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Compare the American Ingenuity Geo Pod to high maintenance storage buildings, tents, and yurts. The Geo Pod/Utility dome handles forest fires much better than conventional storage sheds. Engineered with insulated, nearly indestructible materials, it's the perfect solution for remote storage, lawn mowers, well pumps and temporary housing needs. And, like all of our award-winning structurally superior domes, the Geo Pod will provide decades and decades of maintenance-free service, flexibility, security, and expandability.

The Utility Dome Kit/Geo Pod Kit with one entryway is $349.  With two entryways the pod's cost is $399. This does not include the UPS shipping cost on the six cartons or the doors.  If you purchase the geo pod with two entryways, the entryways are 144 degrees apart and are not opposite each other.  At one of the entryways you can connect another geo pod and in the other entryway you could install a door and or window.

Geo Pod or Utility Dome Kit Assembly:  The riser, triangular and entryway panels consist of 2" thick expanded bead polystyrene (E.P.S.) insulation.  The Assembly process consists of assembling the E.P.S. panels by rows, attaching them to your prepared foundation and using spray foam adhesive and finishing nails to secure the panels to each other.  Reinforce the seams with the fiberglass tape. Coat the entire dome exterior with a thin 1/4" layer of concrete, then paint. 

     Under the entryway, frame in a 2x4 wall and install your locally purchased door and or window.  During assembly, a vent can be installed within the center of an E.P.S. panel not in the seam areas, by removing E.P.S.; using spray foam to affix the vent; then concrete up to the vent edges. 

     On the interior you conceal any electrical wiring for outlets or lighting in the panels by cutting a groove in the E.P.S.  Use spray foam to fill the groove and use joint compound and tape to finish the grooves.  Finish the interior with joint compound, plaster or stucco. Any holes or voids can be filled with spray foam, stucco, plaster, or spackling.  Cover the worst interior seams with fiberglass tape and then plaster or joint compound the interior.  Paint the interior with exterior latex paint.

     Caution....during assembly do not get on top of the dome.  It cannot support much weight until all the concrete has cured.  Lean a ladder against the dome to provide access to the top.

      Click on the photo to enlarge it.

                Assembly of the 40" tall riser panels.             Assembly of the first row of triangles.

                                        Spray foam is used to glue the 2" thick E.P.S. panels to each other.

                                        This client also used tape and 2x4's to temporarily hold the

                                        panels until the sticky mesh tape was applied over the seams.

                                                 A thin 1/4" coat of concrete is troweled

                                                 over the entire dome.

More photos of a utility dome/geo pod under assembly.  Click on the photo to enlarge it.

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 Pod/Utility Dome Kit Contents:   The kit consists of 37 precut triangular panels, 9 precut 40" tall riser panels and one precut entryway, fiberglass reinforced tape, admixtures, twelve 24" galvanized rods, finishing nails, slab plans and assembly instructions.  The insulation is not 7" thick as in our concrete residential dome kits.  The panels do not contain any steel mesh or concrete or wall board. Click here ../UTILDOME-1.doc to read the assembly instructions.

Pod/Utility Dome foundation is a concrete slab. The footers will be 8” thick and 6” wide with 2” thick slab.  Twelve galvanized rods will be inserted into the footer and extend up twenty inches into each of the riser seams.

Warranty:  We do not give the hurricane, earthquake, tornado warranty on the geo pods that we give on our concrete dome homes and garages.  One of American Ingenuity's geo pods/utility domes went through Hurricane Andrew with no damage.  The owner told us the following: "During the assembly of my utility dome, some of my neighbors told me that when the next hurricane blows through they would be picking up my shed's panels.  Instead after Hurricane Andrew I was picking up pieces of their sheds from my yard."  

How to Make a Stronger Geo Pod/Utility Dome:  Even though one of our utility domes survived Hurricane Andrew with no structural damage, we do not give a tornado or hurricane guarantee on the utility dome.  To make a stronger geo pod after the E.P.S. panels are erected, you would hand tie ¼” x ¼” steel mesh over the E.P.S. panels and trowel a ½” thick layer of concrete over the entire dome.  You would need to install securely mounted doors.  You can purchase the needed 400 sq.ft. of ¼” mesh from American Ingenuity at the price of $.20 a sq.ft. ($80) and an extra gallon of bonding agent for $12.  The steel mesh would increase the number of shipping cartons to seven.

The following are photos of a Geo Pod/Utility Dome taken after Hurricane Andrew. The geo pod/utility dome suffered no damage. Click on the photo to enlarge it.

Availability:  Sorry as of July 15, 2005, we are temporarily out of stock on the Geo Pod/Utility Domes.  Please call us at 321-639-8777 to be added to the manufacturing list.  We expect to manufacture more pods by October 2005.

 Shipping:   Geo Pods/Utility Dome Kits may be shipped on the same truck with the Dome Building Kit at no additional charge.  If the geo pod/utility dome is ordered separately, allow for UPS shipping.  Even though the weight of the boxes is from 15 lbs. to 40 lbs. UPS considers these boxes oversize and calculates their shipping weight at 70lbs. each.  The box dimensions and actual weights are: 3 cartons 49"x24"x16" @ 20 lbs. each; 1 carton 49"x24"x16" @ 40lbs; and 2 cartons 34"x24"x24" @ 15lbs each.