SOME BASIC THINGS ABOUT MY DOMES……

My domes are the Bucky Fuller Hexa-Pent domes derived from plans in Popular Science Magazine in 1972. Each of the two domes is a 5/8 hexa pent, 24’ in diameter. The struts are beveled, angled, drilled and slotted 2x4 studs with custom-cut wooden hubs bolted to the 2x4 studs. The outer skin is ½” plywood. Each of the triangles has an inner “T” of angled and beveled 2x4 studs for added strength. The two domes and a connecting structure were built in 1972.

The dome walls were insulated with 3” fiberglass and sealed with a vapor barrier. The interior walls were made from cheap ¼” luan underlayment. To save wood, the hexagons were made up of three strips of luan and pentagons were made up of two strips. The luan was stained dark with a polyurethane finish. The molding was made from 1” strips of luan beveled at the intersections (a tedious job to say the least).

About fifteen years ago, I decided to put more insulation in the living room dome. To do this, I took off all of the luan and removed the vapor barrier and insulation. I constructed and nailed strut extensions 3 ½” thick made out of 2x2 lumber and scrap plywood. I recut the triangles, put 6” of insulation in the walls, sealed the walls with a vapor barrier and put the triangles back up. I decided not to redo the molding (too tedious!).

Last summer, I decided to redo the bedroom dome and replace the gas heater in that dome and the gas furnace in the living room dome with electronic thermal storage units purchased through our electric cooperative. I also decided to open the main bedroom to the skylight by eliminating part of the loft that covered the entire first floor.

When I removed the heater, I found some damage from over 30 years of leaks around the vent pipe that I did not properly seal at the time. The damage was easily repaired with two new struts installed on the inner side of the dome wall. I completely removed the loft, and extended the struts as I had done in the living room dome. I then recut all of the triangles and decided to repaint them with a light color. I reinsulated the walls with 6” fiberglass and sealed them with a vapor barrier.

When I started to put each of the strips of luan back, I noticed that the one or two seams in the triangles were noticeable with the lighter color. I then got the idea to rip some strips of scrap luan, and glue the sections together as individual triangles so the seams would not be seen or would be less noticeable. When the triangles were up, I rebuilt the loft, installed new recessed lighting and boxed in the ceiling in the smaller back bedroom. I ordered hubcaps from Natural Spaces Domes and got lathe for molding from a local supplier. The lathe and hubcaps went up very quickly.

This summer, I decided to redo the living room dome. I did all the work on that dome in less than two weeks because this dome was more open, there was no loft to rebuild, and the triangles didn’t have to be recut. As I did in the bedroom dome, I glued the two or three strips of luan together and repainted the triangles. Once again I got hubcaps from Natural Spaces Domes and lathe locally.

The finishing touch was boxing in the seven foot projection screen that is used for HD video and 16mm film projection. I had two scrap pieces of tongue and groove cedar that worked great at hiding the screen when it was not in use. I then reran wires for the 5:1 surround sound and the project was done.

To me, luan was a very cheap and workable solution for the interior walls at the time (I would definitely go with tongue and groove cedar if I were to do it today). The luan has held up without deterioration all these decades despite being recut, repainted, and reworked over all those years. Had I done the walls with drywall, I would have wasted a lot of material making all those changes not to mention all the work involved with drywall.