Dear forum, I am looking to build an earth sheltered garage that I'd like to be in the front yard of my house (house would be at higher elevation than garage). The reason for this is that garage can't go under the house (house structure www.formworksbuilding.com) does not allow it, as the house is too heavy, but the lot allows it (sloping lot). I am looking for the best ICF technology to go with earth sheltered garage. I have looked at quaddeck so far, and it can span up to 30 feet without support. Given it's a garage, having some support posts in the middle doesn't seem like a big problem to me. Thinking of a 26x24 garage, but dimensions can be tweaked if needed. I am in the Northern Virginia area. Thanks

Do you intend to completely cover the garage with earth?

Most likely not. Since it's a sloping lot, the front of the garage is going to be less likely to be covered, at least not on both (left/right) sides, but back will be covered for sure.

Are you planning on heating this garage? Do you really need ICF for this? Regular poured concrete walls would likely be less expensive if you don't need the insulation that ICF provides. Another option would be concrete masonry unit (CMU) block walls. For CMU walls with substantial backfill, full or partial filling of the CMU cores with rebar and concrete/grout would be advisable. For the roof/ceiling, you could use metal bar joists with metal decking and a concrete cap on top or SpeedFloor with a concrete cap. This wouldn't be that difficult with a beam down the middle and a couple of steel posts limiting your roof span to 12'-13'. Also likely to be much less expensive that clear spanning with ICF decking.