If I had one piece of advice for flooring your geodesic dome shelter it’s this; Don’t. Don’t do it alone. From here on your dome shelter supplier is your best friend, bar none. Most hired contractors from roofers to builders will not go near a dome shelter design unless it’s a simple prefabricated one and used for business purposes.
Throwing in the additional home construction mainstays like electrical, heating, cooling, furniture, appliances all pose jarring challenges because of the unique shape of the structure.
These disclaimers are not meant to deter you; they are simply intended to ensure that you’re ready and qualified for the project and have the right expectations. With this in mind, let’s take a look at a handful of tips to get you on your way!
Leave No Complexity Unturned
You’ll need to have a deep thoughtful understanding of everything that will be housed in your dome shelter, from appliances to electrical and plumbing –like a layer cake. Nothing can be left out because just like the structure of a geodesic dome shelter itself, the structural integrity of one of these is a sum of all of its parts.
Decide Flooring First
Whether it’s a simple earthen base, a cement foundation with or without a basement, or you are laying down traditional wood or tiled flooring, you must decide early on. Changing flooring options after construction also has the potential to wreak havoc on budgets.
Anchoring Options
Anchoring options will vary from one floor type to another.However, your dome shelter will need to be anchored for safety and security. There is no one size fits all solution unfortunately.
Design for Deconstruction
Dome shelters are incredibly energy efficient and most of them are built modularly. This means that you can literally piece them together like Lego or Paintby Number painting, and in many cases install them within a day.
A real benefit to employing a dome shelter to encapsulate a part of your life is that they are built to be easily constructed and deconstructed. This makes them even more affordable and even ship-worthy. That means for smaller dome projects you can literally pick up your structure at the Post Office.
Get Help
As previously mentioned constructing a dome shelter for home or business is an arduous task and should not be tackled all alone. There are many shipping container shelters made by Portshelters.com.au which may prove to be your best bet.
Due to the unique constraints and dimensions of container shelters, it is suggested that shipping containers be used in the process as building materials.
Use Durable, Prefabricated Materials
If you’re not planning on living inside your shipping container dome shelter, you’ve got even more options in terms of construction. This is because you’re not adding roofing shingles and so on, meaning that the materials you do use can be weather resistant and easier to install.
Corrugated steel and insulation (if it is required) can replace labour intensive building tasks such as roofing or siding for your shelter.
Discuss First, Buy In Later
With a project like this, it may be prudent to give your supplier a run for the money by playing a Devil’s Advocate with your needs. Ask them to explain how a shelter dome can be the right solution for the project you have in mind –and don’t let them stop talking until you’re really bored. Or satisfied.
You just really need to be with the right vendor because once you start they may be the only one competent to see your endeavor from concept to completion.
