Hello,

Our family is looking at building a new home in the spring, and we are investigating ICF construction. So far we really haven't found any negative aspects of this construction method except that the building cost is higher ... but you get that back in energy efficiency savings.

What we are looking for is the opinions of anyone that's lived in an ICF house for a year or more. What are the pluses and minuses? If you had to start all over, would you do ICF again? Any other feedback?

Thanks!

ICF homes perform differently depending on both design and climate.

Your state location may provide better answers!

Jim's response a good one. I have an icf home in FL. Jim is a New Englander. I built for all the good reasons of ICFs. Storm resistance, sound resistance,mold and rot resistance, no air infiltration, energy savings, etc. When talking cost remember that the icf portion of the building are your walls, only 1 component of your building envelope. It is skewed to think that one portion will make it alll too expensive considering the returns and advantages.
What was the question? GR

We live in North Dakota. We have a LOT of confidence with the builder we found, he is really energy conscious, and he really seems to know all the right things. What happened is we went through sticker shock. We were hoping to be able to build our house for about $225,000. But the numbers came back at about $315,000, or $285,000 if we dropped the basement (which we decided we probably wanted to do anyways, regardless of cost).

Even though we are still feeling very comfortable with ICF, it got as asking all the "why ICF?" questions again, and one of those questions we keep replaying is the fact that we really don't know anyone that's lived in an ICF house for an extended amount of time. We don't want to ask our builder to hook us up with people living in houses he's built because we don't want him to interpret that as a sign that we're questioning his skill or that we're changing our mind about him ... because we're not doing that!

BUT ... some of our relatives arent' convinced. They haven't done the research we have, and they think living in a concrete house is just plain wierd! So what I'm really looking for is testimonials of people that have lived in ICF houses. I'm looking for all comments, good and bad.

we live in an icf home..ranch style with finished basement, in north dakota too.. over on the east side. it's solid, quiet, should stand the test of time.. heats and cools very efficiently . Where are you considering building?

I built my ICF house in Aug. of 1994. (myself) I had friends say how quite it is while the wind is blowing at 25+ mph. outside. My 2,188 sq. ft. home is a story and a half and the first 5-6 years or so it cost me apx. 500 dollars to heat the place here in Wisconsin. Now with L.P. gas going sky high at 2.00 a gal. it's costing me 900.00 now. I have 2 son's that are saving up to build their own homes. I didnt have to tell them this, but I did. " if you build with wood. your on your own". When I drive down a road and see a new house going up (stick built) I think to myself. A con artest found a fool. Those stick builders keep slamming out the second rate stuff because they have no reason to change. The general public has no Idea of what they could of had built for themself. The GC's just keep them in the dark. And I say this not because I want the work as a ICF builder. I plan on selling my place soon, Then build myself a smaller ICF earth home in the north woods of Wisconsin and retire at 55.

fjohnson, we're in Fargo. We don't have a lot picked out yet but we hope to have a lot before winter and then build in the spring. We haven't totally ruled out Moorhead either ... but "I live in Fargo" sounds better than "I live in Moorhead" to us. :-)

Where do you live?

2r3d, what do you expect the resale value will be? Will your house value appreciate just like (or better than) a stick-built house?

I built my ICF home in 96, and for the first year or so, everytime someone came to the house they said.."Where's the concrete?". I also experimented with 4 heating systems, until I got where I wanted to be.

Remember, it's just a house with fat walls...I always liked that one, but that is also what you tell your relatives, who aren't paying for your home.

There is no shortage of articles from sources such as the PCA, ICFA, NAHB, and others who provide info from people and builders about ICFs.

try
www.concretehomesmagazine.com
www.icfbuilder.com
www.portcement.org
www.forms.org

and the list goes on, especially if you follow the links on those sites.

I have a typical New England climate, but I think your winters may be a little harsher than ours. With a concientious approach to your home in regards to products and materials, when your energy costs are 1/2 or less than your relatives, don't forget to laugh!

