3D printed house the first to receive certificate of occupancy in the United States

[JEDI]

A 3D printed house is for sale in New York. Builders say it will cut housing construction costs | CNN

The Riverhead, New York, home is listed online through Zillow with an asking price of $299,999.

www.cnn.com

The cost of construction is 50% cheaper than the cost of comparable newly-constructed homes in the area and 10x faster.
Made out of concrete, it has three bedrooms, two baths and a 2.5-car detached garage.

Andersen and King say the Riverhead home is the first 3D printed home to receive a certificate of occupancy in the United States. That wasn't easy because of strict local building codes, they said.

"We did it in one of the hardest places and there's a beauty in that because that means we can eventually do it anywhere," Andersen said.


I'll wait 5-10yrs to see if any problems arise

 

[Charmonium]

Sign me up. Also are they publicly traded? Off to the google machine.

 

[Charmonium]

OK, first 3d printed home built in Meh-hee-ko just over 2 years ago to the day.

Not publicly traded which tells me this is a small-time operation that won't be able to scale up easily. That means they will probably be looking for partners and/or buyers. We'll see how the big boys like Horton, KB and Hovnanian respond.

 

[shortylickens]

yeah I would love to sell them but I sure as shit won't live in one.

 

[Captante]

yeah I would love to sell them but I sure as shit won't live in one.

Based on?

Not sure I see a big problem with using concrete in construction which is essentially what this is.... doesn't matter that it's produced by "printing" it's hardly revolutionary.

 

[JEDI]

Based on?

Not sure I see a big problem with using concrete in construction which is essentially what this is.... doesn't matter that it's produced by "printing" it's hardly revolutionary.

i view it more as a fancier version of cinder block houses that you see in 3rd world countries.

 

[MrSquished]

i view it more as a fancier version of cinder block houses that you see in 3rd world countries.

In most of Europe homes are not built with wood, but also with a type of brick and mason construction. That's not really third world at all.

It's also quite a bit safer than the tinderboxes we build here.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Makes me think of the mayor on Portlandia is talking about how they could rebuild the city using their 3D printer by printing bricks.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Neat idea but I don't think this saves much work in the end by the time you account for setting up the machine etc. You still need standard framing on the inside so you can put insulation, run electrical etc. Still need to build a roof as well and all the inside walls then all the regular stuff like windows, fixtures etc.

I'd also worry about rain/melting snow causing water to get into all the grooves and freezing and this cycle will start to cause lot of structural issues. There's a reason concrete structures tend to be smoothed out on the surface.

I think where this tech can shine is if you want to make really elaborate concrete decorative stuff though, like a really cool outdoor hang out areas with various retaining walls and other features that are completely oddball shapes. You could maybe even 3D print things like statues to some degree.

 

[Captante]

Neat idea but I don't think this saves much work in the end by the time you account for setting up the machine etc. You still need standard framing on the inside so you can put insulation, run electrical etc. Still need to build a roof as well and all the inside walls then all the regular stuff like windows, fixtures etc.

I'd also worry about rain/melting snow causing water to get into all the grooves and freezing and this cycle will start to cause lot of structural issues. There's a reason concrete structures tend to be smoothed out on the surface.

I think where this tech can shine is if you want to make really elaborate concrete decorative stuff though, like a really cool outdoor hang out areas with various retaining walls and other features that are completely oddball shapes. You could maybe even 3D print things like statues to some degree.

The key would be to come up with "printable" concrete that also insulates well and can be printed directly onto something like a simple cheap steel-rebar frame.

Start printing cheap tiny-houses that way maybe more people could afford to buy!

 

[gorobei]

There are a couple of yt vids debunking 3d printed homes, the main critiques being cement/concrete production is one of the big greenhouse gas sources and in north america the amount of renewable timber means wood will always be cheaper. So the real benefit of 3dprinting is in time/labor costs and ability to make curves or other unusual structures you cant make in stick framing cheaply.

vid of actual home (warning: host is a little hype-y)

it covers the numbers, costs and wall construction. the land was 150k, materials was probably 100k. 40 hours to print. walls can be smoothed and finished however you want. large open plan because no need for load bearing interior walls. SQ4D is the company making the printer and offering the software services. their main claim to fame is a pivoting print head for sharper corners.

german company, special parts can be pre-printed and installed at build time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MsOXrprYXs
Matt Risinger is a TX contractor who goes thru a bunch of details on homebuilding to help buyers make better choices. he covers Icon's home in texas. they can build in the runs for plumbing and electrical into the print like SQ4D. he has a follow up video with the finished house.

