I hear they are an R40 after being filled with concrete ,and a great heat sink to boot.not to mention termite proof with the concrete anyway.
lowroadacres said:When we bought a used cedar log house to move to our acreage we weighed everything out and made the choice to go with insulated concrete forms or ICF for short.
The main reasons we went for ICF were ease of handling, increased insulation values and resale value.
Due to the fact that we did not have to rent forms or hire someone to form up the basement before the pour we did the ICF basement for less than we would have paid a contractor to construct a traditional basement. This was magnified by the fact that we did not have to strap and insulate afterwards but rather we were able to hang the drywall with relative ease. I say relative because we did one tiny thing wrong.... Somewhere along the line of stacking the blocks the instructions that I had been given from our contractor friend did not make it from me to my buddies and the "X"s" on the blocks did not line up after the first three courses of blocks. This added several hours to the drywall job as we had to map each set of anchors and measure and pencil mark each drywall sheet to be able to hang them up properly.
Needless to say the fellow doing the mudding, taping and sanding for me got a real kick out of my handiwork.
I would highly recommend the product and if we ever build again (I hope not as we still aren't completed this house ) we will be using the product again.
•• Glad the ICFs worked out for you. When I've run the numbers, an ICF wall costs a fortune. You can build a stick house tighter than necessary (HRV REQUIRED), with an uninterrupted insulation layer, far cheaper, and w/ a far better R than an ICF. Passive solar heat gain can also be easily achieved w/ a stick house. That is one of the functions of good windows. In fact it is not uncommon to have too much heat gain if precautions like trees and overhangs for shade are not thought of. However, if you like ICFs, and like the quite (which I suspect is more than w/ a 14" cellulose wall), then git 'er done. You'll have a wall that will outlast a few generations, too. I just can't see putting that much money into a house in my climate. Moderate climates? Perhaps so, but the expense is unavoidable, as far as I can see. Once you've been in your place a couple of years, post us with the actual fuel consumption and your heating degree days. It would be informative to see the numbers. In the meantime, ROCK OUT WITH THE BAND! The neighbors won't hear you.SE Iowa said:jkilingel,
... EFFECTIVE R values, I bet we are not too far off of 40. On the average winter day, we go thru 500,000 btu's which includes hot water and cooking gas. Taking a small amount out for those 2 things and dividing by 4600 sf we probably are near 4 to 5 btu's/hr INPUT for our house.
The real advantages include the uninterupted insulation envelope, heat mass "coasting" and lack of convectional air movement/loss. We also enjoy greatly reduced sound transmission.
Your bills are not bad at all. Here is a link to an ICF discussion (plenty more there, too) on another site that I find very informative, too. I have not yet found the advisers there to have a particular ax to grind, except, naturally, doing things as 'green' as possible. http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/green-basics/insulated-concrete-forms#icfs have a relatively low r-value Now, for the ocean tempering. In Iowa? If you meant in Frb, you've confused us w/ those folks down in Ang-kridge (Anchorage). We are in the interior; middle of nowhere, in a way. Anchorage has a much milder climate, but wetter. We have 14000 HDD, so some things that work well Outside are not as good for here. For comparison, the most HDD I can find for Iowa (only several cities listed in my old book) is 7800 for Mason City. Based on my fuel usage for 30 years, we range from using 4.75 btu/sf/hr (6 people in the house, and prior to some significant "fixes" I did) down to 3.8 btu/sf/hr with just two of us (and two mini dachshunds.... little heaters). I'll do things better on the new house, too; almost looking forward to building.... almost.SE Iowa said:Probably not like fairbanks with the ocean tempering the temps.
mbcijim said:DIY? I can't see how. Special bracing needed is pretty custom to ICF. Not sure how a DIY'er could find the bracing.
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