Greetings great forums and contributors. First post, been reading more than a year now and have a few questions. I'm considering building my own home and looking at different ICF's. Location is in climate zone 5. So far have found suppliers of Nudura and Arxx, both one county away in opposite directions. Today I found one locally in county that handles Integraspec. Now for my questions. I have read many discussions on alot of different ICF's but don't recall any mention of Integraspec, does anyone have any experience with them? Second question concerns window & door bucks. I gather the concern of using PT lumber with it's possible movement. I have some paralam beams that I could rip and resaw to thickness (say 2" thick) to interior form width and wrap with sill seal. Would like comments or suggestions with that idea. Thanks, and as I progress with design I'm sure I will have some additional questions.

Check all three distributors, find out who is best fitted for you. Are you doing your own install? If not, pick an installer and let him include the cost of the block in his quote and use what he is comfortable with.

Window bucks have been hammered on pretty hard, just do a search.

Paralam beams would be pretty stable. I would keep looking and not limit yourself by geography. I cover an area of over 200 miles from my base since most products are shipped factory direct to the job site.

Posted By sawyer on 02 Apr 2012 11:13 PM
Greetings great forums and contributors. First post, been reading more than a year now and have a few questions. I'm considering building my own home and looking at different ICF's. Location is in climate zone 5. So far have found suppliers of Nudura and Arxx, both one county away in opposite directions. Today I found one locally in county that handles Integraspec. Now for my questions. I have read many discussions on alot of different ICF's but don't recall any mention of Integraspec, does anyone have any experience with them? Second question concerns window & door bucks. I gather the concern of using PT lumber with it's possible movement. I have some paralam beams that I could rip and resaw to thickness (say 2" thick) to interior form width and wrap with sill seal. Would like comments or suggestions with that idea. Thanks, and as I progress with design I'm sure I will have some additional questions.

I have used IntergraSpec for about ten years now. They are my ICF of choice with commercial buildings/grade beams that require special rebar placement and also for complicated residential designs. They are a little more money up here compared to full block but well worth it on a complicated project.

Check their website and you will find window bucks and how to install windows. I'm very happy with their window system.

If I'm just doing a res. basement, I might use one of the other blocks just on the price. I find most block are similair enough that it is not the block but the installer that counts.

I am going to build my place using IntegraSpec. I just got back from their warehouse and purchased a few more packages of their product and a whole bunch of web spacers. I find them to be a good company to deal with. Their distribution system is a little wacked out but they let me buy stuff directly from their HQ office so that turned out not to be a problem. If you need to buy 8" or 6" web spacers I have a few boxes about 2-3 boxes left over. I can sell them to you for $25/box + shipping. My email is [email protected] I just want to get rid of them. Have no need for them. The only problems I have found were with my specific block size: 4". Their straight blocks are completely flexible as far as core size goes since they use different sized web spacers. Their corners in contrast are locked into specific size. I have about 20 boxes of commercial corners (8" or 10" core). They're useless to me. I'll chop them up into 2 foot straight pieces. Can't turn them into 4" corners or even 6" corners if my life depended on it. When I asked the company rep about 4" corners I found out IntegraSpec doesn't make them. So if you are building with 4" core size IntegraSpec corners might be an issue.