I’m wondering if you have an engineer who can stamp plans for dome homes in every US state? Either on staff or outside wouldn’t matter. I know your designers can provide specs for the domes themselves, but can you provide a stamp for the entire home (building codes, MEPs, etc)?
We have structural engineers, architects, and other connections that allow us to build domes in any state. Some states, as you know, are more challenging than others, but we’ve been able to build in most every state in the union so far.
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I recently had a really hard time getting a license path to Alaska, and it became easier to find a local engineer up there… Glad to hear that the network is growing since we last met.
So here is my question: it is technically possible to build a big rigid airship hangar using a monolithic dome?
Big rigid airship, like the Graf Zeppelin that was six or seven HUNDRED feet long and two or three hundred feet in diameter: but most likely much larger because the rigid airship industry is interested in airships twice that size.
The dome would essentially be a large overhead crane that also keeps out the wind and rain.
We use a Structural Engineer that is licensed in most states. Our construction drawings and engineering are drawn the National Building Standards.
Engineering was a big cost surprise for us! We also needed stamped plans because our building inspectors don’t know about domes so they can’t inspect. We used 2 engineers and it was the most expensive part of the plans. Monolithic does have at least one guy they work with that is licensed in a lot of states… just not ours. He was very reasonable cost wise. He did our engineering and collaborated with a local engineer. Our local one drove our engineering cost up 3x the first guy because they charged us to learn it all. Our local one did the engineering of our foundation (footer/stem wall) but most of the work was learning from the other guy and then stamping the plans. We are in a cold climate and needed more than a ring beam. We joke that the local firm was treating our house like a parking garage. They made us pour a crazy footer/stem wall because they were concerned about the weight of the house.
Sorry to hear about that. Sadly, I’ve seen it happen with many unusual style projects like domes and treehouse rentals - if the engineer is not experienced in that style of construction, they make the client pay hourly for their research and learning curve. It can be very difficult to ask the right questions and pick the right engineer ahead of time. Another consequence of ignorance is the tendency to overdesign. For example, “the code book says 40 psf, but I’m not sure about this so I’m going to design it to 60psf.” That attitude can cost you more money on the build.