We were selected to act as the foam insulation applicator on a unique home located at 4737 Piney Swamp road in Hayes, VA.  The home is a 2,200 square feet Monolithic Domed Home built completely of brick and masonry by a master mason for his wife. 

The foam insulation was applied in stages:  Stage One consisted of spraying a three inch thick layer of closed cell, two pound density foam against the exterior brick wall of the domed structure.  You may be able to note from the photos that the plastic roof of the dome is being held up by a high pressure air pump that actually creates enough positive pressure inside the dome to hold the plastic roof in place during this phase.  The air pump is the same type used to circulate air inside huge grain elevators to keep the grain from absorbing moisture.   Our workers entered the dome by using an “air lock” at the front door.  You opened the outside door, secured it, waited until the pressure had time to build within the air lock chamber and then entered the work area of the dome.  Once we had sprayed the three inches of foam on the exterior brick walls, the mason could pick his time to lay the interior course of brick which would form the interior wall.  The result was a very sturdy and energy efficient wall structure.

Phase Two was begun after another contractor specializing in “spray-on” concrete came out and sprayed a two inch thick layer of “spray-crete” on the outside of the plastic dome which was still being held in place by air pressure from within the dome.  This “spray-crete” is essentially the same material used on expensive in-ground swimming pools.  Once the “spray-crete” had cured, we were called back to the site to spray a three inch thick layer of closed cell foam against the inside of the plastic roof dome.  Please note from the photos that we employed a carousel scaffolding system that allowed us to literally roll right around the dome with little or no effort.  Once that foam was complete, we helped install re-bar hangers to the foam that employed a serrated prong to embed into the foam, leaving a six inch tail used to tie the steel re-bar into the overhead.  The steel re-bar would give the dome a tremendous load capability.  Once the installation of the re-bar was complete, the final step was the application of another two inches of “spray-crete” to the inside of the dome to complete the very energy efficient structure.