Ai Residential Dome Building Plans

It is American Ingenuity's philosophy that each customer pay for only what they need. Ai does not burden the price of the building kit with plan's pricing, engineer seal cost or energy report cost. Building plans are purchased three months to 1 1/2 years prior to kit shipment.  About 50% of the building departments require engineer sealed plans and an energy report to issue a permit. As a result each customer pays for their plans separately from the building kit and pays for a seal and energy report only if their building department requires them.  Commercial building plans and their engineer seal can cost 2-3 times the price of residential dome plans due to the complexity of the plan design.

American Ingenuity can call your building department, show them our web site and ask them the following questions if you give us your property tax ID number or property address and your building department name.

• What are the requirements for a residential building permit?
  
• Is there a minimum house square footage requirement?
• Is there a garage requirement?
• What are the set backs on my property?
• Is the property in a flood zone?
  
• Are there any additional requirements to build a geodesic dome?
  
• Is an Architect’s or Engineer’s seal required on the building plans? If required the seal can be purchased through Ai.
  
• Is an Energy Report required?  If required the Energy Report can be purchased through Ai.
  

What are building departments concerned with? They are concerned with strength and safety and domes excel in these areas. Building departments and building codes are not concerned with appearance; although a plans examiner may be unfamiliar with the aspects of dome construction.  They are also concerned with environmental issues.  Ai can email you a document that lists the items to watch out for prior to purchasing land and the questions to ask if you already own your property.

Do some building departments require engineer sealed building plans to obtain a building permit? About 50% of Ai's client's building departments require engineer sealed building plans to issue a building permit.  Call your building department and find out what they require to issue a permit.  If they require engineer sealed plans, this means that a licensed engineer for your state will need to review American Ingenuity's building plans to assure that they comply with your state's building requirements. Ai has a list of engineers certified for all USA states who have sealed Ai plans.  Ai calls the engineer and obtains a seal cost which is included on your Plans Quote. When you agree with the Plans Quote and make payment in full for the plans and the engineer seal, Ai starts your plans design and emails the pdfs to the engineer for his review. He tells us of any changes, we make those changes, plot out your plans and mail them to the engineer for his stamp and signature.  He then mails them on to you. His signature and stamp means he takes responsibility for the dome design not your building department. 

Does all new construction in Florida and California require engineer sealed plans to obtain a building permit? Yes. 

What is the standard foundation included with the stock plans? Concrete slab. For Ai to design a basement or concrete columns or stem wall or pilings, etc. an engineer fee is added to the Plans Quote to cover the cost for a structural engineer to calculate the load of the dome and the load of the two floors within the dome and give joist/edge beam size/spacing and foundation design to our CAD department to incorporate within the plans. Please call for engineer fee.

Florida Engineer Seal info:

• A Florida engineer seal for 36' or smaller dome built on a slab is $400. The seal cost for two domes built on a slab that are each 36' or smaller is $500. 
  
• For a 40' or larger dome on a slab, the seal cost is $500.  The seal cost for two domes each built on a slab that are each 40' or larger is $600.
  

Florida building departments also require a Florida Energy Report to be submitted at the same time the Florida sealed building plans are submitted.  This report is quite detailed and specific.  Each dome client provides Ai with their window and exterior door info and what type water heater, AC/furnace they will use along with the direction their front entryway faces.  The window info includes the window size, frame type, double pane or impact resistant glass, Low E number, U factor, SHGC (Solar Heat Gain Coefficient), etc.   Please call Ai at 321-639-8777 for Energy Report cost.

Building in California:  A California engineer seal for one dome (22' - 48') on a slab is around $600. Plus California requires Energy Calculations. Ai. can put you in contact with a firm that can perform the California Energy Calculations. 

