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Printer The Almighty Buck Technology

3D-Printed House Constructed On-Site In One Day (treehugger.com) 88

Posted by BeauHD from the don't-blink dept.
Heffenfeffer writes: Russian company Apis Cor has manufactured a 3D printed concrete house on-site in 24 hours in Stupino Town, Russia. Using a tower crane-shaped concrete extruder that can rotate 360 degrees, the 38 square meter (408.88 square foot) rotor-shaped home walls were constructed in one day. Voids left in the manufacturing process were filled by hand, installing windows, doors, and adding polyurethane and fiber insulation to the hollow concrete walls. The roof was also constructed by hand using polymer membranes, welded together using hot air and special equipment. Total construction costs were $10,134 (USD), approximately $266.66 per square meter ($24.78 per square foot). They also constructed a temporary protective heated tent to surround the house as they constructed the house during winter. Though the printer can be used at temperatures down to -35C, concrete has to be at least +5C to cure. Further reading: Designboom Magazine
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3D-Printed House Constructed On-Site In One Day More

3D-Printed House Constructed On-Site In One Day

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  • I call BS, misleading title. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 10, 2017 @08:57PM (#54016205)

    A proper constructions needs at least the following: Foundations, sewer lines, water, and electricity.
    You cannot 3d print those nor get them done in a day
    Yes, it's cool to have a concrete printer. But there's no house built in one day.

  • WOW! (Score:2, Informative)

    by Moof123 ( 1292134 )

    That wood flooring was 3D printed?! Cool!

    How did they 3D extrude the wiring and meet code? I'd love to hear more!

    Concrete is a good insulator for russian winters, right? Amazing! How good was the R-value? How was the rebar extruded?

    Love how the paint was 3D printed too!

    I could go on. The frame of most houses is NOT where the majority of the expense is. I hate seeing these wild claims about 3D printing, which wile cool are disingenuous and skip over so many important details that turn out to be real b

    • I hate seeing these wild claims about 3D printing, which wile cool are disingenuous and skip over so many important details that turn out to be real buzz kills.

      Just wait for the announcement of a 3-D printed 3-D printer! And 4-D printers are next, but it will require a strong cup of tea...

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      That wood flooring was 3D printed?!

      It could have been, since 3D printing wood is a thing [materialise.com]. Or it might not be wood at all.

      How did they 3D extrude the wiring and meet code?

      Maybe like this [3dprint.com]? I don't know what "code" Russia has, but a machine could be much more precise than a human.

      Concrete is a good insulator for russian winters, right? Amazing! How good was the R-value? How was the rebar extruded?

      Maybe they 3D printed some foam insulation [llnl.gov]? And why would they use rebar in a one storey construction that small?

      • Yes, we can all envision a multimode 3D printer the size of a house. That's easy. Building it is a tad harder.

        This guy has made a 3D concrete former. Actually kind of cool tech and will likely be useful in industrial settings but as has been pointed out, this isn't "3D printing of a house". Now, harden this device so you can launch it and run it in a vacuum, figure out how to make regolith concrete to feed it and you have some pretty cool lunar modular structures. But it's probably easier to dig a hol

        • Now, harden this device so you can launch it and run it in a vacuum, figure out how to make regolith concrete to feed it and you have some pretty cool lunar modular structures.

          In the video, he mentioned a desire to be building on Mars - not the moon.

    • Re:WOW! (Score:5, Informative)

      by brunes69 ( 86786 ) <`gro.daetsriek' `ta' `todhsals'> on Friday March 10, 2017 @09:40PM (#54016345)

      If you actually watch the video, you will see the machine adds fibreglass rebar already automatically. Also you will see that the exterior walls are printed hollow so you can spray foam inside them afterwards (basically the same concept as ICF except it is 3D printed).

      Yes, the framing, siding, and roofing is not the only part of building a house. Obviously you still have interior work to do after the fact. However, it is a very significant portion, and this machine can do all of them in 24 hours (have a bigger house? Use 2 or 3 machines to keep it at 24 hours...). When was the last time you saw a house framed, roofed, and sided in 24 hours? You can't even assemble a factory-built home on site that fast... I know cause I have one.

    • For those who didn't read the article, the house is not pure concrete, but includes insulation. And while the price breakdown was for local labor, it did include interior finishing.

