Contractors out there - especially in South Florida - what is the range per square foot of wall that an ICF shell will cost?

You are looking at $10 - $15 per wall square footage. This includes window and door areas. This is the OTD pricing (forms, rebar, concrete, labor, etc).

OK, so for a house that's concrete slab on grade, building a two story, completely square house (35' x 35'), that is 20' tall, by my math that is about 2800 square feet of wall, so anywhere from 28,000 to 42,000?

What if I want the second floor to be made of ICF and the roof to be made of ICF? Is there anyone who can help me build the shell in Islamorada?

Posted By rp0029 on 25 Apr 2014 09:33 PM
OK, so for a house that's concrete slab on grade, building a two story, completely square house (35' x 35'), that is 20' tall, by my math that is about 2800 square feet of wall, so anywhere from 28,000 to 42,000?

What if I want the second floor to be made of ICF and the roof to be made of ICF? Is there anyone who can help me build the shell in Islamorada?

It would be best to do the first and second floors as ICF.  Not that difficult, just get it engineered.

Doing the roof in ICF takes a lot more work and is pricier. You are looking at around $25 per square foot area of roof to make it out of concrete/EPS.

Here is a general breakdown:

ICF WALLS = $10 - $15 sqft
ICF FLOORS = $17 - $21 sqft
ICF ROOF = $23 - $27 sqft

Thank you so much for the information. You are a tremendous help. Any reason why the first floor need be icf? Seems much more economical to have the first floor made from just regular concrete, no?

Also can an icf builder design this house with no second floor, so that a carpenter can do the second floor later? Thanks again!

Lbear, how many icf houses have you built?

Posted By smartwall on 26 Apr 2014 11:21 AM
Lbear, how many icf houses have you built?

How many major league baseball teams have you played in?

How many terms in congress have you served in?

How many vehicles have you engineered and built?


I guess you are forbidden to speak about baseball, politics and cars because you never played professional ball, never served in a political office and never engineered a vehicle.


The OP was asking for general pricing and I quoted him the pricing I have received and other homeowners I know have received on their ICF homes. I personally know a professional ICF contractor that has put up millions of square feet of ICF and my general pricing is in-line with what he has stated.

Posted By rp0029 on 26 Apr 2014 06:48 AM
Also can an icf builder design this house with no second floor, so that a carpenter can do the second floor later? Thanks again!

Sure, that's possible. One would just have to install floor joist hangars into the ICF wall so that the wood floor trusses can be anchored into the ICF wall.

Posted By rp0029 on 26 Apr 2014 06:46 AM
Thank you so much for the information. You are a tremendous help. Any reason why the first floor need be icf? Seems much more economical to have the first floor made from just regular concrete, no?

It all depends on the design and what you are going for. My 2-story home is all ICF from the footings up to the 2nd floor roof area. The 2nd floor is InsulDeck/concrete and this path was chosen because I have exterior balconies that were concrete and I wanted to have exposed concrete floors for the 2nd floor.

Using InsulDeck is better than just a basic concrete interior floor, this is because one can run utility chases inside and screw drywall to the bottom side of the InsulDeck floors. This is not possible with just a knock-away concrete floor system.

So the answer would be none. I believe that original post was a question for contractors in the icf industry not the Linda Richman of Green Building Talk. I think since he is interested in icf your prices tell him that it will be more than a dollar but less that a million for his project.

rp, I'll try and help. Since your blocks would in all likely hood be sourced out of Orlando, I would try Buildblock or Fox. My preference would be Fox since I think your going to get into more than 1 truckload and shipping can be a problem. Both BB and Fox have knock down systems that could be used in your project and save on shipping. So contact these companies and I'm sure they can hook you up with a distributor that can give you the name of contractors that might be able to give you a firm idea on pricing. If your not successful send me a PM and I'll load my truck for a nice winter build. Can't take a another of these Global Warming winters

