History 

State Historical, Architectural and Ethnographic Museum-Reserve of Kizhi

The history of wooden housing construction has several millennia. So, for example, near the famous Stonehenge , scientists found several wooden houses as a result of excavations. The oldest wooden structure still in existence , Horyuji Temple , located near the ancient Japanese capital of Nara , is about 1,400 years old. Just 400 years younger than his wooden church in the small Norwegian town of Lillehammer . In Russia, everything was built from wood: from a simple wooden fence to churches, royal choirs and fortresses, but these buildings were practically not preserved due to numerous wars and fires. One of the most majestic monuments that have survived to this dayRussian wooden architecture is the Kizhi State Historical-Architectural and Ethnographic Museum-Reserve . In Russia, wooden housing construction gave way to stone buildings only at the end of the 19th century. However, even at the beginning of the 20th century, outstanding buildings appeared in Russia, entirely made of wood. An example is the pavilion “Makhorka” by architect K. S. Melnikov – one of the very first realized examples of the architecture of the Soviet avant-garde .

Technologies for the construction of wooden houses 

• frame houses:
• houses from profiled timber (dry and natural humidity);
• houses chopped by hand from a log and gun carriage ;
• houses made of logs ;
• planed log houses;
• glued timber houses ;
• support-beam houses ( half- timbered );
• vertical bar Naturi;
• houses made of multi-layer glued wooden panels .

The most promising in mass construction is frame housing construction, which is one of the most flexible systems of wooden construction. It provides great opportunities for creating a variety of architectural and planning solutions, high operational quality and maintainability.

Technologies for the construction of wooden frame-panel houses 

Wooden frame house frame construction

Frame technology 

Wooden frames of the walls of the frame structure “half-timbered”

The frame is the basis of the entire structure and consists of individual elements: boards, beams, combined beams of various configurations. This spatial prefabricated structure limits the given building volume and perceives all loads acting on the object. The correct selection of parts according to geometric dimensions, their location and connection determine the bearing capacity of the walls, the conditions for mounting the structure and filling the wall structures with heat- insulating materials, followed by covering the frame with plywood sheathing, plates or typesetting boards. Frame structures usually have a bottom trim made of beams, on which racks of boards are installed, limiting window and door openings, and which are the supporting system structure of the entire structure. External wall studs are vertical elements to which the inner cladding and facade covering are attached. They rest on the bottom support plates or the strapping beam. On the frame, wall cladding made of wood materials ( plywood , OSB , DSP ) or lining is fixed, the wall space is filled with heat-insulating material fixed in the cells of the frame wall, and closed on the other side with plywood, drywalland other facings. Racks are usually made from measured lumber with a section of 38 × 89 mm 2 or 38 × 140 mm 2 . (American design “2 by 4”). Depending on the loads perceived by the wall, type, thickness, dimensions and conditions for fastening the sheathing, the distance between the posts can be 300, 400 and 600 mm. The width of the racks depends on the thickness of the layer of heat-insulating material. The upper and lower strapping beams, to which the frame racks are attached, have the same section as the racks themselves.

Fachwerk construction buildings, the classic direction of frame technology. Monuments of wooden architecture. Elbron village, Germany.

Advantages of frame technology 

• the possibility of construction at any time of the year;
• high rates of construction (the construction of a frame house of 150 m 2 takes 8 weeks);
• during the construction process, heavy lifting equipment is not required, since the frame parts are small in size and weight. This allows you to save vegetation and landscape on the site, reduces labor costs;
• high thermal insulation properties of the structure with a relatively low wall thickness (15-25 cm, depending on the region);
• the lightness of the structure reduces the load on the foundation, which can significantly reduce the cost of it;
• stability and insensitivity to seasonal movements of the foundation due to soil heaving;
• a frame house has a higher seismic resistance than concrete and brick buildings (Table 3.1). Such a house can be compared to a system of rigidly connected boxes, which is extremely difficult to destroy;
• ease of finishing work. The surface of walls, floors, ceilings is close to ideal due to the use of calibrated wood in the construction of the house. The corners of the joints are wall-floor and wall-ceiling;
• the ability to remove all communications inside the walls;
• gypsum fiber , mineral wool , cellulose wool , used in most cases for finishing frame houses and erecting additional partitions, work as additional sound insulation;
• mobility – changing the structure of the building or engineering systems during the construction process will not cause serious problems

Using frame technology, it is possible to design and build wooden houses above two floors. In Europe, the USA, Japan and the Scandinavian countries, multi-apartment frame houses up to 7 floors have long been built. In 2006, Renggli AG in Sursee (Switzerland) built the first 6-storey wooden house. In Russia, projects for the construction of 2- and 3-storey apartment buildings in Perm have been successfully implemented.

