Seems like it'd be a simple thing to fill the gaps between each layer for customers who don't like the 3D printed look. Some kind of plaster or concrete fill and a Level 5 smoothing trowel and you'd have smooth walls. Love this tech and can't wait to see where we go from here!
I like the way the courses look, but honestly I'd probably have them plastered smooth for the most part on the interior, as otherwise they'll probably gather dust like crazy.
That was exactly my thought...dust collectors that eventually harbor mites or whatever creepy kinds of things that colonize in carpeting. Also, a lot of us prefer wood floors, and the curved corners could present problems in cutting the wood and doing any kind of baseboard. And I'm wondering about plumbing/electrical repairs and additions. I've just built a custom house in California and it took two years just to get the plans approved. I am not so sure the cities here will get excited about a new, unproven construction method. That said, there's a lot to like about this kind of construction. And a smooth plaster job could make the contours look fantastic.
I've been in and around construction my entire life, including in the womb. I built commercial then did piling-supported masonry residential construction on the water in South Florida. I had homes I built hit by hurricanes. I am 70 years old, but I see this technology, think of the possibilities, and wish I had another kick at the can. Very exciting. Thanks.
you wish you could set trusses and build closet headers? Cause there's no construction here. One corporate giant building huge 3d printers. these are going to be horrible for black mold when painted and full of emfs from you wireless devices. Enjoy
@Anthony Man Sounds like somebody needs a hug. Black mold remediation is up to a properly designed HVAC system and changing the air in the envelope. It can be done in a masonry home, I have done it. As far as emfs, I currently own an electronic testing lab. There are industry standards limiting radiation. We test for them daily. You might be a bit paranoid about businesses. Most people just want to build a great product.
Brian, I'm not sure what video you were watching but you don't build anything. Jason drops off a huge machine and one guy watches several houses being built but doesn't do anything. Somebody else comes by and sits trusses and slepts of roof on kick of a can? You would just be a roofer, not a builder. Is this technology came around when you were young? You would probably be a tile guy because nobody would need you.
i think you should build in anchor points into the walls with a set spacing, then whole industries could manufacturer cabinets and equipment that the homeowner could bolt to the walls themselves
IDK friend I think the manufacturers of cabinets could build to suit with ready anchors on the products. That would make it easy for builders and homebuyers to install and it would reduce cost for everyone.
Matt over the years has become a better and better show presenter. No awkwardness, really nice presentation. Well flowing videos. Good job. I enjoy these videos alot.
Keep in mind when they say they are reducing the time and cost compared to timber framing those cost savings aren’t passed onto the consumer. It’s more expensive to buy these homes so the cost savings seen by the builder is pocketed by them. Don’t get excited if you’re looking for an affordable home.
@@phil562 I do actually. A builder who truly passes the savings onto the the consumer so that he can out compete the competition. A quality product at a more affordable price than price gouging builders. People used to have good morals and values. Guess it’s a rare find these days.
This was one of the best videos I've seen on printed homes. Learned a lot. Would like to know a little more about fixing drill holes and chip repairs. I expect that these homes will change owners multiple times, each owner with his own design preferences resulting in holes and appliances at a new location.
I see your point however also think of it like this, in the future the technology will have improved and this material can be knocked down recycled and reprinted however you want on the same slab. lol
Dude this is so cool. I can't believe that I've been watching this video for 40 minutes and I didn't skip forward once I didn't speed through any of the scenes. This is top-notch
I've been following 3D printing for the last few years, since I saw the first one in Germany and this is awe inspiring, they have solved so many of the problems between the other trades interacting with the new technology. 😃 👍💙
These homes are the mid century modern homes of the 1950's. There is no comparison to the past they should be marketing these beautiful homes with energy conservation and interior innovation. Reintroduce the Formica counter tops terrazzo floors with heated floors with high end heat pump hydronic and indirect lighting and passive solar. This house is timed spot on!!
Killer points, I was thinking the same on heating and cooling but on single site build (not a community) passive cooling loops with alternative fuel boiler would really make this almost an ideal off grid as well.
Just saw a 3yr old house the construction was horrible the only thing that was perfect was the paint and wall paper. With concrete walls even the "NON" money side looks good.
@@markcollins457 Yea unfortunately, that's what you get for $45 SQFT that still sells for north of 250k today. The cost of labor exceeds the cost of materials by a factor of 3 to 5 in most cases. We used to build with a goal of 20% on profits but now the markets drive the costs up and quality down.
The only thing that I would worry about is the foundation settling. These houses would be much heavier than most homes on the foundation so even if they’re post tension slab there’s always some movement depending on the soil under it. Should there be some settling the wall on top will crack from floor to ceiling
@@Planet-Anime Yeah I grew up in a brick house and all the footings I’ve seen were 3 feet thick and they were only exterior walls. This has interior walls and every one is heavy.
I think the ripple wall effect will be cool for a while and then look dated especially after they realise it is a massive dust collector. I have seen updated 3D structural printers that do offer the option for a smooth wall finnish.
@@kameljoe21 A brush attachment on a vacuum cleaner would make cleaning the grooves easy. Seems like there would be a product you could easily spread onto the walls if you wanted areas without texture, which I probably would. I think it would be very easy. This stuff is still pretty new and lots of people will come along with lots of products to accompany this building technique.
@@grilledxcheeze I think you may have missed the whole point. There are thousands of feet of tiny shelfs. All over your house. Why would you want to plaster over something that should have been done in the first place. This is why these project are not going to be long term. There are better and more viable solutions out there. One is a brick machine that uses an adhesive that is far better. Plus with robots coming about in the next decade we could see 1000 robots show up to a work site and with in a few days see a fully built custom and precise home built. With AI you will be able to build a house from scratch modify it and it will give you an exact material cost same day and you can adjust it and add options and other things in and when you get to the dollar amount you want. Use vr headset and walk around in and outside to make sure its what you want. In a couple of weeks your your load will show up and with in days your house will be built on your land. They will come in and drill and tamp your pier footers then proceed to build your floor, walls roofs and then your outside. All of this will be done in just a few days as they will work 24/7 and most of your product will be premade in a factory. For example when order your shower it will come pre assembled and the only thing you have to do is set it in place hook up drain and water lines and its done. Prefab full shower and tubs. Comes with a fully built in waterproof roof with installed vent fan for your floor or attic area.
As an electrician this looks like a pain in the ass to wire, very time consuming, not to mention wanting to change or add anything or retrofitting later. Definitely increasing my prices 10 fold. 🤔 You talked about no backsplash being needed. Looks to me like a real food and grease catcher that's hard to clean the pours and crevices.
I remember when I was in construction I was one of the first ones and start using standing seam metal roofing I had my own on-site roll former. And it took us several years before we could get people convinced of the value of a standing seam roof. The Corps of Engineers when we finally got them to approve them and spec them out was probably our first and biggest starting point. And it was a huge learning curve. I have since that time before I retired have placed standing seam roofs on something like 200+ different military bases and often on many different projects on those bases.
Work as a commercial electrician and project manager in the construction industry and genuinely this is a remarkable game changing technology still somewhat in its infancy. I would probably jump at the opportunity to own one of these homes for my next home. It will be very interesting to see how they are able to scale this technology up as it matures. I’m sure the print quality will continue to improve to the point where a spray on skim coat is all that’s required if you didn’t like the live material look. Really really incredible, the way we stick frame build now is because it’s genuinely a decent system, but we have also gotten to the point where technical corners are being cut in mass produced homes, this is technology for the better and I wish everyone at this company best of luck.
I'm sure they'll have a robot doing the electrical work soon and won't need you either buddy. God forbid a small crack or hole appears in the walls of these joints in the future. There will be nobody around d that specialises in that line of work anymore. They were never needed.
you sound like a marketing bot. Everything you said is NONSENSE. There is not a single REAL HUMAN BEING who would say the tripe that you typed in this comment section!
The plasticisers in the concrete would most likely address that. I would be more interested in knowing about the insulation properties and its effectiveness in colder climates.
@@johngrisumwith complete 100% filling of the wall cavities with foam and the thermal properties of concrete I bet they excel in Northern climates even more so than Southern.
I've always wanted to build a house with an airgap. Like a brick house, with another brick wall a foot away from all of the exterior walls. A house within a house. It would be well insulated, super easy to run plumbing/wiring/ac lines. And pretty much 100% bulletproof, because any bullets or spalling ejected from the brick, would encounter ANOTHER brick. Also, the big bad wolf would have a tough time blowing it down.
Double Brick, or Full Brick construction like your describing is still common in Australia where the climate is very hot. The air gap between walls is a natural insulation.
Cavity wall technology is old and very inefficient. It is still common in UK which is limited by low volume of skilled workers but pretty much all of the rest of the europe turned away from cavity wall tech. It is expensive, very labour intense and provides poor thermal efficiency. Instead you may consider blocks (various materials are used depending on your location) with external layer of insulation, usually styrofoam but mineral wool is also common choice. These are quick to build, you can put up an average size house in a day and have whole structural work, including foundations and roof, completed under 2 weeks. Other, even more efficient and definitely more eco friendly is pole style construction. With wooden (laminated 6x2 into 6x6) posts located every 2.5m. Void between is filled with insulation giving very little left for thermal bridging. You also get a external wall, usually concrete-fible board, spaced approx 5cm off main wall... giving you form of cavity (this is for moisture control)! This is most efficient construction allowing a "PASSIVE HOUSE" in cold climate with wall thickness under 45cm! You are also getting massive freedom in internal design due to lack if internal weight bearing walls. It is also worth to mention that post frame requires much less of earth work - depending up soil type you can go with 16 inches auger and drill just 1200mm deep! You can easily build up to 3 floors up. With little more engineering 5 floors are possible. Anyway... steer away from classic cavity wall ;) If you don't believe... visit UK :D
Yeah cavities are old tech. And provide barleyyyy an improvement on insulation. Shocking how so many people can be so passionately wrong in the age of information
Structural Engineer here. That garage door header using a plate strap on the bottom in tension looks sketchy. Remember you have all that concrete weight plus the roof load. I design these as a flinch plate beam with LVLS and a steel plate sandwiched between to utilize the section modulus of wood and steel.
This generation's biggest concern with homes isn't the lack of them, it's the price point. I wish he would have been more transparent about that. The problem with them not actually being any cheaper than what's available is it still doesn't fix the problem. You can have infinite supply but if you have zero demand because nobody can afford them they won't get built.
Well they are hoping to fix cost through scale. The thing to remember is this will replace human labor so fewer people with jobs and money to buy the houses lol...
Kind of like what @@Outworlder said, supply and demand is always where pricing comes from. Extreme demand and no supply means high prices, if we can start to meet demand, prices will come down.
I do not trust Lennar. That is like "Hey we have this amazing technology that makes it so much easier to mass produce, but we will find a way to keep it unaffordable for our profit". They built homes in my neighborhood mass produced on a piece of land they acquired...$75k above market...
If you want affordable you don't build single family housing. R-1 housing will always be expensive as the biggest driver of cost isn't the house but rather the land it is built on. If you want to build affordable homes then you need to build medium density condo units.
I'd worry about those exposed beads inviting mildew. Pressure-washing a standard exterior is enough hassle, so hopefully that's some thick paint, maybe a bed-liner-based product. There's a (standard) concrete house down the street that's painted and it fits in very well, so I doubt looks would be a problem--unless the black streaks show up.
@@questioner1596 I'm just confused how you clean inside these walls after the flood waters go down... The amount of toxic garbage/mold food in the water that will deposited inside the walls would need to be cleaned out I would imagine...
Great show Matt. I see what is a typical problem where prefab housing has always come up short, you still have to build the roof. Im a builder from up in Canada, and have assembled numerous different wall systems, the floor (on a basement) and roof are still labor intensive.
@@joevarga5982 I understand that, the similarity is that they've built the walls, same as prebuilt. The walls arnt the work that needs a solution. The roof mainly and floor, need a solution. We typically frame and stand the walls in a couple days, and are building them on a nice flat floor, provide a prefab roof system and it'll be a game changer.
