3D-printed home to be built in South Tampa

TAMPA, Fla. – Soon, a home at South Shamrock Road near MacDill Air Force Base is going to be demolished. The home will be replaced by Tampa’s first 3D-printed house. 

Matt Gibson, founder and president at “Click Print Home”, a 3D concrete printing business, stated that this home will be the second 3D printed in Florida. 

Gibson explained that the printer measures 40-feet wide and 40-feet long. Its capabilities grow and its actually robot. A computer walks through the printer and puts down concrete, regular concrete and then adds layer after layer. It’s called additive manufacturing, 3D printing of concrete, just a large concrete printer, concrete is the ink.”

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Only 10 homes have been 3D printed in the United States at this time. 

Gibson said, “This represents the bleeding edge in home construction and automation entering the construction sector.” 

He claimed that technology will allow new home production at a time when skilled labor is scarce. 

“We don’t aim to replace these folks, we’re looking to augment what they’re doing right now and be able to say to ‘masons, we’ll be able to open up the designs,’ ‘we can do curvature here without a lot of work that would’ve been required traditionally,’” Gibson said.

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Gibson said that 3D-printed homes can be durable and are strong. They are able to support 6,000 pounds per square inch, with steel reinforcement just like masonry construction. 

“Every four feet in the center you have a rebar column that’s backfilled with normal, regular old concrete, so that’s about four-times stronger than your traditional concrete block,” Gibson said.

He stated that the goal was for construction to be completed by 2023. His company is still looking for potential buyers. The house is priced at just under $600,000.