Concrete ICF home continues

[Tororider]

Paddy,
Great looking house! Out of curiousity, what are you looking at, price per sq ft? This is the way I would like to do my house in a couple years, trying, like you, to do as much of the work as possible myself.

Can't wait to see pics of the pour and the floors second story going up!

[Tororider]

Also,
Had you thought about radiant in your floors? I know you aren't going to have any problems keeping that place warm but no reason not to be as efficient as possible, right?

[Paddy]

Tororider,

Yes we are going with radiant heating. Having concrete floors makes it a good option. I hope to pour this week. With the heat we shut down for a few weeks. both people and concrete don't work well and nearly 100 F!

I'll post some additional photos of the pour once completed.

Patrick T.

[bravo36]

Thanks for the update Paddy. Can't wait. We're thinking of building an ICF here in the Dallas area very, very soon. Anyone recommend a builder in the north Dallas area?

[tommu56]

We use these panels for the floors at the last place I worked

http://www.nitterhouse.com/DrawingSp.../PDFs/1hr6.pdf

tom

[Tororider]

Paddy,
Any more pictures of the progress?

[Paddy]

Tororider,

Sorry for the late update. We did finally pour the walls. Close to 100 cu yards. It went well. I would have photos but before I could down load them I was off on a biz trip to China. On my second day there, my camara was stollen! Just a cheep camara but it had the "pour day" photos. Oh well, wife got some photos too.

We are preparing for the basement slab pour now. We will use radant heating in the living area, but nothing for the earth side work shop. I have a few details to iron out for the steel bar joists that will support the concrete floors. I hope to get the first suspended floor poured yet this year. We have slowed our pace down hoping our house on the market will sell soon. Not a good time of the year though. Oh well, I'm in no hurry. It's a concrete house and we don't have the same issues as a partial built wood house.

Tractor is coming handy for grading the gravel bed below the bacement slab. I'm in Prague, CZ this week so I will call my son to see what progress was made

Cost; Always a good question. The ICFs poured, material & labor is supposed to run $10 a sq-ft of wall. (Not sq-ft of floor). The Hambro steel/concrete system is also about $10 a sq-ft of floor. We wll acid stain the concrete so the floor is nearly a finished cost. The ICFs will get dry wall on the inside and Stuco on the outside. My idea is to get the concrete shell built via my contractor and do alot of the finish work myself. We'll see with all my traveling.

I'll post as we proceed

Patrick T

[Tororider]

Paddy,
Bummer about the camera, sorry to hear that.

No need to apologize for not updating on my schedule, it sounds like you are keeping yourself busy on secret missions throughout the world.

Good luck selling your home, I hope the housing market isn't as bad there as it is here, Michigan is one of the leaders in the nation right now for forclosures.

Just so that I have this right on cost. A 10'x10' with 10' cielings (to keep things simple) room would cost $5000 including the floor? Btw, in an icf home, do you do interior walls in cement as well, or stick built? Sorry if I ask too many questions, but I am really interested in building my future house this way.

Thanks, and safe travels.

[Paddy]

Tororider,

Your numbers are correct. ICF does cost more but you have a bomb shelter in the end! A standard poured bacement is about $7.50 a sq-ft of wall. Your construction costs may vary, but around here 10' tall poured 8" thick wall is $75 a running foot. Alot depends on; step footers, window/door openings and number of corners. A plain rectangular bacement with out windows is fast and easy. Mine had step footers, doors and windows on 3 sides due to 'walk out' basement feature. The abvantage of ICFs are; 1) DIY friendly. You get a solid poured wall with out renting forms. The pouring contractors had the market cornered due to investment of their forms. They stack like Legos and cut with standard wood saws. The blocks have internal webbing to place and hold the Rebar. I am using Fox blocks. They sell without dealers and reps and they list there prices on the web. My 8" concrete core blocks cost under $3.00 a sq-ft. The other advantage,2) is drywall ready/siding ready. The blocks have built in nailers/studs every 8". The ele is placed in grooves cut into the foam, 2 5/8" thick. The outside is ready for any standard siding as well as stuco. I will use stuco due to the design. Windows can be 'trimed out with foam. just paint/texture a different color. This stuco method is very close to EFIS. You see alot of comercial building finished this way, foam and stuco. Several sites offer the material, fiber mesh, adhessive backing and the final topping for about $1.50 sq-ft. 3) very energy efficient. The standard fox block has 5 1/4" of total foam. At R-4.5 per inch, that's R-23.62. I will glue an additinal 2" of foam to the outside so my end result will be R-32.62. You really can't compare framed wall R-values with ICF R-values. Stud walls have 'thermal breaks' every 16"/24" corners and windows even worse. The R-19 stated for 2x6 framed walls insulation is based on the pink area only. I have seen reports where 'whole wall' R-values can be as low as R-12

There are some good web sites for ICF, do a search but be sure to check out Fox blocks.

Patrick T.

[Erik_in_Hoyt]

Tororider
as a comparison - I'm building a "combo" house. Walkout basement is ICF w/9'ceiling heights, radiant in the floor, and a SIP upper floor with cathedral ceilings, 3 side wrap around deck, and a steel roof. (26 ga standing rib) Interior walls are stick & drywall for ease of work. At present I'm around 90-95% done and my cost is around $85 a square foot. Since I couldn't find any ICF or SIP contractors within 100 miles of the building site, I had to pay a bit extra for that - but in February when it was -6 out we kept the house at 55 with 3 space heaters, and that was before the bay windows were boxed/insulated.

Wife and I are doing this on the weekends with occasional help from a friend or neighbor, so it's taking longer than we had hoped but is turning out very nice.