i am trying to connect with the monolithic dome web site and cannot connect with the address given in the new issue of Countryside. Has anyone else been able to get through? And also has anyone lived in or seen these kind of houses?

-- Lynda Dale (lyndadan@cyberhighway.net), April 11, 2000

Answers

I was able to load their website yesterday just fine.

-- R. (thor610@yahoo.com), April 11, 2000.

The address is Monolithic.com and yes I have seen them. The "factory" is located in Italy, TX and my husband and I go to Italy every year for an annual motorcycle event. When we went last year the wind was blowing so hard we thought the bike would blow over while parked. We could not even tell it was blowing while inside the homes.

We did not tour the homes people live in, we are not comfortable with that but we did look closely at the empty ones and the ones being built. They are very impressive. I have drawn up our plans and will visit with the people at Monolithic within the next few years about changes and costs. We plan to build when he retires and we relocate.

My husband is very hard to convince about new ideas but he is totally convinced this is the best idea going. They may not be as cheap of some other methods but when you figure in: no A/C or Heat, no roof, few windows, cheaper insurance, fire proof, tornado proof, and the list goes on and on, they are worth the extra initial investment.

-- Viv in TX (kudzu1@webtv.net), September 05, 2000.

I looked at a monolithic concrete dome a few years ago. While it was very expensive (around $100,000 just for the shell, as I recall), it was nonetheless interesting, as it was very well constructed.

There was one design defect, in my opinion, which was that the water proofing was UNDERNEATH the insulation. This would result in a whole lot of cold rain water washing down onto the water proofing membrane, causing a very large increase in heating requirements.

I have no idea if this is the same monolithic dome you folks are talking about, and I'm not trying to run this company down. Just advising you to look into this aspect of their product.

By the way, I built my entire 3000 square foot, earth sheltered, well insulated home for approximately $100,000. Turnkey, but with me doing the lion's share of the labor.

JOJ

-- jumpoffjoe (jumpoffjoe@yahoo.com), September 05, 2000.

Viv, don't bank on cheaper insurance; you may be right, but may not be.

My earth sheltered house has a second floor which is framed conventionally. It also has baked enamel metal roofing. The only likely place for a fire to catch hold is the siding. So I talked to my insurance agent about saving money on insurance by installing that concrete siding that looks like wood, but is fire proof.

He told me, after talking to the company, that that type of siding would actually increase the insurance premium slightly. Although it's ridiculous, he said, it's because it would be more expensive to rebuild if there ever WERE a fire! Same could be true for the monolithic dome.

JOJ

-- jumpoffjoe (jumpoffjoe@yahoo.com), September 05, 2000.

I just visited the site; it is definitely NOT the same monolithic dome I was familiar with. It appears the waterproofiing is above the insulation. Good.

I think this is an idea which bears further investigation.

JOJ

-- jumpoffjoe (jumpoffjoe@yahoo.com), September 05, 2000.