The order of formation of the frame base 

1. ordering and completing frame parts in accordance with the project;
2. foundation device with the preparation necessary for the frame system;
3. installation of the lower strapping beam along the foundation plinth with waterproofing and special treatment, as well as fixing it on the foundation with the help of steel dowels by surprise or other means;
4. laying the “rough” floor of the first floor along the logs with flooring under the coating of vapor barrier and insulation boards;
5. installation of vertical racks and fixing them on the lower strapping beam with the help of brackets, dowels, special thrust bearings, plates, corners and other means (at the same time, window and door openings are installed);
6. installation of diagonal braces and laying along the perimeter of the structure of the upper strapping beam to create spatial rigidity between the uprights;
7. arrangement of interfloor floor beams and “rough” flooring along them;
8. installation of frame wall elements on the second floor and in the attic part of the building.
9. The construction of frame buildings according to the “platform” system 
10. The name of the system defines the method of construction, the main technical and installation stages of which are as follows:
11.  
12. the object is erected floor by floor, and each floor level acts as a platform, which is the base platform for assembling wall structures in a horizontal position;
13. after preparation, prefabricated wall frames with sheathing along the outer surface are installed vertically and fixed along the perimeter of the “platform” (floor) by the means provided for this;
14. a wooden frame structure according to the “platform” system is a carrier, the walls of the building must withstand all the loads provided for by the operating conditions of the facility;
15. parts and fragments of the frame, as well as component materials for walls and floor panels, are manufactured at the factory, which ensures high accuracy and speed of installation of the object at the construction site;

to move and supply components (rafters, sheathing, frame beams, etc.), simple lifting equipment is used, and scaffolding and scaffolding are practically excluded due to the specifics of wall installation (assembly – on a platform, lifting – from inside the building).

Frame-panel technology 

The frame-panel technology for the manufacture of wooden houses is distinguished by partial or complete factory readiness of panels for assembly at a construction site.

Partially prefabricated panels exist in two types:

Timber Frame Wall panels or TFW-panels — consist of a framework and a covering (external or internal). These panels are distinguished by low cost, the possibility of laying internal communications inside the walls, the possibility of choosing a heater, the low weight of the panels and the absence of the need to involve lifting equipment for mounting the panels. Such panels are produced by manufacturers of standard sizes, usually not exceeding 2.5 meters in width. The dimensions of the panels are unified, which makes it easy to make changes to the project. As a rule, factories produce a whole range of different panels, of different widths, with different openings for windows and doors, or without them. This feature of this type of panels allows you to design and build a house on the principle of a Lego-type constructor. And computer modeling has greatly simplified the process of designing a house consisting of TFW panels.

Structural Insulated Panel ( SIP ) – consist of two OSB boards and a heat-insulating layer between them (usually expanded polystyrene or foam) . SIP panels do not allow for internal communications inside the panels, have poor sound insulation, and are less environmentally friendly due to the emission of styrene from thermal insulation. However, houses made of SIP panels are becoming more and more popular.

Panels of full factory readiness ( prefabricated timber wall panels or PTW-panels ) contain frame elements (stands), cladding (external and internal) and insulation. This type of panels is distinguished by a higher cost, greater weight, and the absence of the possibility of hidden laying of internal communications. Since lifting equipment is required for the installation of these panels, factories produce them as long as possible in order to reduce the number of panel connections between them. It is difficult to unify such panels, and factories produce individual panels for each of the projects, which completely eliminates the possibility of making changes to the project during construction.

