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What is a ‘blow-out’?

A ​‘blow-out’ is a break in the form, gen­er­al­ly due to the pres­sure from the liq­uid con­crete dur­ing the con­crete place­ment and/​or con­sol­i­da­tion. Fox Blocks ICFs are designed to main­tain a high safe­ty fac­tor of pres­sure from the liq­uid con­crete. Dam­aged forms or fail­ure to sup­port areas where forms have been cut leav­ing a large area of EPS between the web sup­ports may cause a blow-out. Over con­sol­i­da­tion may also cause a blow-out.

Fox Blocks rec­om­mends the Pre-Place­ment Check­list be reviewed for all wall assem­blies pri­or to the place­ment of con­crete, to find poten­tial prob­lem areas and install addi­tion­al strap­ping or sup­port to pre­vent blow-outs. Gen­er­al­ly, for an Fox Blocks form, the size of a blow-out may be lim­it­ed to the EPS between the webs, 6″ or 8″ wide by the height of one form. If a blow-out occurs, the con­crete pour moves to anoth­er area on the wall, the hole is patched by replac­ing the EPS, installing wood sup­port over the area, and then resum­ing the pour.

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Does the Fox Blocks contain recycled materials?
The plas­tic webs in Fox Blocks forms are 100% recy­cled postin­dus­tri­al polypropy­lene. The EPS insu­la­tion is vir­gin mate­r­i­al. Recy­cled con­tent for an ICF block is mea­sured by weight. The recy­cled con­tent by weight of a stan­dard 6″ Fox Blocks form — 48%.
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What exterior finishes can be used on an ICF?
Fox Blocks are com­pat­i­ble with all exte­ri­or fin­ish mate­ri­als and sys­tems – sid­ing, stuc­co, mason­ry veneer, sim­u­lat­ed stone, etc. The attach­ment of cer­tain exte­ri­or fin­ish­ing sys­tems is rec­om­mend­ed with exte­ri­or grade screws fas­tened into the exposed or con­cealed webs.
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Does expanded polystyrene (EPS) present a serious fire hazard?
The EPS in an Fox Blocks has a flame retar­dant that allows the forms to be flame resis­tant. The EPS will melt when exposed to sus­tained tem­per­a­tures over 300°F (149°C). The igni­tion point of the melt­ed styrene is 600°F (315°C) (wood is approx­i­mate­ly 500°F (260°C). Fox Blocks have been test­ed to meet the build­ing code require­ments for flame spread and smoke devel­op­ment, plus Fox Blocks may be used as fire resis­tant rat­ed wall assem­blies in schools and hos­pi­tals.
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Is installing ICFs a DIY project?
Fox Blocks rec­om­mends that all installers using Fox Blocks ICFs com­plete a Fox Blocks train­ing pro­gram to ensure they have a bet­ter under­stand­ing of the basics. How­ev­er, for first time installers, it is pre­ferred that a Fox Blocks trained, expe­ri­enced installer inspect the instal­la­tion pri­or to place­ment of con­crete and assist in the place­ment of the con­crete, as they are famil­iar with work­ing with con­crete and can ensure the build is struc­tural­ly sound and safe and the walls are con­sol­i­dat­ed prop­er­ly, built straight and plumb.
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What is EPS made from?
Poly­styrene is vir­gin mate­r­i­al, man­u­fac­tured from petro­le­um. Poly­styrene beads are expand­ed with steam heat to be up to 40 times their orig­i­nal vol­ume and then the expand­ed beads are mold­ed again by steam heat into 25⁄8″ rigid insu­la­tion pan­els to cre­ate a Fox Blocks ICF.
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Where can I purchase the product?
Fox Blocks has a wide-rang­ing net­work of knowl­edge­able prod­uct dis­trib­u­tors and trained installers across North Amer­i­ca; con­tact Fox Blocks Cus­tomer Ser­vice to find the clos­est Fox Blocks prod­uct dis­trib­u­tor or trained installer in your area.
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How do I apply an acrylic stucco finish to an ICF?
Acrylic stuc­co is a thin coat fin­ish which can be direct­ly applied to the EPS insu­la­tion on the exte­ri­or face of the ICF. Fox Blocks pro­vides a con­tin­u­ous EPS sur­face con­ducive for the appli­ca­tion of acrylic stuc­co. All acrylic stuc­co man­u­fac­tures are famil­iar with ICFs as a sub­strate and each have their rec­om­men­da­tions for appli­ca­tion over ICFs. Note there is a dif­fer­ence in the instal­la­tion pro­ce­dures between acrylic stuc­co and tra­di­tion­al stuc­co.
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Can you vibrate or consolidate the concrete in ICFs?
Yes, con­sol­i­da­tion of the con­crete is one of the key ele­ments in the place­ment of con­crete in an ICF wall. Fox Blocks rec­om­mends inter­nal vibra­tion with a pen­cil vibra­tor, quick­ly in and slow­ly out.
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Is an ICF home quieter than a stick framed home?
Absolute­ly. The exte­ri­or walls are two lay­ers of con­tin­u­ous insu­la­tion, the den­si­ty of sol­id con­crete and a lay­er of ½” gyp­sum board on the inside all con­tribute to supe­ri­or sound sup­pres­sion of STC 50 for the whole build­ing enve­lope. Note: A wood frame sys­tem of equiv­a­lent STC rat­ing would be 2 x 4 studs spaced 16˝ o/​c, with 3½˝ absorp­tive mate­r­i­al, 1 lay­er of 5 /8˝ Type X gyp­sum board on resilient chan­nels spaced 16˝ o/​c, and 2 lay­ers of 5 /8˝ Type X gyp­sum board on the oth­er side. (Cour­tesy of 1995 NBCC Sec­tion A9.10.3.1 Wall #W5a)
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