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posted by janrinok on Sunday February 03 2019, @12:17PM   Printer-friendly
from the all-the-character-of-Lego dept.

Larry Haines, founder of Austin-based Sunconomy, said his company has partnered with San Francisco residential building company, Forge New, to develop a system called We Print Houses. It will allow them to create bigger homes. They use a unique mobile platform to which they attach a print head.

[...] They also use a specific building method, placing geo-polymer concrete on the inside and outside of a steel beam with insulation in the middle.

"That's how we're meeting code is by being able to insulate and get the structural strength and integrity from slab to wall from wall-to-the-roof system all in one," said Haines.

Ultimately, Haines wants to print a whole house, including the roofs and floors, and sell it, something he says has never been done in the country. He's already obtained the permit to build the first model home in Lago Vista, about 30 miles outside of Austin. Construction would take two months, and safety inspections would be performed similarly to those done with a traditionally built house.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Sunday February 03 2019, @08:42PM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Sunday February 03 2019, @08:42PM (#795811)

    The whole story is needed to really evaluate whether $500K is ridiculously cheap, expensive, or somewhere inbetween.

    How many FTEs does it take to operate this machine? To maintain it? Beyond labor, what are the costs to maintain it? What are the costs of consumables while it's running? Cleanout costs at the end of each shift?
      Sure, it uses concrete, but does that concrete cost appreciably more than regular construction concrete?

    Around here there used to be an outfit doing poured concrete houses, the big cost for them was the aluminum forms. While the construction market was booming, they did well - their houses only cost 10% more than conventional frame construction, went up faster with less labor, and were much stronger when done. However, when the construction market slowed down, the capital cost of the forms started to be an unbearable expense. Since the forms were no longer "working" full time, their debt service cost had to be borne by a smaller number of homes, and instead of 110% the concrete homes in slow times started costing 130%-150% of conventional frame. Meanwhile, the glut in the labor market meant that framers were working cheaper, so frame costs dropped from a nominal 100% down to 80% or less. When concrete started to cost twice as much as frame, demand dried up dramatically, and the forms got sold off to a higher demand market overseas.

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