Sheathing and those and other types of panels can be made of various materials, ranging from oriented strand board (OSB) or cement-bonded particle board ( DSP ) to traditional wooden finishing materials ( lining , block house ).

Structural technology 

The development of the production of wood and gypsum boards in the second half of the 20th century led to the creation of completely new designs. Limit loads and strength of such structures are achieved not due to spacers (braces, diagonals), as in frame construction, but due to the action of the crate as a flat system in connection with racks and strapping.

The wall panel is not only a building envelope, it takes on all the force effects of other elements of the building (beams and floor panels, truss systems and roofs ). Therefore, modern panels have a sufficiently strong and stable frame made of solid wood (doors, timber) or special beams (channel, I-beam, etc.).

The complex design of wall panels allows you to mount all engineering communications inside. The structure of a frame house is being prepared for assembly in an industrial production environment, where all parts and building elements, in accordance with assembly drawings, are marked and packaged, and only then delivered to the place of construction of the house.

Construction of house structures 

The relatively low specific gravity of a frame house allows it to be erected on a lightweight foundation ( screw piles , bored piles, shallow strip foundations). The installation time for a one-story frame-panel house with an area of 30-70 m2 is usually 3-5 days.

A traditional frame house is mounted a little longer, since it is assembled not from panels, but from individual parts – racks, beams, lintels, which are then sheathed from the outside and from the inside. Final exterior and interior decoration, engineering communications, heating systems, etc. are the final stage of building a house.

Industrial production of frame-panel houses using specialized materials guarantees the high quality of every detail, which improves the assembly quality of buildings and the reliability of connections.

Special resistance to deformations and durability of frame-panel houses can be guaranteed by the use of glued laminated timber in the device frame .

CLT technology – Construction of houses from laminated glued panels 

For more details, see Laminated Glued Wood Panels

Multi-layered glued wood panels – products better known in the West under the abbreviation CLT ( English  Cross-Laminated Timber ). CLT is a wood panel made from layers of solid lumber glued together. Panels are made from layers, as a rule, of coniferous, dried wood species.

Technological component and its purpose 

The technology relates to the construction of wooden houses, structures from massive composite panels that are perpendicular to each other, and can also be used in the construction of low-rise and high-rise buildings. The technical result from the use of this technology is to increase the efficiency of construction, productivity, ecology, the coefficient of unification of assembly operations, as well as the quality and viability of the construction object. The specified technical result is achieved by the fact that the method of assembling wooden houses includes the use of multilayer wooden panels made of coniferous wood, laid and fixed in layers at an angle to adjacent layers and to the axis of the block. The blocks are fastened together with stepped connections. Finished blocks are fastened together by using adhesives. In blocks, cutouts are made for windows and doors before or after installation according to a metric coordinate grid previously applied to the sides of the block, or according to the point marking of the window or door contours on the block. In blocks with more than four layers, at least one of its inner layers is made of heat-insulating, fabric or textured material.

Applications 

High-rise buildings 

Due to the structural properties of laminated wood panel technology, which is capable of being both finished and semi-finished and much lighter than other building materials, laminated laminated wood panels are beginning to be used in many high-rise buildings. With 3,852 cubic meters of CLT, Dalston Lane at Dalston Square is one of the largest laminated glulam projects worldwide. The project was completed at the beginning of 2017. [2]

Construction technology from glued beams 

The technologies for building buildings from glued and ordinary sawn timber are seriously different. Ordinary timber needs natural shrinkage processes, it is subject to deformations and distortions. The assembled log cabins require significant work on leveling the structures of the house, insulation, repeated caulking, processing and finishing for at least a year – a year and a half. Sawn timber is subject to seasonal fluctuations throughout the entire service life. Accordingly, all these factors require a special arrangement of structures, in particular, roof slabs , windows and doors .. Glued laminated timber all processes of shrinkage (drying) and stress relief (leading to distortion) takes place in the factory. It is not subject to deformation and cracking, all parts of the building are produced (by responsible manufacturers) in accordance with the project , with tolerances calculated in millimeters.

