Choosing a Contractor

About 50% of our clients assemble their own shell themselves, many with no construction experience. The Kit panels come marked with numbers and letters to match the Assembly Manual that goes with the building kit. The building plans also have elevation views with numbers and letters. Our best kit assembly success stories are owner builders who read and follow the assembly manual and building plans and call us when they have any question.

If you do not have the time or do not want to assemble the dome shell kit, American Ingenuity can refer you to a Assembly Consultant operating out of Florida.  He will travel to your construction site providing "Hands On" work while supervising to get your dome shell assembled.  Then either you complete the interior finishing or your contractor hires local conventional subs (plumbers, electricians, drywall finishers, framers, etc.) to complete the interior finishing and the installation of your locally purchased doors and windows.

Prior to the availability of this Kit Assembly Consultant to work and supervise the dome kit assembly, our clients had to hire a contractor who generally had never assembled a dome before.  As a result the contractor would tend to over charge because he did not know how long it would take or what problems would arise.  The Kit Assembly Consultant can provide you with references from previous American Ingenuity Domes he has assembled so you can determine yourself that your building kit will be assembled correctly and in a timely fashion. This Consultant would work directly for you or your general contractor as an Independent Contractor.  The standard rate for the Kit Assembly Consultant is $265 per day plus travel from his Florida home base to your job site and a return to his home base at the completion of the job. 

The Consultant can drive a Boom Truck to your site for use in assembly for a cost of $225 a day for the days it is in actual use on the site, plus mileage costs from Florida.      

If you are interested in using the Kit Assembly Consultant or the Boom Truck, contact Dan Yankovich at our corporate office at 321-639-8777 or email him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

  

A helpful web site is rsmeans.com They sell construction manuals, construction estimating CD's, etc.

 

The methods used for lifting the panels includes:

 

Small cranes, Highlifts (all terrain scissors forklifts often used by roofers), and a steel scaffold rigged with wheels and winch.  Other lifting devices successfully employed by our dome owners include: a boom added to a tractor, a block & tackle, & a hoist fastened to the top of the framework with wood ramps up the side of the dome.

 

Monthly rentals on transverse lifts also called Boom Lifts, Horizontal Boom Fork Lifts, Roofing Lifts, Shooters are available from National Rental Chains like US Rentals, Hertz Equipment Rentals, United Rentals, etc. The companies can be found in the telephone book.