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Topic: would anyone buy a seamless spherical polypropylene house? - page 2. (Read 1719 times)

legendary
Activity: 1722
Merit: 1217
what if you're in it and it rolls Sad

it would have a ballast Grin

also you would want to dig atleast a little bit of a hole for it
legendary
Activity: 1834
Merit: 1019
what if you're in it and it rolls Sad
legendary
Activity: 1722
Merit: 1217
The majority of the cost in constructing a residence isn't the exterior walls it is the "everything else".  Water, electrical, windows, HVAC, interior walls/doors, closets, cabinets, fixtures, etc.  You would really need some deep pockets, enough to figure out how to integrate everything, and build some prototypes.

If the $35K sphere ends up costing $500K because everything inside needs to be custom made then it really isn't worth it.  Right?

ya your right but 35k is about what you expect to spend on just the foundation walls and roof of a normal house so its perfectly analogous in that sense. as far as the other stuff that goes inside most of it wouldn't need to be custom. a sink would still be a sink, a toilet would still be a toilet, a couch would still be a couch and a floor would still be a floor. Probably the plumbing and ventilation would need to be a bit customized, maybe a few other things.

as far as the insulation rating goes i really dont know but i have to assume it would be amazing. 6 inches of solid anything is going to outperform dry wall and that fluffy pink stuff.
donator
Activity: 1218
Merit: 1079
Gerald Davis
The majority of the cost in constructing a residence isn't the exterior walls it is the "everything else".  Water, electrical, windows, HVAC, interior walls/doors, closets, cabinets, fixtures, etc.  You would really need some deep pockets, enough to figure out how to integrate everything, and build some prototypes.  What is the insulation rating of 3" or 6" poly?  If it isn't inferior to conventional insulation this means the additional cost of having an sphere inside a sphere. 

If the $35K sphere ends up costing $500K to make it habitable because everything inside needs to be custom made then it really isn't worth it.  Right?  It is an interesting idea but I lot would depend on integration.
legendary
Activity: 1722
Merit: 1217
By my estimation a polypropylene sphere with a 25 foot diameter and 3 inch thick walls would cost ~35,000 to fabricate or ~70,000 for 6 inch thick wales ect... I went with 25 foot radius because that gives it about the same volume as a 1000 sq foot house with 8 foot ceilings (small but not too small). The entire structure would be produced from a single mold and fabricated as one piece, there would be no seams.

The advantages:

It would last for atleast hundreds, probably thousands, maybe tens of thousands, possibly even hundreds of thousands or millions of years with 0 maintenance. You would be establishing a legacy for your lineage for aeons to come. the flexibility of the material combined with the structural integrity of the spherical shape would make for incredible resilience, you could probably roll the thing down a mountain with out damage. It would be air and water tight meaning it would also be a sea faring vessel by default, perfect for starting decentralized seasteading communities or allowing one to move between national jurisdictions with ease should one find more welcoming political environments abroad. In the event of flooding you just drop anchor. Earthquakes and tornado wouldnt put a dent in this thing. (unfortunately not volcano resistant) The units would be produced near the sea so they could be transported by tug boat to any coastal region in the world fairly cheaply.

I have been thinking about this for years and i just cant get it out of my head. Again and again i come back to it. I really think its a good idea. What do you guys think? i made a post about this before and the general consensus was that it was a good idea but would be too expensive, well this time i did the math and 35k is really not too bad.
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