has anybody built their home with icfs?

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.

dvellone

Feeling the Heat
Sep 21, 2006
489
I'm gearing up to begin construction on a new home and had been seriously considering icfs. The appeal for me is that I'm building the house myself and my wife and I can be forming the walls and laying re-bar without killing ourselves, as well as knocking off the steps of framing, sheathing, and insulating in one fell swoop.

The problem is that the info on their actual thermal efficiency is varied and inconsistent.
Rather than continuing to sift through the endless conflicting "research" on them I'm hoping that I can find some folks living in cold climates that have built their homes with icfs that can relate their experience.

I've been to every website that offers opinions and research so I'm all set there.
 
You will still have to sheet and side it. You will also have to pour a standard footing. I helped build one and I was in the basement just this weekend. The electrical is more challenging, the plumbing is more challenging. Setting up the crazy supports/scaffolding for the pour is quite involved as well. Building with them isn't particularly easy but the finished product is superior. Lots of fun to set up your walls in a day.
 
NY State building codes as well as my local codes don't require sheathing on icf construction if that's what you mean. And...yeah, I guess I'd be planning on siding it too.
 
I did a 2000 sqft basement with ICF to set a double wide manufactured home on. We poured about 110 yds with foothings and a 15 x 20 stairwell addition. I used a brand called Quadlock the dealer and factory support was fanominal. But as pointed out you have put in some serious temporary support bracing and that cost me $700 for two week rental. Installing the bracing and tearing back apart was some work. All Joints and tee intersection on the walls have to be brace very well and hire an experienced cement man that has poured these walls before. He has to be carefull how the mud goes in or you'll blow out the walls. You'll have to factor in the cost of his labor and a pump truck. My two grown Daughters and couple of friends put the forming up in about 4 months. I had to buy a manual rebar bender cutter for $160 used. Try to use 1/2" if inspector will allow as it's a lot easier to cut and bend and buy. Get on the various manufacturers site and watch the "how to" videos and you'll see if you want to do this or not. The insulated R factor is great. Being your own contractor though is not for the faint of heart. And ,Please, for your own benifit try to get along with the building inspector. bjr23
 
Here is a link that you might find very helpful. It is an ICF forum on GreenBuildingTalk.com.
Hope you find it helpful.

Code:
http://www.greenbuildingtalk.com/Forums/tabid/53/afv/topicsview/aff/4/Default.aspx
 
I built a 3 story 4600 sf internal dimension all icf home. I had never built anything before so the guy who sold them to me would come out and review/inspect my work before each pour for a small fee. It was fun.

As far as extra cost, yes there is some like slower construction time and extra large jamb extensions. Be care with contractors who will charge more for their service just b/c it is an icf home. Unless you are going up 3 stories like I did, it really is not that much harder to run electricity. Plumbing, drywalling and trim installation (except jamb ext) should be absolutely no difference in cost. Most of those contractors are just afraid when they see a new style of construction and assume they will have unforseen problems, so they bump up their bids to protect themselves.

Make sure you get a HVAC person who has worked on ICF homes before. We actually have 2 AC units (air handlers not powerful enough to push air up 3 stories where you really need it during the summer), a 1.5 ton unit in the attic and a 2.5 ton unit for the basement and main floor. For all but 2 weeks during the summer when it is 90-95F every day, the smaller unit in the attic cools the entire house. My HVAC guy said that is like having one large window unit cooling 3-4000 sq ft most of the summer. It runs longer and de-humidifies better that way. Our larges electric bill was around $165 total.
 
O.K., so you get some r-value from your walls instead of none, yet it is far from optimal. You get to form the walls yourself saving on form rentals fees and labor, but the I.C.F.s are not at all cheap either. I don't see the value in this at all.
 
I appreciate the replies. My wife and I have decided to go ahead with the icf construction and the input helped. Having a masonry background and ultimately finishing our new home with stone I can't say that the icfs don't already have a lot of appeal for me, but I didn't want to make a biased decision.
 
How can plumbing not be more challenging? You won't be able to run anything in the wall. Same with electrical. You can carve some of this into the foam but not all of it.
 
Design the house so that there's no plumbing in the exterior walls. That's the way our old house was built to avoid the risk of pipe freezes. The only exterior plumbing is a couple garden spiggots.
 
Yeah BeGreen, that's how I built our current cabin too. All the plumbing runs are under the floor or in interior walls.
 
Same with the electricity. You only need to carve out wire runs for the outlets and the very few switches on the outside walls. Outlets are supposed to be 12 inches of the ground. Cut a channel til you get to the sub-floor then the wires can just go under the floor joists until there is an internal chase to the main breaker. I was terrified of all this until I actually did it.
 
Dune said:
O.K., so you get some r-value from your walls instead of none, yet it is far from optimal. You get to form the walls yourself saving on form rentals fees and labor, but the I.C.F.s are not at all cheap either. I don't see the value in this at all.

Not sure what you mean here. The styrofoam has around R-24 plus you get the advantage of heat mass. Third, there is no thermal bridging anywhere. Structurally the house is virtually indestructible (we were side-swiped by a small tornado this summer and only had <$500 worth of damages) and it is very quiet. My forms consisted of a pile of 2x4's. This seems more optimal than stick built homes to me.
The cost of ICF's are on average 4-7% more than standard framing. In my situation, since labor was free, the ICF's were the same price or cheaper. *note that it did take longer to construct and the labor to frame my house would have been more expensive than the lumber and sheeting together*
Our cost for heating and AC is so low we find it extremely difficult to justify any wood boiler/fireplace or geothermal, solar, etc etc.

I am not trying to say ICF homes are the wave of the future or that any other ways are bad. Each have a cost to benefit ratio. All I can say is, we can not imagine anything better.
 
I've read that some well done ICF homes actually heat themselves from lighting and appliances like the refrigerator. Is that so?

What do you use for fresh air? Air to air heat exchanger? How about during power outages?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.