I have an 1830 post and beam house that is on a dry laid rock foundation that is shifting and falling down and has been compromised by all the modern convenience that have been added over the years. (electricity, indoor plumbing, hydronic heat, gas lines, ex.) I plan on holding the house in stead of raising it. The current plan is to hold the house and do new footings, drains, foundation wall and replace bad sections of sill. I have my own excavator and plan to do the work my self and plan on doing a wall a summer. so in 4 years I will have a full foundation under the house. This is to keep costs down and to make sure it is done perfect. (My theory is the house is 180 years old so what ever I do to the house should last at a minimum that long so people will enjoy the house for generations. My question is has anyone done ICF in sections with a house over them? I was thinking if I stacked a section of blocks together, ran the rebar so it stuck out a big to catch the next block later on, and then shoveled concrete in by hand, I could do small sections at a time. Once the section had dryed I would attach a mud plate and then lower the new sills in place. Then I re-position the jacks further down and then dig out another 5 feet and do it all over again. With this idea I would never have a section of foundation missing for more than 8 or so feet and even that would be braced and jacked. NO worries of the house falling off the foundation or shifting too much. Let me know if anyone has done this and if not does it sound like a good approach?

This is a good project for ICF. I did some partial work for my new house. I used small plywood (I extended the rebar from a hole in the plywood.) to close one side of the form. I guess you will be specialist for this kind of work after some time. I can see two problems in your way. 1. walls may be un plumbed. 2. They will have to much cold joints. so you can have some water problems.

I would pay special attention to make sure the wall stay plumb and on line. The area that house is in already has some serious water issues. I would most likely Ice and Water sheild the outside of the ICF and then I have a surplus of EPDM rubber roofing memebrane that I would run over the Ice and Water sheild. Then I would have a large foundation drain at the footing and another drain near the surface. The house is on a hill so i will put a drainage ditch in above the house to keep all ground water away. And the last thing would be gutters to keep rain water away. It should dry things right up. Currently the basement is dry due to cold temps which tells me it is ground water infiltrating the rock foundation. I think i would be dry as can be when done. My grandfather was a very successful builder here in upstate Ny and he always taught me the importance of water management. He said it doesn't matter how overly built you make something, if you don't deal with the water properly from the beginning you will always have issues.

What are the best ICF for this application. I'm looking for something that wont break the bank but is good quality and easy to work with. There were three distributors at the home show. Everything looked the same but slightly different.

LiteForm is one of the lower cost ICF forms. It consists of separate planks of 2 pound nominal density EPS foam 2" thick x 8" high x 48" long with cutouts for plastic ties, the length of which determines the size of the concrete cavity, i.e. 4", 6", 8", 10", 12", etc. I used Liteform for my basement and main floor. For my job I used the LiteForm Xtra which is 2.5" thick foam. The foam and ties cost me a little over $2.00 / sq ft of wall area. The standard 2" thick foam would be sufficient for a basement and should cost less. Liteform is easy DIY, but will be more time consuming that stacking pre-made ICF blocks because you have to essentially assemble it as you go. Liteform is very adaptable to varying situations and is easily cut and modified as necessary. Say you need a 4" high row of foam to finish your wall to the desired height - just rip the foam to the desired height with a tablesaw and cut slots where needed for the ties.

I like the idea of assembling them on site. There are a lot of penetrations I will be dealing with and i planned on chopping up a few blocks of the assembled stuff to make it work. I also like the idea of 2.00 a sqft compared to the $4-5 I am seeing for others.