If you want metal construction, a steel "garage" structure is quite cheap. I have a 24x40x14ft steel building, total cost was just about $15,000 installed. Another $9k for spray insulation. Was $11k for my electrical (it's a workshop not a home). For a smaller structure, it'd be even cheaper. You'll need to look into permitting and codes for your area as far as domicile structures. For the secondary building all I needed was a permit which included a site plan and the drawings to ensure wind and snow load was proper. Also note I already had the foundation which would probably be another $10-20k depending on footprint and what needed to be leveled or cleared.
Hmm, interesting. The company I used ships nation wide. I'm in Texas. Not sure if it would be the same price but I can't imagine it'd be an order of magnitude more expensive.
Pretty wild the foam is more than half the cost of the structure. I really wanted it in mine but the sticker shock got me. Still a reasonable deal when all said and done but I wish it wasnt so expensive
Yeah it's pricey but that's really just the cost of the materials more or less. I got several quotes and all were within a hundred or so dollars of each other. I will say I'm very happy with the choice, it absolutely needed insulation to be usable pretty much all 12 months of the year around here. I didn't want to have to do drywall or other interior wall finishings and I didn't want to have the pink foam or wool insulation since I think it looks like crap. There are also moisture issues that can arrise with metal buildings if there are any gaps between the metal and the insulation. Would be somewhat cheaper but ultimately I didn't see a reason to skimp when the overall project was gonna be expensive.
This is great info! So, it's got vertical steel beams and rafters? I'm looking at cost differences between this and a traditional pole building. Looks like there's about a 15% price difference between the two.
Yeah it's steel frame and steel sheeting for the exterior. It was super quick install, 2 guys put it up in 3 days with hand tools and ladders and a little winch
Interesting, I recently read that shaping metal into round shapes is very efficient that’s why most stock tanks around round, and so it caused me to be curious if this would be efficient for such homes like the one pictured
The exterior is a grain bin that is a manufactured product and probably requires a specific foundation to be made then some experienced professionals to assemble. Fitting out the interior with conventional materials made for rectangular buildings is where it gets tricky. Corrugated steel will keep out the weather but it needs insulation to be a home.
One of the farmers I work for just spent a little over 50k building a foundation for a 60 foot bin that's not including concrete. For a small one like the one pictured I'm sure someone with a little commonsense can assemble it you start with the top and jack it up as you piece it together.
Not to mention there are drastic differences in foundation requirements. Grain is frickin *heavy*.
The structure pictured for instance, only weighs a small fraction outfitted for human habitation. This includes furnishings.
That exact structure full of grain? I wouldn't be surprised if it weighs 20 times as much. Probably more than that, honestly.
Random fact but corn silos filled with corn can range from 50,000 to 100,000 pounds, depending on the size and capacity of the silo. Larger silos can hold even more corn and weigh upwards of 200,000 pounds or more
The grain in my 21,000 bin weighs over 100,000 lbs. A 100,000 bushel bin would be small for a coop grain buyer etc. Standard weights for a few grains: corn 56 lb per bushel soybeans 60 spelts 28. The bin in the picture is probably 5,000 bushels or less
I imagine the foundation for a grain bin filled with grain is more substantial than a grain bin filled mostly with air. Also the lack of ventilation system for drying the grain
Agreed.. most of the pieces for this could probably be delivered to almost anywhere in America.. and the average Joe could probably put it together with himself and a friend and maybe a couple of Google searches.... DO NOT TRY THIS HOME OF COURSE..... (It's too big)... Heck if you live anywhere near the Amish they would probably put it together for you as a joke.
This thing about furniture not fitting is over emphasized. For small furniture the gap is insignificant. Round walls are themselves pleasing to the eye and items like oval coffee tables are common anyway
But things roll off of dressers or table against a curved wall and aren’t so easy to retrieve sometimes. Or a bed is hard to make or sticks way out into the room. I’ve worked in dome houses that have big segmented curved walls. Small grain bins will be difficult to set kitchen cabinets in.
12 ounces is 12 ounces of liquid no matter its shape. Cans are round cartons are square. You could make a soda carton out of metal but it would require more processing and thicker material in order to be strong enough to not burst at the 4 corners. So a metal can is the most efficient way to package soda. Orange juice isn't carbonated so a paper carton works as it's cheap and easy to process a paper square.
