INTRODUCTION

After years of interest in Geodesic Domes, starting with building dome models back at Art Center College, I finally had the reason, the place, and the time. to build one.

The reason: A need for a greenhouse at my small weekend place.*
The place: Fallbrook.
The time:  I didn't really have the time, but I'm always looking out for projects that interest me...and keep my mind and body busy !!
*Actually, you don't need a reason.. just an interest in these wild structures.

I began by visiting websites such as sonostarhub.com and domearama.com
These websites..and others are wonderful resources for information and help in calculations for different types and sizes of Domes.. and the most amazing calculation sections that help you determine the sizes and quantities of the parts you need, and other pertinent information..ie: floor area, circumference, etc.

While visiting the websites, I noticed they had sections devoted to building small models of domes.. I experimented with building sections of a model.. (see photo), which helped me a great deal later in making patterns for the covering material on the finished dome.

 To get an idea of the scale of this model.. that's an 8-1/2 x 11

sheet of paper under the model.

If you are interested in Geodesic Domes, check out these and other Geodesic Dome sites..

If you are interested in seeing how two terrific workers (Chano & Jose), my family members and I built our dome.. All in about two weeks, read on.....


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DECIDING ON THE RIGHT DOME

As I said in the introduction, there are many websites about Geodesic Domes.  I found “Domearama’ was excellent in describing the varieties of dome styles and variations,..and some suggested uses.  And "Sonostar" had the perfect hubs (connectors) that I liked.

After studying the great variety,  I decided on certain things I wanted...  A flat base, about a 12 ft diameter, but because a 12 ft diameter dome only had about a 6 ft ceiling height, I decided to place it on some type of base about 18-20 inches high, which would give me a comfortable ceiling height and a more usable floor area.

I found a style of dome called 3V 5/9 Kruschke.  The "3V" I think has to do with it's complexity.. amount of struts, etc.  The 5/9 refers to the portion of a sphere.. (a bit larger than half, which would help with the ceiling height)..  and "Kruschke" is someone who figured out how to achieve a flat base by adding a 4th strut length in certain places.

Anyways.. that 3V 5/9 Kruschke dome.. 12 ft diameter is what I'm going to build !!!
..This decision was made with a great amount of very helpful advice from Jon Dietz at Sonostar.

Here is an illustration of the dome construction detail (by Domearama).. with strut lengths below.. the last column on the right shows the corrected strut length, modified for using the  hubs furnished by Sonostar.

 

I will buy the hubs/connectors from Sonostar..(see photo).  I think they will be easy to use.. and they are good looking (I need that ).  

 I will buy the pipe ( aprox 400 ft) and with son Michael's help, will cut the 165 struts (4 different lengths) and color code them with tape.

  Other modifications are:

1. I will be using 1/2" sprinkler pipe, but will use the Schedule 80 with a stronger, thicker wall  ..  (see photo below).

2. Not gluing or using nuts & bolts to connect struts to hubs ..but using self-drilling hex-head screws for fastening the struts to the hubs.  It will be fast and these screws will be easily removable.  (see photo of test).

NOW !!TO PREPARE THE SITE FOR THE DOME.....
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SITE PREPARATION.. WHAT WILL TURN OUT TO BE A VERY DIFFICULT PART OF THIS PROJECT

 Before starting the site preparation, I did a temporary assembly ( at my home ) of the base ring to verify the diameter

 One of the reasons for building this dome, is to replace a small (ugly) wooden greenhouse that was built by a friend of the caretaker.. so I want to locate this dome (which I hope will be very nice looking) to be visible from our main deck, but not ruin the distant view.

All the property is on sloping ground.. so the site preparation has to be planned carefully. This is where I had the help of two local workers  ( Chano and Jose) who where already doing some repairs on other parts of the grove. (see photos).   

 Also my 4x4 Honda and trailer were a great aid (with me driving), from moving the excavated dirt, and bringing in the blocks and gravel. Fortunately my caretaker had a pickup I could borrow for trips to pick up the cinder-blocks and gravel from a great supplier of rocks, bldg mat'ls, etc. (South West Boulder & Stone), 3 miles away in the town of Rainbow.

