Home

[151949]

A plan approved by our county to build some here. Supposed to be lower cost. They build a foundation from concrete then the printer guides a machine that lays down a polymer and concrete mix, layer after layer , one on top of the other.Things like walls, doors and windows are already in the computer so they are accounted for as the mixture is laid out. Weatherproof, self insulated, and since it is pretty much solid concrete/polymer mix it would withstand high winds. After it gets all built up to as high as needed they are planning to put a steel roof on.Put in windows & doors and the outside shell is done in a few days. Then just finish the inside - the walls are already there so just finish  flooring, plumbing & electric - all the mechanicals, kitchen & BR and it's done. Because it goes up so fast it can be built more cheaply due to low labor costs.

It will be interesting to see one when it's done.You can google and see a video if your interested.

[Tigriss]

  I wonder how they stand up to hurricanes and tornadoes?  Being built in Florida, they should have to meet the minimum standard for winds.  Thanks for sharing.

[gardenman]

I wouldn't count on the lower cost part. The National Association of Home Builders say that framing a house is just 13.5% of the cost of a new home. Much of the cost of a house is in the non-structural parts of the house. The wiring, plumbing, windows, doors, and finish work. Factory built homes, homes erected on site with SIP's (structural insulated panels), and homes built with ICF's (insulated concrete forms) are pretty quick to erect and quite strong, possibly stronger, than one printed out. It's a cute gimmick, but I'm not sure it'll ever be more than a gimmick. Let's say the new home will cost $100,000. If you removed all of the cost for framing, you'd reduce the cost to $87,500, but then you have to add back in the rental of the printer, the cost of the concrete mix, the labor costs for the operator, etc. and that would eat a very good chunk of the $13,500 you saved. It's not a game changer. 

[Tigriss]

---

@gardenman wrote:

I wouldn't count on the lower cost part. The National Association of Home Builders say that framing a house is just 13.5% of the cost of a new home. Much of the cost of a house is in the non-structural parts of the house. The wiring, plumbing, windows, doors, and finish work. Factory built homes, homes erected on site with SIP's (structural insulated panels), and homes built with ICF's (insulated concrete forms) are pretty quick to erect and quite strong, possibly stronger, than one printed out. It's a cute gimmick, but I'm not sure it'll ever be more than a gimmick. Let's say the new home will cost $100,000. If you removed all of the cost for framing, you'd reduce the cost to $87,500, but then you have to add back in the rental of the printer, the cost of the concrete mix, the labor costs for the operator, etc. and that would eat a very good chunk of the $13,500 you saved. It's not a game changer. 

---

You do need to google it.  They are building small/tiny homes, not regular size ones.  They are doing it in central/South America and Africa, where finishing costs are much less than here. The homes are very simple with an open floorplan to have fewer walls and pretty much one window per room.  I'm not sure how they run the electrical down the walls unless they are doing it totally on the exterior of the wall for outlets and the like.  One company is doing it totally for less than $4000 complete.  I saw another firm from Russia that has a different machine that is simpler in design which they say will allow them to build a home of any size versus being limited by the setup and frame of the more rectangular printers that have to be set up in a somewhat complicated manner compared to their machine.  You should watch some of the youtube videos on it.  I can see where it would help loads in this country when people are setting back up from hurricanes and the like, but they would downsize significantly from their previous American sized homes.

[151949]

They are going to build some here in Sarasota county soon , and expect them to sell well under the average price of a stick built home here. I don't know how they do the water and electric but I would assume it is similar to how they do it on a log house.

[151949]

@Tigriss They are saying they're more stable than a frame home in storms. The most vulnerable part of a home in storms is the roof - and these homes have steel roofs - very safeest of all. Plus once they dry - the body of the home is solid concrete/polymer mix.

[Tigriss]

@151949 I can see how they would be more stable. I would like to see the ones in Sarasota and see the floorplans and how big they are. America seems to build bigger and bigger homes for no apparent reason other than to "have more". I also can see how they go up quicker and are stronger, especially for storms. I bet they will be cooler and better insulated since the walls will be solid and concrete polymer mix.

[gardenman]

I've seen lots of the YouTube videos and read up on them, but I still don't see a big cost savings. If you don't know about SIP's you might want to look at them in comparison. SIP's can be mass produced and then assembled quickly at the job site. SIP  built houses are reportedly twice as strong as stick framed homes and twice as energy efficient. I don't really see 3D printer houses ever being much more than a gimmick. Keeping the printer fed and functioning properly requires someone there the whole time. Homes built with ICF's (insulated concrete forms) would use similar amounts of concrete, but can all be poured in a single day, several hours generally. It's neat to watch, but it still strikes me as being a gimmick more than a real revelation. I go back to when geodesic domes were the homes of the future and we'd all be living in geodesic domes today if you believed the hype from the sixties/seventies. Most of us don't live in geodesic domes. There's always something new that will revolutionize home building, but few ever do change anything. I could be wrong, but my money is on this being a gimmick more than the future.

[151949]

In general I'm finding everything they are doing with the 3D printing technology to be exceedingly interesting.They are making everything from heart valves to houses.The really cool thing is the extreme precision because a computer can be much more accurate than any person - especially on things that are very tiny.

[151949]

@gardenman  This is your OPINION only and , according to those presenting this on the news here, who expect to soon start building them here, Your opinion is different from their's. Time will tell. So far , the homes they have built using this technology have been built quite a lot cheaper than stick built homes.