@@gabrielback5615 Well, this isn't even a solution for walls as far as I'm concerned. You know, with a site-built home, the walls are ALSO built on a nice flat floor and then stood up. And the overhead cost of a building walls inside a huge warehouse is eliminated.
Interesting engineering for sure. Not something I could ever see myself wanting to get into, but someone will buy it. UMaine is right next door to where I live and they are also working on 3D printed homes.
This process is cool in how it's done. I also see the application in certain areas. The obvious areas where I would not want this is the area where geological terrain doesn't support the weight. But it truly is intriguing.
For someone who lives and breaths in upscale "money isn't the issue" building it is good to see Matt actually pushing the question of cost. I certainly won't justify half a mill when you claim to be "solving the housing crisis" but I will say IF you're going to pay that much we should have houses that last more than a century. We've been playing music chairs with houses pretending a house that was never designed to last more than 30 years get sold at it's 50th and at a premium! The housing crisis is WAY WORSE than lacking supply. People are paying twice the price of a new home for junk that should have been torn down.
The market drives the costs, not much you can do about that aside from major economic changes in the price of labor/materials or technological advancements. Of which I am glad they are trying 3d printing, but I don't see a path forward where this will reduce the cost of a house.. I hope I'm wrong though Just finishing a build for myself and everything is expensive. Especially when you go the extra mile to make it better engineered. Tear down houses in my neighborhood are 300-400k.. and we aren't an well to do area even so after all is done I am in the 1mil range.
yep, especially those McMansions terrible and cheap products used and architecturally ugly lol. my opinion of course, but they make no sense in how they are made.
The way I see it, houses should not be looked at as an investment. They should be seen like cars. That is the whole crux of the matter. Houses are viewed as an investment like you are investing into a non-physical thing such as a business which can appreciate in value because its value isn't in its physical properties. The problem is houses are physical, therefore they deteriorate over time. You can certainly do upgrades that will add value to the house, but they really shouldn't be appreciating in value when all you do is let it sit there. They should be depreciating in value relative to inflation over time.
@@evancombs5159 economic utility drives whether it's an investment, not how people "look" at it. Real estate and business can generate revenue. Businesses can make a profit and properties can generate rent. Also houses even when torn down have value, the land. It's a fixed amount specially when it's in a desirable neighborhood it's scarce. Cars have little utility or value when they reach 20 years old and there isn't scarcity to them.
I magine the HOA headache that neighborhood is going to become ! But on to the house... Aside from dust caching walls, they are pretty cool. I'd suggest a plaster coat option. Btw, I expect this works in Texas and similar places. But slab on grade floors would never work where I live.
To your first line: Don't allow HOA's in that zone. Period, I have heard nothing but bad troubles when HOA's are there in the Neighborhood, just don't have them..
@@scottcarr3264 if it's Lennar there will be HOAs unfortunately. I too hate them, especially when you are moving out having to get everything done and all they care about is the trash I had outside, even tried to put a lean on my home that I was trying to sell. just insane what people will go through for something that will be removed.
@@Josh.1234 As Jason said in the video these homes are naturally energy efficient for less. The aesthetics are beautiful but the energy efficiency is what I like most.
@@scottmohrman I am sure he said they were energy efficient but until I see whole wall panel r values, I take that as marketing. Masonry walls with closed cell is not that efficient.
@@scottmohrman yeah but so is a house with tyvek and flashing tape. Air flow is just one of many impacts on it's thermal properties. Currently passive homes aren't typically masonry so I am curious how these will work in cold climates where their concrete slab and wall intersection has no insulation.
The issue is you better love the floorplan and never want to change it. Remodeling will be a bear and any walls you add won't match the previous. I am a bit dubious myself but good that they are trying new things
Definitely my concern with these. I currently live in a house that was originally built in the 1800's and has been modernized and updated as time went on as the layout could be updated and have modern conveniences added. Unfortunately these houses have a huge problem in the way the layout will be a huge pain to update and this may possibly make them a lower cost option however would be easier to demo and restart if you want to change the layout too much. Either way I agree with the uploader that these are cool however also see your point as I was thinking this almost immediately when I listened more to the designer talk.
I've owned many homes of all styles and sizes in my lifetime and have come to the conclusion that I only need a basic lower cost home that provides good shelter. I've taken my ego put of the home!
@@James-kg1wf if the process gets cheap enough, which it should. Demo and reprinting would prob be about the same as it is now to have entire labor crews come in to do a standard remodel.. At some point i imagine these printers will fly from one site to another, and will likely be a common thing in every city... Though lets be honest with the way things are going right now, the average person will not actually OWN a home, these will all be structure's owned by the elites that already want to control everything while claiming they are doing it to save humans from climate change. If anyone actually owns a home in the next 50 years, it will be rare, and my thought is those will only be the people wh were smart and lucky enough to become 100% self suficient/off grid.
This is really interesting to see concrete printing go industrial, I'm not sure I would love cleaning the grooves or trying to hang pictures, but I can see method being fairly viable vs standard stick frame + drywall, which would be a sea change we haven't seen in 80+ years.
One of 99 in 1/100 homes? Also, love Matt, but it feels like he's always the mouthpiece of the company at hand. Like, love watching you, but I don't trust you. Never hard questions; I only see him going "Wow, this product is perfect, tell me more about how perfect it is!" I don't know 1/8th of what he does but no entire industry is flawless. One question I'd ask is like "3d printing can often have issues during the print; A bond doesn't work right, or the tip gets clogged, what happens if an issue occurs? Who pays or what if it's in a visible place?"
I agree mostly with what you are saying but I trust him though. I just don't take these builder show type interviews as being complete or as any indication he endorses the product. That being said, I don't think it's the most ethical to do these puff pieces when you are known for showing sound building practices.
I thought exactly the same thing when there was a shot of the guy changing the printing tip head. What’s the QA/QC for inconsistencies in mix or application? I think that because mass scale building is still a work in progress with multiple iterations of improvement still underway for Icon, they intentionally hold Matt back from discussing these type of potential problems. They are still “tweaking” the process.
@@seattlemichele664 yeah I would assume that he's holding back that type of discussion. And tweaking type issues makes sense to gloss over. But I am more interested in how this wall performs differently structurally than a formed or CMU wall. I don't see how 10' of mortar will have the same strength as concrete. Also don't see how this cheaper/faster than having block layers do the same thing?
Definitely, in the proving stages, although important to realize that immediate and widespread dismissal of new technology is a great inhibitor of innovation. Early adopters will pave the way and allow the resources to those to work out the bugs along the way.
If like to see an update on the cracking of walls years down the road. Also mold issues forming inside the walls due to moisture from the concrete itself or leaking from roof.
I live in Jackson Hole, where I've done a lot of building. The seismic requirements here are stringent. I'm not sure this type of construction would come anywhere near meeting those requirements without significant added expense.
This technology will be great when you can 3D print multi storey houses or buildings. Not every environment has the land area to do single storey houses at scale.
Can probably be done with current technology. Realistically, all.tou would have to do would be build a truss style bridge scaffolding to raise your rails to the proper height to run your next run. Would just have to do the math to figure wall thickness and support needed. Bit would be incredibly impractical. For a multi-story building.
house crisis in canada has nothign to do with the lack of houses, and everythign to do with money laundering and big finance. ITs political choices made by your politics, if you want to fix it you just have to fix these. Besides, 3D printing is a particualrly bad technology to build houses, it has a list of drawbacks longer than the arm, and does not even come close to the performance of current technlogy (conrete or clay large hollow blocks) in term of everythign that matters for a building : lightweight, cheap, easily and faslty deployed, insulating, and high strength / weight ratio.
I think it will be difficult to repair, renovate, or customize these homes. Personally, I wouldn't pay top dollar for a home I can't even add electrical outlets to. How do you paint these walls since a roller won't get into the crevasses? How do you patch holes from the previous occupants? Great for the original owner, but I think it will affect the resell value.
@@Living_EDventures Open a window and put a fan blowing out, get the leaf blower from the garage and blow the dust loose and it will get sucked out the window! Simple!
Paint sprayer would work fine to paint the walls. Silicone mold a small section of wall and use it as a squeegee to patch little anchor holes with mortar mix, let it dry, then paint it to match.
im impressed. I am trying to replace a trailer comunity with ICF's and maybe this might work on a couple as comparasion. Also on the slab I have poured a couple using no traditional rebar but using Helix micro rebar instead and so far no cracking at all. well see what the future brings. Great episode.
I really like this technology for exterior walls, and maybe some of the interior walls for support purposes. But to make every single wall concrete, where you are locked forever in a certain layout, might not be the best idea. If you want to modernize your kitchen 30 years from now, it seems you would have to put all of the appliances and fixtures in the exact same positions, because there won't be openings in the walls for rearrangement of plumbing or electrical connections.
This is the FIRST thing that came to mind… is how do you renovate later on down the line… it’ll cost an arm and leg…. And the addition if not 3d printed will look drastically different
@SergioHernandez-uv1mo agreed. Why would you want a house that isn't going to do well in natural disasters? Especially where I live where fire is common... I want a house the fire won't be able to burn down! No wood for me!! All stone, concrete, rubber and metal thank you!! 😊
@@SergioHernandez-uv1mo -- Historians will say it is because when European colonizers first arrived on the North American continent, wood was plentiful, and essentially free if you cut the trees down yourself. They needed to build structures for shelter quickly, and using wood is the easiest way to do that. Although many people advocate for using more durable materials, the economics of the situation lead most builders to continue using wood. And even when you see a full brick house, there is generally timber framing underneath the brick exterior in the case of an older home, and these days there is more and more metal framing underneath. But the metal framing is more difficult for the homeowner to work with later on, because sometimes you want to drill into the wall to hang a heavy picture, or shelf, or towel bar in your bathroom, or wall cabinets in your kitchen, or what have you. It is much easier to do that when you have wooden studs to secure those things to. Drywall sinkers just don't do the job.
If you want to do that then you’ll have drill the concrete slab to redirect your plumbing. It’s not that simple to rearrange your appliances requiring water.
If this sort of thing catches on, I suspect they will figure out doors and windows that can drop straight in. I would not be a big fan of the beaded walls, but all it takes is money and a good plasterer to have beautiful smooth walls. I would definitely do closed cell foam, at least in the walls to really make it flood proof. Not sure what would happen with an open cell foam or other insulation in the wall if there were ever a flood. You would have to get the wet insulation out of the wall and I don't see how that would happen.
All those horizontal ridges will collect dust inside of the house. It is going to be impossible to clean with the duster (fibers will be catching of the rough surface of the concrete). Even if it is sealed or painted, surface is still will be too rough to clean. You will not be able to wipe it with a rag as your typical smooth vertical wall. It is going to be a cleaning nightmare. Imagine "horizontal blinds" 10' high all around you. This channel is big on the clean air etc., but, surprisingly, no word about cleanability of the walls.
This is why I feel mudbot having the ability to have smooth walls on the inside will be a big benefit. Icon is ahead and mudbot may fail, but I am sure some in the 3d printing game will be able to pick this up properly.
Oh stop being such a fuddy duddy! Look at the bright side, just think of all the esthetically pleasing straight lines the kids can draw with their crayons!!
For the interior, as a consumer, I'd prefer a traditional finish, so I could hang pictures, mirrors or shelving without having to drill into concert. Other than that I'm in love with 3D printing, the design I have in mind is an earthship, off the grid application. 😉👍
To do any real damage the integrity would be compromised to the point of wondering why you'd even want to do an exact replacement. But if you did, the answer would be simple: Make a mold of an existing wall and use it to pour a replacement.
@@stephensaines7100I doubt you would be able to do that without seeing the patch. Concrete cures different colors and the edges of the form would show. Might be able to Dremel that out and then paint the wall to hide the color irregularity. Another issue would be patching masonry anchor points from paintings or anything. Currently patching drywall and touchup is super easy. This would not be so easy.
