No place like Dome

Oct. 30, 2004. 01:00 AM

No place like dome
Monolithic Dome house is even more energy-efficient than traditional-style R2000 homes Home of future `Looks like a cross between an igloo and a Hobbit’s house,’ Roberta Avery reports

ROBERTA AVERY
SPECIAL TO THE STAR

SOUTHAMPTON, Ont.—While some of the adults touring Sunny and Rebecca Cushnie’s Monolithic Dome house during a fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity seemed to have difficulty getting their heads around the radical design, the children loved it.

“This is the home of the future. This is what a lot of homes will look like when you grow up,” Collin MacLeod, who with Sunny Cushnie, owns and operates the Great Lakes Dome Co., told some of the children who visited the home during the Thanksgiving weekend.

MacLeod, who has worked for the last decade in the construction industry as a carpenter building traditional style homes, and Cushnie, whose background is as an electrician, decided to join forces to bring Monolithic Domes to Canada.

Based on a concept developed by David South of Italy, Texas, Monolithic Domes are more than 50 per cent more energy efficient than traditional style homes, said MacLeod.

The Cushnies’ 2,200 square-foot, four-bedroom, two-bathroom home, believed to be one of the first of its kind in Canada, certainly raised a few eyebrows. Southampton is in Bruce County, about 230 km from Toronto.

“It looks like a cross between an igloo and a Hobbit’s house,” said one woman, referring to the dome style homes seen in the Lord of the Rings movies.

Inside, the home is much bigger than it appears to be from the outside. The two-storey great room includes an open-concept kitchen and an open staircase to the upper floor, where there are two bedrooms, which are small because of the curve of the roof.

On the outer ring of the lower floor, there are two more spacious bedrooms and a bathroom and a passage way leading to a second smaller dome, which houses a master bedroom.

The domes are built by inflating a vinyl tent-like balloon on top of a concrete pad. Window and door openings are then sealed off before the interior walls of the balloon are sprayed with polyurethane. Up to 3,000 steel reinforcing bars, or rebar, are attached to the foam using special “hooks” embedded in the foam. The rebar is placed in a specially engineered layout of hoop and vertical steel rebar to form a birdcage-like structure. Shotcrete, a special spray mix of concrete, is sprayed onto the interior surface of the polyurethane foam, embedding the rebar. After three inches of shotcrete is applied, the Monolithic Dome becomes a steel-reinforced, concrete structure

“Monolithic Domes have real strength. They can withstand the force of a tornado, hurricane or earthquake. They cannot burn, rot or be eaten by bugs,” said MacLeod.

The vinyl balloon stays in place to form an exterior lining for the roof and walls, which can be finished in stucco or concrete, or even cedar shingles.

The result is a home full of interesting curved angles that’s a soothing, restful place to live, said Cushnie, who has lived in the dome house since it was built in the early spring with his wife, Rebecca, and children Willow, 3, and Layla, seven months.

“There’s a comfortable feel and warmth about it,” said Cushnie.

The home, which consists of two domes, one 40 feet in diameter, the other 24 feet, is kept warm by radiant floor heating and its concrete construction and super insulation keeps it cool in summer.

The house is connected to the power grid, but the goal is to install a wind generator and solar panels to make it energy self-sufficient.

And there is no construction waste.

“When I used to work on building sites, I was often appalled at all the wasted materials that are discarded after a home is built,” said MacLeod.

South’s patented design allows concrete domes to be built from 300 feet to 1,000 feet in diameter. These huge structures are ideal for indoor sports facilities, stadiums, churches and schools.

For more information contact MacLeod at 1-519-389-0919 or Cushnie at 1-519-797-1078/519-389-0927 or click on http://www.gldc.ca

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