Well, I think I am going to get some sample blocks and I think I'm going to get some products from Burmon and hopefully I can order a couple Fab Form Fast Foot Mono Pour adjustable feet.

This will answer a lot of questions about what hardware I want to use and how the block will actually perform. I'm also going to test cutting the block, a few different glues and do some destructive testing just to see how they behave.

I think I might actually be able to get on site at a The Perfect Block ICCF build and help out as "unskilled labor" to get really hands on with the build process. This could be a great learning opportunity.

Burmon hooked me up.

They sent me a package with a couple Buck Braces, a Joist Hanger, a Cyclone Tie and some other stuff that I haven't looked through yet.

The Buck Brace looks interesting. It might work with the fab form feet.

The Joist Hanger looks very nice. It is held to the ICF by two heavy wall steel tubes with four holes drilled through it. At first I was thinking that the idea was to put rebar through the hole in the tube but I think it might be just an area to lock up the tube within the concrete. Thinking about the force on a joist hanger, it's really shear rather than a tensile pull-out force so the heavy wall of the tube is really doing the work.

I haven't looked closely at the Cyclone Tie yet. From what I saw on the internet it looks like a great way to attach roof joists to the top of a wall although I don't know if that is the construction detail I want.

My overall opinion is that I could use Burmon hardware and the result would be very strong, I wouldn't worry about it at all. If it's in my budget I will try to use Burmon unless something better comes along.

I wish I had an ICF Connect Joist Hanger to compare it to.

The one thing that might rule out the Burmon Joist hanger for me is that I want to use I-joists with 3.5" top and bottom plates to give me lots of space for nailing/screwing. The thinner I-joists scare me a little because if I nail/screw off by 1/2", I have almost missed the plate and might even crack it. I want to have a margin of error of my nailing/screwing locations closer to 1/8" but with 3.5" plates, I can fairly comfortably nail/screw both sides of a subfloor or roof deck joint over one plate and having a nail/screw off by 1/2" would be no big deal (not at a subfloor/roof deck joint).

If Burmon only makes one size of joist hanger, I would be limited to the width of the I-joists I can use or maybe have to rip the bottom plate to fit the hanger and de-rate my joists to the narrower size.

ICF Connect does have the benefit of being a two piece design that can accommodate wider joists depending on how far apart the two pieces are set in to the wall so 3.5" bottom plate would be possible.

Well, that is what I have learned so far.

Thanks again to Burmon for putting their new products in my hands.