TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – Kansas’s first 3D-printed house, located in Topeka’s Oakland area, has a fresh coat of paint and is starting to look more like a house, but the interior remains largely unfinished.
Chris Stemler and his company, Trident Homes, are building the house. Stemler originally estimated the house would be finished sometime in June, yet work remains.
“We’re happy to take our time because it’s really going kind of the way we thought too, even if it’s a little slower,” Stemler said.
Print job finished in March
The print job started in February and wrapped in March, turning what once looked like a Stonehenge-like structure into what now looks like a modern house.
The main challenge workers are now going through is how to install systems like HVAC, electrical, and plumbing to make the house livable.
“Just making sure we know how to get things installed, what goes before what, just trying to figure that stuff out because to some degree we’re sort of making it up as we go because this isn’t standardized yet,” Stemler said.
Stemler said other houses his company has printed since have gone much quicker.
“In our other prints, the vertical components were in, call it two weeks or less, including our setup and teardown and site prep time,” Stemler said.
Future production shifting out of Topeka
Stemler said he will be taking much of his printing plans out of the Topeka area, due to a lack of open lots and building infrastructure.
“I would imagine half to 80 percent of our production will happen outside of Topeka moving forward,” Stemler said.
Stemler still believes printing could be the housing of the future for many, just maybe not most, right now.
“We can’t get to 300 houses a year tomorrow, right? But we can get to 10, then we can get to 20, then we can get to 30,” Stemler said.
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