Hi, I'm new to this forum and new to ICF. I'm building a 40x50 basement and shopping ICF. I've done a bunch of reading on this forum and have learned that price isn't everything, but I do have a budget and I don't want to overpay. Is $49 per Nudura block (8' x 18" x 8") a fair price? I have 130' of 8' wall, and 126' of 4' frost wall to pour. I'm using an experience ICF person to help me with the installation (I'm basically going to do what he tells me). I understand that Nudura sends their person out for 3 days, which is undoubtedly included in the price. Not sure if I need that b/c I'm using an experienced contractor. Thanks very much for your replies.

Not a bad price for a small quantity. Nudura is a decent product, but at 18" tall, you will have a bunch of waste on 4' and 8' walls. If you want to email me offline, I could offer other insights.

hey bruce two full courses and then run the product threw the table saw cutting it in half useing both halfs along with a 3" hight adj also made by NUDURA you have zero wast maybe you would like us to send you some info on NUDURA

Sure, Mike. I think I have most of it, but feel free to send me anythihng new.

Great to see your doing the homework on block choices. A lot of pricing depends on your location and the availabilty of local distributors for the many manufacturers. I like using Greenblock and you can purchase direct from the manufacturer - no middle man. I do know that their pricing will be more competitive than the Nudura pricing you listed and will be delivered directly your jobsite - a little more than a dollar per square foot less. The other advantage is that with their 12 inch block height, your 4 and 8 foot tall walls are really simple - 4 and 8 courses. Mike makes a good point about cutting the Nudura and adding spacers. However, this is more work, time and ultimately money. You can go directly to the Greenblock website and click on your regional sales manager from the company to get pricing.

Hi Everyone, thanks for all the replies. The Nudura quote is now at $48/block, delivered... including on-site rep. for 3 days. I have a side question regarding the ICF. I'm going to have a 4' frost wall in places, with the 8' basement wall on top of it. That would total 12', and perhaps this is a total novice question, but I'll ask anyway: Do I pour the 4' section, let it cure, the pour the 8' section? Do I have to take this into consideration when choosing ICF?

Pour the whole thing in one shot including the footing.

It might be important to empasize again that a NUDURA block is 12 square feet and not the typical 5.33.

Also, interesting is the 12' height -- thats 8 courses of NUDURA with no waste. Regards.

Smartwall - how would I pour everything in one shot?

allegany
your question has been asked in its simplicity since this forum was started.

A good answer to your question it too read thru the threads on this forum, and glean the info from a lot of previous posts.....which will help you!!

Thanks for posting the price of your project. I don't see enough of this in this forum and it is very difficult to get this information from suppliers with the usual excuses (where, when, how much, only thru distributers, contractors).

It would be nice if how to pore the footing and wall in one shot was in the ICF Learning Center instead of searching thru hundreds of posts looking for information since this is a common novice question. I have read hundreds of post and have still found no comprehensive answer on how to do this without concrete leaking out the bottom or air pockets forming. It might be in here somewhere, but I have seen no linik to it yet.

I posted pictures of a mono pour I did on Nov. 18 ,2008. If I had a clue how to repost it I would. I found it by searching mono pour in the search area on this page and found on the fifth page.

I did it. Four and a half years of college wasn't a waste after all

smartwall

Can you explain to me how you prevented the concrete you were pouring down inside the wall from not flowing out your footings? It is difficult to see what you used in your picture. Did you use some type of form a footing? If not, can you provide more detail.

See http://www.icfmag.com/how-to/ht_wet-setting.html for additional details.

This isn't wet setting but pouring the whole wall and footing. You start with a stiff mix for the footings. The footing forms are lumber, in this case the builder used rough cut 1x 10's. They work with a metal cross tie that I made.

You could also use Polycrete Flex850 for forming the footing and Big Block for the walls. Works perfectly since the Flex850 is 1' tall and you can make it whatever width you need by ordering the appropriate cross ties. The Big Block sits on top of the Flex850's steel cross ties with or without the starter base.It's a beautiful thing.

I think cost may be an issue . What I use cost about $1.60 per lin. ft for a 20" footing which is pretty common here.

Yep, that costs less.

smartwall

Sorry if I am beating a dead horse...

What mix of concrete (stength, slump) did you first pour in your footings so that the pressure from 8 to 10 feet of concrete in the walls was held in place by the viscosity of the footing mix preventing the concrete from flowing out the top of the footing on the sides?

3000lb mix a 3 or 4 slump. Some pumpers won't pump less than a 4.

