Stem Wall Forms Are Off

So many little things to get done before scheduling our foundation inspection and ultimately back filling before winter hits. We kept the pedal to the metal and got it done!

The stem wall came out great! At least we think so. Hopefully the town inspectors and dome builders will think so too. We have been super busy since pouring day. Removal of the forms was pretty painless. There were close to 3000 screws to remove but at least it all came apart fairly easily. The harder part was cleaning up all the forms and sorting though all the wood to decide what we would keep and what to trash. My pack rat nature comes out sometimes and I just need to let it go....just let it go. There were wood piles everywhere. Mr. Dometastic and I compromised. We saved more than he wanted and not as much as I wanted. Since we have a future green house and garage to build I want to make sure we don't have to buy it all over again. Then there is the problem of storage. Now we have a back barn full of wood AND a huge burn pile. I promise that at some point Mr. Dometastic will say "Why didn't you make me save that (insert thing I tried to make him save)?"

Step one was to seal the surface where the spider ties were visible on the exterior of the foundation. Our foundation picture looks striped from this step.

In this photo you can see the black spider ties on the left. The middle shows the mesh tape and the right shows the spackled strips. This material is there to seal any areas where water might work its way in next to the spider ties.

Step 2 was to put in the conduit and basic plumbing so when we back fill we don't need to dig it all up again to put in the big stuff. We will still have to dig some of it up but it will be much easier if we do the big runs now.

Step 3 was to paint the black sealant on the exterior of the stem wall AFTER we had to get rid of all the leaves in the trench.

Step 4 was to put our second curtain drain in. (in the above photo) It is very hard to see in photos because it is a black flexible hose up against the black stem wall. We opted to run a second pipe around the dome on top of the footer. There is one already next to the footer per the plans. In the future we plan to connect these underground drains to a cistern.

Step 5 was to add stone over the drain and cover it with cloth to keep out silt.

There! We are ready to set up our inspection with the town. Fingers crossed we did everything right!

Comments

Radiant Heat and Drywall DONE!

We are DONE with dry wall and everything is painted!!! It looks almost like a real house inside. I can top that news by saying WE HAVE HEAT!!! Lets take a moment to celebrate having a functioning heating system in a cold climate in the middle of winter! The marathon of drywall is done for now. We still have the master wing of the house to do after we move in but we would like to just pretend we are done for awhile. It was a long slow dusty process but it looks amazing. The flat walls are a cool white and the dome surface is a warm cream. All our color will come from materials not paint colors. We have plans for wood, metal and stone throughout the house. We are finally getting to install more lighting fixtures and finalize all the outlets and switches. To watch a five minute video walk through CLICK HERE . Greatroom floor outlet in the center of the room. We decided that since the room is 32' across it needed an outlet in the center where furniture would be. Kids bathroom sconces

Construction Video and Geodesic vs. Monolithic Domes

While we wait as patiently as possible for spring to dig holes for our new perc tests my posts will be directed towards general dome related things. Most people I talk to know what a dome home is but are clueless about the different types of domes. This post is to help show the differences between geodesic and monolithic domes with a few pictures of each. The saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" is true and a video must be worth 100000 words. (Watch a video of a monolithic dome being constructed at the end of this post to really wrap your mind around the process.) Many people have asked me how a monolithic dome is different than a geodesic dome. The answer can be quite simple. A monolithic dome structure is all one piece and geodesic domes are made up of many pieces (triangles) connected together. Monolithic domes are sprayed concrete like some inground pools. Here are some photos of interior and exterior monolithic domes. Compare the above Mon

Spider Tie System Stem Wall Forms Complete

We finished building the stem wall forms last weekend! Personally I think they look super cool and I will be a bit sad to deconstruct them after we pour them. So much work to build them only to take them apart again and then just bury the whole thing underground. The original plan was to pour the stem wall on Friday October 11th but our weather was once again not cooperating. We are got yet another rain storm fueled by a storm/hurricane that thankfully mostly missed us. Because of this storm we are now scheduled to pour it on Monday October 14th. This was quite the ambitious DIY project for us. I can understand why we couldn't even get a company to put in a bid. Part of me is amazed that we pulled it off...so far. The truth will be in how it holds up to the concrete. It took almost 3000 screws to put the plywood skin on the Spider Tie towers and we cut 120 sheets of plywood! We joked that we were the Dometastic saw mill. Watch some videos of the process. It is

Dometastic

Search This Blog