Monolithic Domes Will Weather Price Increases Better Than Conventional Structures
June 1, 2004
by David B. South
 David B. South, President of the Monolithic Dome Institute |
Frequently I am hearing the question: What are the consequences going to be of the steel and concrete price increases?
The simple answer is it is going to cost more to construct a building. The real answer is nobody knows exactly what is going to happen. Predicting the consequences would be like trying to guess what is going to happen to gasoline prices. The cost to fuel your car was supposed to have peaked months ago, but prices keep rising.
Steel prices have risen about 20 to 60 percent. Some sources say prices will continue to rise at a rate of about 6 percent a month.
Monolithic Domes take a much smaller amount of steel per building than most conventional structures. (Of course, wood buildings use less steel, but wood prices have also shot up and are still on the rise.) So the impact of price increases will be lower with a Monolithic Dome.
The price of cement is also going up. There is even talk of putting it on allocation again. Here again, the Monolithic Dome will come out on top because it uses so much less concrete per square foot of floor area compared to similar sized conventional buildings. Many standard structures will need more concrete in their footings than the Monolithic Dome needs in the entire shell.
One thing is certain, if we are going to build a new church or school or a house we can expect to pay less today than we will tomorrow or the next day. In general, construction inflation rises at about 6 to 10 percent per year overall, so waiting for costs to come down is probably not justified.
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