Pouring a 12' tall wall at one time isn't really a great idea...usually at the most a vertical drop of 10' is the most a lot of contractors I know will pour. The pressure of the concrete will be a lot higher and greatly increases the chances of blow outs. The frost wall should be poured first with something on the knobs to prevent concrete from filling them and then stack your foundation walls on top. As for the monolithic pour for walls and footings, there is a new system called "Fab-Form Fast Foot" that not only facilitates the mono-pour easily, but also acts as a vapour barrier between your footing and the ground below. That's the one area that is always overlooked - people will spend great amounts of time and money waterproofing the wall itself, only to leave the footing directly on the ground allowing moisture to wick up through the wall - albeit just a little but none the less.

Your pouring the concrete into the footing first and you don't pour the 12' of wall in one pass. The reason for not pouring concrete with a big drop is segregation. Most step footing jobs are a result of a walk out basement. You pour the door and window areas after the footing has been poured then proceed to the main wall areas. I would like to see the Fab-Form system do a mono-pour with a step footing for $1.60 per lin ft for a 20" footing. I have used the Fab-Form material a couple of times but not the mono-pour system. I wonder what you do for bracing.

If Crude Oil stays in the $30 to $40 range long enough, profits for the manufactures of ICF products will expand, or will some of the cost savings be passed off to the consumers of the product?

Price Check Please....

The raw material cost of EPS beads is only a small percentage of the total selling price of the ICF. There is a ton of regulatory costs associated with EPS manufacturing as well as all the cost of complying with building codes and other administrative costs. In addition, most ICFs in north America are made by contract manufacturers and they take their piece as well. Sorry for the not-so-great news. ;-)

Naphtha price follows oil like a little brother.

Naphtha has traded in the $900 to $800 per Tonne range for some years now.

Future contracts are now trading in the $399 range ...... that's one heck of a reversal.

To say price would not be affected is a bit bias don't you think?

http://www.quotenet.com/commodities/naphtha

I can assure you throughout the supply chain, they have renegotiated prices.

Pentane is the actual product that eps bead is made from. Prices should be down since last year there was a shortage of pentane supplies regardless of price. Mono pour baby it's the only way to build !

Posted By smartwall on 27 Aug 2015 01:51 PM
  Mono pour baby it's the only way to build !

agree!!!

Anyone purchase Nudura blocks that will post a price? I have a call in to a rep, but curious to see what others are paying in real life.

I know I'm late here but I will chirp in anyway. I sell Fox but beyond that I have no bias. Whatever form you use, site conditions usually dictate the number of pours for us. Depending on your ground and how it was excavated makes a difference if you pour the walls all at once or if you pour the frostwall first. When possible I like to pour the frostwall and then let the excavator get everything backfilled so we are at grade for the floor. I try to pour out of the truck when doing this not to incur another pump cost. It can be tough to work around the excavation or tough to backfill after the walls are up. You can email me to discuss your options if you like. Good luck

Nudura was priced to me at "around $4.95 per sq. ft." then the push to use Amvic came in.

Allegany,
When competitive pricing is a consumer mystery and oligopoly marketing is used like in the ICF manufacturing world today and the past a monopoly flourishes. That is why the use of ICF hasn't taken off like any of us would have though or hoped given the common sense it makes to build more efficiently. It is like the health food in the snack machine costing more than the candy. It makes no sense until you look back over the history of the ICF industry itself.

No one wants you to know the absurd cost of ICF compared to the low price of production since a price competition can lead to price wars, meaning less profit to the manufacturers, and oligopolists usually prefer to compete on the basis of product differentiation,advertising, and service (Sound familiar? Even here in what is supposed to be an independent forum?) because it is to the profit of the suppliers and manufacturers instead of you and me. Sure, there are other things that add to cost but the last time I checked styrofoam/EPS was a byproduct/waste product of petroleum refinement and very inexpensive. The way I see it, ICF construction should be incentivized to the point of paying us to use/safely dispose of this product that would otherwise end up in a landfill after being used as a coffee cup.
Please prove me wrong and each manufacturer's Rep that monitors and markets on this site provide Allageny and the rest of us with exact production cost of your brand of ICF.
FOR THOSE THAT HAVENT FIGURED IT OUT YET - there is really no significant difference between any of the various brands of ICF when it comes to actual installation or performance, assuming they meet the regulatory requirements. Like wine, they are all good, some are just better than others. Now availability, shipping, and support are a factor but shouldn't prevent the sharing of pricing information or cost of production.

For 6" core Nudura they priced me for 2,000+ sq. ft. of wall area and assuming (10) inside or outside corners at $3.65 sq. ft.

Whoever priced you at $4.95 a sq. ft. was attempting you rip you off. If they would take the middle man out of the picture it could be selling for $2.50 to $3.00 a sq. ft.

Remember that ICF is shipped in large trucks for efficiency. Price is dependent on many factors and can vary from project to project and based on location and local distributer resources.

