My husband and I were debating whether to get insulated concrete forms for the new home we're building, but after reading this article (pasted below) I'm pretty much sold, especially considering the insulation factor. Can you think of any other main advantages to insulated concrete forms versus a wooden frame that aren't mentioned here? Appreciate the feedback!

http://homebuilding-experts.info/gu...er-houses/

Having read your link I might add "increased fire protection" could legitimately make a more aggressive yet honest claim of 3 to 4 hour fire ratings which is vastly superior to conventional construction. I wouldn't debate much more --only folks that haven't done their homework would buiid a vastly inferior structure over a slightly higher intial cost. ICF construction (at least today) cannot be beat. Regards.

So you're the eskimo that buys ice cream bars. The last point isn't even true and icf insulation levels aren't very good unless you buy superthick blocks. None of the points are exclusive to icf.
Depends on where you live though, I'm in a very cold climate and would never build or live in an icf house; but if I lived in a hurricane area or tornado country farther south it would be on my list.

Well I live in an ICF house and i have built dozens of otherhomes between mn,wi and mich and 100% of my clients will tell you they could not be happier with their ICF house and how they are performing. 3600 sq ft of heating and schooling space=760.00 annual heating and cooling. We have some that quite a bit more efficient yet that have geothermal.

Like icf4life we have dozens of examples here in Texas. Only folks that haven't done their homework would buiid a vastly inferior structure over a slightly higher intial cost of ICF. ICF construction (at least today) cannot be beat. Regards.

I am a home owner and we built our ICF house about 1.5 years ago. We used ICF with 6" core concrete and also slab on grade and concrete floor on Hambro joists for the second floor. We live in Ontario, Canada, cold winters and hot summers. Very important, we used passive solar design, which gives us free heat in the cold season and cool temps in the summer. We heat with an EPA wood/electric furnace. We heat the water with an electric water tank (soon only at night, with a timer, for cheap electricity).
This house is great! We heat with wood just few hours at night, more if very cold and no sun. With such a big thermal mass, and super insulated, it keeps very well the heat (around 74 F). My advice: go with ICF and you'll never regret it. My only regret is that insurance is very high.

It's real hard for someone to shoot through an ICF wall ! The whole house is a safe room !

@ eq1: Why is your insurance high?

I got some ICF quotes for my new house, a long with SIPs quotes. all of my ICF quotes were more than DOUBLE the urethane SIPs quotes, and about triple the high efficient (r-40+) framing numbers. ALl of which had almost double the u value of ICF. Sorry ICF, you make 0 sense for us in this situation. I am sure it is good for some though. One guy wanted $31,500 to do the basement of a 1600 sqft house, 188 LF at 8' tall. 8" poured wall, 2" xps foam poured in the form, basement slab, garage frost walls, garage slab, and all rock and drainage was $28,000 from another anti-ICF guy. They are sure proud of their system.

Sounds like your being overcharged. Granted ICF brings twice the value but it's usually about the same price as SIPs. Just FYI double the U value is not a good thing - perhaps you meant double the R-value? At any rate, I'm curious about the ( r-40+) framing numbers -- just how were they going to accomplish that? Thickness of wall, insulation between studs or double wall? etc. Regards.

iz.....is the quote for $31,500 for 'just ' the walls? Everything I've read here that should be in the range of $12-13 sf for the material and labor including the concrete. 

Posted By peterswet on 17 Nov 2010 05:53 PM
@ eq1: Why is your insurance high?

To make us more safe and comfortable..that what ever happens we are insured with our building..
That is the main purpose for that insurance we have..

ICF construction has a higher Carbon Footprint than a Timber Frame house.

Posted By TexasICF on 22 Nov 2010 04:52 PM
Sounds like your being overcharged. Granted ICF brings twice the value but it's usually about the same price as SIPs. Just FYI double the U value is not a good thing - perhaps you meant double the R-value? At any rate, I'm curious about the ( r-40+) framing numbers -- just how were they going to accomplish that? Thickness of wall, insulation between studs or double wall? etc. Regards.

