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water keeps spots off dishesChe Newport Daily NttusTuesday, April 77, 1976 H-llPortsmouth dome: sunlit houseSyBARBARALLOYD PORTSMOUTH - The ride along a narrow, gutted dirt road, past a string of painted summer bungalows, docs not prepare you. for that first glimpse of the dome house ahead. As if rising from another planet, its rounded shape peaks gently above the squared heads of nearby cottages.OME house under construction Is Portimoatli allow* full view ot r from three-story string of triangular windows. Circular staircase will [ window, allowing access to upper floors and open roottis. (Dally News)e y0ur dishes information Bureau points out, to dry after The Bureau says about 85 per , tVuv have a cent of the country has waterof softened water. General housework becomes easier too. Clothes come out brighter andIt's owners, Dewey Roche and Steve Maher, are putting the finishing touches on the shell, a maze of plywood triangles and plastic windows. Maher, a welder, and Roche, a builder, have recently formed the Sunshine Construction Co„ and both are busy remodeling houses in the area.The “dome is their living experiment.There is no blueprint, - where the plywood van out, the windows went iii. “This is an experiment, Maher said. “If it works out, we'll build a bunch of them. The idea has gone like that- Roche a native Portsmouth resident, had 'moved away Cor two years. But last year, when he came back, he found that Maher, a Newporter, had been exjierimentiiig on a small scale with a geodesic dome. Together,lliey decided to build one that was liveable, The dome idea was first developed by Buckminster Fuller, philospher, writer and mathematician. Californiano mml irt fit Vl'l'rA l\!r,ljTiPrlof his Bayslde Avenue back yard, and covered over by canvas. But now. the big daddy dome, the real one, is stretching its rough-hewn sides 10-feet away.The project, started last August, could be finished in-two months by two men working full-time, Maher said. But because he and Roche can only work on it a few hours at a tune, it has taken longer.When they're finished, Roche said he expects the house will cost less than Including labor. The biggest savings in a dome house is in the lumber. He estimated that it will take 40 per cent less lumber than a conventional hous e is w ith Hi e sa m e floor space. The dome, at its widest point, is 33 feet across, Because a dome house does not depend on wooden beams for strerigthand support, floors go in once the shell is completed. Recite said ho expects to build three levels, the first having a ceiling heighth of 10 feet, the second 8 feet and the third, which will be loft area, 7 feet.A circular stairway, winding its way from the street-side entrance, will cut across rooms left open to catch the morning sun and the three-liered Sakonnet River view.The outside of the house, still a patchwork of roofing tar and plywood, will lx- covered by shingles and siding. The win-job. Like the rest of the house, there are no specific plans yet for how the solar unit will work -one thing at a time, they said.A few weeks ago, the house passed its first survival test against Mother Nature. Maher said the wind, which howled at some 68-knots, did little more than rattle the plastic sheets onthe windows. The dome, because it is round, doesn't catch the wind as a cube would.“If you take a vertical wall and knock it down, the whole wall will come straight down on itself,” he said. “But the dome islike an egg in your hand - you have to apply equal pressure lo collapse it.” A missing piecewill not cause all the sides to cave in.Dome houses are especially adaptable to earthquake areas such as Guatamala, where inexpensive yet strong housing is desirable. “The dome can't fail in because the Inside Is smaller than the outside, Maher said.
Newspaper Details
Newport Daily News
Newport, Rhode Island, US
Tue, Apr 27, 1976
Page 32
Full Page
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Anonymous
RI, USA 30 Mar 2025
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