ICF Concrete House ????

[Shelby Griggs]

I am thinking of building a new house. Anybody have any experience with the ICF concrete building type? I understand it might be slightly more to build, but heating and cooling might also be 1/2 of wood frame houses.



Thought I would see if any TDR'ers had any experiences they cared to share.



I am not necessarily a green power freak, but if I can save energy I am all for that. I will be on the grid, but wouldn't mind solar hot water, heat and power, if it doesn't take 100 years to recoup the cost. A lot of solar features can be designed into a new house, unlike trying to retrofit an existing one. New to me, is a concrete roof tile that is a PV tile, they look close to regular tiles, in fact I think that is what they start life as. Much better aesthetically than a bunch of PV panels on the roof.



The concrete house with solar is just something I have been researching in the past week, before that I was thinking a conventional stick built, so this is all new to me, but I am learning.



SHG

 

[Andy Perreault]

Hi Shelby, how ya been? I don't know what "ICF" stands for. Are you talking about the style of construction where they use styrofoam forms and fill the center void with concrete to make walls? If so, I believe Big Bob is in that business, if memory serves me right. You can probably contact him on the NWBombers forums.

Andy

 

[Bill Stockard]

My barber built a commercial building out of ICF concrete for his new barbershop and leased the rest of the building out to another business. It has steel exterior siding, steel roof trusses and an insulated steel roof with a suspended ceiling with lots of insulation above the ceiling. It's amazing how quiet it is inside that building. He says he runs the heating system very little in the winter. The building is so well insulated that the heat from the carry over summer heat, electric lights, and electrical equipment keep it warm. It does take a bit more cooling in the summer than he expected because of the heat produced inside the building and the constant opening and closing the doors allowing the summer heat inside.



If I build another house, I will give ICF concrete a very serious consideration. Not only is it very efficient cooling and heating wise, it is much safer in severe wind storms(tornadoes & hurricanes) than a "stick" built house and termites don't eat concrete.



Bill

 

[jandtjil]

Have you looked at or considered strawbale?

http://ww2.green-trust.org:8383/strawbale.htm

Building my own home is a few years away, but I hope to give it a go using this material. The combination of straw and concrete.



JJ

 

[TPCDrafting]

ICF = Insulated Concrete Forms



I design houses for a contractor and the main distributer of Formtech ICF's west of the Miss. river.

You can learn more about their products at:

www.formtechsys.com



The contractor I work with:

www.highplainsfoam.com



He is excellent to work with. The product is fairly simple to put up if you have him show you how, then have him or one of his crews out the day you pour walls. We also specify a product called the Plasbeau floor system. You can check out this product at

www.insul-deck.org

This is an ICF floor/roof system where the foam is placed, the rebar is set in, the elec'l and plumbing roughed in and the in-floor heat piping is layed down, then the concrete is poured over and you have a struct'l concrete floor system with in-floor heat. The thicker concrete serves as a great thermal mass cutting heating costs. Some of our clients run the boiler pump in the summer time recirculating cool water and it serves as their A/C. One gal we designed a house for lives nearby and I kept good tabs with her. When it was finished it was summer time. She had days that went to 105 deg. She kept the house shut during the day and opened windows at night. The house never went over 76 deg in that heat. No A/C.



I should conclude in saying this wall system is the best I have seen. I don't have experience with all the systems out there, but this one so far is the simplest. The reasons are the walls are solid conc. , there are no foam voids, if you were to scrape off the foam, you would have a standard reinf. solid 6" or 8" wall depending on the form you used. Another reason is the dimensions of the forms are exactly 16" tall, 48" long and the foam is 2 1/2" thick on each side. Other Manuf. 's I've seen are goofy dimensions as in 14 5/8" tall This becomes a pain when you start thinking about framing out the interior, hanging sheet rock, etc.

Sorry so long winded, I really like this product.

 

[jponder]

I was researching this a year or so ago and found some cool links

http://mb-soft.com/public/index.html

and

http://mb-soft.com/solar/index.html

 

[Shelby Griggs]

Thanks for the replies, I will spend some time looking at the links.



Andy, I have been fine, thanks. Thanks for the tip on Big Bob.



Off to Eugene, will check in later today, keep those comments coming.



SHG

 

[Andy Perreault]

Originally posted by TPCDrafting

ICF = Insulated Concrete Forms

Ah! I should have known that! Hand me the "duh" award for the day.

Thanks.

Andy

 

[Champane Flight]

I also have looked

I have looked at concrete domes, energy efficent and maintenance free.



http://www.aidomes.com/?source=ehouseplans

 

[Shelby Griggs]

ICF = Insulated Concrete Forms



I design houses for a contractor and the main distributer of Formtech ICF's west of the Miss. river.

You can learn more about their products at:

www.formtechsys.com



The contractor I work with:

www.highplainsfoam.com

It looks like the primary ICF distributor here is a place that sells Amvic. Any opinions on this? They of course claim it is the best, as I suppose the other 70 or so makers do about their product.



Are there stock plans available for ICF? Or any interest in designing a house in Oregon? Like many folks I am not rich by any means, and right now this is all a dream, however, if the price isn't reasonable it will remain a dream. What I often find is that innovations like ICF, in floor heating, passive and active solar systems, etc. only end up on large complex houses when the cost does not seem to be an issue. I would be happy with just a ranch style 2000 SF or under simple home that is well built, and efficient. There is one builder here in the NW that builds fairly simple houses for around $40 a SF exclusive of land. They seem to be fairly well built 2X6 construction. For instance I am looking at one of their plans that is two story, 26X40 (1040 SF each floor) with an attached 20X22 (440 SF) garage for $78,950 on MY lot.

I was going to have one of those built until I stumbled onto ICF. What is the ballpark per SF cost on an ICF home?



Shelby

 

[TPCDrafting]

Shelby, I tried to send you a PM and yer box is full...