@@Josh.1234they're painted inside and out, so to patch interior penetrations you just use some kind of nonshrink grout. And if you can feather drywall mud, you can feather grout.
They make a plastic patch putty for stucco. Imagine getting your skin torn off and your furniture and everything you own getting scuffed to hell every time anything touched a wall.
They don't make them like they used to I guess. I own an 70+ year old block brick building - similar to regular 8"x16" concrete blocks but the blocks are made of yellow/orange clay. Interior side of the walls are sprayed with plaster, same kind of plaster they used to use on wood lathe/plaster walls, before drywall came into use. For the door and window openings, the plaster was used to fill in the gaps behind the door and window framing. And 1/4" T shaped steel beams were used for the headers on the topside of those openings. Also, the roof trusses are custom welded 3" steel pipe that would otherwise be used for steam boilers or to run pipes into an oil well back in the day. Heavy duty for sure. When I bought the building there was a little bit of settling and cracks in the concrete slab so there were a few cracks here and there - so I did a little bit of plaster and/or mortar packing and patching on both the interior and exterior to take care of that. Ditto for covering up holes left behind when moving cabinets and picture frames and what not. One more thing - I had to deal with a fair amount of water damage here and there to the interior plaster so I had to re-plaster that, and make sure that everything was properly re-calked and resealed. >>> On a side note, they built a concrete block car wash near me last year and they made sure to spray the whole thing down inside and out with CONCRETE SEALER, and then painted it again over the top of that. Even so, there's already some cracks showing up, so they're going to have to re-seal and repaint it again in those places.
I don't like the horizontal lines of the concrete layers. They also are probably perfect for dirt to get stuck in between and make it difficult to clean, right? They could just use a kind of brush on each side of the printer nozzle to make it a flat wall.
This is gonna be huge for buildings in the future. The main feature I see is noise reduction, especially in town, houses and apartments in such where people are slamming the doors and vibration is through wood frames. I do think that they need to put some sort of drywall on the interior, though, imagine the dust settling on each one of those Grooves.
If the walls are really good at blocking noise as it appears they would be, it would be great for houses next to freeways and by airports or where they are close to a noisy business. I think the interior walls are interesting- thick coat of paint should seal it a lot.
I'm sure as the tech progresses new material will be developed that will allow for this without compromising the structual integrity of the buildings... won't expect to see the price coming down too much though 😅😅😅😅
@@zachjones2678 They are only printing the walls. The rest is pretty standard construction at standard costs. ICON likes to mislead folks into thinking the savings is large when it is not. Not hard to Google this and learn what the real truth is. Still, it's pretty neat technology but the cost savings will eventually be negligible.
Seriously cool, Matt. Maybe ICON can use this tech to pull a Henry Ford and make profitable starter houses, which just about every municipality needs. _Vulcan_ will never be bored.
I can imagine that if there was a leak in the plumbing for the shower one would have to either remove the shower or remove the concrete wall on the other side to make the repairs. Why don’t they ever design easy access to the plumbing?
As a former low-voltage installer, both commercial and residential, and now as a handyman, I see upsides and downsides all over the place. That ribbed wall surface will be an absolute bastard to clean, especially in dusty locales, and mounting mirrors, artwork, TVs, cabinetry, and other items will be very problematic. I add extra outlets for handyman clients all the time, but that ain't happening here. However, having masonry walls everywhere eliminates the need to find studding to hang heavy items (TVs, particularly) and since nearly everything has a throwaway packet of cheap hardware in it that nearly always includes plastic masonry anchors that are useless in drywall, those packets will be more useful. Polished concrete as a flooring surface is a transient trend, and isn't actually widely popular, ESPECIALLY in cold climates. In the long run, though, remodeling is effectively impossible. Additions? Extra rooms? Second stories? Kitchen updating? Jetted tub in the bathroom? Kick rocks, homeowners. If anyone tries, they will stand out like sore thumbs, if they're even possible at all. Areas with small lot sizes and close proximity of neighboring houses? Unlikely that the printer could be set up. Really, this technology is probably only practicable (i.e. used in practice) in new tract construction on large open areas.
Yeah, it's a good point re cleaning. But you know, in the end, aside from changing the layout of the house, everything else you mentioned is solvable. Extra outlets and plumbing - well, just poke those holes in a few more places and install a trim plate and some extra PVC for future use. I don't think mounting things will be that difficult. Drilling holes for set screw in concrete is as easy as wood, then you place a backer board, add whatever you want in front of it, and trim it out. It will encourage you to make every addition to the walls a little more luxurious. Lastly, in terms of the wall surface, stucco for the exterior, or traditional grout/tile and/or wood sheathing or other interior wall treatments can easily hide some of that "ribbing" look of this construction design. I do agree that maybe aside from some specific load bearing walls relevant to the layout, the interior walls should not be printed with concrete, as that greatly hinders future remodeling. I think this 3D printing design for exterior, interwoven with "modular construction" techniques (factory built plug n play interior walls etc) would be a good mix.
@@bry2kthis home is like a speaker box... 1 day the box will no longer be able to be fixed or hold components like Tweeters & woofers will become windows, doors, cabinets, once you commit to a hole thats it no going back.... how to you run that machine in the middle of the wall? Or fix a layer that cracked... u dont... injoy building another box... but home size....
First time seeing a printed concrete house being built, very impressive to say the least and as always Matt is the perfect presenter of innovative homes and new materials.
Takes quite a bit of plaster with deep grooves like that. I think they would use a cement plaster to fill most of the wall. It would be pretty crazy to try and fill those quarter inch deep convex grooves with normal plaster or crack filler. You're looking at 100 quarts of plaster for a single 10'x20' wall. It's not impossible but that house might have 10'x400' of wall surface minus some windows and doors. It could take 2 cubic meters of cement plaster to smooth those surfaces and then plaster them with a surface plaster and sand them down. Somehow I think this isn't as cheap or fast as people make it out to be. This could be a reason why these houses often come with this fashionable out of the printer surface.
I think combining this with the factory built house technology (where houses are just assembled on site) for the roof structures would probably reduce costs even more. The factory could modularize the roof, MEP, and in-ceiling components/finish then just cap these printed structures so all the on-site trade work is reduced even more. And there's no reason the ICON printer can't also do the initial painting (before the roof), it'd just need a new attachment arm to control the Z-axis and rotation of the sprayer. Couple that with being able to also do the fencing and basic landscape elevations (flower boxes, etc.) and this can seriously reduce costs across all aspects of the process.
The outdoor accents being done from a list seems a little cookie cutter for me. Then again, I grew up on a farm with 140 acres, so we had a lot of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ kind of space to play in all day. Well that and taking care of the cows. Anyhow, being raised like that its hard for me to conform to the burbs, even though I've lived in small towns now most of my life.
I've seen a few that can 3D print roofs now saving a lot of money and time, they usually build it like they would a wall with steel reinforcement, but only for small homes, hoping they can do this for the bigger homes, considering how much time and money it'll save.
If you do get significant water penetration, e.g. a flood, or a burst water pipe, or a really leaky window, how do you dry out the interior of the wall? Good luck to the early adopters living in these early houses, and finding all the teething problems for these new materials and techniques. I'm sure they'll find and fix those problems in the process, but this looks like the future for a certain type of construction for sure.
If prolonged flooding did fill the wall with interior, one could drill exterior weep holes. Just think how much easier it will be to clean the interior with a power washer and replace the fixtures. 😉👍
How long does it take to go from bare slab to the house you walked through? What about cold weather construction? How long to print the concrete? Hours? Days? How much concrete per 100 sq. ft. floor space? What about lack of adhesion of new vs old concrete from day-to-day? Concrete mixed on-site or delivered? How much down-time do the "printers" experience? What do you do if a "printer" breaks down mid-print? Wall expansion joints needed per code? Do the planters require interior waterproofing? Since all wood is in contact with concrete, is it all treated? How much OSB is wasted with the curved walls? How do you stop trust uplift?
Surely they could print a recess in the wall to insert a 2x10 "blocking" for the cabinets. At least with the uppers that would make more sense than concrete anchors, wouldn't it?
Yeah IDK if that would work. They don't print recesses much in these walls. They put in boxes or lentils for openings but that doesn't help if you need something to anchor to on the other side. I don't like anchoring cabinets to masonry either. Especially with such an irregular surface. Anchors going through the seams of the layers seem like it would be a problem
I would think it's possible, but not as a recess. They would need likely a composite piece that gets laid on top of one row of mortar and gets mortared in on the next pass. It would be webbed in the middle to let the mortar pass through it and lock it in. Downside being that you can't really alter your cabinet design at all down the road, or would have to plaster over the wall to hide them. Which I'd probably do in the kitchen anyway to keep grease etc from collecting in the ribs.
Sadly, this won't make homes cheaper for along time or if ever. But homes built will be way higher quality needing less repairs so that is a good thing.
this is nice , the con is that the walls finishes will look the way they are, not smooth. they should aim to do concrete flat roofs instead of all that bunch of wood
I don't know, I'm in the Northeast and $250. A square foot for a concrete printed house does not seem very reasonable or affordable. If I could afford $250 a square foot that is not the house I'd want to live in
Not saying its right, but 3d printing is in the position that it has to prove itself. Taking the savings and putting a little extra polish on is smart to do when on the cutting edge. No doubt once it becomes normal lennar will buy their own printers instead of hiring ikon and print some really shitty houses.
@@Clockwork0nions I would imagine that's no accident. If it costs more, it's cost of adoption. If it costs less, it's pure profit. Pricing of a product with one maker is subjective not objective.
The naysayers are full of "it". Smooth polished floors, washable carpets, vacuum cleaners (both robot and hose type. There is no problem here. Anyone says different is trying to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD).
This was fascinating to watch. Would love to live in one of these. Looks efficient for neighborhoods, not so much individual homes. But I see that they can just keep improving from here. I feel like they could have eliminated a lot of the wood and used metal.
I hate drywall guys as much as the next electrician, but I would never want to work on one of these homes. I love how he said they want to make it “easy” for the other trades. Ha! I would never buy a home that I can’t change any walls or hang a picture easily.
I’m not crazy about no drywall…I wonder if they could at least smooth out the interior walls?? How do you keep them clean? TBH, if I’m spending this kind of $$$ I’d rather go with ICF with Rockwool (in lieu of styrofoam), at least I’d have the benefits of concrete but the traditional qualities of a conventionally built house.
Yeah they don't tell you that purposefully. You can't run this 24/7. The mortar will slump if you print too much on top of it. Wet mortar can't support the weight of 6ft on top of it without buckling.
@@Josh.1234 I mean if the building was large enough then technically you could print 24/7 haha. They could have a super long roller system that allows 1 printer to do multiple houses at a time. Would need lots of flat ground and good hose management tho too.
everythign is ridiculous with this "technology" simply because it is not a technology, jsut a company trying to surf ona hype, but lets be honnest, there is no reason to us "3d printing" to make concrete walls, concerte walls can be built faster and way easier with any other existing method, actually and building plain conrete walls is an heresy in most cases. a total waste of materials for very poor properties in term of insulation, weight etc etc This is total nonsense.
PVA fibers are likely part of the mix. PVA fibers were used in the first concrete exhibiting work hardening - concrete that actually gets stiffer when it cracks. It probably has a lot of fly ash in the mix too, along with some low density fillers and surfactants. There is a lot of development work in that mix, and the mix and the printer design have to evolve together.
Just started looking at this. I'm thinking because the interior surface is not flat, the walls are going to catch alot of dust - major turn off once people think about it. It's like having mini blinds for walls.
