[Domesteading 00223] Re: John's next concrete dome Re: query

[Nolan Scheid]

Hi John,
You're right, we are ganging up on you!
I knew I would like you when I read the ending of main web page.
Now that you are starting to come over to the next step, I am getting more excited.
:)

The product I used was Xypex. It was added into a fresh top layer of shotcrete that I put over the 
home.  I have had several people tell me that KIM works better but getting it would have required 
another week of waiting. I was pressed for time. Over all, I am impressed with the coating. It can 
also be used as a slurry coating over a concrete shell.
KIM has been used successfully in roofing applications with as little as 2" thick concrete. The idea 
still makes me a bit nervous because of the cycle time it may take to grow the crystals. If a crack 
develops and it takes 6 wet/ dry cycles to fix, it that fast enough? I don't think it is if the leak 
is into someone's living room. That is why I am preferring the belt and suspenders approach.

Now that I have made it through a rain year and proven the shell works and is dry, I will add a 
coating of rubberized roof coating. Since my goal is to recover the home with dirt, next I will add 
a few inches of pea gravel over the home to make a water path. Then I will cover the home with free 
billboard vinyls to help shed the majority of the water. Last, we will push dirt back over the 
structure.
If I was not going to bury the home, would have stopped at the rubberized coating but I want to be 
sure that I don't need to ever dig up the home again.

BTW, I'm not a huge fan of the monolithic approach to construction. Instead, there is a much more 
comfortable human scale that is achieved by Lloyd Turner. His low pressure forming method allows a 
person to build with shapes similar to groups of bubbles.
http://www.geocities.com/flyingconcrete/lloyd-turner.htm
Lloyd's home is one of the most comfortable I have ever been in.
http://paisite.com/turner/ferroexamples.htm

If you are really ready to come out of the closet and let your hair down, take a look at what Steve 
Korhner has been accomplishing with concrete:
www.flyingconcrete.com

Take care,
Nolan








----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John E. Johnson" <newageco at dbtech.net>
To: "'A forum for the discussion of aspects of independent,off-the-grid living'" 
<domesteading at sculptors.com>
Sent: Monday, May 14, 2007 4:23 PM
Subject: [Domesteading 00222] Re: query


> Okay...I'll come out of the closet (not THAT one).... Along with the public
> chagrin I set myself up for with my (freely admitted) one sidedness and bias
> to wooden dome building, I get double teamed metaphysically today by the
> local media showing several partially imbedded domes made of (you guessed
> it) concrete.
>  They still had a horrendous leak...but that may well be in the area above
> ground. You could see it in the news clips.
> Tell me more about those self sealing crystals. How environmentally safe
> are they and all that? JJ
>
>
> John E. Johnson
> newagedomeconstruction.com
>