Hello Everyone. I'm a bit epic new to ICF but soon to be owner of a home built with ICF. Unfortunately I have no idea what ICF was used in the construction or even much for details past ICF walls, and insulated heated slab on grade building. I would estimate the wall to be about 12 inches with all the finishes. So our first issue I suspect is the oven in the kitchen, I'm fairly sure there is no electrical at the stove location and gas only. So my understanding is during the building of a home after it is poured you just cut out the insulation to run plumbing, electrical. How hard is it to run electrical after sheetrock is installed? My thoughts are to cut a big section out of the sheetrock behind the oven to gain access to the ICF insulation, and hopefully figure out the type of ICF. Then I was thinking of using a drill to cut a path up to the ceiling then gain access to this path in the attic. Is this realistic? Am I smoking crack? Any suggestions on things to look for before deciding on a spot? With luck there is wire already there and or conduit but as of right now there is no breaker in the panel so I'm planning for the worst. Thank you everyone

You can just hog out a channel in the drywall and ICF foam to run the cable, but then you have to repair the drywall. You can use an electric chainsaw to remove the foam and drywall in this slot.

Here is another alternative:

Do you have base cabinets between the stove and a nearby interior wall? If so, you can run the electrical cable down the interior stud wall, cut a hole in the wall inside a cabinet near the back just above the base of the cabinet to pull the cable out of the wall. You can possible then drill a hole through the base of the cabinet and fish the cable into the toe space under the cabinets, and if you are lucky you can run the cable all the way to the toe space next to the stove. If you are not lucky, you might run into some intermediate supports that would block the toe space route. Another option is to run the cable through the cabinets on the base against the back wall. This will require drilling holes through adjacent cabinets. Then once the cable is in place you can miter cut some 1x4 on a 45 angle and use this to cover and protect the cable at the back of each cabinet.

I should have mentioned that damaging the wall then fixing ... really isn't an option. There is a really nice tile backsplash ETC and this is a finished home built in 2007. I mean I could but that would be 1000's of $$. in repair and replacing and just not practical.

BUT I do like the idea of running in the cabinets to an inside wall, and in this home there is 1 cabinet next to the stove then Fridge that is against a inside wall, this might actually be a lot easier to run then I was first thinking... The fridge area alone gives me great access to hide access holes and such without a lot of expensive repairs. I think this might be an awesome Idea and with a little conduit and or flex conduit I should be able to keep it within code

I should have mentioned that damaging the wall then fixing ... really isn't an option. There is a really nice tile backsplash ETC and this is a finished home built in 2007. I mean I could but that would be 1000's of $$. in repair and replacing and just not practical.

BUT I do like the idea of running in the cabinets to an inside wall, and in this home there is 1 cabinet next to the stove then Fridge that is against a inside wall, this might actually be a lot easier to run then I was first thinking... The fridge area alone gives me great access to hide access holes and such without a lot of expensive repairs. I think this might be an awesome Idea and with a little conduit and or flex conduit I should be able to keep it within code

That sounds like a plan. If you only have one cabinet in the way with the fridge on one side and the stove on the other, you should be able to access the toe space boards on both sides of that cabinet, drill a couple of opposing holes in the toe space, and run the wiring under the cabinet bottom. You could mount your stove receptacle on the back wall close to the floor and adjacent to that cabinet and have no exposed cable if the receptacle is turned properly. A little flex conduit over the cable behind the fridge with some clamps to hold it in place low to the back wall and you are golden.

Here is an approach that was suggested (possibly on this site) for a similar application. I have never had an opportunity to give this a try...YET!

-cut out the foam to accept the electrical box (ie behind the stove)
-find the location at the top of the wall directly above this location
-heat up a 1" steel ball with a torch and drop it on the upper location
-be sure to have a metal flashing in place with a bucket of water to catch the ball when it hits the electrical box opening (not sure how far the heated ball will penetrate)
-path created by the ball melting through the EPS will create a chase for wiring (if all goes to plan...)

Make sure to have water on hand when dropping the ball in case of flare ups.

Not sure if this approach is do-able in your case (or safe...), but it is a fun idea!

The hot ball drop can work for SIPS where there are no obstructions on the way down, but I would be very cautious doing this on ICF. For one thing, you have cross ties running horizontal across the foam that can interfere with the falling red hot metal ball, and second and more importantly, you can have concrete creme ooze between the ICF blocks during the pour and consolidation of the concrete (I watched small amounts of creme ooze out between the joints when I vibrated my walls). This hardened cement layer runs horizontally in the foam, potentially at every ICF block joint. That could hang up a red hot metal ball and potentially cause a fire.

RED hot ball... OMG now that is thinking outside the box, I love it. But I think ill try a few other things first... I can just envision being in the attic with 48 inches of blown in insulation with a blow torch heating up a ball really hot..to slip into the wall ... oh in a new home to boot. with the wife going WTF are you doiing .... no worry dear my new friends on the internet said this is how you do it... If I do try itl ill take video.

Unfortunately, as far as I know, there's no good, safe way to do what you want to do, barring ripping out and refinishing.

This is one of those things you and your contractors should have stayed on top of during the build.

Now you're backed into an expensive corner.