On our new home being constructed the ICF subcontractor over sprayed gun foam creating many voids at the wall to foundation connection. A lot of these voids have foam filling the entire 6 inches meaning there is no concrete between the inside/outside, and the concrete is not all sitting on the foundation. You can stick a metal rod all the way through the ICF wall in multiple areas. We have water leaks in these areas as well as bugs getting in. What is the best method to fix this installation problem. We also have larger than normal horizontal gaps since the block used on our project varied in height. This is letting a lot of water enter the wall and then it travels down to the bottom of the voids and wicks it way in. We also have a large void about 1 x 3 ft between two windows.

You can fix the smaller ones by simply cutting open the EPS panel on the inside of the basement and pouring in a high-strength, non-shrink grout, then replacing the EPS that was removed. The larger void between the 2 windows can likely be repaired in the same manner, but you may want to consult an engineer as it could be a structural issue (depending on size of openings, load imposed above, etc). My fear is that your installer does not sound competent so there is a chance proper lintel steel was not installed above the openings (hopefully not the case).

The waterproofing is not done by the concrete itself, there should be a waterproofing membrane on the outside of the wall if this is below grade. That membrane is most likely absent.

Before thinking of a fix for the water and bugs I would suggest to have the structure thoroughly inspected by someone specialized in inspecting concrete construction.

As for lintels and such, there are non- destructive methods for finding out if rebar was properly placed or rather if there is rebar at all. This involves X-Ray equipment, it can be very expensive and cannot give you 100% assurance that your structure is sound. But it can reveal major flaws such as the lack of rebar in the required areas.

Everything is above grade. Steel should be okay, but the question is what is the best way to waterproof/create a insect barrier?

Water is coming in because the block is out of spec and has large gaps between courses allowing water to get between EPS and concrete core. Then it flows down the concrete and inside through voids.

That sounds like a real bummer, jwerkmeister. I had a similar problem when we poured the first wall mud on top of the footing. There was an accumulation of fir needles in one corner of the house that did not get cleaned out and the contractor who placed the mud did not sting it all the way to the bottom. I wound up with about 1/4" layer of compressed fir needles separating the wall from the footing along about 50' of wall, and with unconsoliated 'pea gravel' due to the poor stinging in several other places. We wound up cutting off the foam on the inside of the wall, digging out the needles and gravel with a big screwdriver, and packing it full of 5KSI non-shrinking grout. I hope like heck that will do it. If you want, I can dig up the data on the type of grout I used. It was a mother to pack in there...I kept wondering how I could build a giant hypodermic needle and inject it somehow but we just stuffed it in by hand.

There is another way of inspecting ICF walls that works pretty well for finding rebar (or not!): GPR, or Ground Penetrating Radar. There might be an inspection firm in your area which uses this type of equipment. The nice thing about GPR is it all happens from one side of the wall; you don't need an x-ray source on one side, a detector on the other, and some mumbo-jumbo way of lining them up. Transmission x-rays of walls is very hard and expensive to do. GPR is much easier.

Best of luck-
James

It dosn't look like it is sided yet. IS the siding installed? How is the water getting past the outer shell to even come in contact with the EPS? Properly installed sidng and flashing ahould prevent this. IF the siding is not yet installed, and you have water comming in contact with the foam, it WILL leak past, gapped or tight fitting blocks.

Below grade a peel and stick or spray/painted-on waterproof membrane is applied down over the footing with a dimpled protective layer affixed over that to protect it from the backfill and to provide a capillary break for water to flow down to the perimeter drain without building any hydraulic pressure.

Above grade I would expect some type of flashing or waterproof membrane at the base covering down and over the top of the footing/slab. The siding layer is affixed down over the top of this to shed water down and out. ICF is not really any different from conventional construction in this regard...

As for the voids, they can probably be filled as described with non-shrink grout. But since the concrete IS the structure, I would suggest you call your engineer, this might be something the contractor needs to be forced to repair. An unplanned 1'X3' hole is pretty substantial. Walls are filled with holes, but they are planned ones. This can be really important if you are in a seismic zone like D. Rebar placement should have been inspected prior to pour, but the two(rebar and concrete) must work together.

Out of spec blocks are one thing a contractor should be able to deal with and still produce a good finished product. The things you are showing now(excess foam under wall, voids) show either real poor workmanship or lack of skill/knowledge in how to place and fill an ICF wall...