Technological process 

Design and production 

One of the main burdens in the production of houses from glued beams falls on the architectural and design department. All wishes of the customer are drawn up in an engineering and architectural project. The technical parameters of the project, calculated by the designers, are entered into the computer programs of production. As a result, a set of house parts is delivered to the customer, ready for construction according to the “constructor” principle.

All parts of the building structures are marked and completed in accordance with the order and sent to the facility with all the necessary instructions and accompanying documents.

Foundation 

The relative lightness and high stability of glued laminated timber structures makes it possible to build buildings on any type of soil and in any geological conditions, and allows you to build a house on an inexpensive, shallow foundation. The glulam construction allows slight foundation movements without cracking and without compromising the strength and durability of the building. A house made of glued laminated timber does not need a massive basement. As a rule, manufacturers recommend the installation of a strip or slab foundation.

Construction of a log house (external and internal walls) 

The construction details of a house made of glued beams have all the necessary cuts and grooves, made with high precision in the factory and do not require any modifications during the construction process. In fact, the finished house arrives at the construction site in a disassembled form, and it remains only to assemble it, as a designer – according to the accompanying documentation of the kit manufacturer. The beam is pulled together by metal ” dowels ” (“grouses”). Building structures made of glued beams do not require additional seals, do not provide for the use of heaters. The technological qualities of this building material, subject to all the necessary production conditions, make it possible to build monolithic walls that are not subject to drying out and cracking.

Moss (as the best interventional insulation) 

The second name is wild insulation. It has the best characteristics in comparison with tow, jute, flax fiber. The main advantage is its environmental friendliness, it does not contain chemicals, harmful toxins that can be harmful to health. It is also worth highlighting the fact that moss protects wood from destruction. An equally important plus of moss is its general availability: each of you can independently collect moss and use it in the construction of your wooden house. In extreme cases, moss can be purchased at any hardware store at extremely affordable prices for everyone.

Rafter system and roofing 

As a rule, the house construction kit includes all beams and rafters made in accordance with the project. Glued beam rafters are a guarantee of the durability of both the roof and the entire building. A common mistake manufacturers make is to use (in order to save money) raw boards. As a result, the structure warps, the tightness and geometry are broken. A vapor barrier is located along the installed rafters , lathing slats are mounted, then roofing material, and from the inside – a “warming cake”.

Treatment with antiseptics and flame retardants 

It is recommended to treat the surface of the walls with antiseptics and flame retardants in 3 stages. The first one is in the process of production of glued beams. Re-processing is best done immediately, as it is assembled. After the installation of the roof – the third time.

Installation of windows and doors 

The finished structure of the house, made in full accordance with the engineering design solution, involves the installation of windows and doors immediately after the construction of the building, without any additional carpentry work. The architecture, dimensions and material of windows and doors are taken into account at the stage of work on the project. They should not differ from the wood species of the log house, because. Different types of wood have different shrinkage. Glued laminated timber provides for a slight shrinkage of up to 1%. This quality is also taken into account in the project: when installing windows and doors in relation to the upper beam (a gap of 2-3 cm is left) and the sides of the box, they are installed on special sliding guides.

Engineering communications 

Installation and wiring of all necessary communications – such as: heating, plumbing, sewerage, water treatment, electrical, ventilation, air conditioning, fire alarms – are carried out in strict accordance with the project. All necessary design solutions are taken into account at the stage of production of the building kit. A building made of glued laminated timber suggests the possibility of hidden wiring of utilities , for example, in ceilings, poles and beams.

Finishing work 

Finishing includes work on the device of the floor, ceilings, if necessary – stairs, window sills, installation of built-in furniture. Buildings made of glued beams do not need additional external and internal “finishing” finishing. These works are carried out at the request of the customer. Glued laminated timber in the production process is processed to the “furniture” quality of surfaces, has a flat and smooth surface.

Construction speed and cost 

The speed of erecting a building from glued beams is comparable to the construction and commissioning time of a wooden frame house , provided that parts from glued beams are used as load-bearing structures of the building. Construction is possible in any natural conditions, including at external temperatures corresponding to all climatic zones of the Russian Federation. The term for building a house from glued beams depends on the scale and complexity of the object. The simplest log structures of 50-100 m² can be assembled in a period of two weeks.

