Hello everyone: I am planning to move to some remote land in Colorado and there is hardly anyone that will travel that far to deliver or even worst, to build me a small ICF house. I have read a lot about this ICFs and seems to me that someone by now may have published a how to make your own blocks out of hardware available parts such as styrofoam, etc. If anyone have tried it, I would like to know about it. Thank you very much!

Hello Papitohead. I can get you forms anywhere in Colorado, do this regularly; and, depending on where is "remote" probably get you in touch with a builder or installer. There are definitely some means of building your first level walls with off-the-shelf components, if you have loads & loads of time. Chances are you won't save any $$, will be much frustrated, and still have to deal with unresolved issues. If the moderator can get you in touch with me Directly, I can go into more detail. Regardless of how you do it, good luck with your project FM

Thank you for answering ColoICF. What also bothers me is that there are many pros and cons to these forms. Some seem to work well in certain places and others wont but will do good elsewhere. Most of my interest would be to have a form consisting of a thicker insulating area to the outside and thinner inside to take advantage of the concrete mass. Since is my last house of many I had and still have, I would go all the way with a thicker block. Probably about 4" or more of the insulating material to the outside and about 1" to the inside with a concrete mass of about 9". I built my first house in Central NY many years ago. This was out of wood and way before energy crisis days. The two houses I live in now, one in the eastern part of Puerto Rico and the other in the northern part of Colombia, South America, I build them out of cement blocks. So I do have the experience with wood and concrete. Just that age is being a main concern now.

Yes, if you can be of some help and the Mods/Amins will allow it, I would appreciate very much.

1" of foam on the inside will not support the weight of the wet concrete during the pour.

Another option would be to use LiteForm or similar type ICF with 2" foam on both sides, then you can attach additional foam on the outside if you wish. Other ICF manufactures such as Quad-Lock have different thicknesses of foam available on the inside and outside, but 2" is generally the thinnest option available due to the strength needed during the pour - 1" thick foam just won't support the wet concrete.

If you are in a remote area, how far is it to your nearest concrete batch plant? Do you have a concrete pump truck available in your area?

My experience is that there aren't many places block is "stocked" so it almost all has to travel by truck in some way, so delivery to far-flung locations isn't really a problem.

Posted By ICFHybrid on 15 Jan 2013 02:13 PM
My experience is that there aren't many places block is "stocked" so it almost all has to travel by truck in some way, so delivery to far-flung locations isn't really a problem.

Thanks arkie, I do appreciate any input on this matter. There is a manufacturer in Canada that makes this forms with a 1 3/8" to 1 3/4" thick on the walls. Just that they are so far away. I do not know if there is a distributor near Colorado as of now.

Yup. 1" is too little. If you really want concrete on the interior I can help with a one-sided form. FM

Hi ICF Hybrid. Correct, trucking is always involved (unless you have your own woodlot, sawmill & mules to move things around). There is a source of ICFs in Western Coloroado with typically $60,000 worth of forms in stock. FM

Lol, ColoICF, I hear you talking. Is not that I actually want a bear in wall, is just what I have been reading about it. Any information will help. But I do not want to peal or scrape styrofoam on the inside once the concrete has hardened. I would be one crazy guy do to so. Is just that some mention that the thick in wall insulation will block the benefits of the concrete mass for heating or cooling matters.

I do not know if PMs are allowed to contact about suppliers, builders, etc. Let's see what the mods/admins tell us.

If I knew how to do PMs, I would. FM

A private message is easily sent by following these steps:
1.  While in GreenBuilding Talk forum, look at the tabs right above the postings - tabs such as "Home", "Free Quotes", "Directory", "Products", "Forums" "Private Messaging".
2.  Click on Private Messaging.
3.  When the next screen comes up, click on "Compose Message".
4.  Enter the users name in the "Send to User" rectangle.  If writing to papitohead, then enter papitohead in the rectangle block.
5.  Enter subject if desired in "Subject" block.
6.  Type message in message block.
7.  After entering message, then click once on "Send Message" at the bottom of the screen.

Another way to contact a user is to write to their e-mail address.  However, do not enter your e-mail address in this forum unless you use a different format so that bots will not get your e-mail address and spam you.  For example, I write my e-mail this way to fool the bots that might be trolling this forum: 
Alton at Auburn dot EDU.

Thanks Alton. I do understand that and also knew how to send a PM. What I was not sure of is if we are allowed to share product brands or offer/request services as a business.

Since sponsors do support this forum, free advertising is discouraged.  Free advertising can be considered spam and be removed by the administrators.

Thanks Alton. Is exactly what I thought. I do mod on a few sites but they are FTA related and we do not allow advertising but do allow critics of different products.

We love to see critiques of different products as long as they are valid criticisms and not just attacking or promoting one product or another by people who have commercial interests in them.

Agree 100% with you.

I agree with ICFHybrid's comment.

Block availability should not be a problem since four or five different blocks are molded in Colorado Springs

ColoICF, I would very much like to learn more about your one-sided foam ICF form. We typically do a full form pour or CMU for thermal mass walls.

Papitohead, why not just use CMU? Some DIYers just use dry-stacked CMU and then concrete/reinforce the core. Here’s a good example:

http://www.sustainablesolarhome.com

We also have a passive solar thermal mass performance calculator on our website:

Passive Solar Thermal Mass Performance Calculator

I did check CMU and that is what we do in PR and Colombia. Specially in PR because of hurricanes. The work is hard, time consuming besides the savings against wood are minimum.