@@rotorheadv8 are you for real do you even realize the quantity of material and effort you would need to make these flat? And in the end, plain concrete walls are very terrible for a home and most building, think prison cells, huge humidity issue, incredible weight, huge waste of material, nightmare to pass plumbing and electricity and the list goes on and on. There is a reason why we dont build houses with plain concrete wall,s it its a total heresy and a huge waste of ressources for zero advantage. In fact the current technology : large hollow concrete or clay blocks if way superior to this joke, uses a fraction of materials and ressources (i think about 20 times less concrete, for example) provide way better insulation thanks to the hollow structure, a infinitely better strength to weight ratio, and flat and straight surface and straight angles which is very important for drywalls and finishing. So "3d printing" is a very good example of a so called "technology" which it is not, not solving a problem which doesnt exist anyway, bringing along an infinite list of drawbacks, all of which have been solved since a very long time with current technology.
I don't think this is ready to take over the industry, but its slow advancements that will make it useful. How is this better than a Concrete/Concrete block type home construction? The printer is probably a large initial cost, and it does take time to print the home verse putting in concrete forms or hand placing blocks. To me it has a higher initial capital cost and doesn't save time. It does reduce the head count required. By printing the interior walls, it also reduces the ability to renovate in the future. I imagine doing plumbing and electric runs is also more difficult, especially when moving runs. To me I would like to see something that can work in 5-axis in more materials before I would consider a robot-built home. Most of the cost in new home construction are the contractors.
I would consider it if it were like my current stone house, all the exterior walls are masonry while all the interior walls are framed. You get the reliability of masonry while the upgradedness of framing.
The advantage it has at this time over cast concrete is lower volume of material (but almost certainly not cost) and the potential for internal insulation. The advantage it has over block at this time is man-hours and some integrated mechanicals. As a technology, it's just dipping its toes into practicality. As the technology matures, it will probably yield us extremely strong, sanely-priced houses that look like a cross between a castle and a seashell or something. Don't get any funny ideas from Matt's attitude that this technology is totally ready to take the mass market by storm.
That was a great one. Loving the Icon shows. Can you please ask him more about the Nasa contract next time. I'm curious about what they take into consideration for their engineering and how it will improve their terrestrial operations as well.
I worked on CHAPEA (small role) over at NASA. It was really unique working around one of these structures. I can't wait for the manned missions to begin!
I’d be interested to know how this would score on a blower door test. Maybe a revisit? Either way, I love the tech but I just don’t see this ever being even remotely affordable in my lifetime. Even if the machinery becomes common, it will just mean more profits for the businesses, not reduced costs.
Definitely! Would be great for Matt to maybe get with Corbett Lunsford and do a performance review of these houses. Though it’s hard to say of Lenar would allow that, they probably wouldn’t like the potential to highlight any shortcomings of their community project.
Blower test would be very poor I imagine. They said exceed 2.5x energy standards but it’s hard for me to believe. I doubt they would allow a blower test. Emphasis was done on how water resistant it is, and lack of trades, but almost nothing on efficiency
@@ALLworldCONSTRUCTIONLLC Yeah, sadly it’s probably going to be awhile before there’s one that gets a blower door done. But would definitely be interesting to see how it rates on everything.
@@ALLworldCONSTRUCTIONLLC why wouldn't it do well? The painted continuous concrete should be nearly airtight, probably as airtight as any really well executed zip system etc in the real world. Then add nearly continuous slow rise foam between the walls (looked like there were a few places the integral beam structures touched the outer wall, but very few), and you have very high R value and almost certainly as airtight as it's feasible to achieve. The big question marks would be the quality of the windows/doors and how well air sealed they are to the rest of the structure, and the attic insulation plan. If done closed cell on roof deck, that would be incredibly tight as well, with the one challenging area of the roof trusses bottom chords sitting on top of the wall. With the overhangs, you could get a pretty good connection to the wall insulation, but the thermal bridges of all the rafters poking through the insulation envelope would be the biggest weak point... One place where a full zip system that goes continuous up the walls and over the roof would have an advantage.
I cant wait for the day a person can rent different sized ICON CNC lava-crete machines, assemble it themselves and print whatever they want. Average people will download open sourced building plans, rent a machine for the weekend (or build their own), and print whatever tiny house, outhouse, or doghouse they want to. Hell, they could go wild and start printing park benches and Stonehenge replicas...Anythings possible.
@@wilfredvanvalkenburgh2874 Exactly! Its just a "automatic concrete machine" but sense its labeled as it is it cost several times more than a concrete truck.
@@scottcarr3264 within 10 years the robot will have enough sense to build with codes in mind. They will sell prepackaged dry mix too prolly, patented of course, that could be mixed. I could def see them either renting or selling the machinery.
One thing I see being a common issue with the interior walls being printed also is Wi-Fi and other home networking issues. Wi-Fi can't go through concrete, so either every room will need a Cat 5e or better ethernet wire run to it, or "networking over power" solution through the electrical outlets, with each room having a box. Also, no cellular, so the Wi-Fi converters through the electrical wires will be necessary.
If that was the only issue, lol, this is beyond a joke, you never want plain conrete walls in individual houses, and in most contructions actually. This is a typical example of a so called "technology" which isnt one, doesnt solve any problem, and actually brings more problems than the current technologies. TO build houses we use large contrete or clay hollow blocks, it is very cheap, very fast, lightwaeight on the structure, very strong,and has excellent insulation properties. All things that "3d printing" cannot do.
yeah but there might be a way to finish the concrete like they do floors with color and everything. now that would be cool. but for the moment plaster should be quite easy
Would love to see how the future repairs will look, slab leaks are hard to detect on plastic pipe. He said it would be easy to renovate but that can’t be true, brick houses are far more difficult to work on than drywall.
Coming from someone who was a janitor for a number of years, I personally wouldn't want the beads visible as you will now have to dust the walls. Other than that, this is super cool
Big fan of the simplicity. I think this would feel more comfortable than regular concrete walls, and the acoustics should be better. It should also reduce landfill waste considerably. I think wood still has a strong future where forests are plentiful, because of its negative carbon footprint and ease of construction. I'm working on something disruptive that's wood-based, we'll see where it goes.
Agree about the acoustics... I would think this would diffuse sound reflections enough to be far more neutral than a smoother walled equivalent concrete structure, and transmission between rooms should be non existent through the walls (doors and through the attic of course still in play), as well as being very quiet inside from outdoor noise.
Yeah it's hard to tell, they are filling the cores with closed cell (super expensive) but there is still thermal bridging with those lattices going between the walls. Also there is no thermal block between the exterior of the slab and the wall. Cold will penetrate right through the floor there. Probably not a concern as much in Texas but good luck in colder zones.
Insulation should always be outside of, and protecting the structure. It's problematic to have it in the same plane (as in a stud framed house). Unfortunately almost no one can afford to do that.
The price of homes is beyond the everyman stage at this point....When I bought my first home it cost the equivalent of 3 years salary....Over the last 40 years my salary has more than tripled but to buy that exact same home today would equate to 8 years salary...Basically the cost of houses has outstripped the earning capacity of the people they are selling them to.
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Pretty hilarious to watch Matt's cardboard sheathing rant then this video haha
Ha! True. I’d love to see ALL production builds goto ICON walls! SO much better, stronger, more durable and disaster resistant!
@@buildshow Hey, do you know the reason the print is limited to 10 ft? Would love to see multi-storey builds! Thanks for another great vid man!
@@leonmilner9994 There's a multistory build happening here in Houston. They are printing a 2 story home.
@@buildshow Are the egress walls insulated?
Seems like it'd be a simple thing to fill the gaps between each layer for customers who don't like the 3D printed look. Some kind of plaster or concrete fill and a Level 5 smoothing trowel and you'd have smooth walls.
Love this tech and can't wait to see where we go from here!
I like the way the courses look, but honestly I'd probably have them plastered smooth for the most part on the interior, as otherwise they'll probably gather dust like crazy.
Remember popcorn ceilings?
@@garyflippin1690so how could we make popcorn ceiling even harder to fix? Let's make it all cement and over all walls.
@@user-vb4fo2tr7i filtered HVAC doesn't prevent dust in any meaningful way
and you'd want to do the plastering before any dust accumulated, or you'd have a pressure washing nightmare.
That was exactly my thought...dust collectors that eventually harbor mites or whatever creepy kinds of things that colonize in carpeting. Also, a lot of us prefer wood floors, and the curved corners could present problems in cutting the wood and doing any kind of baseboard. And I'm wondering about plumbing/electrical repairs and additions. I've just built a custom house in California and it took two years just to get the plans approved. I am not so sure the cities here will get excited about a new, unproven construction method. That said, there's a lot to like about this kind of construction. And a smooth plaster job could make the contours look fantastic.
I've been in and around construction my entire life, including in the womb. I built commercial then did piling-supported masonry residential construction on the water in South Florida. I had homes I built hit by hurricanes. I am 70 years old, but I see this technology, think of the possibilities, and wish I had another kick at the can. Very exciting. Thanks.
you wish you could set trusses and build closet headers? Cause there's no construction here. One corporate giant building huge 3d printers. these are going to be horrible for black mold when painted and full of emfs from you wireless devices. Enjoy
@Anthony Man Sounds like somebody needs a hug. Black mold remediation is up to a properly designed HVAC system and changing the air in the envelope. It can be done in a masonry home, I have done it. As far as emfs, I currently own an electronic testing lab. There are industry standards limiting radiation. We test for them daily. You might be a bit paranoid about businesses. Most people just want to build a great product.
@@BrianNavalinsky pretty good troll. How much do you get?
@Anthony Man I am a builder. Pull up 245 costanera road in Coral Gables. I built it in 1989. I would love to print it.
Brian, I'm not sure what video you were watching but you don't build anything. Jason drops off a huge machine and one guy watches several houses being built but doesn't do anything. Somebody else comes by and sits trusses and slepts of roof on kick of a can? You would just be a roofer, not a builder. Is this technology came around when you were young? You would probably be a tile guy because nobody would need you.
i think you should build in anchor points into the walls with a set spacing, then whole industries could manufacturer cabinets and equipment that the homeowner could bolt to the walls themselves
they want tradesmen to come in under them so they can jack the price more
IDK friend I think the manufacturers of cabinets could build to suit with ready anchors on the products. That would make it easy for builders and homebuyers to install and it would reduce cost for everyone.
Matt over the years has become a better and better show presenter. No awkwardness, really nice presentation. Well flowing videos. Good job. I enjoy these videos alot.
I still wish Matt would stop butting in when the other person is talking, let them explain about the product instead of constantly talking over them
Noooo, awkwardness?
I rather watch the machine in progress instead of two guys talking.
It's really kind of discouraging to hear a house costing $450,000 described as "an affordable everyman house" 😢
thats debt for life wtf
Welcome to the cronie capitalist dystopia called the US.
Ya ridiculous
starter home prices in California are more than that, so as a californian finding a 450,000 home is a steal
we need a 100k house
its great to see matt hangout with someone who
is as enthusiastic as he is about houses.
what an awesome video
Keep in mind when they say they are reducing the time and cost compared to timber framing those cost savings aren’t passed onto the consumer. It’s more expensive to buy these homes so the cost savings seen by the builder is pocketed by them. Don’t get excited if you’re looking for an affordable home.
Yeah damn skippy
As a builder I see the potential to make 💰 🤑 💸
Concrete is expensive and they making concrete even more expensive making the demand for it higher.
@@phil562 I do actually. A builder who truly passes the savings onto the the consumer so that he can out compete the competition. A quality product at a more affordable price than price gouging builders. People used to have good morals and values. Guess it’s a rare find these days.
Its not even faster. Wonder how it would compare to straight concrete pour.
They picked the right guy to be a guest, he killed it
Wrong host though, that dude is annoying!
This was one of the best videos I've seen on printed homes. Learned a lot. Would like to know a little more about fixing drill holes and chip repairs. I expect that these homes will change owners multiple times, each owner with his own design preferences resulting in holes and appliances at a new location.
Yeah no doubt
I see your point however also think of it like this, in the future the technology will have improved and this material can be knocked down recycled and reprinted however you want on the same slab. lol
Dude this is so cool. I can't believe that I've been watching this video for 40 minutes and I didn't skip forward once I didn't speed through any of the scenes. This is top-notch
You missed key phrases probably.
