When is a Taper Top form required?
Taper Top forms are specif­i­cal­ly designed to pro­vide a larg­er bear­ing sur­face along the top of the wall. Typ­i­cal­ly, the increased bear­ing sur­face may be used to sup­port mason­ry, floor or roof loads. Taper top forms are used in the tran­si­tion from ICF to wood frame con­struc­tion and the taper top form would be the top form on the wall.
How are Fox Blocks green/environmentally friendly?
Fox Blocks con­tain a min­i­mum of 40% recy­cled con­tent by weight.
  • Fox Blocks do not off-gas and are not man­u­fac­tured using any gas­es that deplete the ozone or are harm­ful to the envi­ron­ment.
  • Fox Blocks require low embod­ied ener­gy to man­u­fac­ture.
  • Fox Blocks do not con­tain any mate­ri­als, that pro­mote mold or mildew growth.
  • Fox Blocks are an effi­cient con­struc­tion method there­by reduc­ing the amount of con­struc­tion waste, dust and air pol­lu­tion in the build­ing process.
  • Build­ing with Fox Blocks will save on heat­ing and cool­ing costs because less air is exchanged between the out­side and inside of your home. This also means a small­er more effi­cient HVAC unit is required for the home.
  • Fox Blocks are sus­tain­able. They will not rot or dete­ri­o­rate for the life of your home.
  • Fox Blocks pro­vide a secure, durable, com­fort­able, long last­ing build­ing
Does EPS ‘off gas’?
EPS does not off-gas. Fox Blocks forms do not and nev­er have con­tained any CFC or HCFC prod­ucts. The forms are made by a steam process that uti­lizes pen­tene gas’ as a blow­ing agent. The blow­ing agent dis­si­pates from the prod­uct with­in 48 hours of man­u­fac­tur­ing. Fox Blocks forms are odor­less, do not dete­ri­o­rate, and do not off gas.
Can the plastic webs be detected by using stud finders?

A stud find­er typ­i­cal­ly uses the den­si­ty of mate­ri­als to locate studs. The polypropy­lene (plas­tic) web mate­r­i­al will show up on high qual­i­ty den­si­ty stud find­ers. Note, the webs in Fox Blocks are spaced at 8″ (200 mm) on cen­ter and will be con­tin­u­ous ver­ti­cal­ly on each side of the wall.

Is the Fox Blocks product rated by ‘Energy Star’?
Ener­gy Star does not eval­u­ate or rate insu­la­tion prod­ucts. Every Fox Blocks home when test­ed by an Ener­gy Rater, can meet and exceed the Ener­gy Star home stan­dards and achieve a 5 Star rat­ing and a HERS’ score well below the min­i­mum Ener­gy Star require­ment of 85, or in Cana­da, high­er than an Ener­Guide rat­ing of 80.
Are there different types of Expanded Polystyrene (EPS)?
EPS is list­ed basi­cal­ly under four prop­er­ty clas­si­fi­ca­tions – Type I, II, III and IV. The char­ac­ter­is­tics are based on the den­si­ty of the mold­ed foam which defines the prod­uct type. Fox Blocks ICFs are man­u­fac­tured as a Type II EPS with a den­si­ty of approx­i­mate­ly 1.5 pounds per cubic foot.
Do ICFs require a special concrete mix design?
The con­crete is nor­mal strength, min­i­mum 2500 psi (20 MPa) per build­ing codes. The mix design spec­i­fies a small­er aggre­gate and high­er slump than con­crete typ­i­cal­ly used for floors. Most Ready-Mix sup­pli­ers are famil­iar with an ICF con­crete mix design.
How much will it cost per square foot to build an Fox Blocks ICF home?

Build­ing with Fox Blocks ICFs pro­vides you with a high per­for­mance wall sys­tem for the foun­da­tion and above grade walls. Build­ing any high per­for­mance home, with either ICFs or con­ven­tion­al wood fram­ing, has many fac­tors that define the end cap­i­tal costs.

What addi­tion­al mate­ri­als and labor are required to make a con­ven­tion­al foun­da­tion equiv­a­lent to an Fox Blocks ICF foun­da­tion which exceeds ener­gy code require­ments in most loca­tions? Con­ven­tion­al wood fram­ing requires con­sid­er­ably more mate­r­i­al, insu­la­tion and atten­tion to air seal­ing to make it qual­i­fy and per­form as a high per­for­mance wall. All of this, for con­ven­tion­al con­struc­tion, adds mate­r­i­al and labor costs to the over­all project. Fox Blocks ICFs pro­vide a sim­ple method to build high per­for­mance walls that pro­vide ongo­ing ben­e­fits from the high insu­la­tion val­ues and mass con­crete walls that are ener­gy-effi­cient and pro­vide cost sav­ings for the life cycle of the build­ing.

Com­par­ing cost per square foot between con­ven­tion­al con­struc­tion and ICFs for a high per­for­mance build­ing, is like com­par­ing apples to oranges. To devel­op con­struc­tion costs, more detailed infor­ma­tion is required, for instance the num­ber and size of open­ings, the shape and size of the home, the region­al costs for mate­r­i­al and labor, etc. If you have a project you’d like us to review and pro­vide a mate­r­i­al esti­mate, Fox Blocks would be hap­py to have one of our rep­re­sen­ta­tives con­tact you. Please com­plete and sub­mit a lead infor­ma­tion sheet on the web­site or call Cus­tomer Ser­vice.

What if my contractor doesn’t know how to build with it?
Fox Blocks offers the most com­pre­hen­sive installer train­ing in the indus­try. We can train your con­trac­tor or help you locate a trained installer in your area.
Does the EPS provide support for a wood sill plate?
No, the EPS has no struc­tur­al capac­i­ty to sup­port any loads. Wood sill plates must achieve the required bear­ing from the con­crete with­in the ICF. A wood plate that can­tilevers 13 over the EPS and bears 23 on the con­crete is allow­able. This can be done with a min­i­mum 2 x 6 plate. If a 24 plate is required, a taper top form should be used to extend the con­crete under the plate.