Our opinion regarding the strut and sheet housing was largely influenced by the small lousy houses up untill now.
With the detailed examination of a frame house, there are obvious advantages. Such as the rapidity of erection, strength, savings on building materials, during all the phases of building. And considerable reduction in the operating costs for repairs and heating. Despite of the traditional logic our houses, in the standard assembly, maintain snow loads up to 700 kg per square meter, and winds up to 250 kilometers an hour. The weight of house itself allows the use of a light foundation or piles. At the customers request, there are variety of possible ways to construct the basement or the garage accommodation. When the foundation is ready, all necessary components for the erection of the dome are delivered to the construction site. All neatly packed in the pallets, struts and panels are cut, color coded and predrilled for simple assembly of dome home. Our lifetime warranty makes it possible for you to independently construct your dome house. First of all we are assembling the frame, connecting struts with the special patented steel modules and the trivial bolts and the nuts. It is enough work for two people, and a pair of trivial wrenches. But since all openings are drilled in advance, everything falls in its places effortlessly. When the frame is complete, its time for the triangular plywood panels, followed by heat insulation with the application of the vapor- and hydro-insulating materials, intended for maintaining the correct level of humidity in every layer of heat insulation. It is important that the dome is “breathing”, making it possible for the surplus of moisture to evaporate, without damaging the structure. The standard layer of heat insulation is 150 mm. Our houses are equipped for a comfortable stay in the climatic zones from California to Alaska. For the installation of the second floor we do not require any load-bearing walls on the perimeter of the geodesic dome. The second floor is mounted directly onto the frame. This additionally increases the strength characteristics of the frame and creates conditions for the truly free planning. Then we’ll need roofing, widows, and doors to complete the shelter. We could us regular rectangular, triangular, hexagonal or even round windows and skylights. All the glazing is designed to accomodate for passive solar heating and air conditioning of dwelling to the convection currents and the trajectory of the sun during different seasons. We could use traditional asphalt shingles, sheet roofing or even Spray Foam Polyurethane. It is important that in the process of the installation of roofing on the domelike structures the waste (unfit trimmings) comprise to 5%, while on the usual roof from 15% up. This occurs when cutting off the piece of material for one side of the dome, we automatically obtain finished piece for another! Let us produce some calculations! With the building of rectangular house of 200 square meter we should ennoble about 380 square of its external surfaces, where the roof 140 sq. m., and walls are 280. And be it siding or decorative brick, that area does not become any smaller. In the case with the domelike house, we have only 250 square meters of roofing!!! Internal finishing and planning is the completing stage of any building. Since load-bearing walls were not required, we can allow ourselves large lofty rooms, garrets and other architectural recherchés without sacrificing the structural strength. The internal surfaces of the domes are finished with sheetrock with the wide variety of paints and plasterings, the plywood panels or the clapboard. It is acceptable to combine these materials between themselves, as well as other remarkable interior materials.
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