I've been lurking on this forum for a bit of time while we waited for the funds to build a new home to become a reality. The time has come to stop planning to plan and actually start planning 😵 We will be hiring an architect and a GC as we are most definitely NOT DIYers. I will probably be coming on here to ask questions so I can help keep a semi-knowledgable eye on the contractors. I'm in central Arkansas and will probably have very few options in who I work with. I need to know enough to know if THEY know what they are doing.

We are going to build a full ICF house (~2200sf) - hopefully ICF roof too - with a walkout basement and mother-in-law apartment (700sf). Primary goals in order:

1) Safety - Tornados are an ever present threat
2) "Green" - Low recurring costs with solar, battery backup, etc. Locally sourced materials when possible. I'd love to get as many LEED points as I can even if it's not certified.
3) Accessible - Wide hallways and doors, no level changes (except to basement), handles not knobs, pull out drawers, etc.
4) Tech heavy - I'm a bits not bolts kinda guy. The home will be as smart as I can possibly make it (thermometer, HVAC louvers, humidifier, shades, fans, lights, security cams, etc).

Wish me luck!
--MDG

I built my ICF home in central Arkansas (near Russellville). It is still a work in progress. I did most of the work myself though. I purchased my ICF (Liteform) from a company in Clarksville, but they are no longer in the ICF business. My home is similar to yours, 2150 sq ft main floor with a full basement with ICF to the roof. I used a conventional truss roof, but provided additional measures to anchor the trusses to the top of the ICF walls. I used open web plated 4x2 floor trusses for the floor system which allowed me to run all HVAC, wiring, and plumbing through the floor trusses. I installed my own ductwork with zone dampers. HVAC unit is geothermal - also self installed except for digging the 3 closed loop geothermal wells.

I just noticed that the Nudura dealer went out of business too. Gonna be hard to find folks who know what they are doing I'm afraid. You are at least close to the NWA area with more builders available. I'm halfway between Little Rock and Texarkana. Geothermal does look interesting, but I'm not sure how well the wells would do in the soil around here. I'm afraid I would have to get them redug every few years as they silt up.

The housing down turn in 2008-2009 put the hurt on a lot of builders, sub-contractors, and suppliers. Many got out of the business.

You might check with your local redi-mix concrete plant and see if they can recommend some ICF installers in your area. Any ICF installer in your area will be using the local concrete plant and if they do much repeat business, then the concrete plant will likely be familiar with them and will probably have their preferred ICF concrete mix on file.

My geothermal wells are closed loop. They have U-tubes dropped to the bottom of each well and are then backfilled with grout. Water is circulated through the U-tubes to provide the heat exchange with the earth. No water is pulled from the ground.

30fromnowhere, wish you nothing but encouragement and luck, and hope to see you put an ICF roof since very few have had the courage to do so and post here. I plan to follow your lead in 2019 or 2020 just in a different part of the country.

Thanks for the encouragement. An ICF roof will come down to $$ as opposed to courage I think :-). Since I first posted a couple of days ago, I've talked to what I would consider a "construction consultation" firm (yes I know that's added cost) and an ICF distributor that both feel that they can provide good references for GCs and installers in my (broad) area that have done lots of installs. When it comes down to it, some of my choice of who to use will come down to which product they use I think. I've looked enough on this forum not to try and rehash the "X vs. Y" product argument again, so I won't name names!

I used the term, "courage" thinking that the only real reason folks aren't putting the logical concrete roof on their ICF home is because the GC's, subs, and even architects and engineers aren't comfortable with it and will do everything they can to talk you out of it. They will say it is cost prohibitive, the engineering is going to be expensive, and on and on. That needs to change because it shouldn't cost much more than a stick built wooden truss roof with R-50 insulation, solar plywood, felt paper, asphalt, ridge vent, soffit, fascia, drip end, etc... labor should be roughly the same cost but it should be done in half the time using lightweight concrete. And I am fairly certain a stick roof on a concrete structure would actually significantly degrade the performance of the overall structure under seismic or distructive weather conditions. Ever seen what a tornado or the power of water can do once it finds a way into a structure? In typhoons and tornadoes, the real damage comes from the roof being lifted/pulled off. Most homeowner's insurance policies do not cover water/flood damage for that exact reason. If you're going to do it, try to do it right the first time.

solar plywood??

