ICF Gurus, So I am doing my first owner build of our ICF house. My question is about my footings and incorporating them into the house/walls. I have ICF walls, with radiant floor heating, and the concrete floor will be my finished floor, I also have ICF deck roof. I'm thinking the correct order is - Dig footings - Prepare under slab (crushed stone compacted, plumbing electrical, vapor barrier) - Rebar for footings, slab - Install and brace two (?) courses of ICF block - Tie in rebar from ICF into slab and footing rebar - Foam insulation board and run radiant floor lines - Mono-pour the footings with the slab and the first 2 courses of block - Wait - Finish stacking walls (add rebar with tie-ins from the first pour) - Brace externally to avoid scarring floor - Assemble deck, rebar tie into walls, brace from below (after protecting floor) - Second mono-pour remaining portion of walls and roof deck I know this gives me a cold joint in the wall but I don't really know how to avoid. What's a better order? TIA

I wouldn't do mono pour on first job....I tried on my first one and it took twice as long. Second was way easier with formadrain footer.

Roof is another hard first timer thing...

Footings walls floor roof.....

You are in the middle or Florida? I would not do Radiant at all in Florida....I am in Michigan and in spring and fall we get over shooting from hot to cold days...

You will not feel the warmth of radiant in Florida....our floors don't feel warm till winter...the house you are building is so insulated it takes very little to heat thus the floor will need zero warmth to heat the house...if you are hell bent on heated floors only do the places your feet are going to touch like walk paths....

You really aren't suposed to pour inside floor or back fill for 28 days from walls being poured. I would do walls then floor.

Boston,

Thanks for chiming in!

While I am first timer my installers do this all the time, so I am going to trust in their sage-like wisdom. They also are quite familiar with doing ICF deck pours so I feel comfortable there.

I am in Western NC so we don't get Boston cold but cold enough that I want the slab a good temp considering it will be our finished floor.

Thanks for the advice on waiting a month.

My current strategy is mono pour the walls and footers using the fastform bag. Let sit for a month, then come back and pour the floor (with rebar tie-ins from the walls), wait another month, then pour the roof (also with tie-ins with the walls)

Hi NC,

Did you end up going forward with your ICF build? Im in the same area of Western NC and was curious how the build is going for you.

Feel free to PM me, thanks.