Can I leave Fox Blocks forms exposed to ultraviolet rays for an extended period (months)?
Yes, but you will notice a light dust­ing on the sur­face and a yel­low­ing dis­col­oration of the forms. This does not indi­cate any detri­men­tal effects to the ICFs. We do sug­gest, that if the exte­ri­or fin­ish is not going to be installed with­in around a 3 month peri­od or more, the forms be pro­tect­ed from UV rays by installing a tem­po­rary build­ing wrap type mate­r­i­al. The pow­dery film must be removed with soap and water before the appli­ca­tion of a syn­thet­ic stuc­co fin­ish or water­proof­ing mem­brane.
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.
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 258″ rigid insu­la­tion pan­els to cre­ate a Fox Blocks ICF.
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.
Can you build and pour concrete in cold weather?
Yes. The forms insu­late the con­crete and enhance the cur­ing process. The top of the forms, or exposed con­crete areas will need to be cov­ered, tem­porar­i­ly, with insu­la­tion to pre­vent the exposed con­crete from freez­ing. Fox Blocks projects can be con­struct­ed any time of the year, no delays for cold weath­er.
Is EPS the same as XPS?
No, these insu­la­tion prod­ucts are quite dif­fer­ent. EPS is closed cell expand­ed poly­styrene, while XPS is a closed cell extrud­ed poly­styrene. The prop­er­ties, appli­ca­tions and costs of each are quite dif­fer­ent. The major­i­ty of ICFs are man­u­fac­tured with EPS.
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.
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.
Is the Fox Blocks form recyclable?
Yes, every com­po­nent of the Fox Blocks form itself plus the con­crete and rein­force­ment bars are recy­clable.
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.