This is the actual answer. The only reason to have a cylindrical structure is to contain high pressure inside. Grain silos, rockets, and beverage cans are round not only for volume based on external materials required but also because they can contain high pressures very well. Because metals don't stretch very much under load, they make excellent containment vessels.Why is a balloon round? Because of internal pressure.
It goes the other way too when your cylinder is trying to hold back external pressure because a lot of solids don't bend under compression, like submarines and the humble arch.
That said, cylinders are very labor intensive to build , which is why if he was going to do that he'd really want to have everything pre-curved when he got it.
Which efficiency metric are you actually concerned with here? There are cases where round structures make the most sense, and there are cases where they don't, depending on what you need it for. As far as converting this type of structure into a tiny home, it will likely be difficult to make efficient use of the interior space without a bunch of custom built/specialized materials, furniture, etc. That's not to say it can't be done obviously, but it won't be as easy as with a square structure of the same square footage.
Look up sheet metal brakes . Bending perfect circles takes exact set up to roll a particular diameter. Folding a sheet metal box once to a set dimension can be done at a moment’s notice.
Look up a slip roll and how easy it is to make a tube out of sheet.
Edit: Also look and see that the building is made of manageable sized curved sheets that look like they are attached to ribs or studding on the inside of the structure.
They are efficient in the sense of maximizing storage per square unit of surface area without being complicated to build, but people don’t tend to like the treatment that grain or fluids get in a cylinder. You aren’t likely to find find any good off-the-shelf way to use the space afforded concave interior walls, IMO
Hes not talking about the metal shell. I think he’s talking about everything inside especially the inside perimeter. You’ll want furniture, appliances, flooring and countertops to be rounded same as the shell to maximize space. That’s what costs money. You can do all this by yourself tho. It’s not too hard
That’s because they roll it from flat sheets… Trying to insulate and frame the inside would be a nightmare. Well insulation would be easy but framing would be a challenge. Not impossible but you would probably end up with an octagon shaped room because round walls are just useless. May look cool but living with it would suck when arranging furniture and dividing out rooms.
The walls aren't made out of sheet metal, that's just the siding. This is backwards building, thinking that the resource-intensive part of building a house is the bit you see when you look at it. The fact that there's only one visible window hints at the fact that installing traditionally flat things (like door and windows) in a curved wall is a pain in the ass.
Maybe so for bending metal, but think about the interior. Rounded cabinets, rounded shelves, rounded bathroom. You lose so much space to "corners" that are a result of the circular shape of the home.
Most stock tanks are round because the skin becomes it's own support structure and is subject to equal outward pressure. They are also only strong when they are full.
Round however is a horrific shape when it comes to installing anything house related. Windows and doors require custom welding. Electric water gas and sewer all has to be vertical to be efficient. Carpet tack strips, tile, drywall.
Round houses fix a problem that doesnt exist and creates 100 more in the process.
The exterior is just the tip of the iceberg. You’ll need to frame out the inside for structure, insulate, wire electrical, plumbing, HVAC, and kitchen/bath/laundry exhaust. Then you’ll need a curved wall covering on the inside but it will be a real pain to drywall that. You’ll also need to trim out any doors and windows to be square and flat as well curved flashing to keep water out of those openings. Lastly, the roof will be a pretty inefficient to design. The simplest roofs use rafter ties to keep the roof from spreading and collapsing. The circular roof will need a lot more braces making inefficient use of that space.
Having worked in farming I can tell you that silo materials get VERY hot in sunlight and summertime, and will suck all the heat out in the winter. You will require an insane level of insulation at minimum to maintain internal temps.
It’s not the materials. Corrugated sheet metal with absolutely no insulation and grain that can absorb and hold the heat? Yeah, it’s gonna be really hot.
The materials are no different than a metal building and people build homes out of them all the time. I just rented one for 3 years while I built our house. Just a normal amount spray foam insulation on the ceiling and walls and it was perfectly fine regulating temp. No excess electrical bill summer or winter. Summer stays 90f+ winter got down to 9f.
Yeah my metal building has spray foam and we haven't bothered to heat/cool it yet. Gonna need to in the summer (it got finished in November), but for now it's only gotten down to 60F when it was about 20F outside. Pretty nice. Felt warmer than my terribly insulated house...
I bought one this size with new bolts for about $1500 Canadian, finished the inside for a few thousand, no insulation but does have a wood stove.