      The frame is not the largest expense, but the time and expense to get a closed in frame is one of the largest barriers to providing affordable housing. It is the least flexible part of the equation, and it requires the most up-front money and simultaneous labor. Everything else can be done on a budget or as time permits. Tha

      • The frame is not the largest expense, but the time and expense to get a closed in frame is one of the largest barriers to providing affordable housing.

        Not really, no. A tiny house like the one in the article can be frame and enclosed in a two working days. Given the time to set up and dismantle the machine, I suspect they saved a half day at best.

        Everything else can be done on a budget or as time permits.

        Not really, no. Not if you're building to code, and not if you intend to occupy the house

        • A tiny house like the one in the article can be frame and enclosed in a two working days.

          Does that two days include having both interior and exterior surfaces ready for painting, and does it take into account the rounded aspect of structure?

      • And while the price breakdown was for local labor,

        Paid entirely in Vodka.

    • there is other additive to concrete than portland, they can include styrofoam and fiberglass that not only make the concrete weigh less it also improves the R factor and with double layer walls that have an air-locked barrier between them they will be insulated, the days of the 2x4 pine boards in construction is on its way out and all the ranting by old farts wont stop 3D printed homes

    • Re:WOW! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Eloking ( 877834 ) on Friday March 10, 2017 @10:57PM (#54016561)

      That wood flooring was 3D printed?! Cool!

      How did they 3D extrude the wiring and meet code? I'd love to hear more!

      Concrete is a good insulator for russian winters, right? Amazing! How good was the R-value? How was the rebar extruded?

      Love how the paint was 3D printed too!

      I could go on. The frame of most houses is NOT where the majority of the expense is. I hate seeing these wild claims about 3D printing, which wile cool are disingenuous and skip over so many important details that turn out to be real buzz kills.

      Ha come on!

      Nobody got "fooled" by the headline thinking the "whole" house (appliance included) was 3D printed. Don't be silly.

      This is an incredible achievement for what it seem to be the first affordable 3D house. It's incredible and it's good for must of us.

      Or didn't you see how insanely expensive house are nowadays? If anything, this technology will bring back their price to our grandparents's days. And one the plus side, I can't way too see what crazy concept will emerge from the capability to print anything in 3D with concrete. Slide from bed to hot tub? Tunnel to wire everything in our house easily? Fire-proof house? House that transform in a trailer?

      I can't wait.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Maxo-Texas ( 864189 )

      Well... the "wood" floor is probably linoleum. My friends dining room has that. It's pretty cheap and is softer than wood or wood texture tile and is almost as durable (20-30 years- you need to refinish wood more often).

      Electrical you got a point- but the cost of that is in the house. A house that size probably has extremely simple wiring.
      Russian electricians appear to make 1/4 to 1/3 of what U.S. electricians make. I was suprised how low average russian salaries are!

      Concrete with a huge dead air space

      • You could spray the insulation in during printing. Just add a second arm at a 90 degree angle. Give it 20 to 30 degrees of swing in either direction and a nozzle that can plunge and retract quickly. Insulation handling gear is pretty light, so it'll be easy to counterbalance, and can traverse in and out quickly. It should also spray in much faster than concrete, so the computer would just keep track of which voids still need insulation and are cured enough to accept it.

        Rebar will be much harder. I'm th

    • How did they 3D extrude the wiring and meet code? I'd love to hear more!

      Meet code? In Russia? Surely you jest....

  • Interesting proof of concept (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Mostly a lurker ( 634878 ) on Friday March 10, 2017 @09:04PM (#54016241)

    If the construction costs cited are true, even given the small size of the demonstration house, this seems a very viable approach. One would imagine most of the human labor could ultimately be replaced by robots, and (although 24 hour completion is impressive) taking a whole week would not alter the economics significantly. (I guess that might not be true if the capital cost of the printer makes the investment uneconomic at, say, 20 to 30 houses a year, but I doubt that is the case.)

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by djinn6 ( 1868030 )
      I have a hard time believing their costs. I'm sure everything is cheaper in Russia, but can you really build a foundation for $277? I mean, they're generally $5-10k here in the US. They also don't take into account the design cost, which would be pretty significant, given how frequently people want to customize their homes.
    • Perhaps -- if it were a house for a robot!
  • I remember an inventor doing this with a different 3d concrete printer in an article for Beyond 2000. I don't remember exactly when that aired, but it was before the year 2000, and it wasn't in russia.

