3D home printer cost

The cost of 3D printed houses in 2021

3D printed houses bring the benefits of additive manufacturing to the construction space. The material costs incurred by construction 3D printing are usually an order of a magnitude less when compared to conventional methods. This is while we take into account the fact that 3D printing concrete tends to be more expensive than normal construction concrete.

As for labor costs, they drop down basically to the daily wages of at most two or three operators. And that too is for a much shorter length of time as the 3D printed house would be ready for finishing and furnishing in days instead of months.

The cost to build an average sized 3-bedroom house with conventional building methods is from $250,000 to $320,000. Building the same home with 3D printing technology would cost from 20 percent to 40 percent less to build. So that same 3-bedroom house would presumably cost between $140,000 to $240,000 to build with 3D printing technology.

It should be noted at this point, that most construction 3D printers will not build, or 3D print the foundations, nor would the construction 3D printer be of any cost-saving benefit when it comes to roofing the house.

All those things: the roof, the windows, the doors, electrical wiring, paint and finishing – all of these costs remain the same as with a conventional house, as all this fall outside the scope of what a construction 3D printer is capable of.

University of Nantes researchers designed and constructed a full-size single-family house via construction 3D printer in France at a cost of $232,000 in 2018. Which was twenty percent less than what a similar sized building would have cost to construct via conventional means.

Haus.me – the business that sells the PassivDom highly insulated prefabricated houses, charges $210,000 for a ready to move in luxury 3D printed smart house that is entirely self-sufficient and filled to the brim with smart features.

Zillow listed 3-bedroom 2 baths 3D printed house with 1,900 square feet, asking price of 299,999

The Dubai Future Foundation office that was 3D printed off-site by Winsun cost $140,000 at the time for the entire structure. With the fit and finish of this luxury office, a hundred and forty thousand dollars is quite a bargain seeing as how by using construction 3D printing technology, the government estimates that it saved almost 50% on the total (assembly, electrical, and technical) labor costs.

All three of the above are examples of luxury or large-sized 3D printed houses that cost a sizably less amount than what an equivalent construction done via conventional methods would cost.

On the other end of the scale are the small size houses that have been making headlines and have successfully been 3D printed at a fraction of conventional costs.

COBOD’s construction 3D printing services provide an online project cost calculator based on various factors such as the square meter area of all the walls, labor cost and number of operators, and the cost per unit of 3D printing concrete.

The cost of construction comes out to be around $15,000 for a small sized house (single bedroom). $20,000-25,000 for a medium sized house (two bedroom). And around $50,000 for a large sized 4 bedrooms house.

Compare this with the fact that building one’s own house can cost anywhere between $95 to $150 per square foot and it quickly becomes clear that even construction 3D printing services have a lot to offer in terms of cost savings.

On the extreme end of affordable housing of course, stand ICON and WASP’s efforts.

ICON and New Story’s 500 sq. Foot houses 3D printed on-site in El Salvador cost around $4,000-5,000 per house.

And WASP’s earthen house village made with their construction 3D printer. The average raw material cost per house came out to only 48 euros per house.

While costs are often the most quoted benefits of shifting to construction 3D printers. The time scale benefits are one of the most staggering numbers.

As a matter of fact, most 3D construction projects never need more than a month to 3D print even the most complex designs.

The Future Foundation Office of Dubai took a total of 3 months to go from idea to operational office.

Europe’s first 3D printed office, The BOD, only took 22 days on their first attempt, and this was reduced to just 3 days when COBOD reperformed the construction 3D printing of the building as a test 2 years later.

Front entrance of Icon Labs’s 3D printed house located in Austin Texas.

And of course, ICON’s 500 sq. foot houses take only a day each to go from nothing to a completely finished and ready-to-move-in house.

The mere thought of constructing an entire house in a single day is nothing short of amazing.

Compare this with conventional construction, and it is normal to expect ANY house to take at least several months to be ready to move in.

As it stands, consumers in most cases would be unable to commission a 3D printed house construction directly. The printers themselves are expensive investments for any local construction company. 3D construction printer generally starts at $39,000 for the small basic models, to the upwards of $100,000 for the larger models.

Apart of from the cost of equipment and materials, there’s another major hurdle in purchasing a 3D printed house depending on where you are located. Only a handful of construction permit have been handed out for 3D printed houses, in special experimental cases, in select areas.

The mass of 3D printed houses is currently being developed in more technologically primitive areas. However, for anyone interested, a good place to start would be to contact the large-size local construction companies first. And then, as option B, contact the construction 3D printer makers themselves.

One exception of course, is Haus.me. The luxury prefabricated home maker readily sells its houses conveniently online via both monthly installments plans as well as outright cash purchases.

PassivDom’s self-sustainable 3D printed house. Available from haus.me. Photo curtesy of PassivDom

Others such as COBOD (www.cobod.com) provide construction 3D printing services, albeit in limited areas of Europe.

Another potential website to check out is www.weprinthouses.com. However, they are currently only taking requests and not orders. Additionally, at a cost of $100 per square foot for the construction alone, there is not much of a cost saving benefit transferred to the customers.

The company based out of Austin Texas has been awarded the first commercial permit to build a 3D printed house that can appraised and sold in the U.S. The construction project has been given the code name the Genesis. Construction begins February of 2020.

See our post, when will 3D printed houses finally become available where we look at the viability of 3D printed houses, plus when and where 3D printed houses will be commercially available to begin with.

Tags: 3D printing3D printing housesHouse

Ultimate guide to construction 3D printers in 2022 (concrete 3D printing)

What are the best house 3D printers?

