I use the regular set and strip panels.  The aluminum forms I have are very fast.  Two of my better guys can set and pour 200' of 8' wall in a day and strip in 4 hours.  How fast are the icf's?

If you use a commercial grade form like Polycrete Big Block, you can average 20 sqft per man hour. On a basement or an industrial/big box job, with fewer openings you can get closer to 30. And remember, you don't have to strip them, clean, them or transport them back to your yard. Best of all, the wall is fully insulated to R23.25 and ready for sheetrock with no additional steps. The installer's cost will usually be about $10 to $12 per sqft -- $12 - $15 to the GC. Residential grade ICFs will take longer.

On my recent build, an experienced ICF crew of 2 (and an occasional laborer to schlep steel) were outpacing experienced panel crews of 5. On form-stripping day, a panel crew of 2 worked all day and OT but the ICF crew had braces removed in a few hours and was already on to the next thing. Keep in mind that as with anything, there will be a learning curve on a new system.

randynh, I think your comparing apples and oranges

Smartwall is right.  You are comparing apples and oranges.  That said, you can get comparable speeds with ICF on something as basic as an 8 foot wall.  It's when you add openings and turns, corners, radius, embeds, etc. -- aluminum slows down and ICF speeds up.  1000 square feet per week per man is an ideal target - stacked poured cleaned up and gone.  This target is reachable only on simple jobs.   If you go to my website home page you can see a video of 5500 square feet per week with an 8 man crew on a four story building.   Its been my experience that that is about as fast as things get in the real world with weather and missing steel columns and simple reality.   I've attached a couple of complex jobs for comparisson.   Forgetting insulation, these jobs are simply going to take more time -- how long would it take to conventionally form these jobs?   Regards. 

building off of this topic, but comparing to wood framing instead....anyone have any idea how ICF would compare to double stud framing for time? ICF would include suspending the floor structure, so running the ICF from footing to roof. It costs a lot more then wood framing with a much lower wall r value, but I am wondering if time savings (as time line is very important) could really benefit from them. With the double stud wall, you would also have to factor in the ZIP sheathing, taping, caulking and other air sealing that is basically completed for you in the ICF construction. Also the added time of insulation installation.

You know, I'm sure this has been said before, but I think the mistakes in the marketing of ICF in the past have been the willingness to compare it to stick-built construction on one dimension or another. It is just a different thing. You have to be willing to consider everything you are getting and make the decision that way.

Sound resistance, insulating value, mass effect, structural considerations, design, seismic, security, contractor capabilities, green factors, etc., all have to be a part of the decision-making process.

I am sold on insulated concrete for walls. I run a concrete company and would like to consider venturing into icf or similar. I know comparing strip type forms to icf is apples to oranges, but discovering the differences in time and money is a what is needed in making a good business decision. I am certainly aware of the the learning curve that would be involved, learning costs money. I have done the same type of construction as icf with strip forms minus the insulation portion. Window and door openings can be slow, the higher the wall the slower it is, but we also gang form a lot so this is also a time saver. How much would the average icf system cost per sf including form ties?

What area of the country are you located in, randynh?

NH. Dont see icf's all too often. This is not an earthquake or high wind zone either. The biggest appeal to ICF's up here would be the energy savings.

You can get an 6" icf for $15.75 plus shipping out of Mass. This is for a standard 5.33 sq ft block.  You can panelize icf's and because of their weight you can mono pour the footing and wall in one step

Smart-
do you have any images of ICF set up ready to be mono poured with the footer? Do you fill the form enough to fill the footer, let it set up some and then continue pouring the walls? Any issues with uplift off the footer?
What about stepped foundations....I assume it makes it more complicated correct? Any inspection issues with the bar in the footer?
Sorry for the 20 questions

No problems with uplift. You don't have to wait for it to set up on most jobs by the time you make the first pass the footing is pretty well set. The picture with my post is a step footing job. 4ft frost wall with 9'4" on top. The first time you do it it makes you scatch your head. No problems with footing inspection since you can see the rebar in the footing because it is open. Handy when you drop a rasp in the wall, just reach in and grab it. There are other things that you need to think about but after doing about thirty of them it becomes old hat. Save a crap load of time on the job. Since I travel quite a distance to some jobs, being able to set up the footing and start building on it is a great time saver. Also the fact that you can pour the footing with a pump in about 25 to 35 minutes in most cases beats any footing that I poured out of a truck. Speaking of which I will be pouring a mono pour out of a truck in about three weeks. I'll let you know how ti goes. I have already poured a couple of regular icf jobs out of a truck where the customer had already poured the footings first. That's the one thing I like about icfs, they can be used in different ways.

I've priced out ICF vs strip form in my area, and the strip form is half the price (not including foam, which MIGHT add $10/linear foot). Not sure where you price in Randy, but for me it is more cost effective to strip form my basement and do ICF above grade. Not sure if the speed has to do with it or not, but from the videos I've seen of aluminum forming systems, they look MUCH quicker than ICF to put up the walls (including window and door openings with bucks).....

http://www.wallties.com/

It all depends on the contractors though......luckily, I have a really good strip form contractor and a really good ICF contractor that will do my job.

jpj,
Did you factor in framed wall, insulation ,plastic and labour for your basement walls or does the exterior foam take care of that ?

Don't want to get off track on original post, just had to ask.

This does not include a furring wall on the inside. All insulation should go on the outside for the basement. Not sure what you mean by plastic -- if you mean waterproofing you would need that either way? The furring walls wouldn't add much though.

I won't finish the basement though for a while though. If I do, I will only do parts of it.

The two big issues you will run into though are how to set your floor and how to provide a way to set the above grade wall (6" concrete walls in ICF are 11" wide forms).

It's still way cheaper though....for me at least.