Price a Solarship — Sophabulous

Solarship

Price a shell over the whole house

A Solarship is a free-standing arch that encloses an entire home and touches it nowhere — the house keeps its own roof and walls, and the shell carries none of it. Three questions size it. Nothing here is a quote; it's the same takeoff our drawings are costed from, with a planning band on it.

How wide does it need to span? feet, foot to foot at grade. This is not your house's width — the shell has to clear it with room to walk around, and an arch narrows as it rises. The calculator tells you what actually fits.

How long is the house? feet. Ribs land every 49 in, so this rounds to whole bays.

How tall is the house?

Single storeyOne floor over a raised entry. Eaves at 13 ft, shell to 24 ft — and because the arch is widest low down, this is the height that fits the widest house. 1½ storeysOne floor and rooms in the roof — a cottage or a storey-and-a-half. Eaves still at 13 ft, shell to 28 ft. 2 storeysTwo full floors. Eaves at 22 ft, shell to 31 ft. 2½ storeysTwo full floors and a half storey in the roof. Eaves at 22 ft, shell to 34 ft.

It's the eaves that decide what fits, not the storey count — an arch narrows as it rises, so a low-eaved house gets a much wider shell.

How should the ribs look?

Open ladderTwo chords held apart by spacer blocks, left on show — how a Sophab Arch is built, and the cheaper of the two. Closed sidesThe gap skinned flush on both faces, so each rib reads as one solid curved beam. A finish, not a structural change.

A Solarship — a free-standing glazed arch enclosing a whole house — Visualisation of a Solarship — not a photograph of a built project.