I am curious and haven't seen any discussion or videos of simultaneously placing the concrete for the walls and next level's concrete floor. Can this be done? For instance, with proper bracing (walls) and shoring (overhead ceiling and floor); and proper engineering of course, couldn't I place all of the necessary concrete in the same series of lifts/pours?

I've done this a couple of times -- it's a no brainer for saferooms but I'd be very careful extending it to the full slab. In my experience it's always gone well but the huge amount of extra bracing required to keep everyone safe and all the variables involved... The benefit does not outweigh the risk to something going wrong. Don't attempt it without someone working with you with years of experience. I would advise against it. Regards.

I've done this a couple of times -- it's a no brainer for saferooms but I'd be very careful extending it to the full slab. In my experience it's always gone well but the huge amount of extra bracing required to keep everyone safe and all the variables involved... The benefit does not outweigh the risk to something going wrong. Don't attempt it without someone working with you with years of experience. I would advise against it. Regards.

Tex,
Thank you for the awareness. I am trying to completely understand the risk versus gain. I would think the concrete envelope would increase significantly considering the pouring and consolidation of the concrete. My thought is to build a two-story house completely out of concrete and pour the basement walls (10" ICF) and first floor deck (12" ICF deck) the very same day. It does sound risky, doesn't it? Bracing, shoring, and blow out prevention is crucial. It would be difficult and dangerous to fix a blowout on the inside of the wall, given the amount of shoring but there is a huge time savings. Assuming there is no skimping on safety and all prep work is properly completed, such as bucks, penetrations installed, and tons of bracing, inside and out. Think about it, 14' walls braced to 10' on the inside, deck shoring holding up the ceiling inside, and exterior bracing to the height of the finished first floor. Not that time is the only factor but if I am right, I could save about 10 days before I can begin one the second floor, 8" ICF walls and 10" ICF Deck the same way. Again saving about 10 days before working on the 2nd story, 6" ICF walls and 8" ICF deck for the attic and saving 10 days. So, potentially save 30 days so far and hopefully lots of $$$. The concrete pitched (up to and including 12/12) roof will go on last. Based on curing times and necessary engineered strength of the concrete, before it can handle the weight of the next floor, it is going to take about 20 (?) days per level and almost 3 months to complete just the shell alone. That is a long time for the house to just sit there waiting for concrete to harden. Time is not only money but extreme cold/hot climates significant reduce the building timeframe. Does anyone have any success stories with something like this? What is the average drying times used before building the next level? If pouring the floors separate from the walls, how many days does one typically need to wait before placing concrete on the next level and so on?

Use high early 24 hour and you can do your second pour the next day if that is a concern

Generally speaking tho, depending on factors such as temperature the engineer will tell you when you can add weight to the last pour. In the summer here with regular mix concrete we can place slabs within 3 days of the wall pour, we can start building the next set of walls the day after the slab is poured.

You won't save anything considering all the additional bracing needed to pour the slab on the wet basement walls

And yes I witnessed someone pour the walls and floor as you described on a 25,000 sq.ft. house and it was a disaster

I would have liked to have seen that simultaneous wall/floor pour on the 25k sq ft house. I currently live in the South Pacific where concrete construction is a must (due to seismic conditions and destructive weather) and has been perfected, aside from the lack of insulation and proper HVAC designing. They are not pretty (very boxy utilitarian look) but they completely stick build the forms and the use metal (sometimes just a special kind of scaffolding) bracing about every 3-4' both inside and out. By the way, I am in Japan, the southern most island chains of Japan (sub tropical) where they are very safety oriented (even more so than the U.S.). I have seen them do some pretty amazing stuff with reinforced concrete used in all types of residential construction. For instance, they generally pour the entire 2-story house (walls) in one single pour; multiple lifts of course. Until just now, i hadn't thought about the two floors??? I will have to inquire and get back to you all on that. The point being, labor and wood is extremely expensive here. Nothing gets erected without tons of bracing, shoring, and scaffolding is even used on the smallest job sites so I don't know that I would let shoring, bracing, and scaffolding dissuade me. Finding a crew capable enough is another story. I am a couple years out from starting this project but hope to build it in Western PA. Once I return to the great USA, I envision GC-ing (with contracted assistance) my own place first, using it as a spec home while living there and building 6-12 custom ICF homes per year. I definitely see the benefits of ICF or concrete in general. The multi-plex I live in without any insulation is quiet and I practically live on the runway of a military airport. It is noisy outside but even with a 200 mph typhoon on top of us, I barely hear the whistle of the wind through the windows, and if it weren't for the windows, it would practically be a bunker. Earthquakes have had no effect. Down the street from me, there are numerous single story ranch style houses with pitched concrete roofs. I say they haven't perfected the HVAC yet because I see condensation on the roofs nearly everyday and they turn black (mold?) within the first year. The roofing is some kind of red paint on type surface. I have seen white as well but it doesn't last a year so they are quick to put the red protective coat. I assume the white is a film and is not UV resistant. The thermal mass of concrete here is no joke. After a 90 degree + day, I can literally feel the heat coming off the outside of the building from sunset to sun up. It only gets chilly here (high 40's/low 50's about 30 days out of the year. It baffles me why there is no ICFs being used here. I would love to do a comparison if I had the time. If anyone has seen a study regarding ICF vs uninsulated concrete, I'd love to see it. I know I am a little off my original topic but I really believe in what you all have going here and wanted to share. I will try to add more posts over the coming weeks as I learn more about uninsulated concrete here and ICF there. The biggest shortfall I see there is competent builders willing to build ICF at a reasonable cost and supplier seeming price gouging for something that is very inexpensive to make, ship, and is good for the environment. Looking at ICF resources dot com, there are no builders listed for the great state of PA, which might be indicative of the slow start and high cost of BUILDING with ICF.

You can do floors and walls at the same time, but typically we are standing on the deck we are going to pour, looking down on the perimeter walls-(the floors are above the walls-kind of sounds funny i know), unless you can run bracing on the outside of the walls, then you could do a slab, but you always do the walls first, then the slabs. needless to say you need a good number of guys and the bracing and scaffolding have some special procedures you will need to follow, but it can be done and we have done a few, mostly commercial stuff though, its an application you really don't need to do on a residential project..normally? hope that helps, let us know when you get back in PA, there are several builders up in PA, try icfbuildergroupDOTcom especially in Western Pa., there are quite a few.

Thanks BILL, what I am gathering here and have concluded is "it is possible but not really practical" to pour walls and floors/ceilings together. It is better to pour walls only and the once that cures enough, start on the decking.

And I would add that pouring walls and overhead floors are not a novice endeavor. Like Chris, I have done this many times, and it isn't a walk in the park, although some of us make it look easy. Keep in mind that shoring is cheap, relatively speaking, and like the project I am currently doing, the second floor deck is still fully shored while we are ready to pour the roof deck, 3 weeks later. All about transferring loads to the base slab and footers. This kind of work separates the pro's from everyone else in the trade.