The final cost of the object is proportional to the quality and cross-sectional diameter of the glued beam parts used in the construction of the house. In the production of glued beams, responsible suppliers use only high-quality wood . Also, the cost of an object is affected by the type of project – a ready-made design solution, or the execution of an individual architectural and design order.

Literature 

• Kalugin A. V. Wooden structures. Publishing House of the Association of Construction Universities, 2008.
• Kesik T. D. Timber frame house construction in Canada, 1982. ISBN 0-660-16723-9
• Denisov S.A. Modern wooden houses and baths, 2008 ISBN 978-5-9533-2138-9 , 978-5-9533-3245-3

Light steel thin-walled structures ( LSTC ) is a building structure made of thin steel used for the construction of a prefabricated building. These structures include profiled sheets and thin-walled galvanized steel profiles.

The advent of LSTK technology

This technology was developed in the 50s of the 20th century in Canada. The main reason for the emergence of this technology was the need to build a large number of low-rise houses for the middle class, corresponding to the climatic conditions of the country. But the main factor for the development of LSTK was the possibility of industrial, mass production of steel profiles and the availability of the material.

At the moment, the technology has not taken a leading position in the markets of low-rise private construction in countries where the construction of houses using frame technologies prevails (North America, Scandinavia). In these countries, the majority of the market is still occupied by timber-framed houses.

Technological line LSTS

Line composition:

• uncoiler of rolled galvanized steel;
• receiving device;
• profile bending machine;
• scissors;
• automatic control system.

Composition of LSTS

Thermal panel design: 1) Exterior finish, 2) Gypsum fiber (2 layers), 3) Insulation, 4) Vapor barrier film, 5) Guide profiles (thermal profiles), 6) Rack profiles (thermal profiles), 7) Jumper from a profile (thermal profile)

Light steel thin-walled structures consist of galvanized profiles or perforated profiles (so-called thermal profiles ): guides, racks and lintels.

To connect cold-formed profiles are used:

• bolts (diameter 5–16 mm),
• self-tapping screws,
• self-drilling self-tapping screws,
• pull rivets,
• powder mounting dowels,
• pneumatic mounting dowels,
• pull rivets,
• press connections (Rosette) [7] .

Use of LSTS

The frame of a residential building from LSTS.

LSTS are used:

• as enclosing structures in multi-storey construction;
• during the construction of interfloor, interroom and attic floors;
• during the construction and reconstruction of attics;
• in low-rise residential construction (cottages, townhouses, low-rise buildings up to 3 floors);
• in commercial construction (production bases, garages, warehouses, agricultural buildings, parking lots, parking lots, shops, shopping centers);
• in the construction of civil buildings (hospitals, churches, schools, kindergartens, etc.).

Advantages

• Environmental friendliness. When erecting a building from LSTS, there is a minimal impact on the surrounding landscape (trees, shrubs, other buildings). Possibility of complete recycling of the house.
• Construction speed. The term for erecting a building from LSTS is 2-3 months.
• Ease and simplicity of installation. Construction requires 3-4 workers.
• No shrinkage of the foundation during construction and operation.
• All-weather installation.
• Lack of heavy equipment during construction.
• Seismic resistance. The construction of houses using LSTS technology has gained wide popularity in Japan and other countries with high seismic activity.
• Low cost per square meter.
• Very high heat saving characteristics.
• High service life.

Most of these advantages apply not so much to LSTS, but to frame structures in general.

Directly to the advantages of LSTS can be attributed

• Stability and accuracy of the geometric dimensions of the profiles
• Compact for transport
• Factory quality. The kit for the construction of a building from LSTS is manufactured at the factory and delivered to the site in the form of a

History

CLT was first developed and used in Germany and Austria in the early 1990s. Austrian-born researcher Gerhard Schickhofer presented his PhD thesis research on CLT in 1994.Austria published the first national CLT guidelines in 2002, based on Schickhofer’s extensive research. These national guidelines, “Holzmassivbauweise”, are credited with paving a path for the acceptance of engineered elements in multistory buildings. Gerhard Schickhofer was awarded the 2019 Marcus Wallenberg Prize for his groundbreaking contributions in the field of CLT research.

