Hello, I have been sitting on my floor plans for almost 5 years now. We have decided to go with ICF, so I have been tweaking the floor plans through Chief Architect to make sure of all of my changes before I find a professional to draw up the official plans. My question is: I converted the walls to ICF, but are there specific dimensions to go by in general for ICF or should I settle on a manufacturer first, so I know exactly what dimensions? I want to adjust the dimensions of the outside walls, so that I will have the least amount of cuts, but I know the block sizes vary by manufacturer. Or is there a general increment to use in determining wall lengths? I see people saying to just go with the closest manufacturer, so I take it they are pretty much all the same? I'm in SE N.C.

You can reduce waste and cutting by making the outside dimensions of your walls some multiple of the length of your ICF blocks. You can locate doors and windows to align with the ICF block joints as well. But in the end, you just do what you need to do to get the design you want.

Most ICF manufacturers have 2.5 thick styrofoam walls on each side of the block. When i call i get answers from buildblock tech support, hence i went with them. They manufacture in various locations, have plants, price seemed to be good. if you are doing inside walls with ICF and have T blocks, buy from someone that makes T Blocks or it is labor intensive.

If you can find the info of where you blocks are made thats great, but ultimately its a one time deal. And the truth is most block companies blocks are made in the same plant. I went with Stronghold.

It sounds good to build to the dimension of the ICFs. We have done that once in 17 years, and that was my house. However in reality EPS shrinks and the ICFs will be maybe a 1/32" short. For example on our house a 48'6" wall would be 48'5"