I wanted to showcase this ICF project in Orford, Quebec. This home used the Fastfoot Monopour with Nudura ICF, and had 6 steps in the foundation. What was interesting was that not a single piece of lumber was used to form the footing. Also 15' of wall, and the footings were poured on one day.                                                                                                                                           

Looks pretty tricky. How well is that Nudura peel and stick working in the cold. I have to use a heat gun to get it to stick in the cold.

What happens when that ground thaws?

Contractor said that the ground wasn't frozen, just had a light snowfall a couple days before. I asked him the same question when I saw the pictures!

I must say that I don't understand the wisdom of a thermal bridge from the ground to the interior of the ICF.

Posted By jonr on 05 Apr 2012 04:42 PM
I must say that I don't understand the wisdom of a thermal bridge from the ground to the interior of the ICF.

What would be the other option?  Insulate under the footing?  I know this has been discussed, but I don't know of any building code that will allow that.  Plus, what insulation wouldn't compress under that much weight?  I don't think that would be a good idea . . . . of course, I could be misunderstanding something.

Foam insulation comes in all sorts of densities, from the ones you see at the building supply all the way up to some truly dense specialty stuff. It's quite easy to design residential foundations to sit on it.

I agree - once the insulation is as strong as the soil, it's strong enough. The PSI load of a footing is actually reasonably low. I would consider using frost protected shallow thickened edge slabs (which code allows - no footings needed).

Another option for under footing insulation is foamglas. Slightly lower R value than eps (R=~3.4) but ~90PSI rating (vs ~25 PSI for most undisturbed soil), impervious to water. Won't deform. Bugs can't eat through it. A little late for you project though.

By the way, did you also pour the interior slab or will it be a floating slab poured later?

We have looked around for foamglas. But it isn't available yet in North America, to the best of my knowledge. They poured the slab later as the lower portion had to be backfilled

The contact info for the foamglas is: Pittsburgh Corning Corporation 800 Presque Isle Drive Pittsburgh, PA 15239 USA Phone: +1-724-327-6100 Toll Free (US/Canada) +1-800-545-5001 Fax: +1-724-387-3807 www.foamglas.us Technical Manager FOAMGLAS® Building Pittsburgh Corning Corporation Howard Patrick 800 Presque Isle Drive Pittsburgh, PA 15239 USA Phone: +1-724-387-3624 Cell: +1-724-689-8344 Fax: +1-724-387-3806 [email protected]