Made with Xara Web Designer Building Supplies Fabric Forms and Coating Our fabric forms are a 6 ounce/yard polyester that is quite easy to work with. We sew it together preferably before we spray the coating into it. This way the coating completely seals the fabric and the seams. The coating penetrates all the way through the fabric creating a well reinforced and sealed membrane.  The urethane base coat that we use  provides outstanding adhesion to the foam when sprayed against it. Foam overhangs and eyebrows can be easily attached by spraying foam at the joints connecting the urethane coated fabric form material to the urethane coated foam attachment. Because the fabric form material is both strong and stretchable, it is very easy for the fabric to become wrinkle free while it is inflated with wet coating embedded in it. The fabric is attached to a concrete foundation or plywood base and supported so that urethane coating can be spray applied while the blower is running. When enough surface area is sealed to allow inflation, it rises to the occasion. These fabric forms made and sealed in this manner become wrinkle free at a very low pressure. In the 46 foot diameter, 26 foot high dome shown here, 1/4 inch of water column air pressure made a very smooth wrinkle free form. Because the coating is a solvent based, moisture cure product, the air pressure and higher humidity actually speeds up curing of the coating. 1 coat per day can be applied. As long as the coating is applied to dry material, dew or other moisture following the coating application will do no harm. The second coat usually seals all the pinholes in preparation for the foam application. You will notice the picture on the right side showing the drops of coating coming through the seams, providing exceptional sealing and strength. Call us for more details         Finish Coating, Granules, Rebar Hangars It was almost an accident that we stumbled across what we consider to be an ideal roofing granule. Roofing granules have been used for many years on shingled and flat roof systems. They provide extra toughness and UV resistance to the coating systems, shingles etc. Especially in dome construction we are looking for an attractive exterior finish. The textured look we gain with embedding granules covers up any small irregularities in much the same way that texturing sheet-rock gives a very attractive finish. We blow in the granules into the first layer of the finish coating. Granules can be added to successive coats to provide a greater degree of texture or cosmetic finish. Additional coats of urethane finish coating add more life to the roof system. Mil thickness equates into years of longevity. 10, 20, 30 years of life span or more can be applied. The roof granules that we most now recommend is ceramic aggregate designed for light weight concrete. It is made from expanded shale or clay. The initial mined earth products are run through a rotary kiln which both hardens and makes tiny air voids. They are ground and screen sized for use in light weight concrete production. We simply re- screen to sort out the size that we want for the look that we desire. We use an old time tested re-bar hangar that you can even make yourself. Made of 14 gauge tie wire, it is designed to be stuck into the foam after all of it has been applied. The first layer of concrete holds them in. We would gladly show you how to make them or make them for you.  Call us for more details. Molded Add-ons The exterior of your dome is the first thing that greets you or your visitors upon arriving. The most attractive and leak free domes usually have customized overhangs. In the process of building our own home, my wife came up with many sizes and shapes of overhangs and dormers not to mention a large elliptically shaped front entrance that curves outward from the bottom to the top. Ad-Lib is not the way to build such items. We developed a good system beginning with drawing them out on the computer to creating molds for the creation of the pieces. Our molds can be re used many times for duplicating one size units. We can computer design and make all your dome overhangs, even large entryways. If it will fit on a trailer to be hauled, we can build it. In some cases we can even build units in two pieces to be reassembled upon installation. Call us about the possibilities Call For prices and information on *Fabric Forms *Roof Granules *Customized Overhangs *Urethane Roof Coating *Dome Design and Floor Plans Click here to return to top of page This is a close up of the inflated fabric form. Notice how the coating totally seals the fabric, making a seamless one piece unit. This is the same technology I employ making transportable units. All of these units receive multiple topcoats of finish coat urethane rubber and granules. This fabric form has only 1/4 to 3/8 water column inches of air pressure and is very nicely wrinkle and pucker free. I used the process of spraying wet coating into the fabric while propping it up. As I was 95% through spraying it in, it inflated. I just finished (June 2010) this 24’ diameter fabric form for a man in Wisconsin. I ran out of the one brand of Urethane base coat and finished with another for the classic “Holstein” look. I hope this doesn’t become a trademark for my work Where Portable and Permanent Meet