I understand about shipping cost.

If I can price shop Nudura, I will. I have the resources to go pick it up anywhere.

The problem as I see it is I have to go through two middlemen from what I can see. The lumber yard and the distributor.

Coming in late again as usual. Here is what I tell my customers or would be customers. All of the local ICF guys are within pennies of each other, find the guy you want to work with and pull the trigger. There is so much more to an ICF build than just the cost of the block. Get a guy who cares, returns your calls and shows up at your site. This is your home, you can cut corners on carpet or drapery but don't on your foundation or structure. Ask about bracing, if you need it. How much $? For how long ? How much bracing can the rep supply ? How is it delivered ? Do I need equipment to get it unloaded and loaded again. Is it clean and serviceable ? Will the rep work with all my subs through out the process? Once you buy you guys are married to the project. Good luck.

New on here, does anybody have a price for 1x 6 inch nudara block. I am just doing a bit of home work for a large build.

Posted By Washouit007 on 27 Sep 2017 10:45 AM
New on here, does anybody have a price for 1x 6 inch nudara block. I am just doing a bit of home work for a large build.

You will have to contact your local dealer for this info. If you don't know your local dealer, contact the manufacturer directly and they will get you contact info. The trouble with asking for cost on a site like this is you are asking people from all over North America (maybe further?). Any rep posting can only provide costs for their area - this may differ from costs in your area due to freight, etc. Although this forum is not great for pricing, it is a great resource to get technical info/installation instructions, due to the wide variety of people/experiences available!

Thank you for your reply, yes i understand your reply. We have already used nudara on one build and was planning on using it again but unfortunately is getting a bit expensive, i was just trying to find out if its me or if its is getting expensive.

Wachouit007, I would suggest that you contact NUDURA directly...wonderful system we build it every day. 000-000-0000 I think is the corporate toll free number. Also, I am in agreement with emmetbrick and ICFBdr that you want the local support for your project all the way through the build, use an industry approved wall alignment system, and this site is not for pricing! Many variables exist in pricing all products that are manufactured and distributed.

I would agree, the only price that really matters is the actual price that you receive from the place that will actually provide your ICF. Valley Supply Co. in Seattle area supplied our Nudura block.

Valley Supply Co.

Valley Supply Co. price and service were excellent...they have been in business for long time. The Nudura block system and especially their bracing system were excellent. We have also built with BuildBlock and TF Systems vertical ICF system and both of these were excellent as well. If anyone is interested in a Nudura ICF bracing/scaffolding system or in Zonts & Zuckles, we are in the process of selling some:

Nudura ICF Bracing & Scaffolding System for Sale

New Zonts & Zuckles for Sale

Pickup location is in the Medford southern OR area. Payment can be accomplished via PayPal via our website:

Borst Engineering & Construction LLC

AMVIC IS CAD$ 4/ S.FOOT FOR STRAIGHTS AND CORNERS

COST OF ICF MANUFACTURING MACHINE IS $20K ON ALIBABA

@scpttnarayan I thought you was joking....

@scpttnarayan we have a very high shipping cost but we are closer to $8cad sq foot.

@sailawayrb pity your zonts where not a bit closer!

I think about all you can do is Edit each duplicate message to read "Deleted duplicate message." The trick is to not create duplicate messages which requires hitting the Submit button ONLY ONCE and then waiting as long as it takes for the website to actually submit it. This can often take a couple minutes...

FOR A 6" BLOCK THAT IS 4 FEET LONG....APPROXIMATELY USD 17.5...GIVE OR TAKE A DOLLAR ....SCOTT 000 000-0000

Washouit007 : NOT EXPENSIVE.....JUST GREEK STYLE WITHOUT VASELINE

ALL IN ONE BRACING IS USD 67 A PIECE PLUS SHIPPING

ALL BLOCKS ARE $4.24 PER PIECE ON ALIBABA BUT THEY COME FROM IRAN WHICH USA IS TRYING TO INVADE FOR OIL LIKE IRAQ

Hey, Scott, maybe you haven't heard that the US is rapidly becoming one of the worlds largest EXPORTERS of oil, putting the lie to your claims about "invading Iran for oil". Let's try to keep this site free of fake news, huh?

YUP....ALL THAT COMES FROM BASRA....MILITARY NEIGHBOUR CAME BACK FROM DEPLOYMENT IN COLUMBUS AND SAID SHE HAD TO WORK FOR EXXON AND HALLIBURTON...

I can appreciate that you have a small bit of information that you'd like to share, but the truth is that you are doing it in a way which is significantly out of step with the history and culture of this board. If you want to buy advertising, maybe try contacting the Management.  Been here a while and just trying to help.....