How To Get Plans for a 30 foot Dome

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Polyethylene is the cheapest material to use for covering the dome. It costs less than one cent a square foot in four-mil thickness. Vinyl the same thickness costs nearly five cents. Vinyl has more strength and clarity, and lasts several seasons outdoors. Polyethylene lasts only about one season when exposed to the sun. But since re-covering is fast and easy, you can keep costs down by using polyethylene film and re-covering the dome when necessary. For a screenhouse, you use fiberglass screening. The cost: about seven cents a square foot.

Using four-mil polyethylene, Muehlmatt spent about $30 for materials for the smaller dome, and about $60 for the larger one.

The sun dome will leak some along the joints of the triangles during rain. This is not important if the dome covers a swimming pool. But it can be made waterproof by putting polyethylene tape on the outside of the joints. Waterproof joints can also be made by putting thin strips of foam rubber between each joint as the dome is assembled. Another way is to caulk the joints.

It's an easy job to repair sections of the plastic that have been damaged or torn. Using a screwdriver, you pop out the staples that hold the damaged panel in place, and take it down for repairs or re-covering. Polyethylene tape can be put over minor splits in the plastic film.

When hot weather comes, you'll want to take the dome off the pool. Three men can lift it and set it aside until you're ready to use it again. Or one man can easily take it apart and store it. You just pull out the staples that hold the sections together.

Another idea: When hot weather comes and you don't want the pool covered, convert the dome into a screenhouse. Just replace a dozen or so of the plastic-covered panels with screen-covered ones.

How to get plans. Since Fuller has a patent (No. 2,682,235) on the design, he gets royalties on every geodesic dome built. But POPULAR SCIENCE makes it easy for you. Send a check or money order for $5, as described on a previous page. You'll get plans and step-by-step instructions on how to build the dome shown here. And you get a license from Fuller to build one. The royalty fee is included in the cost of the plans. You get a choice of sizes (16 1/2' , 25', and 30' diameter), and information about how to put up your dome, repair it, and take it down for storage.

HOW TO GET
YOUR SUN-DOME PLANS

For $5 you can get complete plans, building instructions, and a license from R. Buckminster Fuller, the patent holder, to construct one dome. Send your $5 (check or money order) to Sun Dome, POPULAR SCIENCE, 355 Lexington Ave., New York, N. Y. 10017. Print your name and address. Plans cover all three dome sizes: 16 1/2', 25', or 30' diameter.

As a lot of would-be dome builders have found, it's more than somewhat difficult to get a handle on the mathematics of geodesic design . . . and the companies selling the prefabbed bubbles ain't talkin' . What we'd all like to see, of course, is an easy-to-understand set of plans (with chord lengths and angles figured) for about a 30-foot dome.

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