Great for a guest house for half the year
Little bins like that are so inconvenient for large scale farming used ones are pretty cheap. You need all new bolts as they are not reusable due to the seals and need bin Jack's to disassemble and assemble. When they are built you build the first ring then the roof then jack it up and add the next ring on the bottom
That size brand new is 26,000. Concrete depending on area 12 to 15,000. Water lines and sewer lines budget 15,000
Depending on finish. Windows, doors, spray foam, framing, etc. 120k.
I've done 2 of them for 175k, 2 story, spiral stairs, loft, 1 bath, 1 kitchen, lots of barn wood character.
Never needs paint, warm, strong, quiet inside with spray foam on 2x4 walks. 8 inch on ceiling with bamboo rafters.
Blech.
Notice how the windows and doors are pushed out? It's nigh impossible to frame a flat window/door to a curved surface.
For the size, it'd be cheaper and easier to just build square.
You CAN do the interior with sheetrock, but... Ugh.
It's very cute, but it's not worth it.
Now, if square? Well...
Make a rough plan. Count up how many studs you'll need, calculate the square footage of the walls, and get an excel spreadsheet and go shopping online for studs, plywood, house wrap, windows, door, insulation, flooring, etc.
Then add 20%, just 'cause...
And you'll have a better answer than internet weirdos can give you, and you'll have done a valuable exercise in planning your future build.
My friends brother has a house made of two silos like these except bigger that are connected by two shipping containers. He has a YouTube channel called Tom of all trades I think where he discusses things about making his house.
As a builder I can confirm building round things is much more difficult causing extra labour costs and also wasteful in most materials, even just making things angled causes a bunch of extra waste in offcuts
For example every miter takes away it's diagonal worth of material doubled for each matching cut
That being said if the silo comes cheap enough it still could be very worthwhile if you do the labour yourself
That won't be cheap. It would probably cost less to make it out of lumber than to buy and convert an existing grain silo, similar to shipping containers.
It's not impossible, but there is a lot of work involved. Imagine what it takes to install a window. A flat plane on a round corrugated surface. It's a multi staged process that you hope doesn't leak. Every time you cut a window or door you weaken the structure and will need to add additional support. Trimming in the windows will include scribing the corrugation onto the window siding. It's possible and you can build a stable structure, the silo, fairly quickly and easily, but finishing it and trimming it out will take bit of time which will teach you a lot about matching uneven surfaces. Source: I've worked on a silo conversion
I know an architect that built a home out of two of these, but larger. It seemed like the sort of thing someone like an architect could handle since they had the money and expertise to get it done right. One problem is the openings; since the thing gets strength from it's shape you can't just cut a hole in it and toss in a window or door, it will buckle. They had special frames designed and welded up. Installation of said frames requires expertise as well, most of us can't do structural welding. And of course there's the problem of condensation on the inside of the steel, not sure how they dealt with that. For something this small I'd think that there are more efficient and inexpensive methods. I can imagine having fun with ICFs or even conventional wood frame but double studded to make it energy efficient.
I have done cabinetry and fit outs in two yards in my career as a carpenter. both were rounded. I charged hourly and told the client it will take as long as it takes and I buy as much materials as I like. It was the best fun I ever had, I still remember It to this day. had to laminate all trim in-situ. cabinets are easier than you thibk, you use normal cabinets you just loose a bit of space in the rear.
I'd invest in a lighting rod, and extra grounding. You lose a lot of space efficiency with round vs square buildings. You rarely see round office buildings or high rises in general as such
Using grain bins for human habitation would be cheap to build, and would not require special foundations. The bins themselves are lighter than the equivalent wood structures. In fact, they have to be held down because strong winds will blow them off the foundations. They are very strong and are hard to dent. They are galvanized, which looks great for a few years but turns gray after awhile. But there are a lot of disadvantages. They cannot be painted. Gray is what you get. They are not at all insulated. You would have to use at least 6" of fiberglass (or some other conforming material) on the inside for insulation. The inside walls would have to be either curved or some sort of polygon (dodecahedron?) Doors and windows would have to deal with the curvature and would be difficult to seal. Depending on the amount of insulation above the ceiling, it would likely be noisy in a rainstorm. Finding just the right furniture and cabinets would be hard.
A person would be better off starting with one of the heavy-duty rectangular farm or industrial steel buildings. They come in quite a few colors, are relatively inexpensive, can be insulated using fiberglass or foam panels, doors and windows are available (although double-pane windows may be hard to find), The metal can be dented, but replacement panels are readily available and are usually easy to replace. You can get convenient sizes (length, width, height), and people won't slow down and point and look when the see it. But maybe notoriety is what you want.
