Josh,

Your message is a little confusing. First off you say you are STARTING your research but you are not going to use ICF, then you are asking for advice in a forum that caters to ICF professionals and owners, then at the end you say well maybe ICF. Hence my cunfusion. So I will try to answer your questions.

First you are right most people here work with poured concrete not shotcrete. Two totally different animals. Someone here maybe able to answer your questions but I would guess the knowledge base here is less than a forum dedicated to shotcrete.

Second, I looked at the website and It is not for me. A couple of reasons, in a basement, which is really what you are building, when you have a thermal break on one side of the concrete you create a dew point somewhere on the inside of your building envolope. This is a major factor to dank musty basements. When you put a thermal break on both sides of the concrete your dew point is shifted to the exterior of the concrete making a much drier,easier to finish, nicer basement. The other reason is I would not like to live in a tunnel or a cave. I will leave that to Osama.

Third You are talking to poured in place guys and without a set of plans and engineering this question is impossible to answer. Plus did I say we are poured in place guys.

Forth in your closing you say you may look at alternatives, well ICF is one of those and I feel a better choice. We are currently building a home that is over 75% covered with earth. So yes it can be done and maybe you might want to expand your search.

Respectfully,

ICF Contractor