patanke
New member
My wife and I purchased a Terra-Dome home last Sepember that was built in 1996-97. The previous owner was disabled and the home is in poor repair. However, we recognized the benefits of an energy efficient, indestructible home a Terra-Dome provides.
One of the wonderful things about a Terra-Dome is that it has "Great Bones, ie no mater what the inside looks like, the structure is sound and can be remade into the home of our dreams. While researching for the home purchase we found SamWalton's with help from patrickg 94 page thread about their Terra-Dome constructions. Their in-depth incite into the construction process pushed us over the edge on the purchase as we were able to see behind the dirt on the home, and visualize the needed repairs. Rather than hijacking their thread I figured I would start a new one to chronicle our rebuilding process, and I hope I can help others as much as Sam's thread helped us. Please do not take this tread as a Terra-Dome bash, it is merely a documentation of the processes that didn't work on our house, or our environment and our steps to rectify the situation.
The first picture is what the house looked like when built from the Terra-Dome website, the other pictures are what it looks like today. The water proofing process the original home owners used did not work. When asked they told us it was a single rolled on layer of Eco line with Benoite sheeting (Paraseal) all over the dome and that there was drain tile in the valleys. The pictures show some of the dozen leaks that are everywhere, both from the walls and ceiling.
Before anyone asks yes that is algae growing on in the corner, and interesting enough this leaking crack has a pencil mark around it and is marked leak under the plaster that has fallen off. It appears they also injected some sort of foam into the crack.
The exposed surfaces of the house are covered with an EFIS type stucco over 2 inches of rigid foam. Obviously water got behind this and it failed as the entire EFIS surface is separated and loose from the house.
Here is our initial plan to return our Terra-Dome to the snug dry condition it deserves. First we are excavating the entire roof and walls to the footing, injecting the cracks Hilti's CI 060 ep epoxy, spray foaming the exterior with closed cell poly urethane foam, and capping it with a sprayed layer of poly urea (bed liner material) then replacing the drain tile and dirt. We will move onto other parts of the house, however we expect the roof process to take most of the summer as we are doing almost all the work ourselves.
On a positive note, the house stayed work in t-shirt warm (50+ degrees) through this years Wisconsin winter with just 2 portable base board heaters since the furnace was junk, so when we get done we look forward to the low heating bills when we are done.
One of the wonderful things about a Terra-Dome is that it has "Great Bones, ie no mater what the inside looks like, the structure is sound and can be remade into the home of our dreams. While researching for the home purchase we found SamWalton's with help from patrickg 94 page thread about their Terra-Dome constructions. Their in-depth incite into the construction process pushed us over the edge on the purchase as we were able to see behind the dirt on the home, and visualize the needed repairs. Rather than hijacking their thread I figured I would start a new one to chronicle our rebuilding process, and I hope I can help others as much as Sam's thread helped us. Please do not take this tread as a Terra-Dome bash, it is merely a documentation of the processes that didn't work on our house, or our environment and our steps to rectify the situation.
The first picture is what the house looked like when built from the Terra-Dome website, the other pictures are what it looks like today. The water proofing process the original home owners used did not work. When asked they told us it was a single rolled on layer of Eco line with Benoite sheeting (Paraseal) all over the dome and that there was drain tile in the valleys. The pictures show some of the dozen leaks that are everywhere, both from the walls and ceiling.
Before anyone asks yes that is algae growing on in the corner, and interesting enough this leaking crack has a pencil mark around it and is marked leak under the plaster that has fallen off. It appears they also injected some sort of foam into the crack.
The exposed surfaces of the house are covered with an EFIS type stucco over 2 inches of rigid foam. Obviously water got behind this and it failed as the entire EFIS surface is separated and loose from the house.
Here is our initial plan to return our Terra-Dome to the snug dry condition it deserves. First we are excavating the entire roof and walls to the footing, injecting the cracks Hilti's CI 060 ep epoxy, spray foaming the exterior with closed cell poly urethane foam, and capping it with a sprayed layer of poly urea (bed liner material) then replacing the drain tile and dirt. We will move onto other parts of the house, however we expect the roof process to take most of the summer as we are doing almost all the work ourselves.
On a positive note, the house stayed work in t-shirt warm (50+ degrees) through this years Wisconsin winter with just 2 portable base board heaters since the furnace was junk, so when we get done we look forward to the low heating bills when we are done.
