What's the cost associated with building a monolithic dome? Learn what the cost associated with building and maintaining a monolithic dome home. When evaluating the construction cost of a home, it is critical...
When evaluating the construction cost of a home, it is critical to look at home durability, projected costs of repair over the life of the mortgage, energy efficiency and appreciation or depreciation of total home value over the course of the mortgage.
In America, a 100 year old home is considered to be very old. Most homes begin to break down by the time they are 20 years old. Repair can be expensive and difficult.
In comparison, a monolithic dome home is made of concrete. The typical monolithic home will not need any structural repair in the buyers lifetime.
David South is the founder of the Monolithic Dome Institute in Italy, Texas. He has been building monolithic domes for almost 30 years. He says, "We save them the cost of wear and tear. We live in a country in which a really old house is 100 years old. At 50 years, most of the homes in the United States are already shot, or we just want to tear them down and build a new one. If you buy trailer houses, they only last 20 years. If you build a monolithic dome, it's designed to last 500 years, so you start looking at the figures, and they become vastly more economical."
The materials used to construct a monolithic dome home are a little more expensive than a traditional home, but the overall cost to build is about the same as a traditional home.
David South explains, "The building itself, the structure that contains the interior, is usually about half the price of the whole house. Consequently, it's amazing how little it matters what the house is made out of structurally as opposed to what goes into it."
Buyers can reduce costs by choosing less expensive appliances and fixtures. "For example, the kitchen sink can run from $50 to $1,000 without batting an eye. It's the same with the bathtub and everything else that goes into a house."
On the other side of things, monolithic homes save owners thousands of dollars per year on heating and cooling costs. David South says, "The energy efficiency is the most amazing cost savings. I know a senior financial analyst for the Department of Energy in Denver, Colorado who told me one day, 'You know, yours is the most energy-saving device we have ever seen. It just cuts back on the energy that much.'"
The Monolithic Dome Institute is continually finding new ways improve construction and durability while saving their customers money. David South elaborates, "The insulation we use, for instance, is ten times as expensive as insulation would be for a conventional home. And if we made dome homes from traditional concrete, almost no one could afford them. But because we have figured out how to inflate the forming and spray it, we've brought the price of concrete for a monolithic home down to the price of wood, which is really incredible."
When you consider all the factors, it will cost you approximately the same amount to purchase a monolithic dome home as compared to conventional home. David South sums it up, "These monolithic dome homes are about the same price as a conventional home, even though they are made out of vastly more expensive materials.
