I've been researching ICF for approx. 1year to use for future house. Having difficulty figuring out how to do the second floor with a balcony built off the master bedroom (the flooring would be over the kitchen so it needs to stay water tight) and the roof would overlap so that it is a covered balcony. Saw that there is the ICF flooring companies but how would that support the floor under the balcony and how would it support the walls where the door to the balcony would be (would be ICF so wouldn't lose the R value on the wall)Have tried redesigning kitchen so that a supporting wall could brace the icf wall but not having much luck with it. does anyone know of any how-to manuals or any books that would describe the steps of doing this...trying to avoid contractors related to cost and experience in this region (maine)

You may find the information you are looking for in the technical manuals found on the Insul-Deck web site http://insul-deck.org/.

Hard to know exactly what you are talking about with that description but if you are talking about spanning an area below (the kitchen) with an ICF floor (Insuldeck or similar) and then wanting to place a weight bearing wall on top (where the door to the balcony is) then you have a couple options.

1) Place a series of weight-bearing columns in the kitchen under the wall above.

2) Make a big composite concrete and steel beam to span the kitchen below and support the wall above.

Of course, you could also make a 2 X 4 or 2 X 6 wall with foam insulation above that would be lighter and still have the same R-value as the ICF walls. Your support underneath wouldn't have to be so extensive for that.

Interesting. Sounds like you should cantilever the insul-deck which is easily done -- see Insul-deck. Regarding ICFHybrid's comment on 2x4 or 2x6 walls providing the same R-value -- I would like to know how your this might be accomplished. Due to the conduction of the studs I'm not sure you could get there with 2x8s without staggering the studs to elimimate stud conduction.

Use rigid foam on the exterior.

Thank you for the replies, I am looking more in depth to the insul deck and considering different types of support/walls that may be used to off load the weight over the kitchen and balcony door wall

when doing a concrete balcony or deck it is important to step down the ouside 2" +/- (may be required by code anyway) to provide protection from wind driven rain or melting snow at the doors. if the deck/balcony are not supported by columns or beams, the cantelever is a function of engineering, rebar and deck form thickness, 6' or more are not a problem. if you need more info please eamil me.

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