Well i thought Id try to share a little about my ICF experience. I started my home build in January of 2014. I did a lot of research on sites like this one for over a year prior and wanted to try and pay it forward. I chose Quadlock due to having a local distributor and having attended a 3 day class that they give on the use of the product. Im sure I could have built without the class but the class sure made me more comfortable in the process and the hands on was enlitening. Im far from a professional, Im just a Fireman that is very handy and have been lucky enough to have built several shops and did a few additions for myself and family members. This was the first ICF house built in my county and I had to reassure the government that I could do this safely. I built on a heavily traveled road and had daily visitors curious about what I was doing and also a lot of jealous guys that new what kind of house I was building and wanted one too. I can tell you that i made a lot of mistakes which caused the build to take 11 months to complete. That coupled with horrible weather and incompetent subs didn't make for the bed experience. I built the majority of the house myself but was forced to hire out the plumbing, interior wood framer, sheetrock, HVAC, and roofing. Myself and my Fathers put together all the blocks of my 1.5 story 2800 Sq. ft. home in only a few weeks. It was actually an enjoyable experience at that stage. Pour day was one of the most stressful of my life. I had 8 family members and friends helping and I had 2 wall sections that were 20' high that we poured over about a 5 hour period. I had never done it before so I was trusting the videos that I had watched and advise from Quadlock. We had 1 small blowout due to over vibration but the guys just stuck the 2 pieces of plywood together and we just kept moving. I can say that the framer not having experience attaching to the icf made for a lot of problems that I had to fix. I also learned that if using Quadlock spend the little extra to get the FS panels on the entire house. There are a lot of places that I could use the easier attachment. The electrical was a breeze using an electrical charcoal starter and a $25 harbor freight electric chainsaw. I foamed in the boxes and they are hard as a rock. I also spent a few hundred extra dollars to frame up a safe room and poured it while pouring the walls. I foamed the entire roofline and During the summer I cooled the entire 2800 sq. ft. plus the attic with a single 5000 BTU window unit. Which one of the mistake i think i made was losing the fight with the HVAC guy and i really think the tonnage is too much but I will find out this summer. Well my fingers are tired but i will answer any questions when i get a chance. take care.

well I'm trying to upload pics but it won't take them

Welcome to the forum. I am planning on using QuadLock as well. Where are you located? You mentioned something about getting the" FS Panels" on the entire house? What does FS stand for? Also did you use the quad decking for the roof? If so, what pitch? Thanks

Way to go, Billybob! I'm building an ICF home, too (Fox). Mine is taking a lot longer, as I'm one old man, working completely alone. I've got about 2-1/2 years in, and although it is essentially done, there is still a lot to do. I ran my own numbers for HVAC using a computer program, and have two Mitsubishi mini-splits. Both summer and winter, the system has outperformed the specs. We generally just run a single 12K BTU unit year-round. I'm in upstate SC- what part of the country are you in?

How are you trying to upload pictures? I post mine from photobucket.

The FS is the full fastening strip throughout the blocks and I wish i had used them throughout the house but i tried to save some money by only use them sporadically. I am located in south Louisiana. Im trying to use the attachment portion from the website but the pics don't appear. Is it not made for pics? I did not use the quad deck because we had already picked a traditional style home with too steep of a pitch. It is an impressive product so if i had the money and didn't care about he roof look I would definitely use the Quad deck.

Hey billybob - So glad you posted! I'm close to starting our Quad-Lock build in GA. I have met with the local QL rep and he has provided an experienced QL ICF contractor to provide the set-up and pour. My general contractor does not have any ICF experience but my ICF contractor (Jason Davis - Davis Custom Homes, Decatur, AL) has assured me that he will meet with the GC and the subs to answer questions. Beyond what you've mentioned above, what other tips can you provide based upon your experience? My home is a single story 2900SF on slab design including a QL safe room. Stick built 6/12 roof (and gables) all to be spray foamed with the HVAC unit to be placed in the attic. Thanks, Marty

Well being single story you shouldn't have nearly the issues that I had but i will tell you for sure to get a Manual J load performed and use a variable speed, multiple stage a/c unit and think about how you will get fresh air introduced. I have high quality Panasonic bath fans with humidity sensors and my a/c unit dehumidifies on its own. I wish now i kept notes of the problems i had during construction but off hand I would definitely use all FS panels. Also after we poured the exterior walls were all 3/8" taller than the interior standard stud wall were so we had to put a plywood shim between the 2 top plate studs. The only thing i can think of is I was firm enough when tapping the blocks together but I don't have any gaps between them so Im not sure. Not sure what thickness foam you are using but I only used the 2 1/4" and sometimes had a hell of a time finding concrete anchors long enough to get the minimum bite into the concrete. Also, make sure anywhere they place wood against he concrete directly that its pressure treated wood or have them wrap in plastic. You also want a silicone bead run onto of the wall before putting the wood top plate because you will end up with some minute gaps that will add to air leaks. I underestimated my interior trim budget because you will end up with beautiful wide window and door trim so make sure they figure in ALOT more trim material. If you have any siding you will be using 1x strapping so you end up with a rain screen on the outside. I would use a commercial bug guard at the bottom because i used a metal bug screening but I'm not really happy with the results. Put some 4" Pvc through the walls anywhere you may need to exit the wall with something in the future. I put one behind my oven and have a spring loaded damper for when i turn on my stove hood and it pulls in air through a foam filter then through the hood. Any plumbing not the exterior walls needs to be measured several times because my plumber missed one pipe by an inch and caused me some issues. its better to have the pipe more towards the center of the concrete than sticking out of the sheetrock. Just cut 4" pvc longways and wire tie it inside the foam surrounding the plumbing and pour around it. Also, make sure the concrete company knows how to mix the ICF mix. Mine was so good i barely needed to vibrate. Hope this helps and if i think of something else Ill let you know.