Neat idea but I don't think this saves much work in the end by the time you account for setting up the machine etc. You still need standard framing on the inside so you can put insulation, run electrical etc. Still need to build a roof as well and all the inside walls then all the regular stuff like windows, fixtures etc.

I'd also worry about rain/melting snow causing water to get into all the grooves and freezing and this cycle will start to cause lot of structural issues. There's a reason concrete structures tend to be smoothed out on the surface.

I think where this tech can shine is if you want to make really elaborate concrete decorative stuff though, like a really cool outdoor hang out areas with various retaining walls and other features that are completely oddball shapes. You could maybe even 3D print things like statues to some degree.

40 hours for main structure walls is way faster than any stickframe home by an order of magnitude. the setup time for the machine is maybe a day or two if they use the tent in the 2nd vid. there are no stickframed interior walls and the insulation can be inserted at build time if you use pre-made foam blocks or afterwards with spray foam. prefabbed roof trusses and roofing panel SIPs could easily be subcontracted out for JIT delivery as the print sets up.

the striated wall grooves seems to be standard for demonstration purposes, the different companies in the 3 vids left it to show people that it was 3dprinted. they can slick the walls smooth or even do bas relief finishes like freeway sound barrier walls

they coat the exterior with an elastomer for water protection.


these first few houses are single story, with 2nd and 3rd story designs/printers coming later.

printing makes sense when you dont have abundant timber forests like NA. so this could take off in EU, australia, asia, middle east. But the bigger trend for green housing is Cross Laminated Timber. they want to replace steel rebar and concrete office towers with this stuff.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

i view it more as a fancier version of cinder block houses that you see in 3rd world countries.

The house I'm in at the moment is concrete block. You wouldn't know it from looking at it with the vinyl siding and interior drywall. With poly board insulation, the walls are close to a foot thick.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Neat idea but I don't think this saves much work in the end by the time you account for setting up the machine etc. You still need standard framing on the inside so you can put insulation, run electrical etc. Still need to build a roof as well and all the inside walls then all the regular stuff like windows, fixtures etc.

As they get the details down, they could design in channels or raceways for wiring. A sheet of foam board and a finish surface like drywall or fabricated panels and there won't be need for framing. Roof trusses are commonly built off site and trucked in, then placed with a crane. They can be done in metal or composite/laminated materials. Metal roof panels that look like shingles are available.

Houses can be built without a stick of structural wood.

 

[pmv]

Perhaps it depends where you are, but I thought the largest part of the cost of a home was the land it stands on, rather than the construction cost? Ergo, woudln't the choice of construction methods not make a lot of difference to the cost of homes?

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

^^^ I can buy 10 acres for 10 grand tomorrow. Can I build a house on it for that?

 

[pmv]

^^^ I can buy 10 acres for 10 grand tomorrow. Can I build a house on it for that?

But is that 10 acres _with planning permission_ for building houses?

Perhaps it's different over there. Here, you can buy agricultural land quite cheaply, but if you get permission to build homes on it the value goes up 10-100 fold.

How much value does planning approval add to your property?

Planning permission transforms the value of land and gives you the ability to create development opportunities.

www.a9architects.com

Many farmland owners underestimate just how much difference having planning permission can make to a land sale. There are many factors involved in how much planning permission increases the value but can add up to 100 times the agricultural land value. In the majority of cases, the initial expense of a planning permission application is worth fulfilling.

Looking it up, it seems that the land cost makes up about half the cost of a home. (Which, to be honest, is not as much as I thought it did)

House prices aren’t the issue – land prices are | Patrick Collinson

There’s a simple solution that will give us cheaper homes – if only the chancellor would listen

www.theguardian.com

Today, the price of land can easily be half the cost of buying a home: £439,999 is the cost of land with planning permission for one terraced home in a less salubrious part of London such as Peckham.

Today a hectare of land is worth 100 times more when used for housing rather than farming. Yet when a bureaucratic pen grants permission, all the value goes to the landowner, not the public.

...which is annoying, actually. It's also a recipe for corruption in the planning process.

