My husband and I will begin building our ICF home this spring. We just received a quote and since there aren't a lot of people doing this construction in SE Wisconsin I'm curious what some other professionals think. Our home is 2 stories with a walkout basement, 1600 sq ft on main and 1591 sq ft on second floor with a 3 car garage. We were quoted 99,000 for all of the ICF and they will install all our exterior doors and windows. They will do the framing however we will have to pay additionally for the lumber (20-30k per his previous experience) the cost of labor for framing is included in the 99k estimate. Is this low, average, high for the project? We kept the shape of the house fairly rectangular. Thanks.

For that price, I'm sure some of the guys from Florida, Texas or Georgia could beat that quote even though they are a 1,000 miles away ...

Posted By Agolden84 on 20 Feb 2014 06:32 PM
My husband and I will begin building our ICF home this spring. We just received a quote and since there aren't a lot of people doing this construction in SE Wisconsin I'm curious what some other professionals think. Our home is 2 stories with a walkout basement, 1600 sq ft on main and 1591 sq ft on second floor with a 3 car garage. We were quoted 99,000 for all of the ICF and they will install all our exterior doors and windows. They will do the framing however we will have to pay additionally for the lumber (20-30k per his previous experience) the cost of labor for framing is included in the 99k estimate. Is this low, average, high for the project? We kept the shape of the house fairly rectangular. Thanks.

ICF is usually calculated as a WALL square footage cost, not living space. With a 3,200 square foot home, you are probably looking at around 3,500 square foot of ICF wall (this includes windows and doors) since ICF is once again calculated as WALL space, and doors and windows are included. You mentioned a walk-out basement so I am NOT including the basement costs since this will also be ICF, correct?

At $100K for 3,500 sqft of ICF wall space, you are at $28.60 per square foot of wall space, which is INSANE! Typical ICF costs are around $12-$15 per square foot. IF this cost includes the ICF basement, then it will change the numbers.

ASK FOR A PRICE BREAKDOWN. Have him break down the ICF wall costs, the interior wood framing costs, the basement costs. When everything is merged together, that is when numbers can be skewed.

with a walkout basement, 1600 sq ft on main and 1591 sq ft on second floor with a 3 car garage.

Does that square footage include the "walk out basement" and the 3 car garage? Is the basement a third floor? Does "framing" include the roof or just the interior walls?

6077.57 is the total sq ftg for walls (counting basement)
Basement- 26k
1st floor- 26k
2nd floor- 19k
Framing- 28k (does not include lumber- does include all interior walls, floor systems, roof and porch, exterior doors and window installation)

All ICF is 11 1/4" with 3000 psi concrete and 5/8" steel re-bar in basement, 1/2" in 1st and 2nd floors. We are doing 10' ceilings throughout the home. I'm not sure if the garage will be ICF but I hope so. Thanks for all your feedback and responses. We are new at this and appreciate the help.

Breaking it down for us helped out some ..... But if your not sure if the garage is included you better back up and verify and make sure you are covered on everything. If your not sure you should hire a consultant or your surely going to be taken advantage of.

From what I can tell by what info you have provided your cost for ICF is in the $11.68 Per Facial foot range which sounds to be in line.

$71,000 / 6,077 = $11.68

All your framing etc ..... that is something which is rather hard to determine without seeing the arch drawing.

Agolden84: I private messaged you with the contact info for two really top notch ICF installers in your area.

Ignore Lbear. I checked out all his posts. Everything he knows he got off the internet and he has zero personal experience. Hes a classic internet troll sitting in his mother's basement with Cheeto stained fingers. Okokok. Maybe its his mother in laws basement.

I find it hard to believe a ICF engineer would specify a 6" core for the basement walls.

Does that price include the poured basement? The framing is usually around $5-5.50/sf and you have approx 4800sf so that would account for $24,000 or $26,400. Off the top, it doesn't sound out of line.

Posted By ricky_005 on 20 Feb 2014 09:40 PM
I find it hard to believe a ICF engineer would specify a 6" core for the basement walls.