Billybob,

I am pretty sure the panels starts at 2-1/4" and goes to 3-1/8" and to 4". Actually, when you mentioned the FS panels I went to QL's website and found out the 2-1/4" panels are recommended "only" to experienced ICF builders, something that I never knew. Now we are changing gears toward the thicker panels as they are about 20% stronger. By the way, you should pad yourself for only having 1 small blowout when pouring the 20ft walls, that is a great accomplishment. Now let's work on those pictures, I am eager to see them.

The 2 1/4" panels are being phased out due to needing to increase the R value to make the Feds happy, but thats a whole different conversation. They are said to be for experienced builders because of the possibility of having waves in he panels after pouring. I did have a few because of over vibration but used a horse brush to just remove some of the foam to straighten the blocks. The FS panels are much stronger than the regular ones. The 2 1/2" panels are actually less dense than the 2 1/4" because they use the same amount of foam but i would still recommend the thicker one. The only real negative will be finding long concrete anchors. Yes, i guess I was disappointed that I had a blowout but also know how lucky I was. A lot of people say that its not possible to pour over 10' per day but I didnt like the idea of having a cold joint. My Quadlock guy said that it could be done and I did it. The funny thing is the blowout was in a 9' wall! I followed the site direction and I tried to attach pics again but they never appear. Im at a loss

not sure what i did but here it is

another

This reminded me that the cabinet guys hated this stuff because of the limited areas to attach the cabinets. FS panels would have fixed that but even better than that is attaching Plywood before the sheetrock anywhere a cabinet will go.

Great, thanks for the reply. The QL blocks are 3" that I was quoted for our build. By the way my ICF quote came in around $43K which included the safe room, materials, setup, concrete and pour. My walls are 10' The ICF contractor also recommended using plywood behind all cabinet locations.

Posted By billybob on 10 Feb 2015 10:01 AM
This reminded me that the cabinet guys hated this stuff because of the limited areas to attach the cabinets. FS panels would have fixed that but even better than that is attaching Plywood before the sheetrock anywhere a cabinet will go.

There is always a learning curve with different building methods. Nothing to "hate" about ICF because the supposed problem is easily remedied by learning and adapting. Like you mentioned, attaching OSB/plywood to the wall and then using that as an attachment point for cabinets is an easy and quick solution.

I understand what you are saying but the Framer, cabinet guy and rockers all said "we hate this stuff". Now none of them had even heard of ICF but all said " no problem" when bidding the job but once actually doing it they couldnt stand it. I had to baby sit the rockers all day. The one engrish speaking guy gave them the directions that I gave and I even spray painted a vertical line every 12" to show them where they could find the tabs to screw too. But even then I saw them missing the target numerous time and getting pissed. Using the FS panels would have fixed most of that. It was my mistake not putting plywood on the walls in the bathroom and it caused the cabinet guy hell. The framer didnt figure in how much drilling into concrete he would have to do either. Dont get me wrong, I still think ICF is the only way to build a house but it takes the right people to make it happen.

Hiring the right people is important. If adapting to something a little bit different is too hard for someone then there are plenty of smarter guys waiting to take his place.

Loved reading about this project billybob - there is a steep learning curve but the results are well worth it when you build with ICF - it's such a shame for Americans that most tradespeople still criticize ICF because they don't know how to work with it!

Experienced people make all the difference, and Quad-Lock is a good product but best kept for more complicated buildings as it's a panel build up which takes longer and is more complicated. I've been using BuildBlock GlobalBlock for some straightforward homes with Helix micro rebar and we've got the full build cost down to less than Stick!

Tell me, if you built again billybob, would you do it with ICF?

I don't understand the comments about ICF being harder to attach to. Once you hang a piece of drywall, you don't know any better where wood studs are than ICF fastening strips, do you? I had more trouble rocking my wood framed garage, because the studs weren't perfectly centered, or straight. By comparison, the ICF was spot-on 8" centers all the way across the wall. It is easier to strip the screws, though. I tested the strength by screwing a block of wood to the ICF with one screw, and it held my body weight of 200 lbs. I'm not doing upper cabinets, but if I were, I'd know where to put fasteners. Half a dozen fasteners would hold up a lot of dishes. I find my steel stud interior walls a bit more challenging, as they're not designed to fasten a lot of weight to. I reinforced them with wood everywhere I might want to attach something heavy, such as upper cabinets in the laundry.

30 years, I definitely think ICF is the way to go. As an emergency responder and a person that is into long term gains and building for the future, I dont see the reason to build any other way. I had a lot of problems but Ive learned from them. if I just wouldve spent the extra for full strips through the block I wouldve had an easier time with the subs. Im am still very happy with my home and people are blown away with the fact that its concrete.

jdebree, Im not sure what you dont understand. On the back of the cabinets they put a strip of wood approx. 4" tall at the top to screw through then into the studs. Well that strip did not line up with the screw strips so it was a huge pain to anchor to the walls. I spoke with 5 different rockers and only one wanted to fool with the ICF. They are so busy here they would rather pass on the job. The guy i use has 30 or so employees and rocks hundreds of houses but the non-english speakers could not figure out the every 8 inch thing. But they are the same guys that covered 8 outlets and 2 smoke alarm wires too!! At the end of the day this was the first ICF house in my parish and no one knew how to fool with it.