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Maybe because building is tough? There are a few start-ups about 3D printing houses, but - at least for those that I have seen that actually demonstrated somet

by jaclaz 3y ago

Maybe because building is tough? There are a few start-ups about 3D printing houses, but - at least for those that I have seen that actually demonstrated something - they seem to be the "usual" startup led by some brilliant people that never worked in traditional building/construction[1] and propose a new, revolutionary approach that resolve a non-problem (building the walls) and forgets to address all the rest of the building (where the actual problems are), let alone compliance with the various technical norms (very often local, i.e. not even country or state wide). They can usually print a rudimentary shed in little time, but the same or better shed can be built in less time with prefabricated elements or in a little more time (at a comparable cost) with traditional means. [1] and know nothing on the complexity of building a house

delfinom 3y ago
Honestly those 3d printed houses scare me, it basically turns houses into non-repairable junk that will have to be torn down the first pipe that bursts. Normally framed houses out of metal or wood are king for reparability that can be repaired for over a hundred years if not more. The biggest obstacle to building houses in my opinion are entirely legislative/political. Towns oppose density and cause suburban sprawl galore which drives up costs of everything. Rich elites have also bought up land en-masse over the country so that even if you want to plop a house on a empty lot in a quaint town, they'll charge you half a million just to acquire the lot.
- pixl97 3y ago
  Eh, the rest of the world builds concrete houses without issues. Just cut out the damaged area and fill it back with fiber reinforced concrete. Zoning is the biggest issue in most cases as you said.
  - delfinom 3y ago
    Seems like this still massively overprices the cost of repairs since you are now using a diamond saw to cut through concrete, plumbing new lines and doing new concrete work to fill it in. Compared to a handyman just handling it in 2 hours at most with typical wallboard.
- jaclaz 3y ago
  That's OK, as 3D printed houses do not normally have pipes/conduits in the 3d printed concrete walls (just like you normally don't have them in traditionally built concrete walls).
- marcosdumay 3y ago
  Well, it's the 3D printing culture. When you are printing something nobody printed before, you have to print, test, throw away, print again... But that works better for some things than others. IMO, there's nothing stopping house-printers from printing components, so that you can only partially replace them. There is also nothing stopping projects from having repairability and some flexibility builtin; in fact, for example printed walls can have holes for every kind of wiring, and let the routing free, in a way that brick walls can't. Also, they don't need to only extrude concrete. But anyway, none of that will happen any soon. The 3D printing culture is about prototyping, throwing again, prototyping again.
- mike50 3y ago
  Same arguments applies to balloon framing, drywall, steel studs or pvc piping. It doesn't matter if that 100 year old house is reparable when workers can't be found with the knowledge to repair it to the original appearance.

by jaclaz 3y ago

delfinom 3y ago

Honestly those 3d printed houses scare me, it basically turns houses into non-repairable junk that will have to be torn down the first pipe that bursts. Normally framed houses out of metal or wood are king for reparability that can be repaired for over a hundred years if not more. The biggest obstacle to building houses in my opinion are entirely legislative/political. Towns oppose density and cause suburban sprawl galore which drives up costs of everything. Rich elites have also bought up land en-masse over the country so that even if you want to plop a house on a empty lot in a quaint town, they'll charge you half a million just to acquire the lot.

pixl97 3y ago
Eh, the rest of the world builds concrete houses without issues. Just cut out the damaged area and fill it back with fiber reinforced concrete. Zoning is the biggest issue in most cases as you said.
- delfinom 3y ago
  Seems like this still massively overprices the cost of repairs since you are now using a diamond saw to cut through concrete, plumbing new lines and doing new concrete work to fill it in. Compared to a handyman just handling it in 2 hours at most with typical wallboard.
jaclaz 3y ago
That's OK, as 3D printed houses do not normally have pipes/conduits in the 3d printed concrete walls (just like you normally don't have them in traditionally built concrete walls).
marcosdumay 3y ago
Well, it's the 3D printing culture. When you are printing something nobody printed before, you have to print, test, throw away, print again... But that works better for some things than others. IMO, there's nothing stopping house-printers from printing components, so that you can only partially replace them. There is also nothing stopping projects from having repairability and some flexibility builtin; in fact, for example printed walls can have holes for every kind of wiring, and let the routing free, in a way that brick walls can't. Also, they don't need to only extrude concrete. But anyway, none of that will happen any soon. The 3D printing culture is about prototyping, throwing again, prototyping again.
mike50 3y ago
Same arguments applies to balloon framing, drywall, steel studs or pvc piping. It doesn't matter if that 100 year old house is reparable when workers can't be found with the knowledge to repair it to the original appearance.