A construction 3D printer is a machine that can build houses by depositing a material (concrete for example) layer by layer. Concrete 3D printing – a.k.a. “Construction 4.0” – is a similar 3D printing technology to the one that FFF 3D printers use. Paste-type material, in this case, concrete or earth materials, is pushed through a nozzle in layers to print buildings in 3D.

Concrete 3D printing in the construction industry helps save time, effort, and material compared to traditional construction methods. It’s important to note, though, that 3D printers are not yet capable of creating a fully functional house.

Only the frame and walls of the house are built; other elements, such as windows, electricity, or plumbing, need to be installed separately. But concrete 3D printers can also be used to print bridges, benches, or simply outdoor decorations.

To provide a complete overview of the construction 3D printer market, we have listed 12 house 3D printing solutions. Some of them are 3D printers available for sale, while some are still at the start-up prototype stage or are external construction 3D printing services.

13 house construction 3D printers

House 3D printer	Category*	Type**	Build size (m)	Country
BetAbram P1	Available	Gantry system	16 x 8.2 x 2.5	Slovenia
COBOD BOD2	Available	Gantry system	14.62 x 50.52 x 8.14	Denmark
MAXI PRINTER	Available	Robotic arm	12.25 x 12.25 x 7	France
CyBe Construction CyBe RC 3Dp	Available	Robotic arm	2.75 x 2.75 x 2.75	Netherlands
ICON Vulcan II	Available	Gantry system	2.6 x 8.5 x ∞	United States
MudBots 3D Concrete Printer	Available	Gantry system	1.83 x 1.83 x 1.22	United States
Total Kustom StroyBot 6.2	Available	Gantry system	10 x 15 x 6	United States
WASP Crane WASP	Available	Delta system	Ø 6. 3 x 3	Italy
Apis Cor	Project	Robotic arm	8.5 x 1.6 x 1.5	Russia
Batiprint3D 3D printer	Project	Robotic arm	Up to 7m high	France
SQ4D – ARCS	Service	Gantry system	9.1 x 4.4 x ∞	United States
Contour Crafting	Service	Gantry system	–	United States
XtreeE	Service	Robotic arm	–	France

Build volumes are indicative and may vary based on the specific configuration of the machine.

*Category: some 3D printers are available for sale, others are working projects, and some are only available via a rental service.
**Type: construction 3D printers either use a gantry system (like oversized desktop 3D printers with X, Y, and Z axes) or a mechanical, robotic arm.

How to build 3D printed houses?

Here we explain how 3D printers are able to print houses with paste extrusion.

House 3D printing technology

House 3D printers use extrusion technology. Some construction 3D printers look like super-sized desktop FFF/FDM 3D printers (gantry style), whereas others consist of a rotating mechanical arm.

In both cases, paste-type components such as concrete are used as filament. The material is pushed out of a special nozzle to form layers. To put it (very) simply, paste extrusion is similar to using a piping bag to spread frosting on a cake.

The printer creates the foundations and walls of the house or building, layer by layer. The ground is literally the printer’s build plate. Some concrete 3D printers, however, are used to 3D print brick molds. When molded, the bricks are then piled atop each other manually (or with a robotic arm).

WASP’s construction printer 3D printing with Earth materials (clay, soil). Source: WASP

Benefits of house 3D printing

Eco-friendly

3D printed houses can be built with organic, eco-friendly materials. Moreover, some house 3D printers use solar energy and generate low CO2 emissions.

Affordable

House 3D printers can build affordable housing, being of great aid for people in poverty-stricken regions or after natural disasters.

Scalable

Construction 3D printing reduces certain building costs. For example, the cost for 1 square meter of a wall using traditional construction methods is approximately $75, whereas with the Apis Cor house 3D printer it is only $27.

Efficient

Since the materials are 3D printed on-demand, the machines produce less waste. Also, construction 3D printers can finish a home’s foundations in less than a few days, while traditional construction methods take several weeks or even months.

Design flexibility

With a 3D construction printer, it’s possible to easily create curved walls and unique facades. (Good thing it’s possible to 3D print furniture to match the curves!)

Limits of 3D printing houses

Expensive initial investment

House 3D printers can sometimes cost up to one million dollars.

Partially-built houses

House 3D printers only build house frames. The 3D printing process is usually paused to manually settle plumbing, wiring, and rebars.

Rough exterior

Most 3D printed homes’ exteriors are not as smooth as traditionally-built houses.

Lack of certification

Construction sites are regulated by laws and there are important safety standards that need to be met, which can be challenging with 3D printing techniques (varying repeatability, dimensional stability, etc. ).

Another downside that has been noted over the years is that house 3D printing can potentially harm local economies, especially in poverty-stricken regions or cities with high unemployment rates. Indeed, since construction 3D printers reduce the need for manual labor, they create much less employment for local workers.

Differences between 3D printed houses and traditional houses

Concrete 3D printing saves time, uses less material, and requires less manual labor. Even 3D printed houses have a rougher exterior, post-processing is an option just as it is for regular 3D printed objects. 3D printed houses tend to be smaller due to 3D printer build volume limits, but this is not always the case.

Construction 3D printers: overview

We break down construction 3D printers into three categories: house 3D printers that are available for sale, concrete printer prototypes, and 3D concrete printing services.

House 3D printers available for sale

BetAbram is a small Slovenian team that has been working on construction 3D printing hardware since 2012. Their flagship home 3D printer, the BetAbram P1, is currently in its second version and is available with optional print heads: basic, “Orto” for smoother layers, and rotating for more design possibilities.