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A house 3D printed from raw earth

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Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#131

Post by throwaway316943 »

karlerss wrote: post #123
dagw wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True. The question is if that is just a temporary thing or the new normal. I suspect prices will be back to 'normal' in a year

There was a deep dive about this in Bloomberg Odd Lots podcast. Although some of the price increase was due to the industry predicting lower demand and getting rid of inventory. Another, more fundamental factor is the actual scarcity of lumber due to lower harvesting quotas set by Canadian govt. These quotas are unlikely to go up any time soon.

They aren’t going to maintain a 3x increase in price though. If they do we’re going to see a lot of new sawmills starting up.

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#132

Post by mnouquet »

varjag wrote: post #4
newsbinator wrote: post #2

In all of these demos, they never show you the resulting bathroom, shower, or kitchen. It's always "here's a shell we made". I'd like to see the finished house, with fixtures in place and working.

While am generally a 3d printing skeptic I feel it's not quite a fair take. The bulk of a house (and its major cost component) is the structure. So this could be useful even if it can't print you the bathroom and the fridge. How well it going to work in practice is another matter (and here's where am skeptical).

> The bulk of a house (and its major cost component) is the structure

That's blatantly false, the structure is the easy part.

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#133

Post by laumars »

bobthechef wrote: post #102
laumars wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would imagine if this house isn’t strong then future designs would be. Bricks and coffee mugs are also made out of clay so it’s not like we don’t already have a long history of experience working with the substance to create durable materials.

Yes, but bricks and coffee mugs are kiln fired, so this 3d printer would need to somehow accomplish that baking process or add something to the mix that would cause it to harden without being fired.

I don’t think either scenario is beyond the realm of possibility.

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#134

Post by throwaway316943 »

kube-system wrote: post #118
JAlexoid wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sewage is absolutely NOT a problem for a single story houses. No large sewage pipes are installed in the walls of all single story houses.

Sometimes they are. My house is single story and has sewage pipes in the walls. Regardless of whether that is a requirement, the pipes have to go through some part of the structure to get to the outside, regardless of whether that's a wall, floor, foundation, etc.

It’s possible but only done for convenience where it makes sense to, not a requirement for new construction since you just put the pipes in before the pad gets poured.

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#135

Post by mnouquet »

bruiseralmighty wrote: post #78
flatline wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good luck trying to get permits to build anything the slightest bit unconventional in any populated area. I looked at building a geodesic dome, and was going to end up in the boonies and likely still paying off the inspector to pull permits. You could get it done in town and it would have to be over-built, completely ruining the whole efficiency angle of the dome to begin with, and taking months or years to work thro…

Yeah basically this. Trying to build an eco-structure or even a mostly earthen home in the US you are basically relegated to a sparsely populated counties or taking your chances squatting on Federal land. This was quite eye-opening to me once I had to actually attempt to find some land to build on.

> Trying to build an eco-structure

This doesn't even qualify as "eco-structure". R-value is pretty terrible.

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#136

Post by throwaway316943 »

kube-system wrote: post #122
cheschire wrote: post #40

I hope 3D printing homes will take off now that lumber prices are so ridiculous. The sudden cost increases in other materials will now hopefully give 3d printing space to achieve economies of scale. Imagine homes that are printed with a 20 year life expectancy. Especially in America where I don't know many families that remain in the same house for 20 years. We could start going to the Japanese model of razing the ho…

We don't need a new construction methodology to fix a materials problem. A specialized construction methodology makes the problem worse, because they often require very specific materials. My 3D printer is compatible with ~5 very specific types of plastic. Traditional construction can be done with plastics, metals, masonry, wood, composites, and many others.

It would certainly fill a niche if they can create a system that only requires 2 guys and a truck to deliver and set up. Even better if they don’t have to be on site while it’s printing so they can do multiple jobs at once.

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#137

Post by mnouquet »

kube-system wrote: post #126
bobthechef wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not in the US. Americans prefer living in cardboard boxes. I mean, timber frame and drywall palaces.

You mean affordable structures made out of renewables and built to the latest safety and efficiency standards? I always feel like this sentiment sounds like nostalgia some express about the "sturdy" cars of the 60's. Sure, you can hit them with a hammer without a dent, but the engineering is crap.

The modern car's engineering of modern car might be astonishing, but at this point there is so much disposable parts that I question their environmental friendliness...

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#138

Post by kube-system »

mnouquet wrote: post #137
kube-system wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean affordable structures made out of renewables and built to the latest safety and efficiency standards? I always feel like this sentiment sounds like nostalgia some express about the "sturdy" cars of the 60's. Sure, you can hit them with a hammer without a dent, but the engineering is crap.

The modern car's engineering of modern car might be astonishing, but at this point there is so much disposable parts that I question their environmental friendliness...

Like what? Modern maintenance intervals are way longer than in the past, and vehicles today are way more reliable and last longer in general.

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#139

Post by kube-system »

throwaway316943 wrote: post #136
kube-system wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't need a new construction methodology to fix a materials problem. A specialized construction methodology makes the problem worse, because they often require very specific materials. My 3D printer is compatible with ~5 very specific types of plastic. Traditional construction can be done with plastics, metals, masonry, wood, composites, and many others.

It would certainly fill a niche if they can create a system that only requires 2 guys and a truck to deliver and set up. Even better if they don’t have to be on site while it’s printing so they can do multiple jobs at once.

This is pretty much the idea behind prefab/modular construction, isn't it?
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