Monolithic Constructor’s blog about designing, manufacturing, and working.
Winter construction on a new fertilizer storage for O’Toole, Inc. in Letts, Iowa, went very smoothly despite the weather. One of the great things about Monolithic Dome construction is that most of the work is done inside and out of the elements. This project highlighted that advantage and is a great example of the most efficient single-component dome storage that can be built. … read more
This pictorial illustrates the steps we took to give Ryan Brown’s house in Aubrey, Texas, the perfect stucco exterior. The stucco system on Ryan Brown’s Monolithic Dome home will last 10 to 15 years before a top coat will be needed. The top coats are easy and cost-effective to apply and can be done by the homeowner or local paint contractor. … read more
The 2023 Annular Eclipse hit its peak at about noon on the day of the tour. Someone pointed out that the sunlight filtering through the leaves of all the trees had suddenly transformed into tiny Monolithic logos! … read more
Stonebridge is one of the first Monolithic Dome homes ever built. Constructed in 1980 by dome pioneer Jack Boyt, the home was in desperate need of renovation. In September 2022, I sent my guys to West Des Moines, Iowa, to install metal cladding. … read more
On August 24, 2023, we sent Javier Figueroa and his crew to North Carolina to begin construction of a new Monolithic Dome home for the Bonea family. The Boneas have had dome dreams for many years. Ion (pronounced Jon) Bonea told us he first became interested in domes almost 30 years ago after visiting us here at the Monolithic Dome Institute Research Park in Italy, Texas. … read more
Video Post! —Gary Clark’s Orion-style Monolithic Dome home in Italy, Texas, required a facelift. The Airform that protects the polyurethane foam had deteriorated past the point where a standard coating could suffice. We installed metal cladding to Gary’s house and created this video and blog post to share how we did it. … read more
Video Post! Watch the inflation of a new Monolithic Dome home going up in Pensacola, Florida. This blog post has video and images covering the job site before we turn the fans on, the inflation of the Airform and inside the Airform after it’s up. You’ll also find details about our inflator fans, manometers, airlocks and the Paxis rotating scaffold system. … read more
Video Post! This article features a video walkthrough of the dome shell and underground cistern of a new Monolithic Dome home in Fredricksburg, Texas. The house has some unique features, including a rain catchment system and 15 custom augments creating window seats, arched openings and round fixed windows. In addition, the interior shotcrete has been smoothed to an orange peel finish. … read more
All Monolithic Domes need regular maintenance and coating. This home’s exterior hadn’t been touched in 20 years! Needless to say, it desperately needed a fresh coating and a new awning. For this project, we used a Gaco acrylic coating. We are now dealers for this product and plan to use it on many coating jobs coming down the pike. … read more
Check out this smooth interior shotcrete finish featured in the Brown’s home in Aubrey, Texas. Javier and his crew have gotten really good at smoothing out the interior shotcrete finish on the domes we build! I call it a sponge finish because of the swirly, sandy finish we leave behind. … read more
Learn how to frame out an extended augment in this pictorial how-to. Extended augments are a great way to make openings in Monolithic Dome Structures. They create natural eaves and finish out easily and beautifully. This blog entry aims to cover the fundamental techniques we use every day to frame and to finish out these openings. We hope this will help customers find sub-contractors to bid on and complete work for them as well as empower clients to do it themselves. … read more
The Airform for Maggie Chu’s new Monolithic Dome home on the east coast of central Florida went off without a hitch and was cause for celebration. This now completed dome features beautiful ¾ circle extended augments over the front and back door and elliptically topped extended augments for the windows. … read more