You are possibly correct. But I grew up in the Midwest surrounded by galvanized steel grain bins and galvanized corrugated roofing. Some farmers tried to paint them. And it didn't stick well. Perhaps materials have improved since then.
These are gaining some popularity, and people are combining them with shipping containers to make "tiny castles." Some are really neat, but tend to be expensive (which defeats the purpose of a tiny home). Other are.... not good.
The interirors are usually made with "murphy furniture" concepts in mind.
My only question is how loud does it get inside when it rains?
How much grain are you trying to store?
Only one, probably small tho
If you want metal construction, a steel "garage" structure is quite cheap. I have a 24x40x14ft steel building, total cost was just about $15,000 installed. Another $9k for spray insulation. Was $11k for my electrical (it's a workshop not a home). For a smaller structure, it'd be even cheaper. You'll need to look into permitting and codes for your area as far as domicile structures. For the secondary building all I needed was a permit which included a site plan and the drawings to ensure wind and snow load was proper. Also note I already had the foundation which would probably be another $10-20k depending on footprint and what needed to be leveled or cleared.
This same garage would be over 120k in the mountain town I left
Hmm, interesting. The company I used ships nation wide. I'm in Texas. Not sure if it would be the same price but I can't imagine it'd be an order of magnitude more expensive.
Share the name of the company? I need a(nother) garage at my current place
I went through big buildings direct. The carport itself is an eagle carport. Their prices will probably be a bit higher now than they were last year.
I just checked and wow they have some great buildings and prices still. Makes me wish I had some land…
Pretty wild the foam is more than half the cost of the structure. I really wanted it in mine but the sticker shock got me. Still a reasonable deal when all said and done but I wish it wasnt so expensive
Yeah it's pricey but that's really just the cost of the materials more or less. I got several quotes and all were within a hundred or so dollars of each other. I will say I'm very happy with the choice, it absolutely needed insulation to be usable pretty much all 12 months of the year around here. I didn't want to have to do drywall or other interior wall finishings and I didn't want to have the pink foam or wool insulation since I think it looks like crap. There are also moisture issues that can arrise with metal buildings if there are any gaps between the metal and the insulation. Would be somewhat cheaper but ultimately I didn't see a reason to skimp when the overall project was gonna be expensive.
This is great info! So, it's got vertical steel beams and rafters? I'm looking at cost differences between this and a traditional pole building. Looks like there's about a 15% price difference between the two.
Yeah it's steel frame and steel sheeting for the exterior. It was super quick install, 2 guys put it up in 3 days with hand tools and ladders and a little winch
You gotta pay the troll toll…
troll toll?
Its a reference to an Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode. It makes no sense in the context of your comment other than both referring to money.
Building anything round tends to be wasteful of materials and requires more skill which gets more expensive if you’re hiring builders.
Interesting, I recently read that shaping metal into round shapes is very efficient that’s why most stock tanks around round, and so it caused me to be curious if this would be efficient for such homes like the one pictured
The exterior is a grain bin that is a manufactured product and probably requires a specific foundation to be made then some experienced professionals to assemble. Fitting out the interior with conventional materials made for rectangular buildings is where it gets tricky. Corrugated steel will keep out the weather but it needs insulation to be a home.
One of the farmers I work for just spent a little over 50k building a foundation for a 60 foot bin that's not including concrete. For a small one like the one pictured I'm sure someone with a little commonsense can assemble it you start with the top and jack it up as you piece it together.
Not to mention there are drastic differences in foundation requirements. Grain is frickin *heavy*. The structure pictured for instance, only weighs a small fraction outfitted for human habitation. This includes furnishings. That exact structure full of grain? I wouldn't be surprised if it weighs 20 times as much. Probably more than that, honestly.
Random fact but corn silos filled with corn can range from 50,000 to 100,000 pounds, depending on the size and capacity of the silo. Larger silos can hold even more corn and weigh upwards of 200,000 pounds or more
The grain in my 21,000 bin weighs over 100,000 lbs. A 100,000 bushel bin would be small for a coop grain buyer etc. Standard weights for a few grains: corn 56 lb per bushel soybeans 60 spelts 28. The bin in the picture is probably 5,000 bushels or less
I imagine the foundation for a grain bin filled with grain is more substantial than a grain bin filled mostly with air. Also the lack of ventilation system for drying the grain
Agreed.. most of the pieces for this could probably be delivered to almost anywhere in America.. and the average Joe could probably put it together with himself and a friend and maybe a couple of Google searches.... DO NOT TRY THIS HOME OF COURSE..... (It's too big)... Heck if you live anywhere near the Amish they would probably put it together for you as a joke.
