I have a question that no one I've talked to seems to be able to answer. I'm planning to build an ICF home (single-story ranch with basement), and I wonder whether I should make the interior walls also ICF. I assume that if I did so, then I would need to have the same wall pattern in the basement as on the main floor. I think some advantages would be: less noise from room to room, better fire-proofing, better for mold/allergens, etc. I see that some ICF companies advertise ICF flooring systems, so it seems like it wouldn't be unheard-of to just build the entire house out of ICF, including interior walls. Does anyone have any experience with that? Thanks! Karl

How do you plan to run the mechanicals. (plumbing waste and supply lines, electrical wires, boxes etc, wire chases, etc?), install interior trim, drywall, etc? I wouldn't trust my kitchen cabinets holding my valuable china and crystal hung on the little plastic ties that are for fastening to the ICF.
Just something to think about. What I have just recently done and works well is stick build the interior walls and use fiberglass insulation to deaden the sound and use the fiberglass around door jambs to deaden sound. I don't think that the hassle and cost would be worth it. Besides, you would probably be hard pressed to find any trades people to work on the house.
With an air tight house, mechanical ventilation, especially a heat recovery ventilator is a good idea for indoor air quality.

As to the comment above by Laser:

Kitchen cabinets are hung on ICF exterior walls all the time. Some have screw pullouts equal to wood
and even most nails when hammered into ICF and pulled on resist with similar pull-outs or the nail head pulls
off. As a matter of fact you get allot more screws in a cabinet with ICF than stick.

I have customers that have a few interior ICF walls to isolate a master-bedroom from noise, but to do all interior
walls would be expensive. As far as all the electrical, mechanical, interior trim, and drywall they could all be done
with ICF walls but at a higher cost.

Dave

Dear Karl,

It truly depends on what floor system you go with.  We are currently building a home w/basement and two floors above.  The interior walls are both icf and stick.  We went with icf where we needed it structurally and for sound proofing purposes.  You are correct...it is not unheard of to build the entire house out of icf, including interior walls.

We have a condo project coming up going icf with the demising walls built icf as well.

icfgal

A couple of thoughts and suggestions. ICF interior walls are a common item these days though not as frequent in single family residential as is true in commercial multifamily or hospitality type structures where demising walls are almost always ICF. You can do as LaserContracting has suggested and simply insulate your interior walls or you can do as we used to do in the "good old days" and build your stud cavity walls in an offset pattern thereby weaving your fiber insulation in and out. The other solution I have done is to simply build your stud wall and then apply a layer of homasote board on which ever side will be producing the most noise. We do a lot of ICF/metal stud residential work and we almost always use a layer of homasote in bathrooms, bedrooms and often times where there is a common space backing up to a bedroom. Good Luck

Forgot to mention that Build Block ICF's have what they refer to as a "sweet spot" on the webs at the top and the bottom that extend 1-1/2" from the top and the bottom. this sweet spot is many times thicker than the rest of the webb and has a 450# screw pull (three times a wood member rating) and its purose is for hanging cabinets etc without additional blocking or support and it works marvelously. Just a suggestion.

Just a photo detail of another way to hang cabinets on ICF exterior walls. If you are concerned the ties will be hard to find, or you might fall out in between rows simply attach 1/2 plywood or similar wood in the cabinet screw areas prior to drwall.

Dave