  • A little overly optimistic (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Its a nice step towards 3d printed homes, but details on all of the finishing work required for house are a little sparse. Video from the printing process suggests that the walls were quite a bit more rough that displayed in the final product. There is also little on set times how it was wired, roofed, etc.

  • This is neat, because you no longer need to setup a cheap double-wide for living while you build your own home by hand. If your willing to deal with a flimsy plastic roof while your doing the rest of the stuff by hand, by yourself, in your spare time, you can get your home on with less money, less material, and less hassles. Here's hoping this survives the coming regulation hassles.

    The big bonus is (hopefully) the awesome new opensource nature of 3D printed designs, and all the good shit that goes along wit

    • This is neat, because you no longer need to setup a cheap double-wide for living while you build your own home by hand.
      If your willing to deal with a flimsy plastic roof while your doing the rest of the stuff by hand, by yourself, in your spare time, you can get your home on with less money, less material, and less hassles.

      Make it a bit more modular in design (say a wall which can be knocked out later without messing up the structural integrity of the whole building) and turn it into a garage later.

      Then again... what you are describing as "doing the rest of the stuff by hand, by yourself, in your spare time, you can get your home on with less money, less material, and less hassles" is how homes are often built in the poorer parts of the world.

      Only, instead of building a small home to live in while building a bigger and better

  • I remember seeing this concept in Popular Mechanics in the 70's.
    2 metal plates, squirt concrete slurry, wait for it to harden just a teeny bit, move to the next panel.

  • Half truths (Score:3)

    by uvajed_ekil ( 914487 ) on Friday March 10, 2017 @10:54PM (#54016555)

    Total construction costs were $10,134 (USD)

    "Total construction costs" does not mean "it cost this much to build a complete house," in this case. You could not realistically wire that house for the stated $242 and have it be legal here, and surely the other finishing work would cost more than the supposed $1178 if you weren't in Russia. So maybe it is $10k when built in Russia, with Russian labor and to Russian standards, but I bet you'd be looking at double that to build it to code in the US, with questionable profitability for the builder. I didn't see any mention of whether it was heated or connected to a sewer system or not, and what sort of foundation it is on - looks like it's just on a concrete slab.

    This is an impressive tech demonstration, but we're a long way from complete $10k western homes. Plus, the square footage is about a third of the current US minimum for new single-family homes. So for this to be competitive with what an American would consider a house, you'd be looking at more like $30k if you did some work yourself and bribed the local inspectors, and that's without land. This may have a future, but you aren't going to be buying one of these any time soon, so keep saving your old bottles and tires and build an Earthship instead!

  • But can I really build a home for $10,000? Aside from the sewer and electric and what not and the fact that it's kind of small. And of course the land.

    I didn't read this article, but I read another one which bragged that they could do this in other shapes and sizes.

    I don't need a big home but I didn't see what the bathroom looks like in this place and that kitchen looks horrible.

    I've got more home than I need right now, but sometimes it's really nice to have that much room.

    • You can do it with a shipping container. Prices range from about $2k to $5k delivered depending on size and where you want it. You cut window holes out with a plasma cutter. Finishing the inside is non-structural, so it can be done by a monkey. Frame it in 2x2s and slap some 1" foam up inside. Or surround the outside with straw bales. Either way you get a structure which is proof against anything short of a tornado. If you want it to withstand a landslide, orient a long end towards the potential source of t

  • Nice printer size (Score:3)

    by John.Banister ( 1291556 ) * on Saturday March 11, 2017 @03:38AM (#54017181) Homepage
    It looks like a good size printer to rent for DIY projects. I'd like to see a printer like this using cellular lightweight concrete to print in place insulating concrete forms. Then, it would be very easy to make ICF walls that are any shape at all. Seeing so many houses with square corners just looks depressing to me.

    • The problem with houses with no corners is that you can't punish your kids anymore.

      • What if there were corners, but not square ones?

      • There's always a corner where the wall meets the ceiling (or floor). Unless it's a sphere. [wikipedia.org] Or an igloo.

        In which case you punish your kids by showing them photos of people living in warmer climates.
        Or if you're a real asshole, photos of people sunbathing on a beach somewhere.

  • There are plenty of novel and exciting uses for 3D printing. This is not one of them. Why? We've had concrete tilt-up [wikipedia.org] construction for a long time now. So they do it with a 3D printer instead of molds, it's still concrete. It will still have problems in seismically active areas.

  • 3D house prints YOU!

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