I'm hoping someone might have some insight for me. A contractor has told me that if I go to the roof trusses with ICF the trades (plumber, electrician etc) will charge an additional $24,000 on a 2500 square foot house (thats extra charge is just for the second floor). Is it that much more work to do these jobs in a icf home as compared to a stick frame?

It's an interesting number he has come up with there. That's something like an extra 400 man hours of work.....for what? Most of the utilities run in interior walls which are presumably standard framing. There shouldn't be much of a bump, if any, for running in foam. Have the subs never worked in ICF before?

There is a little more work involved, but that sounds extreme. As was pointed out, design the house so much of the utilities run through interior walls, especially where you go through floors. Also, make sure you create penetrations everywhere you need to go through the ICF walls- then throw in a few more. Drilling is hard work.

ICF foundation/basements are the standard here so the guys work with them all the time, ICF to the roof is pretty much unheard of. I guess I need to discuss it with the contractor and clarify why the additional expense. Thanks for the insight guys!

I went ICF to the roof, and none of the subs charged any more than my wood framed version. As mentioned above, I designed it to have all plumbing in interior 2x6 walls and as much electrical not in the foam either. For the kitchen that was against an exterior wall, I actually framed a 2x4 wall and set it beside the foam. This was a lot easier to run all of the electrical, plumbing and blocking for cabinets in the frame wall and the ICF foam was untouched. The electrician it was their first full ICF house too. I told them to purchase cheap charcoal lighters (recommended on this forum!!) for cutting the wire for the foam. They did and said it worked great, faster than drilling and pulling through the studs.

Have a talk with them, and possibly talk with subs instead of the general. Maybe HE is wanting to charge more for them...

Paul - have the electricians layout where the boxes need to go. Make up a plywood template that set the right height of the floor and using a router with a templating guide and long bit rout out the holes yourself. We often have the carpenters rout out the holes and have a couple of electric chainsaws for the electricians to use to route wires. The electricians prefer to do the ICF rather then drill and fish all the studs!
As mentioned there is no need to have plumbing in outside walls. Up here it is not done in ICF OR stick built because of frost.

With the experience we now have with ICF's, a good contractor will source out the subcontractors that understand the differences, and will give fair pricing. The only time electrical work could cost more is if every wire is ran vertically up, as opposed to across, meaning a lot more wire is used.

Many factors can affect how mechanical costs add up, and one item over looked many times is the "home runs" of wiring, like having a home that is 3000 sq/ft, and say 70 feet long, and the panel is at the far end or corner, and no sub panels are used. An electrician can easily run several thousand feet of wire in this case, and add additional costs in labor and wire. This can happen in any build, ICF or not.

Solid preplanning, and an experienced contractor can avoid many of theses issues, like designing in central mechanical areas, common plumbing, central electrical panel, and so on.