I've been following 3D printing for the last few years, since I saw the first one in Germany and this is awe inspiring, they have solved so many of the problems between the other trades interacting with the new technology. 😃 👍💙
These homes are the mid century modern homes of the 1950's. There is no comparison to the past they should be marketing these beautiful homes with energy conservation and interior innovation. Reintroduce the Formica counter tops terrazzo floors with heated floors with high end heat pump hydronic and indirect lighting and passive solar. This house is timed spot on!!
Killer points, I was thinking the same on heating and cooling but on single site build (not a community) passive cooling loops with alternative fuel boiler would really make this almost an ideal off grid as well.
Just saw a 3yr old house the construction was horrible the only thing that was perfect was the paint and wall paper. With concrete walls even the "NON" money side looks good.
@@markcollins457 nfortunately THAT is what you get for $45 dollars a sqft. But it will still be sold for north of 250k in most locations
@@markcollins457 Yea unfortunately, that's what you get for $45 SQFT that still sells for north of 250k today. The cost of labor exceeds the cost of materials by a factor of 3 to 5 in most cases. We used to build with a goal of 20% on profits but now the markets drive the costs up and quality down.
THIS!!!!
I am a bit concerned about insulation, though.
The only thing that I would worry about is the foundation settling. These houses would be much heavier than most homes on the foundation so even if they’re post tension slab there’s always some movement depending on the soil under it. Should there be some settling the wall on top will crack from floor to ceiling
Ever heard of a brick house
@@Planet-Anime Yeah I grew up in a brick house and all the footings I’ve seen were 3 feet thick and they were only exterior walls. This has interior walls and every one is heavy.
No different to any house built in Australia.....
@@Planet-Anime Bricks are lighter than concrete
@@AMLagondanobody cares
I think the ripple wall effect will be cool for a while and then look dated especially after they realise it is a massive dust collector. I have seen updated 3D structural printers that do offer the option for a smooth wall finnish.
Yeah once the dust starts on it you will want to kill someone... Good luck cleaning every little shelf.
My immediate thought as well. I would want that whole lot plastered smooth :D
An cost ,
@@kameljoe21 A brush attachment on a vacuum cleaner would make cleaning the grooves easy. Seems like there would be a product you could easily spread onto the walls if you wanted areas without texture, which I probably would. I think it would be very easy. This stuff is still pretty new and lots of people will come along with lots of products to accompany this building technique.
@@grilledxcheeze I think you may have missed the whole point. There are thousands of feet of tiny shelfs. All over your house. Why would you want to plaster over something that should have been done in the first place. This is why these project are not going to be long term. There are better and more viable solutions out there. One is a brick machine that uses an adhesive that is far better. Plus with robots coming about in the next decade we could see 1000 robots show up to a work site and with in a few days see a fully built custom and precise home built. With AI you will be able to build a house from scratch modify it and it will give you an exact material cost same day and you can adjust it and add options and other things in and when you get to the dollar amount you want. Use vr headset and walk around in and outside to make sure its what you want. In a couple of weeks your your load will show up and with in days your house will be built on your land. They will come in and drill and tamp your pier footers then proceed to build your floor, walls roofs and then your outside. All of this will be done in just a few days as they will work 24/7 and most of your product will be premade in a factory. For example when order your shower it will come pre assembled and the only thing you have to do is set it in place hook up drain and water lines and its done. Prefab full shower and tubs. Comes with a fully built in waterproof roof with installed vent fan for your floor or attic area.
As an electrician this looks like a pain in the ass to wire, very time consuming, not to mention wanting to change or add anything or retrofitting later. Definitely increasing my prices 10 fold. 🤔 You talked about no backsplash being needed. Looks to me like a real food and grease catcher that's hard to clean the pours and crevices.
I remember when I was in construction I was one of the first ones and start using standing seam metal roofing I had my own on-site roll former. And it took us several years before we could get people convinced of the value of a standing seam roof. The Corps of Engineers when we finally got them to approve them and spec them out was probably our first and biggest starting point. And it was a huge learning curve. I have since that time before I retired have placed standing seam roofs on something like 200+ different military bases and often on many different projects on those bases.
Work as a commercial electrician and project manager in the construction industry and genuinely this is a remarkable game changing technology still somewhat in its infancy. I would probably jump at the opportunity to own one of these homes for my next home. It will be very interesting to see how they are able to scale this technology up as it matures. I’m sure the print quality will continue to improve to the point where a spray on skim coat is all that’s required if you didn’t like the live material look. Really really incredible, the way we stick frame build now is because it’s genuinely a decent system, but we have also gotten to the point where technical corners are being cut in mass produced homes, this is technology for the better and I wish everyone at this company best of luck.
How much does the masonry in the machine cost
There is nothing game changing about this nor is it remarkable. It does not save anytime in residential construction.
I'm sure they'll have a robot doing the electrical work soon and won't need you either buddy.
God forbid a small crack or hole appears in the walls of these joints in the future. There will be nobody around d that specialises in that line of work anymore. They were never needed.
It's in it's infancy for about the next year until everyone realises that buying anything not 3d printed is a scam.
you sound like a marketing bot. Everything you said is NONSENSE. There is not a single REAL HUMAN BEING who would say the tripe that you typed in this comment section!
I would love to see a blower door test in these
For Sure
??
I think the beauty of this is the opportunity to leak air is much less.
The plasticisers in the concrete would most likely address that. I would be more interested in knowing about the insulation properties and its effectiveness in colder climates.
@@johngrisumwith complete 100% filling of the wall cavities with foam and the thermal properties of concrete I bet they excel in Northern climates even more so than Southern.
I've always wanted to build a house with an airgap.
Like a brick house, with another brick wall a foot away from all of the exterior walls. A house within a house.
It would be well insulated, super easy to run plumbing/wiring/ac lines. And pretty much 100% bulletproof, because any bullets or spalling ejected from the brick, would encounter ANOTHER brick.
Also, the big bad wolf would have a tough time blowing it down.
Double Brick, or Full Brick construction like your describing is still common in Australia where the climate is very hot. The air gap between walls is a natural insulation.
Cavity wall technology is old and very inefficient. It is still common in UK which is limited by low volume of skilled workers but pretty much all of the rest of the europe turned away from cavity wall tech. It is expensive, very labour intense and provides poor thermal efficiency. Instead you may consider blocks (various materials are used depending on your location) with external layer of insulation, usually styrofoam but mineral wool is also common choice. These are quick to build, you can put up an average size house in a day and have whole structural work, including foundations and roof, completed under 2 weeks.
Other, even more efficient and definitely more eco friendly is pole style construction. With wooden (laminated 6x2 into 6x6) posts located every 2.5m. Void between is filled with insulation giving very little left for thermal bridging. You also get a external wall, usually concrete-fible board, spaced approx 5cm off main wall... giving you form of cavity (this is for moisture control)! This is most efficient construction allowing a "PASSIVE HOUSE" in cold climate with wall thickness under 45cm! You are also getting massive freedom in internal design due to lack if internal weight bearing walls. It is also worth to mention that post frame requires much less of earth work - depending up soil type you can go with 16 inches auger and drill just 1200mm deep! You can easily build up to 3 floors up. With little more engineering 5 floors are possible.
Anyway... steer away from classic cavity wall ;) If you don't believe... visit UK :D
If you have to witty about a bullet proof house you might need to revisit your life choices
You're absolutely right the only hitch was the cost of doing so but now that's a fleeting memory with this construction.
Yeah cavities are old tech. And provide barleyyyy an improvement on insulation.
Shocking how so many people can be so passionately wrong in the age of information
Structural Engineer here. That garage door header using a plate strap on the bottom in tension looks sketchy. Remember you have all that concrete weight plus the roof load. I design these as a flinch plate beam with LVLS and a steel plate sandwiched between to utilize the section modulus of wood and steel.
This generation's biggest concern with homes isn't the lack of them, it's the price point. I wish he would have been more transparent about that. The problem with them not actually being any cheaper than what's available is it still doesn't fix the problem. You can have infinite supply but if you have zero demand because nobody can afford them they won't get built.
Well they are hoping to fix cost through scale. The thing to remember is this will replace human labor so fewer people with jobs and money to buy the houses lol...
The current problem is the opposite. Demand is through the roof and not enough supply. That's one of the reasons why prices are so high.
Kind of like what @@Outworlder said, supply and demand is always where pricing comes from. Extreme demand and no supply means high prices, if we can start to meet demand, prices will come down.
I do not trust Lennar. That is like "Hey we have this amazing technology that makes it so much easier to mass produce, but we will find a way to keep it unaffordable for our profit". They built homes in my neighborhood mass produced on a piece of land they acquired...$75k above market...
If you want affordable you don't build single family housing. R-1 housing will always be expensive as the biggest driver of cost isn't the house but rather the land it is built on. If you want to build affordable homes then you need to build medium density condo units.
I'd worry about those exposed beads inviting mildew. Pressure-washing a standard exterior is enough hassle, so hopefully that's some thick paint, maybe a bed-liner-based product. There's a (standard) concrete house down the street that's painted and it fits in very well, so I doubt looks would be a problem--unless the black streaks show up.
Matt & Jason are so knowledgeable, so informative. There is always a better way, nice to see people try and succeed.
Thanks for diving deep into the details with them Matt
It looks very natural, organic. I absolutely love these homes, since I saw the tour of house 0. ❤
How are angry teenagers supposed to punch holes in the walls? This is a severe engineering oversight.
😆
lol
As the Father of a 19 year old I know where you are coming from. ( Gyprock CSR) Drywall sucks.
Kick in the door - more fun
They better think twice! 😂
I would love to see these homes in Florida. They would definitely withstand our hurricanes. Love the houses and designs
Would help to lower insurance cost possibly, I would definitely buy one. What's the average cost, is this still in the beta testing phase?
I’d buy one in Florida!!!
Also, the ability to withstand floods will be huge in Florida as sea levels rise.
@@questioner1596 I'm just confused how you clean inside these walls after the flood waters go down... The amount of toxic garbage/mold food in the water that will deposited inside the walls would need to be cleaned out I would imagine...
@@thirdsin7754 Pressure wash it with bleach.
This is perfect for Florida and Puerto Rico
Great show Matt. I see what is a typical problem where prefab housing has always come up short, you still have to build the roof. Im a builder from up in Canada, and have assembled numerous different wall systems, the floor (on a basement) and roof are still labor intensive.
This isn't prefab. It's site built.
@@joevarga5982 I understand that, the similarity is that they've built the walls, same as prebuilt. The walls arnt the work that needs a solution. The roof mainly and floor, need a solution. We typically frame and stand the walls in a couple days, and are building them on a nice flat floor, provide a prefab roof system and it'll be a game changer.
@@gabrielback5615 Well, this isn't even a solution for walls as far as I'm concerned.
You know, with a site-built home, the walls are ALSO built on a nice flat floor and then stood up. And the overhead cost of a building walls inside a huge warehouse is eliminated.
Do you have an amazing deal about new technology or construction for the roof, that's something I've been thinking about? 😉👍
What about a concrete Roof Durakrete?
Interesting engineering for sure. Not something I could ever see myself wanting to get into, but someone will buy it. UMaine is right next door to where I live and they are also working on 3D printed homes.
This process is cool in how it's done. I also see the application in certain areas. The obvious areas where I would not want this is the area where geological terrain doesn't support the weight. But it truly is intriguing.
For someone who lives and breaths in upscale "money isn't the issue" building it is good to see Matt actually pushing the question of cost. I certainly won't justify half a mill when you claim to be "solving the housing crisis" but I will say IF you're going to pay that much we should have houses that last more than a century. We've been playing music chairs with houses pretending a house that was never designed to last more than 30 years get sold at it's 50th and at a premium! The housing crisis is WAY WORSE than lacking supply. People are paying twice the price of a new home for junk that should have been torn down.
Exactly. Let's stick it to who we can. Poppa needs a little pocket change.
