She asked me for building ideas. Alternative home construction methods have been an interest for many years. So, based on the information accumulated, what I would build for myself today was described. In response, she said, “let’s do that.” The project was born.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

The location is in the Western Ozarks. It is a heavily forested place, mostly oak, with some nice topography.

The main living area is a 30 ft inside diameter aircrete dome with 7-3/4 inch thick outside walls. The equator is on top of a 39 inch tall cylinder (the first 3 coarses of 13 inch tall blocks). The inside apex will be 18 ft 3 inches. There will be a loft to be used for an office. Above the center will be a cupola with plexiglass roof, screen, and a glass closure. It includes 4 arches on the perimeter for a large south facing window and passages to the bedroom (east), sunroom (west) plus front entry (NNE). There will be additional smaller windows. A wood stove and propane will be used for heat. A stained cement slab will provide optimum natural cooling in the summer, without the thermal resistance of flooring. Aircrete domes have very little air infiltration, and this wall thickness provides about R19 insulation, like fiberglass batts in a 2x6 wall. A heat recovery ventilation system will assure enough fresh air. It's unlikely that AC will be required.

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The spacious bedroom dome is 20 ft diameter with a closet and large south facing window in an arch. It also has a 39-inch-high equator and cupola. There will be additional smaller windows. A propane heater can be used for heating.

A sunroom is opposite the bedroom, connected to the main dome, all on the same level. All three have passive solar from the shade of large trees on the south side which drop their leaves in the winter. A patio with grill is adjacent to the sunroom.

A 30x40 ft metal building is 20 ft north of the main dome's front entrance, connected with covered gradual stairs uphill and landings at both ends. It will have 10 and 12 ft roll-up doors, plus 2 walk_thru doors and 3 windows. The roof will be used for water collection, plus solar later on. Water will be stored, filtered, and purified inside the building. Insulation and a propane stove will be used to assure it stays above freezing. A wood stove may be added later.

PROJECT STATUS

This project began with tree cutting and logging to clear a car path and the building site mid-August '21. We started buying materials which may become hard to get.

My partner, Leslie, learned to use Blender for 3-D modeling of the dome geometry and the rest of the design work. After she and my sister explored many floorplan options, my daughter came up with the best one which is being used.

Mid-September, fabrication of durable aircrete making equipment began, starting with the foam machine, then the mixing stand, block mold and foam injector on mixer (images below).

My tractor guy started the site work in late September. After the building site was leveled, we set the dome center posts and drew the floor plans on the ground with inverted spray paint. Plumbing and electrical trenches were marked on the ground for the excavator. Utility stub out locations were marked with t-posts outside the excavator work area with a radial measurement noted. After the trenches were dug, we then installed and buried all the plumbing and electrical feeds which run under and outside the slab.

Next the footing trench centers were marked to be dug with a foot wide bucket.

The full 500-gal propane tank was delivered before prices began to rise.

Met Travis and Rebecca at MidFest in October. They worked with Dome Gaia in Hawaii building aircrete domes. We decided to live and work together for the domestead project. Equipment fab and construction planning accelerated. They've been a blessing for us ever since.

Concrete footings were poured early November. The metal building foundation was completed a week later. The dome foundations and slabs should all be done by early December.

We made our first few aircrete blocks 9 November as a trial run for the fab equipment. They turned ot as expected (photo below). Some improvements for the block making equipment were made for ease of use and faster cleanup.

Our first full mold of 11 blocks 7-3/4” thick, 39” long and 12” tall was poured 14 November. Again, we found opportunities to improve the equipment and process which are being implemented. These blocks will be used as shown in the form above for stacking the arches. Dome building blocks (igloo style) will have the 39” length cut into three 13” pieces and that will be the height of each course.

DOCUMENTATION

The entire project is being documented with images, videos, and written instructions. It will be open source, so anyone can duplicate what we've done to avoid some potential errors and use all our advancements. This will be available on a website being created now.

An aircrete dome building agorist enterprise is expected to follow this project.

For now, you can follow our progress on Telegram at https://t.me/domestead

We stand upon the shoulders of the folks at TinyGiantLife.biz and DomeGaia.com who we learned from. Thanks for all they've done to develop aircrete construction technology.

Mike Swatek is a a semi-retired mechanical engineer. See his webpages at Agorist.Market and PPMSilverCosmetics.com