The Rock is Going Up

This week we have begun the process of applying rock to the garage. It actually took a few tries to find the right combination of adhesives and techniques to get a good bond in a reasonable amount of time. Once our contractor found the optimum solution I asked him to write up a description of how he did it, in technical terms, in case anyone else would like to cover their dome in the same fashion. Here is his description:

Over the many months I have pondered the best application of applying the veneer rocks to the dome structure. In a normal application, we would seal the house with a house wrap, then secure some metal lath to allow the base for a “scratch coat”. A scratch coat is simply a mortar bed that is installed on a surface as a substrate for stucco or rock veneer. After that substrate has been installed, this allows us to bond our rock to the “scratch coat”. As you know for some time, we have planned to adhere the rock directly to the dome membrane. Seemed like an unusual yet practical approach to such a unique situation. The membrane would act as the moisture barrier, allowing any moisture that penetrated the rock and grout to easily migrate down to the bottom weep holes. As we started off applying various amounts of adhesive, we quickly found that the weight of the rocks was too much for the adhesive. The rock just simply would not stay in the placement we desired. After 30 min there was no measurable adhesion. We even tried samples with several different types of adhesive and even epoxy. With some patience the original adhesive and epoxy did set up enough to hold the rocks. Unfortunately, at that pace it would take us many months to install the rocks.

Even though the rocks did set, this was not an acceptable application. So I decided try a different strategy. We adhered a 1/2” fiberglass mesh that is similar in shape to expanded metal. Because it is fiberglass, it conforms to the shape of the dome easily and does not weigh much. We apply the adhesive in a vertical line so that this does not cause any moisture to be trapped. Once the mesh is set, we have a perfect base to install a “scratch coat” This worked perfectly in out trial area. Once the scratch coat was dry we could then bond the rocks directly to the mortar bed like normal.

In the end, I am very pleased with the application. The color and rock style is a great choice for the home.

If you look closely at the picture you can see the fiberglass mesh on teh left hand edge and the scratch cost in the upper right corner.

I think it looks very nice and will provide a virtually maintenance free exterior for our dome.

Upstairs Railing

Progress is currently being made on the stairway and the upstairs walkway. We now have a railing on the walkway, but the bannister rail is still being shaped for the actual stairs, so we several days away from getting the full railing up.

The big thing that still seems to be slowing down the progress is the sealing of the first floor windows. I know I have talked about this before, but this needs to be a chief concern of anyone contemplating building a Monolithic Dome. It is apparent to me that sealing windows is a main problem on many domes. As of now, 4 months after they were first installed, the first floor windows still leak, despite 4 or 5 attempts to properly seal them.

Kitchen Cabinets

It's hard to believe that it's been almost 3 weeks since my last update and a lot longer than that without a picture. Things were pretty slow at the house since mid December, but they are picking up rapidly now. The weather is turning a bit warmer (it got up to 74°F today) and more is going on.

The biggest thing now is the cabinets are installed, as are most of the closet interiors. You can see the kitchen cabinets above, with the island in the foreground. The sink is actually inthe wrong place int he picture, but it will be moved to the opposite side later this week.

The pool is now about 1 foot full of water at the shallow end from the rains we've been getting. This is a wonderful thing as the water tables and ponds are beginning to fill back up from the drought last year. We still need more rain, but this is a start. The work has been on the plumbing and equipment side of the pool now. The actual interior of the pool will not be finished until the house is ready, which I am betting will be mid-March.

The front entryway now has an awning. It has actually had one for a while, but it is finally the correct awning (the first one was way too big and did not look good at all).

The rock for the exterior was supposed to be delivered today, but it has been delayed a few days. The time frame for installing it on all three domes is 3 weeks, so this is a massive undertaking. However, before it can be applied on the main dome, the first floor windows need to be properly weather sealed. one thing all the recent rains has shown us is the windows are NOT well sealed, but leak like a sieve. Everyone we have talked to about domes expressed a concern about sealing the windows, getting the window bucks square and proper, and other things about the windows. Please make sure you tell your contractor (even if it is yourself) to be very careful about the windows.

We have doors

Last week saw the installation of the interior doors and the exterior front door, along with locks to secure the house. It seem as if we have been having a few 'visitors' lately. So far we've seen no vandalism, but hopefully this will detur people even more.

The exterior rock should be delivered next week and that will take several more weeks to apply.