The market drives the costs, not much you can do about that aside from major economic changes in the price of labor/materials or technological advancements. Of which I am glad they are trying 3d printing, but I don't see a path forward where this will reduce the cost of a house.. I hope I'm wrong though
Just finishing a build for myself and everything is expensive. Especially when you go the extra mile to make it better engineered. Tear down houses in my neighborhood are 300-400k.. and we aren't an well to do area even so after all is done I am in the 1mil range.
yep, especially those McMansions terrible and cheap products used and architecturally ugly lol. my opinion of course, but they make no sense in how they are made.
The way I see it, houses should not be looked at as an investment. They should be seen like cars. That is the whole crux of the matter. Houses are viewed as an investment like you are investing into a non-physical thing such as a business which can appreciate in value because its value isn't in its physical properties. The problem is houses are physical, therefore they deteriorate over time. You can certainly do upgrades that will add value to the house, but they really shouldn't be appreciating in value when all you do is let it sit there. They should be depreciating in value relative to inflation over time.
@@evancombs5159 economic utility drives whether it's an investment, not how people "look" at it.
Real estate and business can generate revenue. Businesses can make a profit and properties can generate rent. Also houses even when torn down have value, the land. It's a fixed amount specially when it's in a desirable neighborhood it's scarce. Cars have little utility or value when they reach 20 years old and there isn't scarcity to them.
I magine the HOA headache that neighborhood is going to become !
But on to the house...
Aside from dust caching walls, they are pretty cool.
I'd suggest a plaster coat option.
Btw,
I expect this works in Texas and similar places. But slab on grade floors would never work where I live.
To your first line: Don't allow HOA's in that zone. Period, I have heard nothing but bad troubles when HOA's are there in the Neighborhood, just don't have them..
@@scottcarr3264 if it's Lennar there will be HOAs unfortunately. I too hate them, especially when you are moving out having to get everything done and all they care about is the trash I had outside, even tried to put a lean on my home that I was trying to sell. just insane what people will go through for something that will be removed.
Absolutely INCREDIBLE! THANK YOU for making this video and sharing this amazing future. This made me SO happy and inspired for our shared future.
I love what Icon3D is doing. I would love to live in one.
Why would you like to live in one?
@@Josh.1234 As Jason said in the video these homes are naturally energy efficient for less. The aesthetics are beautiful but the energy efficiency is what I like most.
@@scottmohrman I am sure he said they were energy efficient but until I see whole wall panel r values, I take that as marketing. Masonry walls with closed cell is not that efficient.
@@Josh.1234 A big part of energy efficiency is controlling the air flow. These are naturally air tight.
@@scottmohrman yeah but so is a house with tyvek and flashing tape. Air flow is just one of many impacts on it's thermal properties.
Currently passive homes aren't typically masonry so I am curious how these will work in cold climates where their concrete slab and wall intersection has no insulation.
The issue is you better love the floorplan and never want to change it. Remodeling will be a bear and any walls you add won't match the previous. I am a bit dubious myself but good that they are trying new things
Definitely my concern with these. I currently live in a house that was originally built in the 1800's and has been modernized and updated as time went on as the layout could be updated and have modern conveniences added. Unfortunately these houses have a huge problem in the way the layout will be a huge pain to update and this may possibly make them a lower cost option however would be easier to demo and restart if you want to change the layout too much. Either way I agree with the uploader that these are cool however also see your point as I was thinking this almost immediately when I listened more to the designer talk.
I've owned many homes of all styles and sizes in my lifetime and have come to the conclusion that I only need a basic lower cost home that provides good shelter. I've taken my ego put of the home!
@@James-kg1wf if the process gets cheap enough, which it should. Demo and reprinting would prob be about the same as it is now to have entire labor crews come in to do a standard remodel.. At some point i imagine these printers will fly from one site to another, and will likely be a common thing in every city... Though lets be honest with the way things are going right now, the average person will not actually OWN a home, these will all be structure's owned by the elites that already want to control everything while claiming they are doing it to save humans from climate change. If anyone actually owns a home in the next 50 years, it will be rare, and my thought is those will only be the people wh were smart and lucky enough to become 100% self suficient/off grid.
These are pretty cheap to build, well, will be, so, just sell, and build a new one.
@@viperswhip Cheaper to build, probably not cheaper to buy.
This is really interesting to see concrete printing go industrial, I'm not sure I would love cleaning the grooves or trying to hang pictures, but I can see method being fairly viable vs standard stick frame + drywall, which would be a sea change we haven't seen in 80+ years.
One of 99 in 1/100 homes?
Also, love Matt, but it feels like he's always the mouthpiece of the company at hand. Like, love watching you, but I don't trust you. Never hard questions; I only see him going "Wow, this product is perfect, tell me more about how perfect it is!" I don't know 1/8th of what he does but no entire industry is flawless.
One question I'd ask is like "3d printing can often have issues during the print; A bond doesn't work right, or the tip gets clogged, what happens if an issue occurs? Who pays or what if it's in a visible place?"
100%. I learn a lot from these shows but you have to really sift through the infomercial first
I agree mostly with what you are saying but I trust him though. I just don't take these builder show type interviews as being complete or as any indication he endorses the product.
That being said, I don't think it's the most ethical to do these puff pieces when you are known for showing sound building practices.
I thought exactly the same thing when there was a shot of the guy changing the printing tip head. What’s the QA/QC for inconsistencies in mix or application? I think that because mass scale building is still a work in progress with multiple iterations of improvement still underway for Icon, they intentionally hold Matt back from discussing these type of potential problems. They are still “tweaking” the process.
@@seattlemichele664 yeah I would assume that he's holding back that type of discussion. And tweaking type issues makes sense to gloss over.
But I am more interested in how this wall performs differently structurally than a formed or CMU wall. I don't see how 10' of mortar will have the same strength as concrete. Also don't see how this cheaper/faster than having block layers do the same thing?
Definitely, in the proving stages, although important to realize that immediate and widespread dismissal of new technology is a great inhibitor of innovation. Early adopters will pave the way and allow the resources to those to work out the bugs along the way.
If like to see an update on the cracking of walls years down the road. Also mold issues forming inside the walls due to moisture from the concrete itself or leaking from roof.
The walls are filled with expanding foam so not sure where the mold would grow
especially when painted, trapping in the moisture.
@@jaydunbar7538 lol, it takes a real boomer
@@anthonyman8008 new=scary
this is unreinforced concrete, it's just going to crumble away in a few decades.
I live in Jackson Hole, where I've done a lot of building.
The seismic requirements here are stringent.
I'm not sure this type of construction would come anywhere near meeting those requirements without significant added expense.
Video is cool as always. Can’t say I’m a fan of the 3D printed look, but the fact it can be done is neat.
This technology will be great when you can 3D print multi storey houses or buildings. Not every environment has the land area to do single storey houses at scale.
Story.
The technology will improve. I think this is fantastic! "A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step".
Can probably be done with current technology. Realistically, all.tou would have to do would be build a truss style bridge scaffolding to raise your rails to the proper height to run your next run. Would just have to do the math to figure wall thickness and support needed. Bit would be incredibly impractical. For a multi-story building.
..and on elevation with different degrees of grades...
that is already being done though, I think it's China but am not sure, it was an asian country building multiple levels.
I've been dreaming of helping the housing crisis in Canada with projects just like this. This is the future of home building.
house crisis in canada has nothign to do with the lack of houses, and everythign to do with money laundering and big finance. ITs political choices made by your politics, if you want to fix it you just have to fix these.
Besides, 3D printing is a particualrly bad technology to build houses, it has a list of drawbacks longer than the arm, and does not even come close to the performance of current technlogy (conrete or clay large hollow blocks) in term of everythign that matters for a building : lightweight, cheap, easily and faslty deployed, insulating, and high strength / weight ratio.
I think it will be difficult to repair, renovate, or customize these homes. Personally, I wouldn't pay top dollar for a home I can't even add electrical outlets to. How do you paint these walls since a roller won't get into the crevasses? How do you patch holes from the previous occupants? Great for the original owner, but I think it will affect the resell value.
Imagine it would take you months to dust and clean the walls. Then you would have to start over by the time you are done.
Where do you live that $500,000 is top dollar? In my area that's super affordable.
@@Living_EDventures Open a window and put a fan blowing out, get the leaf blower from the garage and blow the dust loose and it will get sucked out the window! Simple!
Paint sprayer would work fine to paint the walls. Silicone mold a small section of wall and use it as a squeegee to patch little anchor holes with mortar mix, let it dry, then paint it to match.
im impressed. I am trying to replace a trailer comunity with ICF's and maybe this might work on a couple as comparasion. Also on the slab I have poured a couple using no traditional rebar but using Helix micro rebar instead and so far no cracking at all. well see what the future brings. Great episode.
Those things are a work of art. They are beautiful.
I really like this technology for exterior walls, and maybe some of the interior walls for support purposes. But to make every single wall concrete, where you are locked forever in a certain layout, might not be the best idea.
If you want to modernize your kitchen 30 years from now, it seems you would have to put all of the appliances and fixtures in the exact same positions, because there won't be openings in the walls for rearrangement of plumbing or electrical connections.
This is the FIRST thing that came to mind… is how do you renovate later on down the line… it’ll cost an arm and leg…. And the addition if not 3d printed will look drastically different
full concrete houses is the norm pretty much everywhere in the world. We always ask why you build cardboard houses
@SergioHernandez-uv1mo agreed. Why would you want a house that isn't going to do well in natural disasters? Especially where I live where fire is common... I want a house the fire won't be able to burn down! No wood for me!! All stone, concrete, rubber and metal thank you!! 😊
@@SergioHernandez-uv1mo -- Historians will say it is because when European colonizers first arrived on the North American continent, wood was plentiful, and essentially free if you cut the trees down yourself. They needed to build structures for shelter quickly, and using wood is the easiest way to do that.
Although many people advocate for using more durable materials, the economics of the situation lead most builders to continue using wood. And even when you see a full brick house, there is generally timber framing underneath the brick exterior in the case of an older home, and these days there is more and more metal framing underneath. But the metal framing is more difficult for the homeowner to work with later on, because sometimes you want to drill into the wall to hang a heavy picture, or shelf, or towel bar in your bathroom, or wall cabinets in your kitchen, or what have you. It is much easier to do that when you have wooden studs to secure those things to. Drywall sinkers just don't do the job.
If you want to do that then you’ll have drill the concrete slab to redirect your plumbing. It’s not that simple to rearrange your appliances requiring water.
How does a home owner add an outlet? Do they need specialized tool to cut holes for a box?
Every time I pass by and see those printers, I'm just mesmerized. Apparently not only paper is printed, houses too!
If this sort of thing catches on, I suspect they will figure out doors and windows that can drop straight in. I would not be a big fan of the beaded walls, but all it takes is money and a good plasterer to have beautiful smooth walls. I would definitely do closed cell foam, at least in the walls to really make it flood proof. Not sure what would happen with an open cell foam or other insulation in the wall if there were ever a flood. You would have to get the wet insulation out of the wall and I don't see how that would happen.
So just more costs.
All those horizontal ridges will collect dust inside of the house. It is going to be impossible to clean with the duster (fibers will be catching of the rough surface of the concrete). Even if it is sealed or painted, surface is still will be too rough to clean. You will not be able to wipe it with a rag as your typical smooth vertical wall. It is going to be a cleaning nightmare. Imagine "horizontal blinds" 10' high all around you. This channel is big on the clean air etc., but, surprisingly, no word about cleanability of the walls.
Maybe a vacuum with the brush attachment? IDK
This is why I feel mudbot having the ability to have smooth walls on the inside will be a big benefit. Icon is ahead and mudbot may fail, but I am sure some in the 3d printing game will be able to pick this up properly.
Oh stop being such a fuddy duddy!
Look at the bright side, just think of all the esthetically pleasing straight lines the kids can draw with their crayons!!
plaster coating my friend.... Will make it look minimalist, but you will know your house was made of concrete which is the great deal here....