By the 2000s CLT saw much wider usage in Europe, being used in various building systems such as single-family and multi-story housing. As old growth timber become more difficult to source, CLT and other engineered wood products appeared on the market.

Manufacturing

The manufacturing of CLT can be split up into nine steps: Primary lumber selection, lumber grouping, lumber planing, lumber cutting, adhesive application, panel lay-up, assembly pressing, quality control and finally marketing and shipping.

The primary lumber selection consists of two to three parts, moisture content check, visual grading and sometimes depending on the application structural testing. Depending on the results of this selection, the timber fit for CLT will be used to create either construction grade CLT or appearance grade CLT. Timber that cannot fit into either category may be used for different products such as plywood or glued laminated timber.

The grouping step ensures the timber of various categories are grouped together. For construction grade CLT, the timber that has better structural properties will be used in the interior layers of the CLT panel while the two outermost layers will be of higher aesthetic qualities. For aesthetic grade CLT, all layers will be of higher visual qualities.

The planing step improves the surfaces of the timber. The purpose of this is to improve the performance of the adhesive between layers. Approximately 2.5 mm is trimmed off the top and bottom faces and 3.8 mm is trimmed off the sides to ensure a flat surface. There are some cases in which only the top and bottom faces are treated; this is typically the case if the sides do not have to be adhered to another substance. It is possible that this step may change the overall moisture content of the timber; however, this rarely happens.

The timber is then cut to a certain length depending on the application and specific client needs.

The adhesive is then applied to the timber, typically through a machine. Application of the adhesive must be airtight to ensure there are no holes or air gaps in the glue, and the adhesive must be applied at a constant rate.

A panel lay-up is performed to stick the individual timber layers together. According to section 8.3.1 of the performance standard ANSI/AP PRG 320, at least 80% of surface area between layers must be bound together.

Assembly pressing fully completes the adhering process. There are two main types of pressing methods, vacuum pressing and hydraulic pressing. In vacuum pressing more than one CLT panel can be pressed at one time making the process more time and energy efficient. Another advantage to vacuum pressing is that it can apply pressure to curved shaped CLT panels because of the way the pressure is distributed around the whole structure. With hydraulic pressing, advantages include higher pressures and the pressure placed on each edge can be specified.

Quality control is then performed on the CLT panels. Typically a sanding machine is used to create a better surface. The CLT panels are also cut to suit their specific design. Often, if the panels need to be conjoined to form longer structures finger joints are used.

Adhesives

Adhesives include melamine urea formaldehyde (MUF), although there are also formaldehyde free adhesives. Polyurethane and phenol formaldehyde resin (PRF) are options.

Advantages

CLT has some advantages as a building material, including:

• Design flexibility – CLT has many applications. It can be used in walls, roofs or ceilings. The thickness of the panels can easily be increased by adding more layers and the length of the panels can be increased by joining panels together.
• Eco-friendly – CLT is a renewable, green and sustainable material, since it is made out of wood. It can sequester carbon, but differences in forest management practices translate into variations in the amount of carbon sequestered.
• Prefabrication – Floors or walls made from CLT can be fully manufactured before reaching the job site, which decreases lead times and could potentially lower overall construction costs.
• Thermal insulation – Being made out of multiple layers of wood, the thermal insulation of CLT can be high depending on the thickness of the panel.
• CLT is a relatively light building material – Foundations do not need to be as large and the machinery required on-site are smaller than those needed to lift heavier buildings materials. These aspects also provide the additional capacity to erect CLT buildings on sites that might otherwise be incapable of supporting heavier projects, and eases infilling projects where construction is especially tight or difficult to access due to the preexisting buildings around the site.

