ICF Construction

Breakfast nook

In reply to frenchyd :

Hey Frenchy:

Your house is beautiful, and many of us have waited a long time to see it. 

Why don’t you start your own thread on it?  It would be nice to highlight it.  Lots of us would like to see details of construction, etc. 

This thread is to help D2W learn about ICFs, not highlight your house. 

Thanks for sharing, frenchy. 

In reply to SVreX :

You are right. I’m sorry! someone asked and I tried and somehow managed to post a picture after years of trying 

knowing the proper thing to do was start another thread I went to off topic and tried repeatedly. Unsuccessfully 

came back here and had success, went there and failed,  eventually managed. 

Im still not 100% sure what I’m doing 

Since then it’s taken me a half dozen try’s to post this apology..  Don’t know if I’ve picked up something like a virus 

In reply to D2W :I apologize to you for hi-jacking your thread. It wasn’t my intention but someone asked me to post a picture. Those who have been here a while know that for years I couldn’t manage to post any pictures.  

I tried and tried.  Failed so many times. When I final succeeded on your thread I knew it wasn’t proper and started on the off topic site.  

Failed again and again, came back here and succeeded!   Went back and kept trying, eventually succeeded then failed again and again.  

Bottom line? I think I’ve figured it out and will try to stay on topic.  Help you with your decision.  

In my case since I wanted to do my home myself, it was a really easy choice for me and I’m very glad I used them and wish I’d used them for all the external walls.  

You are at a disadvantage. It sounds like construction costs will drive your decision and with anything new costs go up.  

It doesnt have to be that way but likely that’s the way it is now.  In fact with the shortage of construction labor and lack of competition plus the tariff taxes you’ll have to pay for some things it might be hard  to build the house you want at the price you can afford 

ThatsNoUsername said:

I hate it. A lot. Its not really waterproof, especially if the guys pouring the concrete havent vibrated the hell out of the wall(which can sometimes result in blowing out the cheesy styrofoam blocks), not really bug proof for the same reasons. Styrofoam is a weak surface and while you can dryvit over it...its still weak. You can side over it but if you are trying to hold down costs by not buying wood.....you arent doing that. One i did years ago was also highly flammable, although i vthink theyve made strides in that by now.

 

Upsides......do you really like the throwaway coolers you can buy at grocery stores? I mean, really, really,REALLY like them??? Congrats! You can live in one now!

Dryvit isn’t the only thing you can do, it’s cheap and easy but not your only choice.  You can brick it. Yes regular bricks, just use longer screws to connect the brick ties.  Simulated brick, simulated stone, wood, real stone. 

Inside sheet rock is easier with less waste. Unlike stud walls  you can run the screws into the nylon connectors about every 4 inches. And unlike stud walls you don’t have to land on a stud. Loose ends can be taped and mudded without the flex that occurs with wood shrinking and swelling with moisture.   

You can also screw cabinets into the nylon every 4 inches  or put up plywood and screw into that.  I used solid hardwood on a couple of walls and as long as you toe nail it’s easy to do and very strong. But yes you will need nails long enough to go through the hardwood, through two days niches of foam and into the nylon at an angle. 

I was even able to put a handrail on wall using tap cons into the concrete.  There  are a lot of choices. 

Yes there are people who short cut everything and have blow outs or other problems.  But like everything else workmanship and attention to detail makes the difference.  

frenchyd said:

ThatsNoUsername said:

I hate it. A lot. Its not really waterproof, especially if the guys pouring the concrete havent vibrated the hell out of the wall(which can sometimes result in blowing out the cheesy styrofoam blocks), not really bug proof for the same reasons. Styrofoam is a weak surface and while you can dryvit over it...its still weak. You can side over it but if you are trying to hold down costs by not buying wood.....you arent doing that. One i did years ago was also highly flammable, although i vthink theyve made strides in that by now.

 

Upsides......do you really like the throwaway coolers you can buy at grocery stores? I mean, really, really,REALLY like them??? Congrats! You can live in one now!

Dryvit isn’t the only thing you can do, it’s cheap and easy but not your only choice.  You can brick it. Yes regular bricks, just use longer screws to connect the brick ties.  Simulated brick, simulated stone, wood, real stone. 

Inside sheet rock is easier with less waste. Unlike stud walls  you can run the screws into the nylon connectors about every 4 inches. And unlike stud walls you don’t have to land on a stud. Loose ends can be taped and mudded without the flex that occurs with wood shrinking and swelling with moisture.   

You can also screw cabinets into the nylon every 4 inches  or put up plywood and screw into that.  I used solid hardwood on a couple of walls and as long as you toe nail it’s easy to do and very strong. But yes you will need nails long enough to go through the hardwood, through two days niches of foam and into the nylon at an angle. 

I was even able to put a handrail on wall using tap cons into the concrete.  There  are a lot of choices. 

Yes there are people who short cut everything and have blow outs or other problems.  But like everything else workmanship and attention to detail makes the difference.  

 

Oh yeah, you can do all sorts of things to it, i was just focusing on the not wood/cheaper options. Brick and rock work is on the high side of things

In reply to frenchyd :

No worries about the slight hi-jack. Your house looks awesome.

In reply to ThatsNoUsername : I guess I’m weird like that, I found working with wood and stone cheap, well cheaper than siding.  

Ive probably said this dozens of times but you can buy hardwoods cheaply, gotta go to the source and buy wholesale. In other words you buy a pallet or two of a certain grade, not select a few boards. 

How cheap? I bought 55,000 bd ft of hardwoods like black walnut cherry white oak rock maple etc and paid $25,000 that’s around 40 cents a bd ft when right now black walnut is selling for $12.00 a bd ft 

Ask I’ll explain how you can do it too 

same thing with stone  or rock  maybe not as deep a discount but a really pretty good deal  

then I just do the work myself.  When you take the material costs and shred them. Have no labor or insurance costs, no office staff or overhead. And no profit.  

Expensive becomes very cheap  

D2W said:

In reply to frenchyd :

No worries about the slight hi-jack. Your house looks awesome.

Thank you. You won’t believe how little it cost me. 

Sorry about throwing open the door D2W. If you decide to build with ICF, please post a build thread!

OMG Frenchy posted a picture. I've tried helping him so many times to do this over the past 2 years. I'm so proud. I just feel overwhelmed with joy. 

Thanks for the info. Not a lot of info out there on the web, and not sure who you can trust. I'm just starting the design phase so I'm a long way away from putting a shovel in the ground. I still like the idea as I feel it has a lot of merit. I don't think there will be any problem assembling it as I have two friends who both do concrete for a living. I think the other tradesman are going to be the ones who I need to find out if they are willing to work with it, and have they done it before?

In reply to D2W :

Remember to run plumbing and wiring through the floor rather than up the wall if possible.  The inside walls will still available for traditional stick building techniques.  

If wiring  has to go in the  outside  wall for switches etc.  Plan on using conduit to carry the wires which means it has to be in place before the concrete is poured.  

It’s probably not that much work but fear of the unknown  will cause the electricians to bid high to cover themselves.  

I think if the architect of the ICF’s would spend 20 minutes with the electricians I suspect at least one or two would fall more in line with actual costs. 

Same thing would apply to the plumbers.  

In reply to frenchyd :

Residential electrical code requires an outlet every 12’, which makes it almost impossible to avoid outlets in exterior walls. 

But conduit is an easy approach. 

In reply to SVreX : I solved that by putting the outlets in the floor, well one of them.  Most I complied by putting them up on my Timbers. 

OK now Im just showing off. Just took a picture and posted it.