For the interior, as a consumer, I'd prefer a traditional finish, so I could hang pictures, mirrors or shelving without having to drill into concert. Other than that I'm in love with 3D printing, the design I have in mind is an earthship, off the grid application. 😉👍
I watch a whole time laps video of a house being built. Its mesmerising
Curious. If the wall were to get damaged, how would you renovate to match the rest of the wall?
To do any real damage the integrity would be compromised to the point of wondering why you'd even want to do an exact replacement. But if you did, the answer would be simple: Make a mold of an existing wall and use it to pour a replacement.
@@stephensaines7100I doubt you would be able to do that without seeing the patch. Concrete cures different colors and the edges of the form would show. Might be able to Dremel that out and then paint the wall to hide the color irregularity.
Another issue would be patching masonry anchor points from paintings or anything. Currently patching drywall and touchup is super easy. This would not be so easy.
@@Josh.1234they're painted inside and out, so to patch interior penetrations you just use some kind of nonshrink grout. And if you can feather drywall mud, you can feather grout.
@@AK_Ray talking about mimicking this layered wall texture which I doubt will work
They make a plastic patch putty for stucco. Imagine getting your skin torn off and your furniture and everything you own getting scuffed to hell every time anything touched a wall.
They don't make them like they used to I guess.
I own an 70+ year old block brick building - similar to regular 8"x16" concrete blocks but the blocks are made of yellow/orange clay.
Interior side of the walls are sprayed with plaster, same kind of plaster they used to use on wood lathe/plaster walls, before drywall came into use.
For the door and window openings, the plaster was used to fill in the gaps behind the door and window framing. And 1/4" T shaped steel beams were used for the headers on the topside of those openings.
Also, the roof trusses are custom welded 3" steel pipe that would otherwise be used for steam boilers or to run pipes into an oil well back in the day. Heavy duty for sure.
When I bought the building there was a little bit of settling and cracks in the concrete slab so there were a few cracks here and there - so I did a little bit of plaster and/or mortar packing and patching on both the interior and exterior to take care of that. Ditto for covering up holes left behind when moving cabinets and picture frames and what not.
One more thing - I had to deal with a fair amount of water damage here and there to the interior plaster so I had to re-plaster that, and make sure that everything was properly re-calked and resealed.
>>> On a side note, they built a concrete block car wash near me last year and they made sure to spray the whole thing down inside and out with CONCRETE SEALER, and then painted it again over the top of that. Even so, there's already some cracks showing up, so they're going to have to re-seal and repaint it again in those places.
"clay structural tile" not "block brick"
I don't like the horizontal lines of the concrete layers. They also are probably perfect for dirt to get stuck in between and make it difficult to clean, right? They could just use a kind of brush on each side of the printer nozzle to make it a flat wall.
This is gonna be huge for buildings in the future. The main feature I see is noise reduction, especially in town, houses and apartments in such where people are slamming the doors and vibration is through wood frames. I do think that they need to put some sort of drywall on the interior, though, imagine the dust settling on each one of those Grooves.
It does appear those homes might be soundproof.
The echo in the house must be terrible
@@joecool4656actually the beads would break up the reverb quite a bit.
That’s unlikely.
If the walls are really good at blocking noise as it appears they would be, it would be great for houses next to freeways and by airports or where they are close to a noisy business. I think the interior walls are interesting- thick coat of paint should seal it a lot.
Now print them with 1/4th of the floor space for 1/10th of the price and I'm all in.
I'm sure as the tech progresses new material will be developed that will allow for this without compromising the structual integrity of the buildings... won't expect to see the price coming down too much though 😅😅😅😅
What's that machine cost a couple million??? Hopefully their profit margins are pretty good because they're going to be paying that off for a while??
@@mitchweber7868 with the labor savings I’m sure the savings add up quickly
@@zachjones2678 They are only printing the walls. The rest is pretty standard construction at standard costs. ICON likes to mislead folks into thinking the savings is large when it is not. Not hard to Google this and learn what the real truth is. Still, it's pretty neat technology but the cost savings will eventually be negligible.
@@mitchweber7868 For ICON, it's really a marketing cost. Until the rest of the industry catches up this is just a sales pitch.
I have been interested in this for over a decade, I am so happy to see it is happening. Just wish it was available to more people.
Seriously cool, Matt. Maybe ICON can use this tech to pull a Henry Ford and make profitable starter houses, which just about every municipality needs. _Vulcan_ will never be bored.
oh man an affordable starter home that is not a 80 year old trailer in a trailer park would be a dream come true!
Would be cool to see what they could do with colored concrete. I'd pick a gradient finish, personally.
what do you do if you have to replace a pipe beneath the house? Maybe future homes should include a crawlspace
Much as i like the beads. Im interested in seeing what other decorative options are possible. Like stucco, brick, veneer.
That's the best part. You can add anything you want
I can imagine that if there was a leak in the plumbing for the shower one would have to either remove the shower or remove the concrete wall on the other side to make the repairs. Why don’t they ever design easy access to the plumbing?
As a former low-voltage installer, both commercial and residential, and now as a handyman, I see upsides and downsides all over the place. That ribbed wall surface will be an absolute bastard to clean, especially in dusty locales, and mounting mirrors, artwork, TVs, cabinetry, and other items will be very problematic. I add extra outlets for handyman clients all the time, but that ain't happening here.
However, having masonry walls everywhere eliminates the need to find studding to hang heavy items (TVs, particularly) and since nearly everything has a throwaway packet of cheap hardware in it that nearly always includes plastic masonry anchors that are useless in drywall, those packets will be more useful.
Polished concrete as a flooring surface is a transient trend, and isn't actually widely popular, ESPECIALLY in cold climates.
In the long run, though, remodeling is effectively impossible. Additions? Extra rooms? Second stories? Kitchen updating? Jetted tub in the bathroom? Kick rocks, homeowners. If anyone tries, they will stand out like sore thumbs, if they're even possible at all.
Areas with small lot sizes and close proximity of neighboring houses? Unlikely that the printer could be set up. Really, this technology is probably only practicable (i.e. used in practice) in new tract construction on large open areas.
You wouldn’t be able to make any changes anyways. Lennar is HOA and they don’t allow major changes or construction to their builds
The housewife in me saw those walls and said h€ll no! I hate vacuuming/wiping baseboards. I’d really hate trying to clean dust out of that.
Yeah, it's a good point re cleaning. But you know, in the end, aside from changing the layout of the house, everything else you mentioned is solvable. Extra outlets and plumbing - well, just poke those holes in a few more places and install a trim plate and some extra PVC for future use. I don't think mounting things will be that difficult. Drilling holes for set screw in concrete is as easy as wood, then you place a backer board, add whatever you want in front of it, and trim it out. It will encourage you to make every addition to the walls a little more luxurious. Lastly, in terms of the wall surface, stucco for the exterior, or traditional grout/tile and/or wood sheathing or other interior wall treatments can easily hide some of that "ribbing" look of this construction design. I do agree that maybe aside from some specific load bearing walls relevant to the layout, the interior walls should not be printed with concrete, as that greatly hinders future remodeling. I think this 3D printing design for exterior, interwoven with "modular construction" techniques (factory built plug n play interior walls etc) would be a good mix.
Im so happy you wrote this so i didn't have to... dont buy one used unless you planning on a ground up rebuild!
@@bry2kthis home is like a speaker box... 1 day the box will no longer be able to be fixed or hold components like Tweeters & woofers will become windows, doors, cabinets, once you commit to a hole thats it no going back.... how to you run that machine in the middle of the wall? Or fix a layer that cracked... u dont... injoy building another box... but home size....
First time seeing a printed concrete house being built, very impressive to say the least and as always Matt is the perfect presenter of innovative homes and new materials.
Im surprised this wasn't said during the video but you can easily plaster these walls for a different look or accent wall.
Takes quite a bit of plaster with deep grooves like that. I think they would use a cement plaster to fill most of the wall. It would be pretty crazy to try and fill those quarter inch deep convex grooves with normal plaster or crack filler. You're looking at 100 quarts of plaster for a single 10'x20' wall. It's not impossible but that house might have 10'x400' of wall surface minus some windows and doors. It could take 2 cubic meters of cement plaster to smooth those surfaces and then plaster them with a surface plaster and sand them down. Somehow I think this isn't as cheap or fast as people make it out to be. This could be a reason why these houses often come with this fashionable out of the printer surface.
I think combining this with the factory built house technology (where houses are just assembled on site) for the roof structures would probably reduce costs even more. The factory could modularize the roof, MEP, and in-ceiling components/finish then just cap these printed structures so all the on-site trade work is reduced even more.
And there's no reason the ICON printer can't also do the initial painting (before the roof), it'd just need a new attachment arm to control the Z-axis and rotation of the sprayer.
Couple that with being able to also do the fencing and basic landscape elevations (flower boxes, etc.) and this can seriously reduce costs across all aspects of the process.
The outdoor accents being done from a list seems a little cookie cutter for me. Then again, I grew up on a farm with 140 acres, so we had a lot of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ kind of space to play in all day. Well that and taking care of the cows. Anyhow, being raised like that its hard for me to conform to the burbs, even though I've lived in small towns now most of my life.
I've seen a few that can 3D print roofs now saving a lot of money and time, they usually build it like they would a wall with steel reinforcement, but only for small homes, hoping they can do this for the bigger homes, considering how much time and money it'll save.
They should just do flat roofs. Then they can be used as rooftop patios.
They don't save time or money though.
If you do get significant water penetration, e.g. a flood, or a burst water pipe, or a really leaky window, how do you dry out the interior of the wall?
Good luck to the early adopters living in these early houses, and finding all the teething problems for these new materials and techniques.
I'm sure they'll find and fix those problems in the process, but this looks like the future for a certain type of construction for sure.
Explained right at the beginning 1:20
"we don't need weeps"
What a 🤡
You cut an opening in the wall, install some grow lights and throw in some seeds and admire your snappy cool terrarium!
If prolonged flooding did fill the wall with interior, one could drill exterior weep holes. Just think how much easier it will be to clean the interior with a power washer and replace the fixtures. 😉👍
Maybe a closed cell foam insulation that would completely fill the void spaces and make the walls watertight???
How long does it take to go from bare slab to the house you walked through? What about cold weather construction? How long to print the concrete? Hours? Days? How much concrete per 100 sq. ft. floor space? What about lack of adhesion of new vs old concrete from day-to-day? Concrete mixed on-site or delivered? How much down-time do the "printers" experience? What do you do if a "printer" breaks down mid-print? Wall expansion joints needed per code? Do the planters require interior waterproofing? Since all wood is in contact with concrete, is it all treated? How much OSB is wasted with the curved walls? How do you stop trust uplift?
Surely they could print a recess in the wall to insert a 2x10 "blocking" for the cabinets. At least with the uppers that would make more sense than concrete anchors, wouldn't it?
Yeah IDK if that would work. They don't print recesses much in these walls. They put in boxes or lentils for openings but that doesn't help if you need something to anchor to on the other side.
I don't like anchoring cabinets to masonry either. Especially with such an irregular surface. Anchors going through the seams of the layers seem like it would be a problem
I would think it's possible, but not as a recess. They would need likely a composite piece that gets laid on top of one row of mortar and gets mortared in on the next pass. It would be webbed in the middle to let the mortar pass through it and lock it in.
Downside being that you can't really alter your cabinet design at all down the road, or would have to plaster over the wall to hide them. Which I'd probably do in the kitchen anyway to keep grease etc from collecting in the ribs.
Maybe I could afford a house one day if technological innovations keep up
Sadly, this won't make homes cheaper for along time or if ever. But homes built will be way higher quality needing less repairs so that is a good thing.
houses will become cheaper if they start mass producing and jack up supply.
this is nice , the con is that the walls finishes will look the way they are, not smooth.
they should aim to do concrete flat roofs instead of all that bunch of wood
I wish lennar's regular builds had even close to that kind of attention to detail.