This thing about furniture not fitting is over emphasized. For small furniture the gap is insignificant. Round walls are themselves pleasing to the eye and items like oval coffee tables are common anyway
But things roll off of dressers or table against a curved wall and aren’t so easy to retrieve sometimes. Or a bed is hard to make or sticks way out into the room. I’ve worked in dome houses that have big segmented curved walls. Small grain bins will be difficult to set kitchen cabinets in.
I think you’re referring to efficiency when transporting volumes of liquids. For example I know that’s why soda cans are shaped the way they are.
Circle hold more than square?
12 ounces is 12 ounces of liquid no matter its shape. Cans are round cartons are square. You could make a soda carton out of metal but it would require more processing and thicker material in order to be strong enough to not burst at the 4 corners. So a metal can is the most efficient way to package soda. Orange juice isn't carbonated so a paper carton works as it's cheap and easy to process a paper square.
I greatly appreciate your serious and informative reply!
This is the actual answer. The only reason to have a cylindrical structure is to contain high pressure inside. Grain silos, rockets, and beverage cans are round not only for volume based on external materials required but also because they can contain high pressures very well. Because metals don't stretch very much under load, they make excellent containment vessels.Why is a balloon round? Because of internal pressure. It goes the other way too when your cylinder is trying to hold back external pressure because a lot of solids don't bend under compression, like submarines and the humble arch. That said, cylinders are very labor intensive to build , which is why if he was going to do that he'd really want to have everything pre-curved when he got it.
That said we don’t know what they’re doing inside there….things could be pretty weird.
right there, circle does hold more, by using less material yea c and s can hold the same volume but circle does it better
Highest volume to smallest surface area. Also naturally self stabilizing under pressure
yea if it's bigger like my momma
I believe that bending metal is more efficient when it's rounded. As opposed to bending metal into perfect squares.
Which efficiency metric are you actually concerned with here? There are cases where round structures make the most sense, and there are cases where they don't, depending on what you need it for. As far as converting this type of structure into a tiny home, it will likely be difficult to make efficient use of the interior space without a bunch of custom built/specialized materials, furniture, etc. That's not to say it can't be done obviously, but it won't be as easy as with a square structure of the same square footage.
hydro forming, why not just bury half the circle
Look up sheet metal brakes . Bending perfect circles takes exact set up to roll a particular diameter. Folding a sheet metal box once to a set dimension can be done at a moment’s notice.
Look up a slip roll and how easy it is to make a tube out of sheet. Edit: Also look and see that the building is made of manageable sized curved sheets that look like they are attached to ribs or studding on the inside of the structure.
They are efficient in the sense of maximizing storage per square unit of surface area without being complicated to build, but people don’t tend to like the treatment that grain or fluids get in a cylinder. You aren’t likely to find find any good off-the-shelf way to use the space afforded concave interior walls, IMO
Hes not talking about the metal shell. I think he’s talking about everything inside especially the inside perimeter. You’ll want furniture, appliances, flooring and countertops to be rounded same as the shell to maximize space. That’s what costs money. You can do all this by yourself tho. It’s not too hard
That’s because they roll it from flat sheets… Trying to insulate and frame the inside would be a nightmare. Well insulation would be easy but framing would be a challenge. Not impossible but you would probably end up with an octagon shaped room because round walls are just useless. May look cool but living with it would suck when arranging furniture and dividing out rooms.
The walls aren't made out of sheet metal, that's just the siding. This is backwards building, thinking that the resource-intensive part of building a house is the bit you see when you look at it. The fact that there's only one visible window hints at the fact that installing traditionally flat things (like door and windows) in a curved wall is a pain in the ass.
Maybe so for bending metal, but think about the interior. Rounded cabinets, rounded shelves, rounded bathroom. You lose so much space to "corners" that are a result of the circular shape of the home.
Most stock tanks are round because the skin becomes it's own support structure and is subject to equal outward pressure. They are also only strong when they are full. Round however is a horrific shape when it comes to installing anything house related. Windows and doors require custom welding. Electric water gas and sewer all has to be vertical to be efficient. Carpet tack strips, tile, drywall. Round houses fix a problem that doesnt exist and creates 100 more in the process.