LUCKILY, even with all the careful planning, I re-measured the space and discovered

it was too small.

So now how the hell do you pull out those re-bars that are 2 to 3 feet into the hard earth ??


Using a method suggested by the people at the tool rental place, I had a small steel piece formed at

one of the local welding shops.. slipped it over the re-bar and lifted the bars using the scissor jack from my VW   (see photo).

Finally, after a few hours of enlarging the space, we installed the first layer of the cinder-blocks to check the diameter, then re-installed the protective plastic barrier.

I decided to use, for the planned base, 3 staggered rows of 6x8x16 cinder blocks.. laying flat with the 6 inch height.. therefore building a 18" high base.. I didn't use cement, but we drilled down thru every other block and drove re-bar deep into the ground below to make the whole base stable.

I tried to create a moisture barrier on the high side of the slope using the plastic cardboard

held in place with re-bars

After completing the base, we assembled the base struts to verify the base was the proper size, and attached the base struts to the base with plastic clamps.
Upon realizing there would be alot of airflow through the cinder blocks into the interior, I bought a roll of galvanized metal and covered the complete interior, and the exposed exterior of the blocks.
Also, decided on placement of door opening for entrance at interior floor level, and cut blocks to provide the opening.
At this point, my son Michael and I were so excited at the progress, we couldn't resist assembling the first row of struts (which we had cut and identified that morning). Notice the containers of cut and identified struts.

This was now Saturday afternoon and we could have done more, but we had promised to wait till Sunday morning for Daniel (another son) and his two sons, Matt & Brian. to complete the dome assembly.


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DOME ASSEMBLY

Assembly was started Saturday afternoon, but here was the work done on Sunday by the family.. Mike, Dan (sons)  Matt and Brian (Dan's sons, my grandsons).

and here we go on Sunday.....  (Photos and videos by Matt Barsky)

Using the hex-head self-drilling screws worked very well.

Going to need the ladder soon for the connections

L to R.. Son Mike, Grandson Matt, Grandson Brian, Son Dan, Me

Amazing!!, it only took about 3 hours to complete the assembly.

as you can see, we wound up with a very adequate interior height.

We were not supposed to do this...

but we're Barskys

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BUILDING AND INSTALLING THE DOOR

Not sure how this will go, but...

I decided, instead of using a standard 24" door (heavy), I would build a light weight door from 
2x2" redwood and the plastic cardboard,, and redwood 1x6 for the jamb..

Looks good..and it's very strong..and rigid.. 

Now fitting it into the dome..and the tricky part..

cutting into the struts to fit in the  jamb.

Mike's idea, to use the cut-off portion of the struts/hub for a door handle..

Modified a PVC fitting to attach dome strut to door jamb.

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NOW TO COVER THE CREATION !! Another difficult part

Having to make careful patterns to cover large sections of the dome.  Whatever groups of shapes occur on the dome, happens 5 times !! The door interrupts the 5th one, but at least, when I finish a pattern and cut 4 identical plastic cardboard sections..and score them to fold at the struts, they seem to work very well,, including the overlap for shedding the rain.

Here are a few photos showing the progression of cutting patterns for the covering

and attaching the to the dome..

So far on December 6

The intense rains have started and have prevented any more work for now..

When things dry out, I'll finish up the outer covering..

Finally stopped raining and ground dry enough to stand on..





About 2 more full days cutting patterns ( scoring the sheets where they fold over struts)
 and attaching the plastic panels

January 10 !!  the only panels not covered is the pentagon at the top !!!

January 15.

gonna be tough to get up on the top
to attach this plastic to this last pentagon section at the top..
All other panels were attached with screws into the hubs.
 

,

Here's a few photos of the dome at this point...

I'm standing in the center of the interior.. good ceiling height

 & floor space

 

Notice the final top panel

Once the exterior was completely covered, I started working on the shelving for the interior...
very fortunately I was able to use the left-over cinder blocks for supporting the shelves...

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