However, you will not get extreme results unless you carefully select and implement products that work on the high side of energy efficiency. Building an ICF home and using a coal furnace is a short-sighted approach!

our 40+ year old florida single story cmu house on the intracoastal was gutted (by us) after the 04 hurricanes and icf expanded to 2 storys including insuldeck concrete floors and roofs, impact windows and doors. this spring nationwide raised our insurance from $1800 to nearly $5000, and then cancelled our policy alltogether. we wanted to get a simple fire/theft/liability policy without hurricane coverage. they refused. we went to allstate and now pay about $600 per year. our electric bill for 2000 sf under air is $120 in summer, and $65 in winter. the loudest noise we hear is our refrigerator and our cat chomping on the dry food, even though we are in the approach of stuart airport.
let it blow.
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For you folks planning on building in Fargo area we have about 20 homes built out in the Osgood developement and the older one just to the east by the new school (forget the name of that one) they have been lived in for 4 or 5 years now. Give Marty Moen a call he has built several of those houses and he can help educate you on the benefits of ICF .

hi davehultin.. say, we have Hultin's here in Hillsboro... maybe you're related.. so we're not far north from you.

I'd choose fargo over moorhead too... 'course, moorhead is a bit closer to the lakes so it does have that going for it.. and it does border fargo..

Hi fjohnson,

Yup, I'm related to them. It's kind of interesting ... once you get to Hillsboro it seems the way our name is pronounced changes from Hul-TINN to Hul-TEEN. Don't know why, that's just the way it is!

How long have you lived in your house?

Dave

Dave, we've lived in the house now for 2 winters and almost 2 summers.. moved in Sept. of 05.

We looked at some houses that "experienced" contractors did.. and when I showed them to my wife that's when she decided to have faith in what I could do.. man, we saw some bad ones.. I don't know how they got windows or doors in them, or set the joists or rafters. Anyway.. we pretty much built our own home from the footings up. We hired very few trades. We're really happy with how it all turned out. Now we just have a ton of landscaping to do...

We built our own ICF w/o any prior building experience, just the desire to save a buck.  We built a single story with a basement in ICF. 

I don't have nearly the experience that most on here have.  We live in VA and our electric bill runs around $75/mo and up.  Because there are no ICF builders in our immediate area, no one really knew how to size the heating and cooling.  We had been told that it should be around 1 1/2 tons for about 1900 sq ft., but everyone was sizing too big.  So instead of installing something that was too big, we use wood heat and a window A/C. 

We hardly hear a bad storm when it comes up and never hear anyone coming in the yard until they knock on the door.  I don't like trying to remember where we installed the metal plates around the windows to hold curtains.  And, we videotaped everything.  But, where's the tape now.

If we turn the air off several days to go somewhere, it takes a couple days to get everything cooled down again.

I'm sure this is related to the wood heat, but in the winter, we get some condensation inside the windows when it is really cold outside.

We buy energy eff. appliances and use fluorescent blubs throughout the house. 

My father-in-law thought we were off our rocker for building this house, but now he can't believe how warm it is inside.  The heat is so even, no cold spots.

I would build another ICF house, but with not so many corners.  We even have one family in our church who is really serious thinking about building ICF soon based on our experience.

Good luck!

We moved into our Amvic home in Sept 2005.  It's 3000 sq ft, 1.5 stories, contemporary design, with 3 bedrooms, media room and 3 full baths.  Metal roof, Sealection500 foam insulation, tankless hot water and 3-coat stucco exterior. We spent extra on argon-filled, very low-e windows.  Our most expensive electrical bill last August (major heatwave here) was $225 when the 2000 sq ft stick next door was $575.  Electricity this August just arrived and it's $135.  That's for two, 3 ton systems -- we have a very unique, 28 ft vaulted center living area that requires such a setup.

We LOVE it and a lot of that has to do with the pre-planning and suggestions we got from our pro installer -- Ian Giesler.  Our design/builder had never done ICF before and it all worked out just great!  It's deadly quiet and when a storm is hitting at night, we only know it's here when the rain hits the metal roof -- we never hear the wind!  We live on a busy sidestreet and traffic noise is dramatically lower compared to the neighbor's home acrossa the street.  ICF and a metal roof got us huge discounts on homeowner's insurance in TX. We pay less for the home w/ replacement value coverage than we do for two 4 yr old cars!

We would never build any other way!  Good luck!