HOUSE OF THE FUTURE

Photos by James River Media

3D-Printed Home Completed in Bedford County

Click here to read our first story on 3D-printed construction from Summer 2024

HOME readers may recall a story from Summer 2024 introducing KKrane, a Lynchburg company pioneering the use of indoor 3D-printed construction. Their proof-of-concept home in this area has now been completed. Builder/developer and robotics engineer Zach Baldridge, KKrane’s founder and CEO, firmly believes 3D printing of structural panels — done indoors under strict quality control conditions and immune from weather delays — is the engineering breakthrough we’ve needed. The resulting structures are incredibly strong, superbly energy efficient, and impervious to mold, mildew, rot and termite damage. There’s the potential for significant savings in overall building time and cost versus traditional stick-built construction. Says Baldridge, “Our 3D-printing facility can operate 24/7, without interruptions from employee time-off, darkness or weather events.”

Baldridge has 20 years of experience creating custom homes, and KKrane offers a full range of design/build and project management services. The contemporary-design home in Woods Landing, Bedford County is their first 3D-printed dwelling, though the building that houses KKrane’s printing robotics was also constructed using their proprietary technology. 

A total of 12 truckloads of panels, each weighing up to 1,000 pounds, were brought to the building site: 65 exterior panels, 45 interior panels and several more for a retaining wall and a striking four-stack curved front-entrance column. While drywall could be added to create smooth interior walls, this home retains the beaded concrete surfaces inside and out, lending a futuristic vibe. The concrete panels get three coats of paint, the final of which can be tinted to owner preference. “It’s an extremely durable elastomeric formula,” Baldridge says, “and should last 20 years or more, even outdoors.” Rot-resistant composite trim boards are also used to help keep maintenance to a minimum. 

Baldridge’s team used a skid-loader and, later, a small crane to offload and stack the panels. “Turned out the crane was faster due to its extended reach without having to be relocated for each panel,” he said of learnings that will speed construction of the next 3D-printed home. “While setting the outside panels took nearly a month, the crane let us set all 45 indoor panels in a day and a half.” 

Exterior panels used for the first course are printed to include a wide “footing” base. Steel rebar rods extend inward and are buried in concrete when the slab floor is poured, tying the entire base of the home solidly together. Once courses two and three are in place, rebar is dropped into their pre-printed locking chambers, which are then filled with a concrete mix. The result: a concrete pillar roughly 5 inches in diameter runs vertically through both ends of each panel stack. 

“Homes built this way are ideal for earthquake prone regions,” Baldridge notes. “And where fire is a threat, metal roof trusses and surface, plus concrete-based hardy planks for trim and gables, can be used to further fire-proof the structure.” 

Panels are printed “hollow” to provide voids for insulation. Once that is blown in, 2″ x 6″ wooden capping boards, on which roof trusses will sit, are installed to lock the top panels together. HVAC ducts are run in the space above the ceilings. “It took just a day and a half to cut all the holes for electrical outlets and switches using a diamond saw tool,” Baldridge notes.

Click here to view a timelapse of this recently constructed, 3D-printed home.

His design for the 3-bedroom, 2-bath home features several aesthetic curves, including a bowed living room wall with window looking out past the patio to the woods and several curved corners, visible inside and out. Set on a 1.6 acre lot, it was listed at $439,000. This home has no basement, but ample accessible air-conditioned attic storage was included. KKrane can print panels to form basement walls, however, and has done so for a hybrid (part printed, part stick-built) home in Charlottesville. 

Baldridge recently attended the 2025 “World of Concrete” show in Las Vegas to compare his approach with those of other innovators in this field. His summary: “Most are selling mix formulations for use in outdoor on-site 3D-printing systems. Printing outdoors significantly limits the climates where this technology can be used and subjects projects to weather uncertainties. KKrane offers a start-to-finish approach from design … to climate-controlled panel production … to an installation crew that knows the system. We think there’s a significant place for that in modern home building.” ✦