Local housing projects move forward, but not 3D-printed homes

housing
A 3D printer machine is used to build the walls of a home in Muscatine, Iowa, in May of 2023. CREDIT DAVE THOMPSON

MUSCATINE, Iowa –  New houses are being built in this community, but not using new 3D printer technology.

The Community Foundation of Greater Muscatine had hoped to use the new 3D technology to help build 10 homes in Muscatine in the coming years. But that technology needs more time to develop. So, more traditional building methods will be used to construct homes in Muscatine, according to a foundation official.

“We won’t be building in 2024 using the 3D technology. However, we will start building next week, still in Arbor Commons,” Ron Monahan, the foundation’s housing initiatives manager, told the QCBJ in an email this week. “We will begin using the same floor plan and cast-in-place concrete walls. This will continue our strategy of exploring alternative approaches to home building.” 

He added that the interior of the new homes will use traditional materials and methods. “We continue to study 3D home building and are collaborating with a local contractor, Muscatine Community College, and are leaning into the research being done at Iowa State University.”

In May of last year, work began on the first-in-the-state 3D-printed home on Duncan Drive in the city’s Arbor Commons subdivision. That home’s exterior walls were being built with a massive robotic machine – called an RIC Tech 3D Printer – with an orange arm that was slowly moving on a rail system and building the exterior walls of the house by putting down one layer after another of a concrete mix to form those walls.

Setbacks in September

That home was designed to be 1,300 square feet with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a front porch and attached two-car garage. There were plans to construct 10 of the 3D-printed homes throughout the city in the coming years. However, last September, the Community Foundation announced that the first home’s walls would have to be rebuilt because of a problem with the concrete mixture being used to build the walls.

“The concrete formula selected met necessary specifications in lab testing, but during continuous quality checks it was determined there were variations in the field. This could have been remedied in several different ways, but partners on the project decisively chose the most uncompromising path,” according to a news release last year.

Mr. Monahan told the QCBJ on Wednesday, Aug. 21, that the Community Foundation has not given up on using 3D technology to build new homes in Muscatine. However, at this point, more research needs to be done before it can move forward in this region. He also pointed out that 3D printer technology is being used to build homes in other parts of the country, such as Arizona. So, he believes it can eventually be done here.

“We’re just tapping the brakes on this” for the time being, he added.

Meanwhile, other home and apartment projects continue to move forward in Muscatine. For instance, the Hawkeye Lumberyard project, located at 910 E. Second St., will receive $1 million in tax credits and tax refunds, the Iowa Economic Development Authority announced on Tuesday, Aug. 20. The Hawkeye project will feature a new building that will have 65 market-rate apartments and first floor commercial office space. The project will start construction next spring and be complete in the fall of 2026.

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