I am planning a ICF house. This will be my first. I have my ICF block decided on, but really would like to hear from anyone that has been thru this and can help me head off any issues that would come up. Footings, ICF walls ( 8" basement- 6 or 8" for 1st floor), Subfloor undecided, Steel (like hambro with wood deck) or a deck like Lite- deck or just all wood. Electrical and plumbing pros and cons on ICF walls and also on subfloor decks. Is ICF blocks easy to use when you are stacking up for a gable end or is it much more cost effective in the long run to just use wood? I am pretty much decided on ICF on basement and 1st floor walls. Unsure on subfloor and roof systems. Any thoughts on exterior finishes besides siding? -perma crete etc..? Can anyone help on these questions? Thanks

Concrete floors , like SpeedFloor as well as some others are easy to heat with Radiant heat. Radiant heat is the Rolls Royce of heating.  Very quiet, no drafts and Very economical to operate.  A concrete floor also caries a longer fire rating.  In what part of the country are you located? 
We just completed a small house with 20' high gables.  They are a little more work.  Bracing becomes an issue for some.  It depends on your skill level.  Some blocks are easier to do gables with. 

I am in SE Iowa. Near the Quad Cities. I am planning on putting Radiant heat in. Is there a system good in quality and also easy enough where I could do most of the labor myself, except for unit? What type of subfloor do you recommend? Typical wood, steel or Lite deck type? 

Roofing also. I am leaning towards wood above the upper wall section. Not even sure about gable ends.

Make sure you invest in an electric chain saw (remington, $40) and a couple of hot knifes (at least one, they are kinda spendy). This will make plumbing and electric go much smoother. Plan for all and even extra service penetrations (hose bibs, outsiide lights, plug ins, any interior appliance or fixture that needs supply from the outside) Any extra can be filled with foam later.

As far as your gable question: It depends if you have ever installed ICF, and have a few tricks up your sleeve. If not, and you're doing the labor, just go wood but definetly seal up that gable after.

Exterior finishes: all are do-able, it's really up to what look you want.

Hope this helps!

Jesse

bgrunder,

Congratulations on your new home endeavor. It is a big undertaking. A couple of things I have found interesting about your post that has the hall marks of build fraught with frustration and angst.

You state you have already chose a block but you are asking questions that in my mind I would be answering before I decided on a block. Secondly your block manufacturer or sales rep should have information on ancillary products that fit or work well with your chosen block. That brings me to another point, technical support; on another post here I think Mark Ross says it so succinctly that just because you take a half day class from a manufacturer does not make you a builder. My opinion is that you would be money ahead paying for the services of an ICF professional to help walk you through the process.

That's the great thing about this site, everyone has an opinion, just like something else, and they usually stink too.

Thats my two cents

ICF Contractor

we used fastfoot to form our footings.. we sure liked the idea of using only 2x4's for the forms that we could use again in the interior wall construction.. and with no need to rinse or clean up the forms. Being diy's, we sure didn't have use for 100's of feet of 2x12's or 10's or the desire to strip and clean all the forms. the fastfoot worked great! I'd recommend that to anyone, especially someone building footings as a one time thing. + 2x4's are a LOT lighter to handle then x12's.

Have you thought about radon venting?..

I recommend the form a drain product for your footings, creatherm panels for your floor heat system, Rhino Block for your walls or some sort of icf, hambro for your upper level floors with the Creatherm floor panels, and Hardi plank siding.

With all of these items you will be building the most enviromentaly freindly, safe, quiet, energy efficient, and healthy home possible with all the latest technology. May cost a little bit more but some of these products will allow you the ability to DIY saving you money in that aspect.

I was originally going to use form a drain but didn't like that it wouldn't move water from the bottom of the footing... so opted to shallow trench in standard drain tile just below footing depth.. it was more work than most would have done.. most would have laid it right along side the footing, but we built on a swamp (well, I called it a swamp), and I thought it important to get it slightly below the footing.. maybe it was..maybe not.

Probably a good move given your situation from time to time we have to deviate from one method to another for good reason.

Bill,

You mentioned using creatherm panels with Hambro. Do you lay down the panels over plywood before the pour? If so, is the pex elevated everytime you have to run it over the top chord of the joist?

The panels will be layed over top of the joist so the tubing would be on top of the panels with no direct contact with the joist.

Sorry Orono I used the term Hambro as a generic for steel truss systems. The last steel trusses that we used had a U shaped steel bar that stuck up and we cut slots in our panels to slide down over the bar and then attached our full length rebar to that after the tubing was installed occasionally we had to swirve to miss the bar that stuck up but it usually went in between the 8" space between bars.

So you are correct when you say that on the Hambro system this may be an issue and I am not sure if the folks at Hambro could do some modifications to the Hambro system to make this work or not, but you can bet that when we do one with the actual Hambro system I will be working on this issue.

Bgrunder,
Just joined forum and saw your post. We are also planning an ICF house near a river (on a canal) in South Mississippi. This part of MS was demolished by Katrina. I'm running into similar issues regarding ICF information b/c most of the "experts" don't seem very expert-everyone I talk to tells me something different. I'm doing as much research as possible but since icf is new to me, the information and options get very overwhelming. But after talking to several contractors, architects, and structural engineers we have pretty much decided on having an engineer who is very pro ICF oversee our home and work with one of local icf contractors. We see many home owners and contractors in our area basically throwing up homes without any research or thought to "down the road" issues(-not to offend anyone! We have several outstanding builders as well.) Most of them look at me like I'm crazy when I tell them about the soil testing we're doing to make sure we have the right pier foundation to hold the weight on our lot, etc. etc. I agree completely with icfcontractor-get advice from, or work with, a local professional with plenty of icf experience. You'll save yourself time, money, and headaches. And yes I'm sure my two cents aren't worth anything but good luck with your home and look forward to hearing how it is going.

"And yes I'm sure my two cents aren't worth anything but ....."

I can't agree with you, because as each person determines their own knowledge and comfort level with using ICFs, those who understand their limitations and avail themselves of sources who provide guidance are approaching their investment in a wise manner!! The main issues we have in the ICF industry isn't using the product or requesting the inclusion of ICFs in both residential and commercial projects.......but rather the use of these products in the hands of inexperienced buyers(both contractors and homeowners) who then get in over their head, have a problem beyond their capabilities to think thru, and then suddenly all their efforts are spent saying how bad something is when it's their own incompetance which created the problem(s).

You are smart to include outside sources to help you with any part of the homebuilding experience instead of trying to save a buck, and spend all your time and savings(so-called) fixing what you don't understand!