Yes, R sorry. 

Keep in mind, since it is DIY, that is really not helping ICF out here at all.  I have 6+ years of construction experience, so I can throw up a stick frame in no time, and I am confident in a SIPs as well.  However I have not done much concrete work, and I am fearful of an ICF diy.  Too many things could go wrong with high costs to fix it.  So its really not a far comparison. 

For the stick, if you go with 2x6 frame with cellulose and 4" of exterior xps, you are around R40+, or a double stud wall that is around 10-11" with dense pack cellulose. However I think I have decided on a SIPs 4" urethane shell (about r-26) for cost and payback reasons.

Posted By robinnc on 22 Nov 2010 10:09 PM
iz.....is the quote for $31,500 for 'just ' the walls? Everything I've read here that should be in the range of $12-13 sf for the material and labor including the concrete. 

Yes, that number was 31k just for the basement walls to be constructed, poured, etc.  However there was a much lower quote of around 24k range if I remember correctly just for the walls.

If double the u value is what you are looking for - perhas you are making the right decision.

The link didn't work for me, so I can't add to the list of ICF advantages. As far as insurance rates go, I was surprised how low my annual insurance premium ended up for my ICF house. So much so that I asked my agent if he hadn't made a mistake! He went over the quote in detail explaining each discount. There were many discounts unrelated to the house being built with ICF, but one substantial discount applied because an ICF house was considered "masonry construction" and, therefore, less prone to storm and fire damage. The brick, stucco, and fiber cement siding also helped for external fire resistance.

Re Clark glad to see what you posted about insurance rates. As a distributor for PlasterMax, the first fire rated ICF coating and StuccoMax (the Green Stucco, we know that soon insurance companies will have to agree that these homes are less prone to hurricaines,earthquakes, fire, insect infestation and more.

I am not using ICFs because I am DIY'ing the whole house and I found it easier to use HDO forms for how I personally am building a concrete structure and because I don't want interior foam or drywall. For example, I have 12 ft tall basement walls with electrical and plumbing all embedded in the concrete walls - I would have not felt comfortable doing this with ICFs without having experience so I went the route of poured in place concrete using removable wood forms with 3" EPS installed on the outside of the walls - inserted between the external wood form and the poured concrete.

I do believe that ICFs are the best choice for residential structures if the installer is experienced. This is based on living in insulated concrete structures, which just feel so much more solid than any wood home that I lived in. You will never be able to achieve the same solid feel with wood framing (stick or SIPS). It's difficult to describe - you have to feel it yourself. Close a window or a door and everything is just totally SOLID. No flex, no vibrations.

Yes, you'll likely never be impacted by a tornado or hurricane but just look at what those winds do to wood houses. They blow them apart. Because they are weak.

Nothing in ICFs will rot when wet. No mold, either. My previous house, built in 2000, conventional wood sticks, leaked air everywhere. My concrete house has "seams" that are totally airtight because they are concrete poured on concrete. There is no draft and therefore no unwanted heat gain/loss due to uncontrolled convection.

You can use floor systems that are vastly stronger than wood floors - with longer spans without support columns. I use commercial style steel beams + joists + concrete over metal deck for two floors and the flat roof. It doesn't bounce, creak, buckle, transmit sound and it's easy to install in slab radiant for all floors. Coincidentally, the parking garage at my current apartment uses the exact same joists and concrete thickness and it's strong enough to hold SUVs (parked and moving) so it's quite comforting knowing how strong such a floor is - impossible with wood frames. And it doesn't get destroyed by water, should something leak...

I'm a bit biased for masonry construction having grown up in another country where wood stick framing is unheard of and I'm still surprised that this weak construction method is so popular in the USA. I believe a house should be SOLID therefore I would not use anything besides masonry (load bearing brick or concrete (forms or ICF))