Posted By txICfHomeOwner on 08 Sep 2015 06:28 PM
On our new home being constructed the ICF subcontractor over sprayed gun foam creating many voids at the wall to foundation connection. A lot of these voids have foam filling the entire 6 inches meaning there is no concrete between the inside/outside, and the concrete is not all sitting on the foundation. You can stick a metal rod all the way through the ICF wall in multiple areas. We have water leaks in these areas as well as bugs getting in. What is the best method to fix this installation problem. We also have larger than normal horizontal gaps since the block used on our project varied in height. This is letting a lot of water enter the wall and then it travels down to the bottom of the voids and wicks it way in. We also have a large void about 1 x 3 ft between two windows.

Is the contractor bonded? If so go talk to the bonding company. They can wield a pretty big stick on a contractor if all of a sudden they're looking at shelling out to repair a bad job.

icf strikes again

Black Jack 57 on the outside of the walls. It never hardens so the little devils can't chew thru it.

Contractor is not bonded. The sub contractor is also refusing to do any work to fix the problem. So we are left on our own to fix this, and then find a new builder to finish the project. There is no brick yet, but our contractor only added a 4 inch brick ledge instead of the usual 5.5 inch. So there will be a smaller than normal air gap to almost none in some areas since our walls are up to 13 ft.

The bottom 12 inches from the brick ledge up are flashed with AquaFlash & Mesh, Backstop and some other items. That is making the problem worse as water is getting trapped in the wall with no way out.

Does anyone have any recommendations for an above grade vapor barrier we can apply to the outside EPS? For example Tyvek, Peel and Stick.... Roof,Windows, eaves and soffits are all installed already.

Any advice on how to remove the bottom eps foam inside without breaking the ties would also be useful. If anybody knows anyone in South Texas that can help with the repairs please let me know.

If you are noticing the leaks below a window/door opening, you may simply have to seal up your penetrations. Since your exterior is not yet complete, there is a chance a window is leaking and the water is simply following a path through the pores in the concrete until it escapes via a gap in the forms.

jwerkmeister: Tyvek makes sense to me - it can guide water all the way down the wall (behind the bricks but outside the ICF) and outside of the Aquaflash.

Tyvek...that brings up a question I've been puzzling over: I want side my house with trowelled, 3D stucco over a heavy scratch coat, and do some decorative stonefacing (carved mortar) around the windows & doors. This stuff all gets pretty heavy and I'm concerned about it pulling away from the ICF if I use a Tyvek barrier over the foam, because it all just hangs on the screws through the mesh into the plastic webs in the block. Like others on this thread, I have concerns about water permeability of the ICF/concrete wall and Oregon winters can apply a lot of rain. Ideally, from a pure adhesion POV, I would like to pressure wash the ICF to rough it up, then screw down the galvanized steel mesh, then work in the scratch coat with big, heavy horizontal scratches, then apply the stonefacing and stucco. However, I wonder if this would result in a rain-tight wall? If I put down a Tyvek barrier, I lose the great adhesion between the scratch coat and the polystyrene and maybe the screws rust out and all masonry delaminates & falls off the wall someday. Does anyone have any experience here they can share here? I have basically none and can't afford to hire a contractor to do this so I have to learn to do it right before I get started. Do any polymerized stuccos and/or scratch materials exist that would make a waterproof barrier over the foam?

Might be better and cheaper to build a non-ICF poured concrete house with insulation on the inside. Then you have no issues with heavy sidings.

Too late for that now :-)

Jameserizer: The stucco should shed the water(it does everywhere else:). Cannot use Tyvek in there as the scratchcoat will not bond to the EPS with that in between, but you shouldn't need it. I don't know that a pressure washer is the best way to go. It will be real hard to control how deep it cuts. Big cheese grater or an autobody file/rasp would be a little better to control the profiling...
Nice looking house

Jwerkmeister: You can use Tyvek, start at the bottom, wrap a pass around the house, then move up and start the next pass overlapping over top of the first a couple of inches like papering a roof, untill you get the brick on. It sheds water but is vapor permeable and you can screw the brick ties right thru it to the concrete so you can leave it there. You could also use visqueen or just about anything to shed the water untill you are ready to put the brick up, then pull it off as the brick goes up... The brick should shed the water providing the flashing around the openings directs all the water out and over top of the brick. I don't think the air gap behind the brick is as important on an ICF structure. It's purpose was to allow ventilation behind the brick to keep a wooden support structure dry and rot free...