I have been doing some thinking about using "Foamed Concrete" (1600kg/m2 Density) in ICF walls with additional rebar support for headers.   I see indications here and there of its use in ICF, but cannot find anyone with first hand experience.

Advantages appear to be increased thermal properties, reduced water permeability, and weight; and its greener.   Here are a couple of links to manufacturers:

http://www.aercrete.se

http://www.litebuilt.com


I would expect that, while far less than standard mix concrete, the foamed concrete should at least perform as well as convention balloon framing as far as overall compression and flex strength.

Could anyone with experience with this, or, any concrete engineers help direct my thoughts on this??  I really expect this to be part of the future in ICF's.


tku

b.rey

Additional sites I found usefull so far are:

http://www.cement.org/homes/brief08.asp

and

http://www.thomastelford.com/journals/DocumentLibrary/MACR570103.pdf.PDF

The first looks as structural comparison in conventional ICF concrete mixes, and I thought was fairly interesting for all ICF'ers.

The second looks specifically at structural thoughts regarding foamed concrete, a little above my head, but may glean some info to those engineers out there.

tku
b.rey

While I was at Polysteel, we did some testing with a company called Cellular Concrete. There are others that have a similar outcome. These things work well in certain application, and are better thermally than the other. But be cautious in bearing wall applications. The formulas in the mixes vary greatly, and you're out of prescriptive design when you get a compressive strength less than 3000 psi (2500 psi in some applications.) Also, just adding additional rebar, especially in lintels, is not the answer. Bottom line is, you can likely use it, but it needs to be designed.
JDC

Jerry, Thanks for the reply.

Any other thoughts or experience out there?