Disadvantages

CLT also has some disadvantages, including:

• Higher production costs – Being a relatively new material, CLT is not produced in many locations. Also, the production of CLT panels requires a considerable amount of wood and other materials compared to regular stud walls.
• Limited track record – CLT is a relatively new material, so it has not been used in many building projects. A considerable amount of technical research has been done on CLT but it takes time to integrate new practices and results into the building industry because of the building industry’s path-dependent culture which resists deviating from established practices.
• Acoustic performance – In order to achieve acceptable acoustic performance, more CLT panels must be used. According to the CLT handbook, two CLT panels with mineral in-between achieves the international building requirement for sound insulation in walls.
• Flammability – Though advantaged when used in thick beams, wood is still inherently flammable, unlike other building materials, such as steel. Unlike wood, which will burn at a predictable rate before losing rigidity, exposed steel may lose its load-bearing capacity first when exposed to high heat.

•  References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-laminated_timber

Wooden domes have a hole drilled in the width of a strut. A stainless steel band locks the strut’s hole to a steel pipe. With this method, the struts may be cut to the exact length needed. Triangles of exterior plywood are then nailed to the struts. The dome is wrapped from the bottom to the top with several stapled layers of tar paper, to shed water, and finished with shingles. This type of dome is often called a hub-and-strut dome because of the use of steel hubs to tie the struts together.

Paneled domes are constructed of separately framed timbers covered in plywood. The three members comprising the triangular frame are often cut at compound angles to provide for a flat fitting of the various triangles. Holes are drilled through the members at precise locations and steel bolts then connect the triangles to form the dome. These members are often 2x4s or 2x6s, which allow for more insulation to fit within the triangle. The panelized technique allows the builder to attach the plywood skin to the triangles while safely working on the ground or in a comfortable shop out of the weather. This method does not require expensive steel hubs.

Temporary greenhouse domes “Magidomes” can be constructed by stapling plastic sheeting onto a dome constructed from common lumber. The result is warm, movable by hand and affordable. It should be staked to the ground to prevent it being moved by wind.

Steel framework can be easily constructed of electrical conduit. One flattens the end of a strut and drills bolt holes at the needed length. A single bolt secures a vertex of struts. The nuts are usually set with removable locking compound, or if the dome is portable, have a castellated nut with a cotter pin. This is the standard way to construct domes for jungle gyms.

Domes can also be constructed with a lightweight aluminium framework which can either be bolted or welded together or can be connected with a more flexible nodal point/hub connection. These domes are usually clad with glass which is held in place with a PVC coping, which can be sealed with silicone to make it watertight. Some designs allow for double glazing or for insulated panels to be fixed in the framework.

Concrete and foam-plastic domes generally start with a steel framework dome, wrapped with chicken wire and wire screen for reinforcement. The chicken wire and screen are tied to the framework with wire ties. A coat of material is then sprayed or molded onto the frame. Tests should be performed with small squares to achieve the correct consistency of concrete or plastic. Generally, several coats are necessary on the inside and outside. The last step is to saturate concrete or polyester domes with a thin layer of epoxy compound to shed water.

Some concrete domes have been constructed from prefabricated, prestressed, steel-reinforced concrete panels that can be bolted into place. The bolts are within raised receptacles covered with little concrete caps to shed water. The triangles overlap to shed water. The triangles in this method can be molded in forms patterned in sand with wooden patterns, but the concrete triangles are usually so heavy that they must be placed with a crane. This construction is well-suited to domes because no place allows water to pool on the concrete and leak through. The metal fasteners, joints, and internal steel frames remain dry, preventing frost and corrosion damage. The concrete resists sun and weathering. Some form of internal flashing or caulking must be placed over the joints to prevent drafts. The 1963 Cinerama Dome was built from precast concrete hexagons and pentagons.

Domes can now be printed at high speeds using very large, mobile “3D Printers”, also known as additive manufacturing machines. The material used as the filament is often a form of air injected concrete or closed-cell plastic foam.

Given the complicated geometry of the geodesic dome, dome builders rely on tables of strut lengths, or “chord factors”. In Geodesic Math and How to Use It, Hugh Kenner writes, “Tables of chord factors, containing as they do the essential design information for spherical systems, were for many years guarded like military secrets. As late as 1966, some 3ν icosa figures from Popular Science Monthly were all anyone outside the circle of Fuller licensees had to go on.” (page 57, 1976 edition). Other tables became available with publication of Lloyd Kahn’s Domebook 1 (1970) and Domebook 2 (1971).