Monday, August 2, 2010

Acknowledgement links

  • Helen Television System - although it contains several errors, it is a news item.
  • Monolithic's web site announces our presence in their In The Media section.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

The first converts

Many folks begin realizing the benefits of dome super-structures.  The web site got hits from 26 countries so far.  Everybody in USA agrees that domes are perfect for the Caribbean.  Now it remains for islanders to admit it too.

Monolithic dome strength

  1. Click here to read about monolithic dome strength tests and here to read a testament of dome robustness from the war zone.
  2. Read about dome survivability here.
  3. Read about the invisible dome home (luxury below ground!) here.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Eco-shells - the cheaper version of the cheap dome

  1. Click here to see the construction of a new Eco-shell village in Indonesia as well as other dome related videos.  (The New Ngelepen, Indonesia  project included 77 houses, 6 MCK’s (bathroom, shower facilities), 6 wells, 6 septic systems, a church and roads).
  2. Read about the difference between Eco-shell I and II here.
Eco-shells are perfect for affordable housing projects and JC Tropical Homes Inc. builds an improved version of the Eco-shell designed by the company founder.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Modern history of domes

The enlightened minds who adapted the ancient dome shape from church cupolas into livable space:
  • Wallace Neff (architect) is the originator of monolithic dome homes and the one who coined the word "airform" houses.  Read here.
  • Jonathan Zimmerman (architect).  Read a .pdf file about domes here.
  • Dr. Arnold Wilson (civil engineer).  Read about his approach here.
  • The South brothers (builders). USA Patent holders.  Read their story here.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Dome home reggae

"No woman, no cry" Bob Marley
"No roof, no cry" - First dome buyers in St. Lucia

Saturday, July 10, 2010

No more roofs


To build a 4-wall house, you will need engineers, architects, contractors, masons, foreman, electricians, roofers, tilers, plumbers, carpenters, laborers, painters, interior decorators, truck drivers, Bank loan, insurers, appraisers, land surveyors, planning permission, etc.
If I tell you a better way to build houses exists, where you save money by eliminating one group of servicemen and one construction phase completely, will you consider it?
The better way is the monolithic dome – the sturdiest structure ever – in use since 1975 in USA. Built for cold, mild or hot climates, I brought a few changes to it and called it “tropical dome”, to meet Caribbean-specific harsh environment.

I can say that, with several improvements to design and materials taking place abroad and with my contribution too, modern domes are now at version #2, a departure from the old dome of 35 years ago, which was version #1.
One of the biggest advantages is that domes have no roof like the one you got used to.
You will no longer be required to clean, repair and replace the roof of your home.
No shingles, no roof-tiles of any kind, no galvanized sheets, no treated lumber, no eaves-troughs, no downspouts, no straps for heavy anchoring and … yes, no roofers are needed anymore.

Think for a moment: of all the components of a house, roofs seem to be the weakest link. Foundations, doors, windows and floors cannot be eliminated completely. With domes now, roofs are done away with forever.

The attic.
We all know that many Caribbean homes have a small attic that is supposed to reduce the impact hot roofs have on the indoors but where mice, rats, small birds, wasps, termites, bats and their friends make their nest.
With tropical domes, no such unhealthy improvised areas exist. Tropical domes have a protected layer of insulating foam on the outside and a sturdy concrete ceiling inside, that’s all.
Good-bye pests!
Rats with an appetite for chewing on electrical wires will look elsewhere for homes with attics, and you – as a dome homeowner – will have one less issue to worry about …

Even the exposed rafters are a poor solution paling in comparison with the tropical dome, which includes 7-9” thick polyurethane foam covered with a layer of reinforced concrete to fully stop the outdoors heat from propagating indoors. Such protection goes from the ground up to the very top of the building.
Did you notice that all houses with exposed rafters have taller walls than regular houses? This translates into more masonry with more labor costs, lengthier beams, more concrete blocks and … yes, more money being spent instead of saved.
What a waste! …
Don’t let this happen to you! …

With domes, the roof is one and the same with the walls, something that gives an unparalleled integrity to the entire structure: it all comes in one piece.
Dome walls are called shells.
Although designers, architects, civil engineers and roofers deadlocked in the past will desperately try to convince you otherwise, domes succeeded in doing what attics in 4-wall houses failed to do.
If you know of anything better than monolithic domes, please let me know!

