Jay Casey
New Member
Posts:21
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| 26 Dec 2006 02:39 AM |
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I will be building an ICF house and am wondering how to handle one wall of my great room that will be essentially all windows. That wall is about 26 feet long is under a gable roof line so that it rises from about 10 feet tall at the edges and up to 23 feet tall at its highest. The wall is made up of several tall fixed windows in 2 tiers and the windows are spaced about a foot apart.
Can this wall be safely built using ICF forms with 6 inches of concrete? The columns between the windows will only be 10 inches wide but there will be about 18 inches of wall space (depth) between the 1st tier and the 2nd tier windows. With so much open space on this wall the headers over the windows will take up all of the wall space anyway, but are ICFs the way to construct this wall?
Some of the photos of ICF homes on the various websites that feature them show homes with walls of windows, but they don't show or explain how the wall was built.
Any ideas or stories from your experience will help me decide how to handle this wall.
Thanks,
JKC |
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wes
Advanced Member
Posts:810
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| 26 Dec 2006 07:53 AM |
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Jay,
I my opinion, this wall should not be built using ICFs. I would suggest either SIPS or conventional construction for this area.
When you have such large openings so close together, you loose the real advantage of ICF construction: strong, airtight construction with high R values. Previously, I have used SIPS to construct these walls. I believe that they actually produce a stronger wall plane in this situation than do ICFs. I currently have an ICF home under construction with a 40' long wall that will be built in this manner, for this reason. |
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| Wes Shelby<br>Design Systems Group<br>Murray KY<br>[email protected] |
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DallasBill
New Member
Posts:84
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| 27 Dec 2006 10:06 AM |
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You bring up an issue that we faced with our custom plans. We framed and foamed our wall -- ICF would not have worked there.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v72/Billusa99/?action=view¤t=DSCN2269-1.jpg |
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DallasBill
New Member
Posts:84
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| 27 Dec 2006 10:08 AM |
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Sorry.... bad link above.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v72/Billusa99/DSCN2269-1.jpg |
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ICF372
Basic Member
Posts:111
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| 27 Dec 2006 12:49 PM |
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We generally will pour these walls up to the header of the first tier windows. And then wood frame above . These make a very nice shelf above the first tier windows.
Eldon Howe |
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Eldon Howe<br>Howe Construction
[email protected]
<br><br>Total Concrete Homes provide positive cash flow , DAY ONE . |
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tseymour33
New Member
Posts:2
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| 09 Feb 2007 12:14 AM |
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I ended up using conventional framing for the walls in my house where there was a lot of glass. I set horizontal anchor bolts in the edges of the concrete to attach the conventional section to the ICFs. To help match the strong insulation value of the ICF walls, I set the conventional walls back one inch and added an additional sheathing of 1" thick rigid foam (Dow Blue Board) in 2'x8' sheets easily cut to shape with a utility knife. Taped the seams with a Dow tape product. |
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yogia
New Member
Posts:42
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| 11 Feb 2007 03:05 PM |
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Hi Jay Casey: If the wall is going to be so cut up and there is not enough width between windows to form ICF supports, non-ICF construction in the upper part of the wall perhaps is the way to go. You have to go with the builder's experience and comfort level. Following is a link to one of our recent projects, Pam and Gary Stehr House in Milford Michigan where the West wall had high windows, we did have the upper part of the wall conventionally framed ... http://www.energyefficientbuild.com/installation-of-doors-and-windows-2_for-Stehr-House-in-Highland-Twp-Michigan.html |
 Attachment: SteG2-HPIM1279a.jpg
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| Regards!<br>Yogi Anand, D.Eng, P.E.<br>Energy Efficient Building Network LLC<br>http://www.energyefficientbuild.com |
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irnivek
Basic Member
Posts:229
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| 01 Apr 2007 09:48 PM |
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Somewhat the same configuration of the pictures shown by yogia, we just completed a project with 20ft. RO width in the great room of a residence has three doors with 22 inches of concrete above for a lintel. Then arched windows above the doors. Only eight inches between glass were allowed at 1/3 and 2/3 midpoints. So steel columns which will be wrapped with wood were used as support for the lintels.
Email me and I'll get you some pictures. Sorry, I'm not smart enough yet to do it on this site...
Kevin |
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Cattail Bill
Basic Member
Posts:206
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| 02 Apr 2007 08:52 AM |
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To answer your question on the icf verses stick in the window area, Yes it can be safely done but the advantage as others have stated would not make it cost effective! you will loose so much of the advantage so I would say that every post above is the correct methodology in this type of situation. |
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