Shown here is an Ecoshell with a 20’ diameter. It’s one of the first ones we built as a commercial building. Notice that it is spherical in shape. Made as an Ecoshell I, it was built during a Monolithic Workshop, here at our plant in Italy, Texas. It is about 20 years old and has worked very well for us. The structure was painted with a white exterior coating.
Rentals and Ecoshells: a good first step for your dome building business
What to Start With
People go through one of our Workshops to learn about and actually experience the construction of a Monolithic Dome. Some actually want to start a dome-building business of their own.
But what should they start with? What’s their first product – a Monolithic Dome home? That sounds far too complicated for most beginners.
Rental units
We suggest the beginner start with one of our smaller, more easily managed to construct and to finance products, such as a Monolithic Rental Unit. Rental units are a very practical way to get into the dome-building business.
You can build a small unit, rent it and move on. At our headquarters in Italy, Texas, as well as in other areas, Monolithic has done exactly that.
Monolithic Rental Units are a win/win! For working class Americans they provide disaster-safe, clean, affordable housing, and for the builder/owner they provide a steady income.
At www.DomeLiving.com there’s an informative video and far more data on Monolithic Rentals. Please review it.
Storages
Monolithic Storage Units are another good, starter product. I’m not talking about big fertilizer or cement storages, but small storages, such as those a farm could use. Many farms need and want a storage structure the size of a two-, three-, or four-car garage.
They could use them for storing grain or machinery and equipment – or they could function as a workshop.
Such structures can be built as Ecoshells, thin-shell concrete buildings that have a huge amount of merit. An Ecoshell can be built for the price of a metal building but will outlast that metal building by centuries.
Seriously, if you want to start a dome-building business – especially if you live in farm country – start talking to farmers about Ecoshells.
Point out the value of an Ecoshell as a chicken or hog barn. A metal building rusts if fertilizer is around it. But a Monolithic Dome or Ecoshell will last far longer, especially now that we’re using basalt reinforcing.
Again, if you want to get in the dome business, consider building Ecoshells. If you have one Airform and you take care of it, you can build 100 buildings with it. Obviously, they all have to be the same size, but with two or three Airforms you could build hundreds of buildings of different sizes.
This is a 40’ diameter Ecoshell that has been modified with two augmentations. It is an Ecoshell I that allows for the addition of the augmentations without modifying the Airform. It has been coated with a tan color.
This is a 40’ diameter Ecoshell I, with augmentations added to the Airform. It was spray-coated with a polyurethane. The owner has told me that he would never do that again, but would build a Monolithic Dome. We suggest strongly that Ecoshells be built as Ecoshells and not modified into Monolithic Domes, as the cost and the problems are huge.
One hundred twenty-five Ecoshells were built in Hyderabad, India. Each of these buildings encompasses six apartments. The apartments are 40 square meters, which seems small by U.S. standards but luxurious in India. A few of the buildings were also designed as offices.
This is a 30’ diameter Ecoshell. It works extremely well as a garage. You can put a Monolithic Rotating Door on this building.
Shown here is a series of 40’ Ecoshells, hooked together as a fertilizer plant. It took a bit of extra work and some preplanning, but the Ecoshells make a relatively inexpensive fertilizer plant that operates well.
Obviously, this Ecoshell serves a dual purpose: It makes a big garage and it makes a workout area for the local goats. It’s a 30′ × 13′ dome, built by Noel Neighbors in Arkansas.
Noel Neighbor’s Ecoshell has been modified for the entry door. In an Ecoshell I that’s easy to do.
When building an Ecoshell I, we use about six to eight inches of water column pressure. As can be seen, that’s a huge amount of uplift. These men are totally supported by the Airform, atop the reinforcing. The door augmentation will be added before it’s concreted.
Ecoshell I can be built using strictly hand labor or the Shotcrete machine. Note the scaffolding. A simple, standard type, lean over scaffold works well for building these Ecoshells.
These Ecoshell Ones are in New Ngelepen, Indonesia. They form a complete village, built using local help. The only equipment used was the inflator and the cement mixer.
Here are two medical clinics built in Kenya, by hand, using Ecoshell I technology – extremely useful technology for low cost structures. Be sure to use Basalt reinforcing on the Ecoshells.
This Ecoshell I was done before we knew that Basalt reinforcing was available. We always recommend Basalt on Ecoshells. If water gets through the paint and into the concrete, steel rebar will rust and bust the concrete. We do not have that problem with Basalt.
This is another photo of one of the domes in Hyderabad, India. This Ecoshell is a spectacularly effective structure, built at a minimal price.