Good day all,
     Looking for options for house wrap on exterior of icf walls?. Tyvek or something else that anyone would recommend?. Also, what about the transition from grade up to the siding?. Any help would be great!.

                                                                                                      Thanks,
                                                                                                       E. Jones

1. No need for house wrap on ICF at least not here.

2. Transition: There are several cement coat products on the market to day that can be applied to get the stucco finish on the transition some of them advertise on this site. There is also a product called ground breaker which is a fiberglass product but it is not very attractive and makes the end product look like a trailer house skirt. The other thing that can be done is to put a cultured stone product on, a little more costly but beautiful results. This is applied just like it would on a conventional home first attach the metal lathe with the proper fastners available from Windlock, then apply the scratch coat and then the stone or brick. You may have to put a drip cap at the top of the stone to finish it before installing the siding.

Look at it this way if you can do a finish to a conventional built home (block and siding of any sort) then you can do it to an ICF!

If your distance is minimal from finish grade to start of siding, say under 12" than using an acrylic stucco base coat works well, Dryvit (US) or Durock (Canada) are a couple of manufacturers I have used over the years, you need to purchase the base coat only, it is grey in colour generally as well as fibremesh, fibremesh is available in a few thichness I recommend the thickest one since the area is vulnerable to damage (lawnmovers, weedeaters, etc) trowel on a thin layer and apply mesh by embedding it into the base coat, continue around the building when you get back to the starting point if it is set up enough start the second coat every 20-25' return to where you left off and either use a sponge or a hard plastic float trowel to create a clean consistant finsh. Don't try this yourself the first time, have someone helping you, and if you make a mess, put another top coat on and work on the finish again. When you all said and done no one will even know you have an ICF home unless they see the depth of the windows/doors.

Chris

PS - I usually run the parging a couple of inches over the waterproofing installed below if it applies