 

[pmv]

Probably the economics are different in a country like the US (and even more so, Canada), that are essentially completely unpopulated and mostly empty.

 

[Fenixgoon]

very cool! if i were to build a home from scratch, not sure if i'd do 3d print or insulated concrete form. that shit isn't going anywhere

 

[MrSquished]

Nice thing about concrete is you get more time to escape a fire. And in more densely populated areas, less homes burn.

 

[Captante]

Nice thing about concrete is you get more time to escape a fire. And in more densely populated areas, less homes burn.

Exactly what I was thinking just now. (read an article about that fire in Boulder CO earlier)

In fact I bet it wouldn't be all that difficult to give a 3d printed concrete house an essentially fire-proof exterior.

 

[MrSquished]

Exactly what I was thinking just now. (read an article about that fire in Boulder CO earlier)

In fact I bet it wouldn't be all that difficult to give a 3d printed concrete house an essentially fire-proof exterior.

It's a significant amount of time - whether it's like you get 15 minutes vs a few minutes, that's a lot of time to save yourselves. Of course these days the stuff we keep in homes like furniture and with other construction materials used in the home, so much of that has plastic in them - petroleum based products go poof - so it's not just about concrete vs wood, it's also about all that stuff. But overall a concrete home should be noticeably safer in a time of fire.

But in areas with attached homes especially, it makes a lot of sense to not use purely stick framed homes.

 

[Greenman]

A 3D printed house is for sale in New York. Builders say it will cut housing construction costs | CNN

The Riverhead, New York, home is listed online through Zillow with an asking price of $299,999.

www.cnn.com

View attachment 55012

View attachment 55013

The cost of construction is 50% cheaper than the cost of comparable newly-constructed homes in the area and 10x faster.
Made out of concrete, it has three bedrooms, two baths and a 2.5-car detached garage.

Andersen and King say the Riverhead home is the first 3D printed home to receive a certificate of occupancy in the United States. That wasn't easy because of strict local building codes, they said.

"We did it in one of the hardest places and there's a beauty in that because that means we can eventually do it anywhere," Andersen said.


I'll wait 5-10yrs to see if any problems arise

The tech is cool, the claims about cost are BS.
This is actually printed walls. Everything else is conventional construction. Wall framing isn't anywhere near 50% of the cost of a home.
A crew digs the foundation, forms it, installs the rebar and pours the slab and footings. Machine then sets up, prints the walls, and that's the end of the printing part. Everything else is done by carpenters, electricians, plumbers, roofers, drywallers, and HVAC installers.

It's a good idea, but has a very long way to go before it's going to have much impact on home construction.

 

[Captante]

It's a significant amount of time - whether it's like you get 15 minutes vs a few minutes, that's a lot of time to save yourselves. Of course these days the stuff we keep in homes like furniture and with other construction materials used in the home, so much of that has plastic in them - petroleum based products go poof - so it's not just about concrete vs wood, it's also about all that stuff. But overall a concrete home should be noticeably safer in a time of fire.

But in areas with attached homes especially, it makes a lot of sense to not use purely stick framed homes.

Also it would be nice if North America could preserve some OLD-GROWTH forest which is NOT "renewable" unless you have a spare 350 years sitting in a drawer!

I'm thinking with printed concrete you could go well beyond just buying time to escape a wildfire and build a house your could hunker down in and survive.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Made out of concrete, it has three bedrooms, two baths and a 2.5-car detached garage.

I was baffled at first then realized at least the one pic in the OP wasn't of the house being sold.

 

[Captante]

The tech is cool, the claims about cost are BS.
This is actually printed walls. Everything else is conventional construction. Wall framing isn't anywhere near 50% of the cost of a home.
A crew digs the foundation, forms it, installs the rebar and pours the slab and footings. Machine then sets up, prints the walls, and that's the end of the printing part. Everything else is done by carpenters, electricians, plumbers, roofers, drywallers, and HVAC installers.

It's a good idea, but has a very long way to go before it's going to have much impact on home construction.

With current tech this is all true unfortunately .... I can however see nearly unlimited potential here.

20 years from now swarms of "mini-printer drones" programmed to effectively "grow" a building right before your eyes sounds like science-fiction but I could picture it! (nano-bots?)

Or maybe..... Replicators?