In 2013/2014 Ai learned the following building departments in California will allow the Ai dome to be built - California Counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Trinity, Solona, Shasta and Riverside. The building department will accept CA engineer sealed plans, CA sealed engineering statement that includes the following: "panel composition of the geodesic dome buildings is designed in accordance with and conforms to the intent of California Building Code that allows for alternative materials and methods of construction".  If you are thinking of building near a large California city, the building department could require that the building kit be certified by the state of California. It is not cost effective for American Ingenuity to pay for this certification.  As a result if this is required, the Ai dome cannot be built.

At no cost to you, Ai can contact your building department -  show them our web site and email generic plans.  When calling Ai will ask if California engineer sealed plans, California Energy Report, California sealed engineering statement and wind/seismic/snow/bracing calculations and all their other required paperwork and reports are submitted can a residential building permit be obtained on the Ai dome kit.  Ai is happy to talk to your building officials to answer their questions.

What does the engineer do? He reviews the American Ingenuity Dome Building Plans to assure that they comply with your state's building codes. The engineer will let us know if anything needs to be changed. We make the changes to the plans and we send the revised plans to the engineer who then crimps them with his seal and signs his name to the structural sheets. This seal and his signature mean that he certifies that the plans comply with your state's building codes. Either we or the engineer mails the signed plans to you. You take them to your building department to obtain your building permit. Because each city and county within each state can have varying requirements, your city or county building department may request some changes to the sealed plans. We will work with your building department to make those changes at a minimal cost to you. But if the engineer has to get reinvolved, he may charge some fees.

When an engineer seals a set of plans he is taking responsibility for the structural design for a single dome in the location intended and the seal would not apply to other projects.

Can Building Departments be hard to work with? Yes, some building departments can be more difficult to work with than others. But American Ingenuity is used to working with building departments is happy to answer any and all of their questions. For example we had two clients in Palatka Florida who were going for building permits around the same time. Their building department approved their plans (with no changes) within a couple of weeks. Similar plans with similar information were submitted to counties south of us and the building officials wanted changes and took a couple of months to give the client a building permit. We never know how each building official will interpret the Building Codes for their state.

Tell me about the strength of the Ai dome. The code design criteria requires that Ai show the American Ingenuity Dome Building can with stand wind, snow and seismic loading.  Our standard design will accommodate forces in excess of up to 225 mph winds, F4 tornado and 75 lbs. snow load.  Click on Strength to learn more.

Our dome design has proved itself by withstanding hurricane Andrew's 200 mph winds, sub-zero temperatures and heavy snow loads of Canada and the Northwest Territory, a 30" in diamter tree impact, four Florida hurricanes in 2004 and many other conditions since 1976. Click on Hurricane Recap to learn more.  Although our Building Plans have been reviewed by over 30 different engineers, the plans do not come with an engineer’s seal for the following reasons.  About half of our dome owners needed engineer sealed Building Plans to obtain a building permit and rather than adding the engineer seal cost to all plans it is more economical to have the plans sealed as needed. As the designer and manufacturer American Ingenuity would not hesitate to guarantee the structural integrity of our dome and we do just that with our guarantee. Each state only accepts a seal from an engineer who is registered in that state which prevents us from applying any seal that would be universally accepted.

Does the Ai Dome comply with the new  Florida Building Code? Yes, although we have been informed that Dade and Broward Counties in South Florida require product approval on the wall segments. Due to the cost and complexity of the tests, Ai has concluded it is not economical for us to pursue product approval. Ai has found that most all other Florida building departments will accept Florida engineer sealed plans and Florida engineer sealed engineering statement that says "panel composition of the geodesic dome buildings is designed in accordance with and conforms to the intent of 2010 Florida Building Code, Residential and referenced provisions of the 2010 Florida Building Code, Building that allows for alternative materials and methods of construction."

What percentage of Ai's clients need engineer sealed plans? About 50%. It is our philosophy that our clients pay for only what they need; therefore, those who need an engineer seal in order to obtain a building permit pay separately for the seal.  As a result, we do not add the costs for engineer seals into our Building Plan or Building Kit pricing.