Leitgeb Industries has just completed yet another successful shell. This dome, located in Florida, is forty feet in diameter and one and a half stories high. The owner is well under way in getting his dome ready to live in having completed the framing, sheetrock, and kitchen cabinet phases. This dome will be completed in a little more than a year, which puts in right about average.
As soon as the shell was complete, the owner expressed that he is well pleased with the dome so far. "It is everything that I expected it to be," he stated.
After he was asked how he liked the wall texture, he stated, "There are a few places that you can see a faint rebar pattern, but this does not concern me. You kind of have to know what you are looking at to see the pattern. Overall, Larry Leitgeb did a fantastic job."
When the fabric was first inflated, both Leitgeb and the owner noted that one window augment was off more than a foot from where the blueprint said the augment was supposed to be. Fortunately, this did not affect the overall structure of the dome.
Jim, the owner's carpenter, had a lot of positive things to say about the dome shell, but he especially raved about the shelf designed to receive the second floor.
As a carpenter with many years in the business, he knows how much easier this shelf made his life. Without it, he would be drilling into concrete.
"I was very impressed that Larry's shelf fluctuated only a 16th of an inch over the entire 35 foot length," he added.
Larry Leitgeb likes to include a second floor shelf for his customers because he has a philosophy of providing a shell that can be molded into a home, not just a hunk of concrete. Although he consents that in the future he will need to charge more for this feature. He knows first hand how difficult it is to fasten a straight piece of wood to an upside down two dimensional curve. "This is one of those cases where a stitch in time saves nine," he explained.
Another philosophy that Leitgeb believes in is to find that middle of the road. While not generally considered a positive thing for politicians, it certainly can be for concrete work. "Most of my customers are in that middle income bracket and they are looking for a roof over their head, not for perfection. They know that there are rough times ahead and they want a home to protect their family, not to impress their neighbors." This applies as well to the wall texture that Leitgeb provides to his customers. Getting a perfect looking dome requires scrapping off half the concrete the gunner just put on. Even David South, president of Monolithic domes, admits, "It is an extremely time consumming and wasteful procedure."
"Most of my customers simply do not want to pay for all that wasted time and material," Leitgeb shared.
"And most people don't care what their attic walls look like." "Of course, if they want perfection, they need to tell me so I can price accordingly, probably about 18% more."
Now there is also the issue of imperfections on the outside of the dome, Leitgeb pointed out. "The blemishes that you see on the outside of the dome are called blisters. Rest assured, they are a normal part of dome technology; in fact, they are a normal part of any technology using elastomeric material like fabric." Leitgeb Industries and Monolithic Domes Incorporated are constantly seeking new ways to reduce or completely eliminate these imperfections, but until that happens, expect to get blisters. Leitgeb likes to remind his customers that these homes will last a minimum of 200 years. This "con" is mild in comparison.
Caring for the outside surface is easy, Leitgeb explained. "If you can swing a hammer, you can follow the few simple steps required to treat a blister." Normally, Leitgeb is happy to take care of these blisters as a service to his customers; however, as he explained further, it is just not cost-effective for me to drive 8 hours to a jobsite to do a ten minute repair. "I'll do it," he says. "But only if I am compensated." So Leitgeb is willing to show his customers how to care for these blemishes themselves.
Below are some pictures of the dome nearing completion:
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