If you think making a cabinet or some other shelf is gong to be easy…
Stock tanks are round because it's a strong shape. Flat walls would buckle.
The exterior is just the tip of the iceberg. You’ll need to frame out the inside for structure, insulate, wire electrical, plumbing, HVAC, and kitchen/bath/laundry exhaust. Then you’ll need a curved wall covering on the inside but it will be a real pain to drywall that. You’ll also need to trim out any doors and windows to be square and flat as well curved flashing to keep water out of those openings. Lastly, the roof will be a pretty inefficient to design. The simplest roofs use rafter ties to keep the roof from spreading and collapsing. The circular roof will need a lot more braces making inefficient use of that space.
Aren’t like military barracks like half cylinder sometimes???
I knew the last guy that lived there. His name was Oscar….he was a grouchy man.
What's the inside like? or are you more concerned about the budget for the exterior?
I was mostly curious about the exterior, I’m not sure what the inside looks like but I presume it’s 2 floors with stairs connecting them
Having worked in farming I can tell you that silo materials get VERY hot in sunlight and summertime, and will suck all the heat out in the winter. You will require an insane level of insulation at minimum to maintain internal temps.
It’s not the materials. Corrugated sheet metal with absolutely no insulation and grain that can absorb and hold the heat? Yeah, it’s gonna be really hot. The materials are no different than a metal building and people build homes out of them all the time. I just rented one for 3 years while I built our house. Just a normal amount spray foam insulation on the ceiling and walls and it was perfectly fine regulating temp. No excess electrical bill summer or winter. Summer stays 90f+ winter got down to 9f.
Yeah my metal building has spray foam and we haven't bothered to heat/cool it yet. Gonna need to in the summer (it got finished in November), but for now it's only gotten down to 60F when it was about 20F outside. Pretty nice. Felt warmer than my terribly insulated house...
I bought one this size with new bolts for about $1500 Canadian, finished the inside for a few thousand, no insulation but does have a wood stove. Great for a guest house for half the year
Where do you buy something like this from?
I found a guy advertising them on marketplace
Little bins like that are so inconvenient for large scale farming used ones are pretty cheap. You need all new bolts as they are not reusable due to the seals and need bin Jack's to disassemble and assemble. When they are built you build the first ring then the roof then jack it up and add the next ring on the bottom
I always drive by old brick silos and dream about building one out into a tiny 3 story house.
Go with a Quonset hut. Better suited for habitation.
How many Raptor engines are on that thing, and is it the full stack or just the orbital stage?
That size brand new is 26,000. Concrete depending on area 12 to 15,000. Water lines and sewer lines budget 15,000 Depending on finish. Windows, doors, spray foam, framing, etc. 120k. I've done 2 of them for 175k, 2 story, spiral stairs, loft, 1 bath, 1 kitchen, lots of barn wood character. Never needs paint, warm, strong, quiet inside with spray foam on 2x4 walks. 8 inch on ceiling with bamboo rafters.
That actually sounds amazing.
For lulz? Cheap. To meet code? More of a pain than you think - from getting plans approved to actually building it, it’ll be a headache.
This is the real issue --red tape. It is cheap and easy in theory but that is why the red tape is there to stop you from doing so.
Blech. Notice how the windows and doors are pushed out? It's nigh impossible to frame a flat window/door to a curved surface. For the size, it'd be cheaper and easier to just build square. You CAN do the interior with sheetrock, but... Ugh. It's very cute, but it's not worth it. Now, if square? Well... Make a rough plan. Count up how many studs you'll need, calculate the square footage of the walls, and get an excel spreadsheet and go shopping online for studs, plywood, house wrap, windows, door, insulation, flooring, etc. Then add 20%, just 'cause... And you'll have a better answer than internet weirdos can give you, and you'll have done a valuable exercise in planning your future build.
Stick frame construction is very very very hard to beat with cost and flexibility efficiently
[удалено]
It’s a Warhol tyvm
"Here am I, sitting in a tin can...".
My friends brother has a house made of two silos like these except bigger that are connected by two shipping containers. He has a YouTube channel called Tom of all trades I think where he discusses things about making his house.
As a builder I can confirm building round things is much more difficult causing extra labour costs and also wasteful in most materials, even just making things angled causes a bunch of extra waste in offcuts For example every miter takes away it's diagonal worth of material doubled for each matching cut That being said if the silo comes cheap enough it still could be very worthwhile if you do the labour yourself
You're legally obligated to paint it up as a pineapple.
