American Ingenuity Domes

Geodesic Domes

Advertising Feature

A.I. has been "Going Green" since 1976 by designing floor plans and manufacturing eco-conscious, "Green" Dome Building Kits that result in super-strong and super-energy efficient, low-energy consuming homes. "Why can the American Ingenuity Dome Home save you 50% to 70% on your heating and cooling costs thus saving our planets' natural resources and air?"

The major reason is our insulation. It consists of 7 inch thick rigid expanded bead polystyrene (E.P.S.) which is comparable to 11 inches of fiberglass batting. Plus the insulation is not interrupted by wood and there is no wood in the home's exterior walls; thus saving trees. The exterior of the dome is steel reinforced concrete that you paint with latex paint.

Geodesic Dome Home, Concrete Home, Future Home
Advanced Housing Technology

Housing technology has changed very little since framing replaced the log cabin. Modifications that were made to improve a concrete home or future home also increased its cost. We applied some American Ingenuity to the geodesic dome home, designed an all new component building system utilizing advanced kit home construction technology and developed a home plan without increasing the kit home's prices.

American Ingenuity's dome kit includes all the triangular and riser panels needed for the dome shell. Also included is one entryway and items listed at the end of this page. The first floor of the dome homes can have up to five entryways. The second floor can have up to five window or door dormers. As a result each floor plan varies as to the number and location of entryways and dormers. Underneath the entryway or dormer "eye brow" you or your contractor builds a conventional 2x4 framed wall and installs your locally purchased windows and doors.

Because we do not know which floor plan you will select, we do not know the type or quantity of entryways or dormers that you will need. Click on Building Options to learn more about entryways, dormers, link, cupola, etc. Once you determine the floor plan, we can provide the Building Kit with Option Pricing. Within the Planning Kit is the 60 page Stock Floor Plan Booklet. This Booklet includes copies of the stock plans, plans pricing, kit and options needed for each plan and the kit pricing.

Houses and garages are built from the Dome Building Kits. The dome homes are available in eight sizes from one bedroom/one bath to five bedroom/five baths. The garage domes are typically one car or two car. In the back of the Stock Floor Plan Booklet are garage dome plans. The dome homes are built on conventional concrete slabs or raised wood floors. If needed the dome can be built on a basement or pilings and a platform.

The Dome Shell Kit with one entryway pricing can range from $12,050 to $62,480 depending on your square footage needs. Click on Pricing for a complete listing of the kit sizes and pricing.

Wherever a "hole" is left for doors and windows, we do not ship triangles or riser panels. The entryways and dormers "eye brows" are therefore structural and are required to maintain the dome's integrity. The 2x4 wall that you build is not for structural support. It is simply needed to hold your windows and doors.

The component panel includes the seven inch thick R-28 insulation. On the exterior of the insulation is ½” to ¾” thick steel reinforced concrete and on the interior of the insulation is ¼” Georgia-Pacific wall board. Onsite the kit is assembled by concreting the entryways, dormers, cupola, link and seams between the panels. You do not concrete over the entire dome. For the interior shell finish, fill the seams between the wall board with tape and joint compound; then paint. The concrete on the panels does not need to be thick because the seam concrete ends up being about 4" deep and about 6" wide.

Once all the panel seams and entryways, dormers, etc. are concreted, the temporary wooden rib system or temporary radial supports are removed. The dome shell is self supporting. No interior walls are needed to support the shell. As a matter of fact the dome shell can support the weight of the second floor. However, normally there is a bedroom and bathroom on the first floor. So those interior walls are used to support part of the second floor. Where there are no first floor load bearing walls, suspension rods are installed in some of the shell seams. The exact locations of the suspension rods is noted on the shell geometry sheet in the Building Plans. That way when the panels are being assembled, the workers know where to install the rods. The suspension rods and top and bottom plates are included in the kit. Each suspension rod supports 3,000 pounds. We use the AutoCAD program to design and calculate the load on the second floor. So just let us know if you will have an Aquarian, water bed, library, exercise room, etc. on the second floor and we calculate the load accordingly. The average load we calculate to is 40lbs. per square foot.

The component panels do not come with any paint on them. We do not add any color to the concrete. On site you concrete the seams between the panels so if we painted the panels or added color to the concrete, the panel concrete would not match your painted seam concrete. The concrete shell is painted after the entire kit is assembled. The paint should include a concrete primer and two coats of good quality latex paint. The dome can be painted any color, tan, green, blue, etc. preferably a light to medium color to reflect the sunlight. The dome exterior is repainted every four to five years depending upon your area's pollution and UV light. If you rub your hand over the paint and get any "chalk" on your hand, that is when you know to repaint. Periodically you may need to pressure wash the dome or if you are in a humid area you may need to spray the dome exterior with a mixture of bleach and water to kill mildew.

Our dome building kit does not include doors and windows. There is such a variety and varying price points, we leave the selection of the doors and windows up to each client to purchase locally. The floor plan you select will determine how many entryways or dormers you will have. Within the entryways and dormers {eye brows}, you or your framing subcontractor installs a 2x4 wall to frame in what ever standard doors or windows you have purchased locally.

No interior items are included in the building kit other than the shell wall board. We believe you should not pay shipping on items you can purchase locally such as plumbing, electrical, framing, flooring, kitchen cabinets, bathroom fixtures, lighting fixtures, etc.

Dome Finished Costs: The finished costs on the domes depends so much on where you live, what the labor costs are in your area and what price points you select for your windows, doors, cabinetry, flooring, lighting fixtures, etc. You can ask at your local hardware store or ask a local contractor what the finished price per square foot is running for a conventional house in the neighborhood you plan to build in. That is what it will cost to finish the domes (if you do no labor yourselves), because everything in the interior is standard whether it is a conventional or dome house....plumbing, electrical, lighting fixtures, bathroom fixtures, flooring, kitchen cabinets, windows and doors, etc. is the same. Basically you end up with a super-energy efficient, super-strong home for about the same price as a conventional house.

Items in the Dome Shell Kit: Triangular Panels, 4' Riser Wall Panels, Entryway Panels, Galvanized Steel Mesh, Concrete Fibers, Two Concrete Admixtures, Reinforcing Tension Wire, Suspension Rods and brackets for the second floor, Concrete Bonding Agent, Connecting C-Rings, C-Ring Pliers and Assembly Manual.

Depending upon your floor plan selection there will be various options. The Options include: Additional Entryway Panels (standard, high profile, garage), Window Dormer Panels, Door Dormer Panels, Skylight Panels, Cupola Panels and Link Panels.