Could a Ferrocement Dome be a Survival Shelter for You?

% of readers think this story is Fact. Add your two cents.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve written about domes, but any time I have, the post has been well received. One of the most popular is A Few Tips for Building Domes for Survival Shelter. I refer interested readers to it often.

When I found out about David Nash’s interest in building ferrocement domes for survival shelter, I contacted him right away to ask him to be a guest on DestinySurvival Radio. He was on with me yesterday. He was also on a few months ago to share some general thoughts on prepping, and you can read about it here.

David’s Kick Starter page–This is what prompted me to get back in touch with David. During this month of July he has a Kick Starter page up which you can view here. He’s raising the modest funds for construction materials for his ferrocement dome project. He’s writing a how-to book which will be released late next year.

Take a few minutes to check out the Kick Starter page because the number of backers serves to show the book’s publisher how much interest there is in the subject. The page won’t be up for many more days as of this writing, but after July you can contact David directly about his project through his Shepherd School site.

David’s vision–He and his wife have a piece of land on which they plan to build several small, sustainable buildings from different materials, such as adobe and cob construction. One of the quickest and cheapest ways to put up a shelter is to make a geodesic dome from ferrocement.

While he’s doing that, he’ll document it for a forthcoming book. He says there are no such manuals on the market now.

The ferrocement dome–Ferrocement has been used for boat construction and has proven its strength and worthiness. David’s dome will be 16 foot in diameter and 8 feet tall. He’ll build the frame from flattened conduit piping, cover it with chicken mesh, and plaster a thin layer of cement mix over it on either side. This makes a structure sturdy enough and shaped in such a way so it can withstand tornadoes and other natural disasters, like fires and earthquakes.

David says this kind of dome can be put up over a weekend. And it can be built for $500 or less. While it can be a place to live, David may use it for storage.

We discussed how such a structure might be anchored, insulated, heated and provided with lighting. Entry ways and windows need to be preplanned before the cement goes on. David aims to show how the dome can be simple and sustainable..

Practical instruction–David can be called a DIY disaster resilience advocate. He has a passion for teaching you and me practical ways to be prepared. That’s what the Shepherd School is about. Plus, this fall he’s releasing a new book called 52 Prepper Projects: A Project a Week to Help You Prepare for the Unpredictable, which will include projects you can do that aren’t just theoretical.

Find out more–As always, David and I talked about more than I have time to share here. Hear our conversation by listening to DestinySurvival Radio for July 25, 2013. Contribute to the dome project via David’s Kick Starter page here before July ends. View David’s latest articles and videos on prepping by going to www.tngun.com, which is his site for the Shepherd School.

Click on the titles of his books to order from Amazon. They are Understanding the Use of Handguns for Self-Defense and 52 Prepper Projects: A Project a Week to Help You Prepare for the Unpredictable. Add the book you want to your cart to start the order process.

Does a ferrocement dome appeal to you? Have you built any kind of survival shelter you’d like to tell others about? Leave a comment below with your insights.