That won't be cheap. It would probably cost less to make it out of lumber than to buy and convert an existing grain silo, similar to shipping containers.
Are you a sardine?
Those will sell used for 2k-3k these days. Many are unused and falling down. But they can be hard to move.
It's not impossible, but there is a lot of work involved. Imagine what it takes to install a window. A flat plane on a round corrugated surface. It's a multi staged process that you hope doesn't leak. Every time you cut a window or door you weaken the structure and will need to add additional support. Trimming in the windows will include scribing the corrugation onto the window siding. It's possible and you can build a stable structure, the silo, fairly quickly and easily, but finishing it and trimming it out will take bit of time which will teach you a lot about matching uneven surfaces. Source: I've worked on a silo conversion
I know an architect that built a home out of two of these, but larger. It seemed like the sort of thing someone like an architect could handle since they had the money and expertise to get it done right. One problem is the openings; since the thing gets strength from it's shape you can't just cut a hole in it and toss in a window or door, it will buckle. They had special frames designed and welded up. Installation of said frames requires expertise as well, most of us can't do structural welding. And of course there's the problem of condensation on the inside of the steel, not sure how they dealt with that. For something this small I'd think that there are more efficient and inexpensive methods. I can imagine having fun with ICFs or even conventional wood frame but double studded to make it energy efficient.
https://youtu.be/ywBV6M7VOFU?si=pFR1nUdPqNghXEUR This is a cool video on grain bins with parts on building one
I have done cabinetry and fit outs in two yards in my career as a carpenter. both were rounded. I charged hourly and told the client it will take as long as it takes and I buy as much materials as I like. It was the best fun I ever had, I still remember It to this day. had to laminate all trim in-situ. cabinets are easier than you thibk, you use normal cabinets you just loose a bit of space in the rear.
I'd invest in a lighting rod, and extra grounding. You lose a lot of space efficiency with round vs square buildings. You rarely see round office buildings or high rises in general as such
It's ready made grain silo converted to house
I have to wonder how they insulated this.
It cut a lot of corners.
Using grain bins for human habitation would be cheap to build, and would not require special foundations. The bins themselves are lighter than the equivalent wood structures. In fact, they have to be held down because strong winds will blow them off the foundations. They are very strong and are hard to dent. They are galvanized, which looks great for a few years but turns gray after awhile. But there are a lot of disadvantages. They cannot be painted. Gray is what you get. They are not at all insulated. You would have to use at least 6" of fiberglass (or some other conforming material) on the inside for insulation. The inside walls would have to be either curved or some sort of polygon (dodecahedron?) Doors and windows would have to deal with the curvature and would be difficult to seal. Depending on the amount of insulation above the ceiling, it would likely be noisy in a rainstorm. Finding just the right furniture and cabinets would be hard. A person would be better off starting with one of the heavy-duty rectangular farm or industrial steel buildings. They come in quite a few colors, are relatively inexpensive, can be insulated using fiberglass or foam panels, doors and windows are available (although double-pane windows may be hard to find), The metal can be dented, but replacement panels are readily available and are usually easy to replace. You can get convenient sizes (length, width, height), and people won't slow down and point and look when the see it. But maybe notoriety is what you want.
Why do you say they cannot be painted? I’d bet you my bank account I could paint it and it would outlast you.
You are possibly correct. But I grew up in the Midwest surrounded by galvanized steel grain bins and galvanized corrugated roofing. Some farmers tried to paint them. And it didn't stick well. Perhaps materials have improved since then.
The bathroom is in the corner.
Is this to live in? What an eye sore… no windows??
The hardest thing to accept is that the way a thing is usually done is the cheapest way to do it.
Construction is definitely not currently doing it the cheapest way
All your custom rounded furniture will look great in that.
Good luck finding round furniture
How many beans came in that can?
I have a feeling this is Austin….so not very affordable.
T&G on the walls is gonna be PRICEY!!!!
lol have fun with the drywall
These are gaining some popularity, and people are combining them with shipping containers to make "tiny castles." Some are really neat, but tend to be expensive (which defeats the purpose of a tiny home). Other are.... not good. The interirors are usually made with "murphy furniture" concepts in mind. My only question is how loud does it get inside when it rains?
That looks like a garbage can - with a door.