Well icon is probably spending a ton of money to do these to a much higher quality of finish..
I don't know, I'm in the Northeast and $250. A square foot for a concrete printed house does not seem very reasonable or affordable. If I could afford $250 a square foot that is not the house I'd want to live in
Not saying its right, but 3d printing is in the position that it has to prove itself. Taking the savings and putting a little extra polish on is smart to do when on the cutting edge. No doubt once it becomes normal lennar will buy their own printers instead of hiring ikon and print some really shitty houses.
@@matthewlawson4583
Seems pretty in line with national average home prices.
@@Clockwork0nions I would imagine that's no accident. If it costs more, it's cost of adoption. If it costs less, it's pure profit. Pricing of a product with one maker is subjective not objective.
Those walls will be a nightmare to keep clean.
Spring cleaning.... break out the pressure washer.
Maybe a steam cleaner would work...
Dust for days I know I was thinking that
Some sort of sealer would need to be applied. You would have all kinds of stains. Concrete is so porous.
The naysayers are full of "it". Smooth polished floors, washable carpets, vacuum cleaners (both robot and hose type. There is no problem here. Anyone says different is trying to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD).
Very nice.
I think ICF is going to be far more practical for the foreseeable future, but 3d printing in construction is definitely making progress!
This was fascinating to watch. Would love to live in one of these. Looks efficient for neighborhoods, not so much individual homes. But I see that they can just keep improving from here. I feel like they could have eliminated a lot of the wood and used metal.
Well, "out of the box" super creative....it boggles the mind what people can come up with with determination, focus and imagination! Wow! 😲😳🇨🇦👍
I hate drywall guys as much as the next electrician, but I would never want to work on one of these homes. I love how he said they want to make it “easy” for the other trades. Ha!
I would never buy a home that I can’t change any walls or hang a picture easily.
I’m not crazy about no drywall…I wonder if they could at least smooth out the interior walls?? How do you keep them clean?
TBH, if I’m spending this kind of $$$ I’d rather go with ICF with Rockwool (in lieu of styrofoam), at least I’d have the benefits of concrete but the traditional qualities of a conventionally built house.
Wonder how high it can print each day without too much compression? Maybe a foot ?
Beautiful homes!
Yeah they don't tell you that purposefully. You can't run this 24/7. The mortar will slump if you print too much on top of it. Wet mortar can't support the weight of 6ft on top of it without buckling.
@@Josh.1234 I mean if the building was large enough then technically you could print 24/7 haha. They could have a super long roller system that allows 1 printer to do multiple houses at a time. Would need lots of flat ground and good hose management tho too.
I imagine the insulation is a little difficult. Or fixing a pipe that might burst. Plus it would be almost impossible to do a remodel.
basically a prison
everythign is ridiculous with this "technology" simply because it is not a technology, jsut a company trying to surf ona hype, but lets be honnest, there is no reason to us "3d printing" to make concrete walls, concerte walls can be built faster and way easier with any other existing method, actually and building plain conrete walls is an heresy in most cases. a total waste of materials for very poor properties in term of insulation, weight etc etc This is total nonsense.
Great video, nice to see quality instead of junk like Dr Horton Homes that are being built everywhere I look in my area.
PVA fibers are likely part of the mix. PVA fibers were used in the first concrete exhibiting work hardening - concrete that actually gets stiffer when it cracks. It probably has a lot of fly ash in the mix too, along with some low density fillers and surfactants. There is a lot of development work in that mix, and the mix and the printer design have to evolve together.
70y later this mix probably will be dangerous as asbestos now
So it's not concrete..
James all you have done is GUESS... Come back when you have actual FACTS
Just started looking at this. I'm thinking because the interior surface is not flat, the walls are going to catch alot of dust - major turn off once people think about it.
It's like having mini blinds for walls.
Stucco them smooth, outside and in.
@@rotorheadv8 are you for real do you even realize the quantity of material and effort you would need to make these flat? And in the end, plain concrete walls are very terrible for a home and most building, think prison cells, huge humidity issue, incredible weight, huge waste of material, nightmare to pass plumbing and electricity and the list goes on and on. There is a reason why we dont build houses with plain concrete wall,s it its a total heresy and a huge waste of ressources for zero advantage. In fact the current technology : large hollow concrete or clay blocks if way superior to this joke, uses a fraction of materials and ressources (i think about 20 times less concrete, for example) provide way better insulation thanks to the hollow structure, a infinitely better strength to weight ratio, and flat and straight surface and straight angles which is very important for drywalls and finishing. So "3d printing" is a very good example of a so called "technology" which it is not, not solving a problem which doesnt exist anyway, bringing along an infinite list of drawbacks, all of which have been solved since a very long time with current technology.
I don't think this is ready to take over the industry, but its slow advancements that will make it useful. How is this better than a Concrete/Concrete block type home construction? The printer is probably a large initial cost, and it does take time to print the home verse putting in concrete forms or hand placing blocks. To me it has a higher initial capital cost and doesn't save time. It does reduce the head count required. By printing the interior walls, it also reduces the ability to renovate in the future. I imagine doing plumbing and electric runs is also more difficult, especially when moving runs.
To me I would like to see something that can work in 5-axis in more materials before I would consider a robot-built home. Most of the cost in new home construction are the contractors.
I would consider it if it were like my current stone house, all the exterior walls are masonry while all the interior walls are framed. You get the reliability of masonry while the upgradedness of framing.
@@whdfshawn this isnt masonry, its unreinforced poured concrete.
The advantage it has at this time over cast concrete is lower volume of material (but almost certainly not cost) and the potential for internal insulation. The advantage it has over block at this time is man-hours and some integrated mechanicals. As a technology, it's just dipping its toes into practicality. As the technology matures, it will probably yield us extremely strong, sanely-priced houses that look like a cross between a castle and a seashell or something. Don't get any funny ideas from Matt's attitude that this technology is totally ready to take the mass market by storm.
That was a great one. Loving the Icon shows. Can you please ask him more about the Nasa contract next time. I'm curious about what they take into consideration for their engineering and how it will improve their terrestrial operations as well.
I worked on CHAPEA (small role) over at NASA. It was really unique working around one of these structures. I can't wait for the manned missions to begin!
This is the future. Awsome. I wanna get in 3d printing myself. But this is beyond awsome
I’d be interested to know how this would score on a blower door test. Maybe a revisit? Either way, I love the tech but I just don’t see this ever being even remotely affordable in my lifetime. Even if the machinery becomes common, it will just mean more profits for the businesses, not reduced costs.
Definitely! Would be great for Matt to maybe get with Corbett Lunsford and do a performance review of these houses. Though it’s hard to say of Lenar would allow that, they probably wouldn’t like the potential to highlight any shortcomings of their community project.
Would be getting a higher quality house as well
Blower test would be very poor I imagine. They said exceed 2.5x energy standards but it’s hard for me to believe. I doubt they would allow a blower test. Emphasis was done on how water resistant it is, and lack of trades, but almost nothing on efficiency
@@ALLworldCONSTRUCTIONLLC Yeah, sadly it’s probably going to be awhile before there’s one that gets a blower door done. But would definitely be interesting to see how it rates on everything.
@@ALLworldCONSTRUCTIONLLC why wouldn't it do well? The painted continuous concrete should be nearly airtight, probably as airtight as any really well executed zip system etc in the real world. Then add nearly continuous slow rise foam between the walls (looked like there were a few places the integral beam structures touched the outer wall, but very few), and you have very high R value and almost certainly as airtight as it's feasible to achieve.
The big question marks would be the quality of the windows/doors and how well air sealed they are to the rest of the structure, and the attic insulation plan. If done closed cell on roof deck, that would be incredibly tight as well, with the one challenging area of the roof trusses bottom chords sitting on top of the wall. With the overhangs, you could get a pretty good connection to the wall insulation, but the thermal bridges of all the rafters poking through the insulation envelope would be the biggest weak point... One place where a full zip system that goes continuous up the walls and over the roof would have an advantage.
I cant wait for the day a person can rent different sized ICON CNC lava-crete machines, assemble it themselves and print whatever they want. Average people will download open sourced building plans, rent a machine for the weekend (or build their own), and print whatever tiny house, outhouse, or doghouse they want to. Hell, they could go wild and start printing park benches and Stonehenge replicas...Anythings possible.
3D concrete printers would not be a good rental item. Try finding a rental concrete pump.
@@wilfredvanvalkenburgh2874 Exactly! Its just a "automatic concrete machine" but sense its labeled as it is it cost several times more than a concrete truck.
Keep dreaming, it's never gonna happen
No, You would need way too much upfront Knowledge to concrete mix ratio's etc to run one of these things, and the Building code knowledge as well.
@@scottcarr3264 within 10 years the robot will have enough sense to build with codes in mind. They will sell prepackaged dry mix too prolly, patented of course, that could be mixed.
I could def see them either renting or selling the machinery.
One thing I see being a common issue with the interior walls being printed also is Wi-Fi and other home networking issues. Wi-Fi can't go through concrete, so either every room will need a Cat 5e or better ethernet wire run to it, or "networking over power" solution through the electrical outlets, with each room having a box. Also, no cellular, so the Wi-Fi converters through the electrical wires will be necessary.
If that was the only issue, lol, this is beyond a joke, you never want plain conrete walls in individual houses, and in most contructions actually. This is a typical example of a so called "technology" which isnt one, doesnt solve any problem, and actually brings more problems than the current technologies. TO build houses we use large contrete or clay hollow blocks, it is very cheap, very fast, lightwaeight on the structure, very strong,and has excellent insulation properties. All things that "3d printing" cannot do.
If I owned one I'd either learn solid plastering or hire someone pretty quickly... Good utility.
yeah but there might be a way to finish the concrete like they do floors with color and everything. now that would be cool. but for the moment plaster should be quite easy
Would love to see how the future repairs will look, slab leaks are hard to detect on plastic pipe. He said it would be easy to renovate but that can’t be true, brick houses are far more difficult to work on than drywall.
Wish I was 25 again and in this kind of construction. This must be the way for future construction. Great video. Thanks
Imagine how hard repairs will be.
Its a lot easier to replace bricks or make something flat, than it is to emulate the look & texture of this stuff
Why I think ultimately places are going to do something like what mud bot is doing so have flat concert walls.
Coming from someone who was a janitor for a number of years, I personally wouldn't want the beads visible as you will now have to dust the walls. Other than that, this is super cool
What about basements or second floors? I'm sure basements would be typical concrete, but what about doing second floor plans?
Big fan of the simplicity. I think this would feel more comfortable than regular concrete walls, and the acoustics should be better. It should also reduce landfill waste considerably.
I think wood still has a strong future where forests are plentiful, because of its negative carbon footprint and ease of construction. I'm working on something disruptive that's wood-based, we'll see where it goes.
Agree about the acoustics... I would think this would diffuse sound reflections enough to be far more neutral than a smoother walled equivalent concrete structure, and transmission between rooms should be non existent through the walls (doors and through the attic of course still in play), as well as being very quiet inside from outdoor noise.
I would def have wood countertops most likely butcher block in house like this.
It does not seem that you can get a very high R value for the exterior walls unless you add insulation on exterior or interior.
Yeah it's hard to tell, they are filling the cores with closed cell (super expensive) but there is still thermal bridging with those lattices going between the walls. Also there is no thermal block between the exterior of the slab and the wall. Cold will penetrate right through the floor there. Probably not a concern as much in Texas but good luck in colder zones.
@@Josh.1234 Check out the latest video on Belinda Carr's RUclips channel for a much more balanced look at 3D printing.
Insulation should always be outside of, and protecting the structure. It's problematic to have it in the same plane (as in a stud framed house). Unfortunately almost no one can afford to do that.
The price of homes is beyond the everyman stage at this point....When I bought my first home it cost the equivalent of 3 years salary....Over the last 40 years my salary has more than tripled but to buy that exact same home today would equate to 8 years salary...Basically the cost of houses has outstripped the earning capacity of the people they are selling them to.