I referred to Thermostat® Radiant Barrier Sheathing (Plywood) as "solar plywood" which I wouldn't build a stick built house without it. I've used it and it makes a world of difference.
Thermostat® radiant barrier plywood sheathing reflects up to 97% of the sun's radiant heat from a home’s attic and can help lower attic temperatures and improve energy efficiency.
Aluminum foil creates a radiant barrier that reduces up to 97% of radiant heat from entering the attic
Effectively keeps the attic up to 30 degrees cooler and can save up to 17% on cooling energy consumption
Helps increase indoor comfort
- Just imagine what a thick piece of EPS roof decking and concrete could do if a piece of plywood with a simply piece of foil attached to it performs this much better?

Thanks. I've never heard of it before.

Wow, how naive I was about costs back then! We are pouring walls this Tuesday, so I will try to get some pictures up soon. It's been quite the trip, and it's just now ending the beginning I guess!

Pics!

And specs! Seeing how someone's building is always something of an education...

Hi, What brand of ICF did you go with? Were they close to your project so transport cost were not to much? Hope all goes well and looking forward to your updates. Thanks.

Posted By alwayslikedICF on 28 Oct 2017 03:05 PM
Hi, What brand of ICF did you go with? Were they close to your project so transport cost were not to much? Hope all goes well and looking forward to your updates. Thanks.

I went with a consulting company here in Arkansas that drew the plans, created the specs, etc. They are not builders, but they are ICF dealers for Fox Blocks, so that's what we got. The transportation costs were in the contract price, so not sure what the broken out costs were. My username here is a play on the fact that we are 30 minutes from nowhere, 45 minutes from anywhere, and an hour from somewhere :-) so the 18 wheeler had a ways to come.

Plan and Picks - iCloud Share. There have been some small changes to the floor plan, but this is a good idea of what will be there.

This house started off a bit different. Had pretty grand plans for what we could get for our money come crashing to a halt when estimates came in. We are using a consulting company that specializes in energy efficient homes and ICF building. Their "fee" covers quite a bit including drawings, specs, the ICF forms, an insulated roof system, builder consultation/education, and more. Because I signed when I did, they even threw in a 3kv photovoltaic system for free. The builder hasn't built ICF before because pretty much no one in a 90 minute drive has. He calls this the "LEGO house" in his invoices 😜

The first lot we were looking at was going to have a one story with walkout basement in the back. ICF all the way around including roof. We decided to buy what we thought was a flat lot and just have a ADA-possible single level house instead. The house would be in a U-shape with a pool between the arms. Once we realized how expensive all those forms and concrete would cost, out went the U and in came the rectangle 😒 We kept the safe room/closet with a concrete top, but the concrete roof for the whole house was going to be like $50k, which would have meant a much smaller house then we wanted. The flat lot turned out to have quite the slope. It was just kinda hard to tell because standing on the sloped road made it look just about perfectly flat. So there went $15k of dirt that was unplanned for.

No real surprises after the beginning luckily. Using the ZIP Roof system with 150mph engineered trusses and a wind rated garage door. The trusses will be attached to the walls with two embedded Simpson HETA20 ties each. The garage will have four 2x16 LVL beams with Simpson H14 ties to the trusses. Looking to get FORTIFIED Gold rating, even though insurance companies around here haven't caught up with that. The only thing I haven't paid the upgrade for is the $11k for impact resistant windows. I figure if there is going to be a weak point, the windows are as good as anything. The wife likes the stucco look, so the ICFs are making it easy for us to do a Dryvit exterior with some reclaimed wood around the windows.

We are supposed to pour tomorrow, but the builder still has a bit to do with electrical/plumbing/fireplace penetrations before the concrete goes in, so I'm not sure we are gonna make it. I'll try to keep this thread a bit more updated as we go along.

Guess I was a little pessimistic. We stayed till it was done last night and started pouring at 7 this morning.

Lookin' good!

Hope the pour went well!

Thanks. No blowouts. The pumper guy was new-ish, so he wasn't rushing to get to the next job. If they are rushing, they can over water the concrete to pump it faster, and thats when the problems start. There was one place near the SE corner that I'm told got a little hairy. The window was at an odd placement in regards to the block placement It meant that the blocks on one side of the window were very short which meant that they didn't have much to tie into above and below themselves. They bulged a bit, and the patches look like a spider web in that area, but no actual holes or anything, just a little leakage.

Concrete walls are pretty much always a learning experience.

That's part of the problem.

Were this your NEXT house, you'd be on top of everything.

Still, not too shabby. And kudos on your luck with the pump guy. Will definitely make a difference down the road.

Posted By Dilettante on 03 Nov 2017 05:51 AM
Were this your NEXT house, you'd be on top of everything.

yeh. Of course I'm truly hoping and planning on this being my last house. I want them to wheel me out of here straight to the hearse in 40 yrs or so 😵 Room for walkers and wheelchairs everywhere. The walls and safe room can provide anchor points for ceiling lift systems if needed, etc.