-sale value - don't even begin to believe you'll break even on the deal - and you'll be on the hook 100% and the new buyer will be self financing - no bank or the agencies will ever talk to you ...
> 
> and being in the Midwest - all the conventional building materials are super cheap and readily available around the corner ....


When you are in the country with an unusual home you get the bank financing on the land and any conventional buildings on site. I have helped people get a loan on their property after getting them and their bank to understand you are not financing a home in the suburbs rather farmland with some out buildings. In another case a family was able to get financing on the home and property after educating the bank on alternative water systems.

Granted you build a home that is unconventional or in an unconventional location then you market to sell it is smaller. A conventional home built on land with no road access has the same issue.

As to mortgages and finance I do not recommend them. Try and pay cash for land then pay for materials as you build. Takes some time perhaps but much better in the long run.


----------



## SGG (Nov 25, 2015)

The only experience I've had with a dome house is in Arizona. A couple of guys from church and I went to help a couple that was doing missionary work there with some of the tribes or something this was a long time ago. But they bought some property out in the desert that had the old Dome home.

We built walls to form rooms and I hand built their kitchen cabinets. There was so much wasted space along the lower interior edges of the Dome home. I think eventually you could build some sitting spaces with some storage underneath or something but when you build an 8-foot tall wall against the rounded house you lose a lot of space


----------



## bigwheel (Sep 22, 2014)

Chipper said:


> Non conforming to local building codes. In my area you can only build a stick built ranch style. County won't give a permit for underground, earth berm, pole barn or foam block concrete house. Fricken zoning.


Thats not very nice. Around here most of the no nos come with deed restrictions. Pretty sure the county wouldnt nag as long as it passed the other criteria. I would sure not mind a contrete dome..but we already have a house right now. Would not mind a smaller version in the backyard to use as a man cave..but the City code goons would prob go nuts over that. All kinds of rules about it cant be close to the edge of the property..and only peak up but so many inches higher than the fence..blah blah blah.


----------



## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

Interesting concept probably best suited for a hot dry southwestern US climate.

Even if we lived in rural AZ, Mrs Slippy ain't living in a Mono-Dome or a Yert. This I shit you not!


----------



## A Watchman (Sep 14, 2015)

To restate a couple other thoughts posted by others:

ability for lender financing 
re sell marketability


----------



## I'd_last_a_day (May 12, 2015)

Well I called Monolithic, just a short conversation, and the guy told me that their domes not only meet but exceed safety codes. But yes I do wonder about electric, HVAC, etc. Sometimes I've been in a bar or a business that has a high roof and all of the duct work and electrical is exposed but it's done in a cool artistic way and it looks neat instead of looking awful.



bigwheel said:


> I would sure not mind a contrete dome..but we already have a house right now. Would not mind a smaller version in the backyard to use as a man cave...


Yes this might be a better idea, to have a dome on the smaller side that's your man cave/garage instead of your full blown house! Some people have garages that are set up like a little rental unit, something like that but a dome.



Illini Warrior said:


> I follow Monolithic for their water filtration .... as already mentioned - the local zoning will most likely give you problems up the ying yang .... wouldn't be building one in the northern climes at all - especially if looking at a residence build with all kinds of window/door opening - a WI bakery company built one in the Valpo IN area as a new factory - freaking disaster of a building .... an ok build in SW USA or an arid clime elsewhere in the world with high priced conventional building methods - nice eazy DIY or minimal talented labor project ....


Why was the WI bakery dome a disaster? These domes are hyped up by Monolithic to be ideal in ANY climate. I'm no expert at all but concrete houses all over the world are the ones that are still up after terrible natural disasters. I'm wondering why some here are saying only in hot climates.

I hope that we are not using any horrible examples of a constructed dome that was built by some idiot who had no clue what he was doing, and using that as an argument against domes that were done professionally. I have also read somewhere else that 'Architects laugh at domes!' But are architects laughing at any domes that were fully built by Monolithic? It sounds like a lot of domes may have been built by an under qualified person and maybe their work gives the concept of the dome a bad reputation, or I could be wrong. Maybe the title of this thread should say 'IF BUILT RIGHT are domes a joke?' I believe Monolithic builds domes but also has seminars advising people how to build them. It sounds like a person might educate themselves just a little bit and THINK that they are qualified, then do a piss poor job on building a dome, and then claim that it's a Monolithic dome. I mean I can not see architects laughing at this school that was built to withstand tornadoes...


----------



## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

Never seen one made from concrete, however my sister inlaw and hubby built a geodesic dome house.

The dome had about 800 square feet of floor space.

Now to me it sucked, the only privacy was the bathroom, the rest was wide open.

There were a few movable privacy panels in there also.

The hot air furnace was located outside.

They thought it was great, to each his own.


----------



## Illini Warrior (Jan 24, 2015)

I'd_last_a_day said:


> Well I called Monolithic, just a short conversation, and the guy told me that their domes not only meet but exceed safety codes. But yes I do wonder about electric, HVAC, etc. Sometimes I've been in a bar or a business that has a high roof and all of the duct work and electrical is exposed but it's done in a cool artistic way and it looks neat instead of looking awful.
> 
> Yes this might be a better idea, to have a dome on the smaller side that's your man cave/garage instead of your full blown house! Some people have garages that are set up like a little rental unit, something like that but a dome.
> 
> ...


in regard to the Monolithic factory building - I haven't by there in last few years - empty and looking bad - could have been demolished by now - it was abandoned by the last in a series of renters(?) ..... years ago I talked to a masonry company trying to repair & refit from the original build - all the various door & windows caused deterioration outside and leaks inside - they considered their band aid work to be a waste of time ....

and the original building was done by one of major Monolithic builders out of TX - build an igloo silo or a bunker with no openings - per se - it would possibly be practical ... in the Midwest it just doesn't make sense - especially for industrial builds


----------



## LunaticFringeInc (Nov 20, 2012)

The one thing about the Japanese Zero Domes we used as Magazines in Atsugi was there was about a 3 foot skirt around the perimenter before the dome was added on top. That really minimized wasted space. I believe if I am readiing the blue prints right about 2ft thick concrete. There is about 2 feet of dirt back filled over the top and thats the thinist the dirt was as the back fill was deeper the further from the center you got. This created nice gentle sloping hills along the outter edge of the run way and blended in well with the rest of the areas surrounding landscape. I am not sure how they did these particular domes but I know for a fact that they used corrigated sheet metal under raised rebar before laying down the concrete. Im not sure if they piled dirt in a mound and then applied the concrete or if the tin was supported by scaffolding. Given the weight of that much concrete I would venture to say they just covered a existing dirt mound after the base was built and then dug the dirt out after the concrete had sufficiently cured and hardened.

I think with the addition of a couple of skylights they could have been pretty hospitable as a home. I think given the shape you would have best been served with a Adobe Hacienda look to the interior to blend in with the sloping outer walls seamlessly.


----------



## I'd_last_a_day (May 12, 2015)

Ok so there are mixed reviews, and it goes beyond the negatives just being about them looking ugly, or having wasted space. Sounds like it's time to chalk it up as a no go for me. Better to just seek a solid all stone conventional home!


----------

