@ach2oman Any chance on sharing your "pump-less" foam generator? My replacement pump from Dome Gaia arrives today. If it does not work I will need some alternative.

@abra said in Foaming agent woes:

We assumed it was because the bubbles popped.

I think it would be correct to say that when aircrete loses volume it is caused by bubbles popping and the air escaping. What is more challenging is to say why the bubbles popped. I hear stories from very experienced aircrete makers about batches that collapse for reasons completely unknown to them. They thought they did everything like normal, but for some reason the bubbles collapsed. Then they simply try again and now it works. So it seems that there is some science to making aircrete, but there is also some art - some predictability, and some adventure. @Abra please take a look at my Aircrete Troubleshooting Guide to see if there is anything in there that might help you get the kind of results you are looking for.

@uinerd hi there I live in Nevada county can we chat 6194325732

I realize is an old thread- but it seems to me that marrying earth Bering with aircrete would defeat the advantages of thermal mass and necessitate that one pump heating and cooling into the home whereas thermal mass contiguous to the living space will stay closer to the earth temps underground aka 55ish degrees Fahrenheit.
The ideal is enough thermal mass to tsp into this thermal temp moderation and then insulate the exterior.

While we haven't pumped vertically, we've successfully pumped horizontally by making our aircrete mixing container air-tight, then pressurizing the top with an air compressor so that the mix would flow through a hose attached at the bottom. Doing so seemed to have little effect on the foam, which set fine under the concrete slab we filled beneath.

@HandyDan Clearly. Thus, the question is, given that the foam collapses under pressure, therefore requiring shallow pours and thereby creating layers: how does one create a sealed form that is fit for purpose? It is imagined that it would be best conceived as either a multi layer form that is added to layer by layer, or a form that can be raised and adapted to the next level.

Having no form work experience, I do not have the answer.

@Ignacio-DHOME Thanks Ignacio!

@AbstraktLighting Hi: You can check some of my past posts but I think I can resume some here. First thing you need to do is go to your county or state or whoever owns jurisdiction regarding code in your area. Get the local codes in pdf or writing. In some states, they are adopting the 2016 international code. There are different codes, mechanical, electrical,hydraulic, sewage, etc. You can hire an engineer to design the whole concept for you, or if you want to save money but take longer, sit down with the codes and see the minumum requirements. To give you an example, some will require concrete blocks to have x amount of compressive and y amount of tensile strenght. It will have minimums for virtually everything. As long as your design comforms to the minimum, and have an engineer stamp of approval, you should have no trouble building it and passing your county inspection. Some counties only require an inspector of the county to check each stage of building, but an engineer stamp will make it far easier to approve, since many times the county inspectors are not engineers. If for example they require a minimum 2500 psi of compressive strenght on your design, and there is no parameters for your block, you can make several of the blocks, along with the mix proportions taken to an engineering firm, and they will make a compression test. From this test you will real numbers to comply with the code. This is not too expensive and when I did it they charged me around 75 dollars for each inspection, which included taking 4 to 5 cylinders of concrete to cure and test for a period of about 3 months.

Your local code will probably ask for higher tensile strengh, so you can fix this once you have your celular concrete dome built, to install iron rebar proportionate to the required streght(bar diameter and quantity), to either the inner or outter of your dome, and then spraying a layer of shotcreted magnesium oxyde cement over the rebar. This will give you the required tensile strenght, and most engineers can use a chart to give you an approximate of the tensile strenght of rebared concrete. This should put the design within the minimum requirements of your county. I still do not have a better recipe for light concrete, but a quick google search or youtube will give you many examples of people who have added the magnesium concrete or used other aggregates. Any aggregate will make celular concrete heavier, so keep this in mind. Before trying to experiment with any aggregate, you should try to first do a proper celular concrete block as explained by Domegaia. Only then would you be able to have a measured example from which to depart either heavier or lighter.

@Ignacio-DHOME if you need consulting, I'm available. Contact me at artchemy@yahoo.com

@noni @Mackenzie8 Uploading photos is pretty easy. Please see How to Upload Photos for a clear explanation. Reputation is not a factor.

Alchemikey in my opinion it would be to have an airform made similar to what I have in this video.

@HandyDan said in tutorial video for little dragon construction:

@upwinger Ubuntu is also a movement, not just an flavor of operating system. Opens course does work. However, in something like business it requires an aggressive effort and the highest of quality in your product or service to be prosperous. Control, exclusion, and laws have been the only way public companies can actually stay alive and be prosperous. The old paradigm does not die easy. I mean who doesn't like easy profit?

Thanks for sharing the very good youtube video explaining Ubuntu. I knew this, but I hadn't seen these videos.
It's so difficult to stay positive when you are enslaved!
This forum and Domegaia are perfect examples of Contributionism... Lets make our Eutopia! My middle name isn't Eugene for nothin!
I wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for me accidentally stumbling upon Haijar's TedTalk while surfing the TedTalk library!

@anthonydjones said in Average Cost Per Sqft:

@HandyDan said in Average Cost Per Sqft:

3 gallons of Dresses foam agent

Can you pleas describe or provide a link to this "Dresses foam agent"? I can't find it.
There are also other almost identical foaming agents available at local farm stores.
They are used for "row marking" where the tractor squirts droplets of foam so they can mark where they went.

@susan no not yet I study all stuff at domegaia and volunteering to help build a dome in Sedona Arizona I will be building my dome I’m in the process self education talking to community as domegaia and build myself . There’s many on site here that gave built domes offering services I can’t wait to build dome I’m mire studying as much as I can from domegaia volunteers helping others build domes

Wow, that is some serious experience-based advice. Thank you so much.

@Zander earth choice dishwashing liquid is great. The earth choice laundry detergent however is a disaster. Failcrete all round.
Another good one available in Longreach is
“Trucking Blue. Not only makes fine aircrete but the car sparkles. Might be harder to get out your way. Transporting cattle and mining gear on the highways, unsealed roads and dust paddocks of Outback Oz the only sign of life the a million insects dead on the windscreen, you need a heavy duty cleaner to spruce up.
Cheers

@Kintore Hi, imagine you are in a hemisphere and walk towards the perimeter. How close can you get before bumping your head. This is one of the biggest benefits of the Domegaia solution - you gain all that space under the curve. The other benefit is aesthetic - it looks beaut!

@annesley said

Cochise county AZ...has an alternative builders program...you can opt out of all inspections and build whatever you want.

This is remarkable. Here is the link to the building code referred to.

Annesely, it does say that this "does not exempt owner-builders from statewide codes such as the plumbing and fire codes and regulations regarding smoke detectors, nor does it exempt owner-builders from fire codes adopted by fire districts or the County."

How did you deal with these state codes?

@mundane9 As to height. My design is not a pure spherical dome but more of a Nubian arch. I will have the central compass point for the horizontal dim radius of 10.5'. the vertical radius is offset 3' so it's radius is 13.5' from that 3' offset. Imagine a 13.5' sphere sliced down the middle and slide it 's center over 3'. that is what it will be. I hope this is not confusing but you have your standard pole/chain or what ever you are going to use as a device to set your block and angle. I will make mine adjustable and set each course of blocks with a second "chain" centered on that 3' offset to set my vertical then I just go around with my pole compass device. Really should be simple.