A WORD ON SAVINGS
Extolling the benefits of roofless structures could make some persons believe monolithic domes are maintenance free.
They are not!
Everything in your possession requires care, whether a 4-wall house or dome.
Maintenance costs for dome tops are definitely less than costs associated with maintaining the roofs of regular 4-wall houses. Even if the costs were the same, the fact alone that your dome home has no roof to be replaced should be enough for the budget conscious homeowner to choose the dome.
I cannot guarantee you that in 20 years when you are going to spend time, money and energy to replace the worn-out roof of your home, you will be the same nice person, fully employed, healthy and happy as you are now when you are deciding which house to buy: the traditional 4-wall structure or the dome, but I can fully guarantee you that the decaying roof of your 4-wall home will get you into trouble at replacement day.
Do you really want that?

The house of the future


Tropical domes are superior to any wood, brick, metallic or concrete block structure now in use throughout the Caribbean islands.
Here is why.
Resembling a half-egg, the building is shaped like an igloo offering several major advantages over existing construction models. Between geodesic domes that are built out of triangular panels welded together on site and monolithic domes that are built in one piece, the monolithic ones are better because they are robust and don’t leak.
We specialize only in monolithic domes.
Earthquakes.
We all know too well that our entire region rests on the Caribbean Tectonic Plate at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean stretching from northeast (Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands) to the south (Venezuela).
All the islands move as if on bearings when the slightest land tremor occurs.
If not ruined by deep land tremors at one time, 4-wall buildings, no matter how well built, get cracks because of huge tensions on the four corners of the house. This requires repairs, unexpected costs and regular check-ups, affecting homeowners negatively by keeping them afraid of constant dangers.
Not so with the dome. The dome is firmly anchored to the foundation and its entire rebar frame is purposefully designed and tied up to absorb earthquakes of the greatest magnitude.
Domes can never cave in on people indoors, nor can they spill over the sidewalks like collapsing 4-wall houses do.
Hurricanes.
No matter how well the roof of a 4-wall house is secured, it remains a hazard and even if the whole roof is not destroyed by strong gales of winds, parts of it will be one day, and once is enough.
Did you know it costs money to clean, fix or replace roofs?
Did you notice it takes time to fix roofs and to deal with all those involved in roof repairs, from insurance and construction planning officers to Bank loan officers, site inspectors, suppliers and roofers themselves?
The tropical dome has no such disadvantage simply because it has no roof at all.
Opposing no resistance to the fury of nature, the egg-like shape allows the strongest winds to pass by harmlessly and their brute force to be dissipated along its dense space-age materials frame.
Your home insurance premium will be less because of this.
Tsunamis.
No devastating wall of seawater swept across the Caribbean in living memory.
But is this a guarantee it won’t happen?
When one is going to hit us one day, expect your 4-wall house to be washed away completely or at least demolished and the roof peeled off.
A 10-40-foot tsunami will be a catastrophe of gigantic proportions, especially to the low-lying islands (Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Caymans, Turks & Caicos) and the damage to buildings you see now, if any is going to stand, will be incalculable.
Not to mention the lives lost.
Domes are built to take pressures of up to 10,000 lbs./sq.ft., and while it’s true they won’t resist a 600-meter wave, they can withstand smaller tsunamis that traditional houses can’t.
Domes will be the only buildings up.
Concrete block.
Replacing bamboo, plywood, wooden and brick houses for the past 50+ years, concrete blocks became the predominant building material because of cheapness and large supply.
But is the concrete block a true quality product? No, it isn’t.
Don’t Caribbean inhabitants deserve better without increased costs?
Isn’t it high time for superior solutions in the construction industry to be introduced to our islands?
Did you notice that concrete block walls absorb the heat during the day releasing it indoors forcing you to turn air-conditioning on? Just touch your walls at 2 a.m. and you will feel that they are still warm in the thick of the night from hot air and direct exposure to sunlight during the day.
No such disadvantage exists with domes. All domes are padded with 7 – 9” insulating foam that keeps heat in the tropics (or cold in the artic) away. With global warming upon us, no better housing solution than the monolithic dome exists. If one had existed, we would have chosen to build that one instead.
How about if I told you that a monolithic dome the size of your house costs less to build, less to maintain and less to insure?
JCTropicalHomes.com is the first dome construction company in the Caribbean with the latest technology.
We shall build singular, modular and multi-storied homes, schools, churches, theatres, sports-halls and warehouses throughout the region as the first and quality monolithic dome providers in the region.
Forget about 4-wall buildings and switch to the design that makes sense: the house of the future, THE MONOLITHIC DOME.