You mean as opposed to an 8" core? If he has determined that 6" with 5/8 rebar is adequate for the amount and type of fill against it, it should be OK. OP doesn't say how much rebar there is in it. Vertical spacing of 12" is a lot different than 24". It could well be a concrete vs. rebar trade off.

I find it hard to believe a ICF engineer would specify a 6" core for the basement walls.

I think that's right down the line of the prescriptive method, isn't it?

We are new at this and appreciate the help.

Assuming everything is done properly, that seems like a very fair price. As I understand it you will have an unfinished basement and two additional finished floors with a footprint of about 1600 sf per level. All exterior walls, including the basement walls will be ICF.

Posted By ICFHybrid on 20 Feb 2014 11:38 PM

I find it hard to believe a ICF engineer would specify a 6" core for the basement walls.

I think that's right down the line of the prescriptive method, isn't it?

Its border line engineering .....  The main problem with 6" walls is the out-of-plane strength is teetering on a fine line when used as a basement wall. On paper it looks ok, but a little bit off honey combing here and there .... poor steel placement, or bad batch of concrete and you will have a bad basement wall.

8" basement wall would double the bending out of plane resistance, reduce the amount of steel and allow for some field errors.  There should always be a safety factor considered in the wall construction .... if a engineer did signed off and the walls failed, you can bet your butt the attorneys will find something that will place blame on the installers or the batch plant and the engineer knows this.

With it being a 3 story home the basement walls will have a considerable amount of compression from the walls above which will help counter the out of plan forces but still there are no safety factors considered in the wall construction.

Its border line engineering .

I have 6" ICF in my basement walls. It's all about the steel. The thickness has much less to do with it.

Posted By ICFHybrid on 21 Feb 2014 01:13 AM

Its border line engineering .

I have 6" ICF in my basement walls. It's all about the steel. The thickness has much less to do with it.

If you don't mind me asking, what did the engineer call for in the steel configuration/placement for your walls on the straight runs?

Posted By ricky_005 on 20 Feb 2014 09:40 PM
I find it hard to believe a ICF engineer would specify a 6" core for the basement walls.

Why?

on the straight runs?

In concrete construction, you want to avoid straight runs. However, I've seen people removing corners, pilasters and bump-outs from a quality ICF design because someone has told them it will save cost. Don't do that.

The steel is generally #5@16 oc And, it's Grade 60. It's also engineered for maximum seismic resistance.

Posted By Agolden84 on 20 Feb 2014 08:48 PM
6077.57 is the total sq ftg for walls (counting basement)
Basement- 26k
1st floor- 26k
2nd floor- 19k
Framing- 28k (does not include lumber- does include all interior walls, floor systems, roof and porch, exterior doors and window installation)

All ICF is 11 1/4" with 3000 psi concrete and 5/8" steel re-bar in basement, 1/2" in 1st and 2nd floors. We are doing 10' ceilings throughout the home. I'm not sure if the garage will be ICF but I hope so. Thanks for all your feedback and responses. We are new at this and appreciate the help.

In your quote, the 2nd floor is quite a bit less than the 1st floor, but you stated that the square footage was nearly the same, and presumably, the linear size is the same.  Is the 2nd story much shorter?  I presume you are using wood floors, so you would need ICF on the 1st floor wherever you have 2nd floor ICF.  Seems as though, the garage is somehow included in the 1st floor number.

My garage is totally encased in ICF, and I am pretty happy about that.  It would've been only 1 wall if it was done differently, and so it didn't make any sense for me to have a stick built wall for only 1 wall.  basically, 360 linear ft of wall versus 340 wasn't going to save me much money.

@ ba_icf
Very likely why the basement and first floor is higher $$$ is because rim/band joist preparation work.

@ICFHybrid
If all your steel is in the center, still doesn't change a lot. This is why its more effective and efficient to go with 8" to double your out of plane resistance ...... Placing steel in the Center of a profile, is the most inefficient way of reenforcing concrete.

Example


ICF it will be hidden and out of site..