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sassy-jassy t1_iuxb2my wrote

It’s a neat idea but it’s such a small part of actual construction. It also only fits into a very niche part of the housing market, upper end 1-3 story houses in emerging neighborhoods. It also doesn’t help that most places people don’t want concrete walls

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Parabola_Cunt t1_iuzs1np wrote

It fundamentally changes home design. From the simple fact that homes don’t need to be rectangular to more important things like changes access for plumbing and electrical. And contrary to belief, the interior surfaces could be dry walled just like any home today. But I would argue better printing quality and materials would render drywall obsolete. Just print the final wall surface.

It’s a superior manufacturing concept, but needs refinement and really really needs a partnership with green concrete tech. It could lead to a new way for home owners to get government grants, just like with solar.

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gredr t1_iv0neip wrote

You sound like an investor.

The biggest issue I have with my house definitely isn't that it's rectangular. Curved walls wouldn't improve my housing experience.

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Parabola_Cunt t1_iv150dh wrote

Lol, after re-reading that.. yes, I was a little too enthusiastic. I just think this is a really good idea.

I agree that curved walls don’t “matter” in terms of quality of living experience, but it could open up a lot of new design possibilities on the interior that weren’t possible before. I think that’s really cool.

The other advantages I mentioned are more important IMO. Cheaper, faster, safer construction that might produce longer lasting structures. (Concrete if prepped/poured right, can last for a very long time without failure.)

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gredr t1_iv1ffj4 wrote

Cheaper? No evidence of that. Faster? No evidence of that. Safer? No evidence of that.

Stick-framed houses are very fast to build, environmentally friendly (the stuff LITERALLY GROWS ON TREES), and aren't particularly expensive. Furthermore, they require no exotic expertise or machinery, and can be built anywhere the building materials can be shipped.

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bdd6911 t1_iv17bsz wrote

Agreed. Conventional methods for construction are now streamlined, we haven’t changed course in 100 years. So it’s an uphill climb to invent new ways to rough in mechanical systems with this new type of construction. So investment will shy away until execution can beat current efficiencies. That has to be proven up before money starts to pour in.

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ragamufin t1_iv0rk4z wrote

There is no real green concrete tech. Meaning there is not a technology within 10x current concrete mfg and pouring cost

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Parabola_Cunt t1_iv16ako wrote

The innovations happening with algae based concrete are promising. Very renewable… and if algae is involved in more food and energy supplies in the future, this is a great end of life use case for algae. If those other thing don’t happen though, it would be really difficult to get the volume you’d need to make it work for concrete at scale.

(This reminds me of how sawdust saw a new use case in transporting blocks of ice in the late 1800s before modern refrigeration emerged. Totally new end of life purpose for an otherwise thrown away product. Sawmills in the northeastern USA got a whole new revenue stream).

We’re probably still like 10+ years from it being at a point to scale to the size we need to eliminate regular concrete, but the idea and value are both there. They just need to show people.

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sassy-jassy t1_iv1hqk6 wrote

The only thing superior about it is the decreased labor and until it finds a way to get a lot cheaper or framers get a lot more expensive, it won’t be a major contributor but someday that’ll probably change. Fine tuning the printer to the point where it’ll print the final surface is probably counter productive, to be that smooth it would slow printing down to a crawl at best. The fact that you can run a trowel over it and smooth it out after printing already negates trying to print the finished product, once they find a way to automate making it smooth it’ll help a lot. Otherwise they can always throw up dry wall to cover it.

Curved walls aren’t new and you can get them as intricate as you want you just have to pay for what it costs, which is why most buildings have straight walls it’s a lot cheaper and they’re trying to make a profit on what they build. Not to mention plumbers and hvac workers really like straight walls for obvious reasons and it seems the floor would be a slab so not a lot of other choices. That does only limit some of the walls but artistic work and design has always been the forefront that pushed change not the ability to make the art cheaper, meaning most people don’t care much about the shape of the walls.

It is definitely safer but you’re also trying to improve one of the safer parts of the construction industry. As for how long it lasts it wouldn’t differ much from a brick house, and a wood frame house isn’t nearly as durable but longevity of both types of house will typically come down to maintenance and care more than materials.

The algae based concrete is a new idea for me so I thank you for something new I can learn about. As for its marketability it is a ways away from replacing concrete, assuming that it passes the ASTM protocols and standards this year it’ll have to figure out how to scale it to compete with one of the largest industries in the country and world. They do say they’re working on that but I think they underestimate the size of this hurdle. It’ll definitely scale up simply in terms of making larger batches but it’s already a big set back that their product is more labor to produce and probably more skilled labor to grow the algae. From the articles I’ve read so far it looks like they plan to market it as a small scale green alternative with an emphasis on selling pre-made products directly to consumers. This will definitely pad their bottom line and it also shows they see the cost difference between their product and traditional concrete. However with significant government incentive it’s possible that they cause some major changes to the industry in the coming years

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Ricksterdinium t1_iuxpubj wrote

Beggars can't be choosers?

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DragoonXNucleon t1_iuxst30 wrote

This approach is miles more expensive than a cookie cutter home by main builders. The issue isn't that we can't build affordable homes its zoning issues and land costs. Why earn 10k profit a low income home when you can earn 50k profit for a high end home on the same land. In addition zoning laws mandate things like parking, minimum sizes, minimum set backs, to prevent low income people from lowering home values in richer neighborhoods.

The bullshit system and affordability crisis isn't a tech problem, its the system working as designed... by rich people to stay rich.

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DukeLukeivi t1_iuz1uns wrote

This is the thing -modular/prefab construction will almost always be more cost effective than this. Maybe when humanity gets to the point of building moon bases with lunar ice and substrate a system like this will be practical, but on earth a prefab house frame on a flat truck is going to be cheaper.

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BigOnLogn t1_iuz601n wrote

This is also the problem with finding someone to do our small bathroom remodel. Why bid on a $5-7k job when people are lining up for $40-100k bathrooms?

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