I am in Miami and I went to the lot this morning - it is in the Florida keys - Islamorada, as I mentioned.
So SmartWall you disagree with LBear's pricing? For a house that is square - 35x35 that is 20' with an ICF roof, slab concrete foundation, and ICF second floor, I'd be looking at something like this:

Roof - 1225 feet at $23-$27/sqft = $28,175.00-$33,075.00
Walls - 2800 feet at $10-$15/sqft $28000 - $42000
Second Floor - 1225 feet at $17-21/sqft $20825-$25,725

So not including the slab, LBear says anywhere from $77,000 - $100800 for such a house for only the shell? SmartWall do you concur with this? Seems high, which makes me want to build the second floor out of wood, or to eliminate the upstairs. Do you guys have any thoughts?

Thanks.

hich makes me want to build the second floor out of wood, or to eliminate the upstairs. Do you guys have any thoughts?

I built my second floor out of wood as a "hybrid" simply because the ICF talent available didn't seem to have much confidence in their ability to go high. I have a basement and using Insuldeck as a first floor made the shell quite a bit stronger. I'd try to do it again. I'm getting some concrete floors polished right now and it is very attractive and durable. $6.00/sf and you are done. If you have a radiant floor it also makes it quite efficient from an energy standpoint.

Posted By rp0029 on 26 Apr 2014 06:48 AM
Also can an icf builder design this house with no second floor, so that a carpenter can do the second floor later? Thanks again!

We normally put up the first floor walls and then support the second floor joistwork off our strong backs. Put on the floor sheathing and then pour the first floor walls. If you take the time to square up the floor system prior to sheathing, than you ICF walls have to square as well. Plus you have the whole floor to walk on when you are pouring your walls.

Yes I think it's high. I don't know the local pricing for concrete and pumping. I would skip the floor and do wood with the hangers installed in the walls. I use Watkins hangers and you can skip the band joist. With the size of the walls I would consider pouring the walls in one shot. I can see the reason for the concrete roof in Fla. We've done a couple of houses by using a raised heel truss and putting them inside of the top floor walls using the same hangers. You could run the trusses at 12" on center and attach the decking with commercial deck plates and screws. You could use 4" walls with helix fiber and high range water reducer poured in one shot which would give you a stronger wall than a 6" poured in lifts.

Thank you. I am just trying to figure out whether to do a two story or a one story. The little woman in my life said she'd be OK with either one - my thoughts were a 35'35' square two story, or a more aesthetic 1500-1600 square foot single story house. Either way I go I am doing a concrete roof. According to the first reply I got to this, the two story required ICF floors (which did not make sense to me) and would cost six figures for the shell alone, and the second option would be about half that - I was ready to just call the CMU guys at that price, or go modular.
Thank you all, you have been very helpful. I guess I just need to call a couple of the Fox and BuildBlock contractors. Before I pay a structural engineer to make a plan, I was sort of hoping to get a ballpark as to what the shell would cost. I'm doing this with cash from my own pocket, and while we would love to build a two story, I'm not paying six figures for the shell alone without anything else. I would build a one story if that is indeed reality. Hopefully the contractors can give me a rough estimate.

Thanks all.

Please post what you believe are the "real" costs of ICF.

I posted a general price breakdown of ICF (forms, rebar, labor, concrete, etc):

ICF WALLS = $10 - $15 sqft
ICF FLOORS = $17 - $21 sqft
ICF ROOF = $23 - $27 sqft


I would be curious to see what your pricing is?

Actually both websites include dealers and distributors online so you could call them direct and they should be able to lead you to contractors. Also if they are still alive Greenblock had their own build team in Florida. They had a 2-4-2 block that was designed to compete with cmu.

Smartwall,

Can you quote some general ICF pricing so I can see what you are charging for ICF? Are you in Canada or the US?

 

I'm in upstate NY. A 6' wall depending on corners would be around $9.75 sq ft. using helix