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While am generally a 3d printing skeptic I feel it's not quite a fair take. The bulk of a house (and its major cost component) is the structure. So this could b
by varjag 6y ago
While am generally a 3d printing skeptic I feel it's not quite a fair take. The bulk of a house (and its major cost component) is the structure. So this could be useful even if it can't print you the bathroom and the fridge.
How well it going to work in practice is another matter (and here's where am skeptical).
- kube-system 6y agoThe structure also has to accommodate those features. They’re not wholly independent.
- dcolkitt 6y agoWith pex plumbing and high velocity HVAC, you only need to run small, flexible tubes through the framing. It should be relatively easy to print small, flexible holes for tubing. Agree that traditional ductwork and copper pipping would be hard to accommodate.
- kube-system 6y agoDrainage is the hard part. The pipes are larger and require you to cooperate with gravity.
- JAlexoid 6y agoSewage is absolutely NOT a problem for a single story houses. No large sewage pipes are installed in the walls of all single story houses.
- kube-system 6y agoSometimes they are. My house is single story and has sewage pipes in the walls. Regardless of whether that is a requirement, the pipes have to go through some part of the structure to get to the outside, regardless of whether that's a wall, floor, foundation, etc.
- throwaway316943 6y agoIt’s possible but only done for convenience where it makes sense to, not a requirement for new construction since you just put the pipes in before the pad gets poured.
- throwawayboise 6y agoYes but GP said large pipes, e.g. for a toilet or the main pipe that connects to the municipal sewer. In a single-story house these would be under the floor. Pipes in the walls of a single-story house would be sink drains or vent pipes, and are narrower.
- quickthrowman 6y agoYour toilet pipes are inside a wall? That’s pretty strange, toilet drain pipe is usually 3” dia. Are there 90 degree bends? I don’t understand how or why you’d put a toilet drain pipe in a wall when the drain pipe is in the middle of a bathroom floor, not in a wall. Are you sure you aren’t thinking of sink drains?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- dagw 6y agoThe bulk of a house (and its major cost component) is the structure Using current pre-fab techniques a half dozen builders can raise the core structure of a single family house in a few days. A friend of mine is in the process of building a house and raising the core structure was the fastest and easiest part of the whole process. I don't see this being either cheaper or faster. The bulk of the cost in many cases is things independent of the actual house, like purchasing the land, doing the ground work and the foundations and pulling in water and sewage.
- mrfusion 6y agoWell lumbar is expensive too now.
- canadianfella 6y agoLumber
- dagw 6y agoTrue. The question is if that is just a temporary thing or the new normal. I suspect prices will be back to 'normal' in a year
- karlerss 6y agoThere was a deep dive about this in Bloomberg Odd Lots podcast. Although some of the price increase was due to the industry predicting lower demand and getting rid of inventory. Another, more fundamental factor is the actual scarcity of lumber due to lower harvesting quotas set by Canadian govt. These quotas are unlikely to go up any time soon.
- throwaway316943 6y agoThey aren’t going to maintain a 3x increase in price though. If they do we’re going to see a lot of new sawmills starting up.
- 6y ago
- idiotsecant 6y agoAbsolutely not true. This is often referred to as the 'envelope' in construction and its not the majority of the cost of overall construction (or wasnt before the current outrageous lumber prices)
- mnouquet 6y ago> The bulk of a house (and its major cost component) is the structure That's blatantly false, the structure is the easy part.