THIS FERROCONCRETE DOME COST ONLY $400!

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It certainly ain't a mansion, but this cute little concrete dome — built by Jill Abrahamson and Charles Buell In upstate New York — has already provided the young couple with snug quarters through a frigid winter.

The structure rests on a 3'-deep 14"-wide foundation trench that was filled up to ground level with fieldstone and concrete. (Jill and Charles now feel that either a concrete slab or a series of 8" piers spaced two feet apart would have made an adequate — and simpler — foundation.)

The front (facing south, of course, to make the best use of available sunlight) of the concrete cabin was built up first and consists of a "window high" stone wall and wooden framing for a door and two windows. A skeleton of 6"-mesh "road reinforcing wire" was then set up for the dome itself with one layer of 1/2"-mesh chicken wire on its inside and from five to seven layers of 1"-mesh on the outside.

"The tiresome part of the job," say Charles and Jill, "was weaving all that reinforcing material together with soft iron wire ties to form a dense network of mesh about one-half inch thick." Once that chore was completed, though, the two builders erected a wooden framework over the wire mesh skeleton to help it hold its shape until the concrete could be slapped on top.

A mixture of four parts sand to two parts each of portland cement and mortar was used in the cabin's skin. (As it turned out, the mortar was unnecessary, since it didn't add any strength to the mix or make the trowel work any easier.) Jill and Charles — one of them inside and the other out — "worked against" each other to force the concrete completely into the skeleton of wire matting as fast as another couple could mix the "mud" and wheel it to them.

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