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A startup is 3D printing houses in under a day at a cost of about $10,000 each, and hopes to get it down to $4,000 each:
ICON has developed a method for printing a single-story 650-square-foot house out of cement in only 12 to 24 hours, a fraction of the time it takes for new construction. If all goes according to plan, a community made up of about 100 homes will be constructed for residents in El Salvador next year. The company has partnered with New Story, a nonprofit that is vested in international housing solutions. "We have been building homes for communities in Haiti, El Salvador, and Bolivia," Alexandria Lafci, co-founder of New Story, tells The Verge.
[...] Using the Vulcan printer, ICON can print an entire home for $10,000 and plans to bring costs down to $4,000 per house. "It's much cheaper than the typical American home," Ballard says. It's capable of printing a home that's 800 square feet, a significantly bigger structure than properties pushed by the tiny home movement, which top out at about 400 square feet. In contrast, the average New York apartment is about 866 square feet.
The model has a living room, bedroom, bathroom, and a curved porch. "There are a few other companies that have printed homes and structures," Ballard says. "But they are printed in a warehouse, or they look like Yoda huts. For this venture to succeed, they have to be the best houses." The use of cement as a common material will help normalize the process for potential tenants that question the sturdiness of the structure. "I think if we were printing in plastic we would encounter some issues."
Also at Fortune, Wired, and BGR.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Saturday March 17 2018, @08:03AM (2 children)
For a while, I was watching a promising new technology known as "Arxx Blocks" [ottawaicf.com]. The company that started this technology has been bought out and several others are now in on it... Insulative Concrete Forms is the new name for them. But long time ago when I first saw them, they were Arxx Blocks.
These were like large styrofoam LEGO blocks. They would interlock. You stacked 'em together, wired 'em, plumbed 'em as you saw fit. Windows, whatever. You could take your time getting everything just right. It was all held together by rebar going up through the holes.
When you had it all like you wanted it, call the cement pumper in. He would fill in the holes from the top. The concrete would then flow into the channels in the foam blocks, forming a steel reinforced concrete grid. It wasn't going anywhere after the concrete set. Once the cement set, attach interior and exterior fascia of your choice.
The LaHabra school system ( Southern California ) has one of these buildings. It is quite an unusual building. Nothing unusual to look at, but its right next to a noisy construction yard... and its dead quiet in the building. If it happens outside, you do not hear about it. Kinda odd to watch this huge noisy truck through the window, but not hear it.
They also claim much superior thermal insulation... like being in a cooler box.
The marketers claim its fire retardent... and I would also fear outgassing of hydrocarbons of plastics. But, all in all, if I were considering a house in the middle of nowhere, this looked damned good.
Its claim to fame is that it was much faster than framing, and cheap. The guy I talked to said the unions hated the stuff. Building went up so fast there wasn't enough time to run up a big labor bill. To me, it looked like something that would be dirt-easy to modify or build add-ons. However, not so easy to retrofit. You ain't running new pipe or wiring conduit in this thing all that easily once everything is set in concrete.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by Spamalope on Saturday March 17 2018, @03:00PM (1 child)
I'd love something that deadens sound a ton!
For the foam blocks, polystyrene foam (styrofoam) isn't all the same and there are similar foams. As long as they supplied the right material it could last. (My dad was a research chemist working on the manufacturing tech for plastics and worked with this stuff often so I heard about it)
I wonder if you attach a wall covering material that's attached to threaded wall anchors as a removable skin that's spaced out a bit. So you'd have wiring on the outside of the foam, and if you needed to run cat 5 you'd pull the wall skin off for perfect access. It looks like there are plastic braces for anchoring to the walls (siding/drywall). I'm a bit concerned about attaching cabinets/heavy pictures etc though.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday March 18 2018, @06:37AM
I posted because I would love to build my "retirement house" out of these, out in the middle of nowhere. Put 'em up and sheath it with a layer of stone fascia... and make it so I do not spend a fortune heating and cooling the thing... If I play my cards right, I would love to go somewhere I can access the water table so I can get or put heat into the water using propane as the refrigeration fluid ( propane... cheap and nontoxic... so if I lose a load due to a leak, no big deal - I just do my heat engine work outside so there is no way of filling my home with escaped propane vapor. ).
I intend to run an ice bank as well, so I can store thermal energy that way, so I can save away the ability to heat or cool my place during times of plenty of solar panel energy. Nothing says I can't make a small subterranean "ice chest" for making ice in on hot days. So I can cool my place by chillled water fancoil units.
Hoping I can get enough energy from solar panels to run those new brushless three-phase motors like used on the Fisher and Paykel machine. Maybe someone in the refrigeration business will start making hermetically sealed compressors with motors of this design. Something like this will not only let me very precisely let me set the rate of heat transfer, it will also let me make the best use of limited amounts of power by letting me use optimal power point tracking techniques.
There are so many neat things one can do with refrigeration and heat transfer... but I find so few people who are interested enough to actually build the things. I fully intend to, now that I have some retirement income coming in and don't have to answer to the leadership men who tell me not to do such things.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]