If you are thinking about building a concrete structure, you may be...
Insulated Concrete Forms
Insulated Concrete Forms (ICFs) give you all the benefits that have made concrete the material of choice for home building worldwide.
What are ICFs?
ICFs are hollow “blocks” or “panels” made of plastic foam that construction crews stack into the shape of the walls of a building.
The workers then fill the center with reinforced concrete to create the structure. There are over 25+ brands of ICF blocks in North America, each with some variations in design and materials.
ICF construction sandwiches a heavy, high-strength material (reinforced concrete) between two layers of a light, high-insulation one (foam).
This combination creates a wall with an unusually good combination of desirable properties: air tight-ness, strength, sound attenuation, insulation, and mass.
This gives an ICF home some sizable advantages over an ordinary stick-built home.
Greater energy efficiency. More peace & quiet. More day-to-day comfort.
Types Of ICF Forms
Many manufacturers customize their ICF's for their specific applications but most ICF systems come as "flat", "grid" or "post and beam".
ICFs are basically forms for poured concrete walls, that stay in place as a permanent part of the wall assembly. The forms, made of foam insulation or other insulating material, are either pre-formed interlocking blocks or separate panels connected with plastic ties.
The left-in-place forms not only provide a continuous insulation and sound barrier, but also a backing for drywall on the inside, and stucco, lap siding, or brick on the outside.
Whatever their differences, all major ICF systems are engineer-designed, code-accepted, and field-proven.
Within these two basic ICF types, individual systems can vary in their design. "Flat" systems yield a continuous thickness of concrete, like a conventionally poured wall.
The wall produced by "grid" systems has a waffle pattern where the concrete is thicker at some points than others. "Post and beam" systems have just that – discrete horizontal and vertical columns of concrete that are completely encapsulated in foam insulation.
Who Builds ICF Homes?
Conventional homebuilding crews adapt easily to ICF construction.
Stacking blocks is intuitive for most people, and the cutting and leveling involved draw on standard carpentry skills. Most carpentry crews will have to brush up on the use of concrete, and electricians need to learn how to cut channels in the surface of the foam to house their cable.
But these are not complex tasks, and there is plenty of help available and certifications for contractors that specialize in concrete forms.
