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How do frame in openings?
Fox Blocks has devel­oped the Fox Buck specif­i­cal­ly to frame open­ings such as win­dows and doors. The Fox Buck pro­vides insu­la­tion around the open­ing plus sup­port for the attach­ment of the win­dow or door.
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Is there a problem when placing concrete, dropping concrete from the top of the wall which may be over 8' (2.4 m)?
No. Spec­i­fi­ca­tions in the Amer­i­ca Con­crete Insti­tute (ACI) do not lim­it the max­i­mum dis­tance con­crete can free fall. Engi­neer­ing stud­ies and reports have shown that free fall from up to 35′ doesn’t reduce con­crete qual­i­ty and there is no evi­dence of seg­re­ga­tion or weak­ened con­crete strength. ICF con­crete design calls for a high slump mix which assists in reduc­ing seg­re­ga­tion.
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Is there a top and bottom on the blocks when installing the Fox Blocks forms?
Fox Blocks forms have a reversible inter­lock sys­tem on all blocks. The robust inter­lock allows the blocks to fit togeth­er very tight­ly, elim­i­nat­ing any require­ment for adhe­sives. A reversible inter­lock speeds up the instal­la­tion.
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Is the Fox Blocks form recyclable?
Yes, every com­po­nent of the Fox Blocks form itself plus the con­crete and rein­force­ment bars are recy­clable.
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How do you control voids in the wall?
The con­crete mix is a high slump 5″- 6.5″ (125 mm – 165 mm) with a small­er aggre­gate size so the con­crete flows eas­i­ly. The per­son in charge of plac­ing the con­crete should watch the con­crete flow through­out the whole wall to ensure there are no void pock­ets. Inter­nal vibrat­ing pro­vides good con­sol­i­da­tion, elim­i­nat­ing voids.
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What is the difference between Fox Blocks ICFs and the competitors, and why are Fox Blocks ICFs better? Why should I use Fox Blocks ICFs?
Most ICF blocks share com­mon fea­tures and ben­e­fits. Fox Blocks, as a com­pa­ny, pro­vides 30 years’ expe­ri­ence in prod­uct devel­op­ment, doc­u­men­ta­tion, test­ing and train­ing, as well as ver­sa­til­i­ty in the line of prod­ucts to meet all appli­ca­tions. The key dif­fer­ence comes in the exper­tise and sup­port you get from Fox Blocks. Fox Blocks is the leader in insu­lat­ing con­crete form con­struc­tion – proven in over 100,000 com­mer­cial and res­i­den­tial projects across North Amer­i­ca. Exten­sive resources and sup­port sys­tems are avail­able to ensure your project’s suc­cess from start to fin­ish. Please vis­it our web­site www.Fox Blocks​.com to review our project gallery and find more detailed doc­u­men­ta­tion on the prod­ucts and the appli­ca­tions. Fox Blocks also pro­vides a toll free num­ber for Cus­tomer and Tech­ni­cal Sup­port 877−369−2562.
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Is the Fox Blocks ICF product ‘LEED’ rated or certified?
Prod­ucts are not rat­ed or cer­ti­fied under the LEED pro­gram. The over­all build­ing is eval­u­at­ed and assigned a LEED rat­ing. In the selec­tion of build­ing mate­ri­als for a LEED design, Fox Blocks have many ben­e­fits that can enable, enhance or direct­ly con­tribute toward LEED points for the project.
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How does the ICF block get secured to the foundation?
The ICF blocks are held in place with either low expan­sion spray foam or a met­al starter track. The bracing/​alignment sys­tem, typ­i­cal­ly installed after the 4th course of block, also sup­ports the ICFs in place. Once the con­crete is in the wall there is no con­cern with the forms mov­ing. The con­crete is con­nect­ed to the foot­ing with rein­forc­ing dow­els.
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Why is the concrete limited to a placement height or lifts of 4 feet (1.2 m)?
To alle­vi­ate the pres­sure from the liq­uid con­crete, the con­crete is placed in lay­ers or ​‘lifts’. The first lift is lim­it­ed to 4′ (1.2 m) of con­crete around the perime­ter of the build­ing. This allows approx­i­mate­ly one hour for the con­crete to set-up before con­tin­u­ing with the next 4′ (1.2 m) lift. The low­er lift pro­vides sup­port for the next lift as the con­crete is placed con­tin­u­ous­ly around the build­ing in con­sec­u­tive lifts to the top of the wall.
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How do I determine which size ICF to use?

ICFs pro­vide a rein­forced con­crete wall which is designed to spe­cif­ic engi­neer­ing prin­ci­ples. Typ­i­cal res­i­den­tial con­struc­tion, per the applic­a­bil­i­ty lim­its in the build­ing code, allows walls 10′ (3 m) high or less between lat­er­al sup­ports (floor and roof con­nec­tions). Below grade walls must have a min­i­mum 6″ (150 mm) con­crete core. In some regions, an 8″ (200 mm) con­crete core is the min­i­mum allowed thick­ness for below grade walls.

The 4″ (100 mm) form can­not be used below grade as a foun­da­tion wall. The 4″ (100 mm) form may be used for above grade walls up to a max­i­mum of 10′ (3.0 m).

The 6″ (150 mm) form, above grade, is lim­it­ed to approx­i­mate­ly 14′ (4.2 m) in height. Walls high­er than 14′ (4.2 m) must use an 8″ (200 mm) or larg­er form.

Typ­i­cal res­i­den­tial con­struc­tion will use 6″ or 8″ con­crete core size blocks. Project spe­cif­ic engi­neer­ing may allow for some core thick­ness to span ver­ti­cal­ly high­er than these pro­posed guide­lines.

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