We picked up sinks and tubs and such last week so they can be ready to put in in a few weeks. Also the stair railing and spindles and such.

Next week we need to actually select the slabs of granite for the counter tops. We have the general type we want, but since each slab is slightly different, we have to pick out a particular one for each counter.

The floor leveling is almost done. It actually would be done, but for a cold snap one night that caused the final coat to not adhere the way it should and to buckle and bubble on the slab. It has to be scraped and reappplied now.

Christmas Eve, little work this coming week

Well, it's Christmas eve today and we don't expect a lot of work to be done on the house until after the first of the year. 

Last week we did get the septic tank installed and on Friday they were running the irrigation lines, so hopefully that is done. It appears as if the structure of the pool is done, save the final plaster coat. The pumps and filters and such are not in yet, but there is plenty of time to do that. The slab has been mostly leveled by the use of some type of self-leveling compound. It goes on almost in a watery state and then hardens to almost a concrete material. They had applied the third coat last week, and may still need one move. The slab was definitely out of smooth and level!

One issue has come up with us having gotten a lot of  rain the last few weeks. It seems that the windows leak. Our contractor has been talking to Monolithic Domes about the problem and they think they have a solution, but it involves pulling the windows out and fully reseating them. I don't know when that will occur, but I assume soon.

We were supposed to have a front door and a garage door by this time, but those aren't in yet. Not a big deal, but something else that is running behind schedule.

Leveling of the floor

This week there are a few milestone being planned. First the foundation is going to have the undulations which were in it from a poorly poured slab leveled with self-leveling floor compound. This will allow them to lay the floor when it is time.

Second the garage door and front door should be installed this week. This will allow us to secure the property against the elements. The rain storm that went through last night poured a LOT of water in the house. Much of that was through the front door opening, but many of the downstairs windows leak. The contractor is going to have those pulled out and resealed.

I did not get a chance to go out there today and look in the pool to see how much water accumulated, but I am sure it was significant. The coping and the flagstone should all be on by now, if not right now then this week. Once that is done, the pool guy will be in a holding pattern until the house gets further along.

We looked at the cabinet elevations this evening and marked up those to the contractor. He will return them to the cabinet maker for revision and then we'll get an updated copy early next week for what should be final approval. Then they should actually be installed in early January.

Slow but Steady Progress

It's been two weeks since my last post and I feel a bit guilty about that, but the daily incremental progress seems very slow during this phase. They are working on taping and floating all the drywall in both buildings, finishing the corners that will be exposed, putting the window and door frames in place, doing the wall segments on the second floor window dormers, and making progress on the pool.

I suspect that by the end of the week the regular walls will be mostly done, including the second floor windows. The pool plumbing is mostly already done (the pipes have to be connected to the pumps and filters still, but everything is connected to the pool side of things). A lot of the rock work around the pool is done and we've identified the supplied for the propane and determined the basic location for the outdoor kitchen and the fire pit. I hope to see the propane tank and plumbing for that go in before Christmas.

Next week we may get started with putting the rock on the outside of the domes. The rock supplier came by and talked and we showed him what we were looking for, so he is currently producing the rocks for the house. These are not real rock, but cast concrete-like rocks. The estimate is 3 weeks to rock the entire outside of the domes (all three buildings).

I talked to the contractor about the driveway, sidewalks, front porch, steps, and patio and we reached some basic idea of what we are looking for, but these need to be drawn out and fully approved. Also the fence for the backyard needs to be placed. This will be seriously influenced by the location of the septic system sprinkler heads. Basically the fence cannot cut through the spray field, so it either goes in front of them keeping all the spray out of the back yard, behind them putting all the spray inside the backyard, or goes down the middle and we put two 180 degree spray heads back to back adjacent to the fence. It makes it a discrete problem of location versus a continuous one.

We have picked out the stain for the front door and they are working on the door jam to install it and then put a temporary door in place to make the house weather tight. I'm a bit surprised they have not seen this as more of a priority, since a big rain storm that blows a lot of rain in through that opening could ruin a bunch of the drywall, but that is the contractors call.

We are getting back with the decorator this week to talk more about the colors, flooring, and lights. We also have to look at kitchen layouts and library and game room cabinets, plus general closet layouts as well. The contractor would like to get these done fairly soon, so he can plan and schedule for them.