When can I backfill the foundation wall?
The con­crete must cure for a min­i­mum of 7 days and the foun­da­tion wall must be lat­er­al­ly sup­port­ed, mean­ing the floor sys­tem is installed sup­port­ing the top of the wall. All below grade water­proof­ing / damp­proof­ing must be installed.
Can I install a 16' garage door and / or large openings in a concrete wall?
Yes, if the fol­low­ing cri­te­ria is avail­able for the design of a con­crete lin­tel (beam) over the open­ing – con­crete lin­tel depth min­i­mum 16″ (400 mm) or more with no point loads. Larg­er open­ings would require an engi­neered design.
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.
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.
Is an ICF house faster to build?
The assem­bly and place­ment of con­crete may take the same time as to build with con­ven­tion­al meth­ods. The advan­tage with Fox Blocks is that the walls are now insu­lat­ed, have a vapor and air bar­ri­er installed and are ready for fin­ish­es once the win­dows and roof are installed. These ben­e­fits will save weeks and/​or months depend­ing on the size of the projects.
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.
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.
Orman residence 5
ORMAN RESIDENCE
The design­ers and con­struc­tion team were charged with cre­at­ing a sus­tain­able 7,500 sq. ft. mod­ern estate atop a stun­ning hill over­look­ing ranch­es and vine­yards in Mur­ri­eta, Cal­i­for­nia.
Kenwood 1
KENWOOD ELEMENTARY GYMNASIUM
Rebuild­ing the Ken­wood Ele­men­tary Gym­na­si­um helped heal the com­mu­ni­ty.
2016 HILLIARD BRUCE WINERY 7
HILLIARD BRUCE WINERY
Hilliard Bruce Win­ery was award­ed LEED Sil­ver Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion by the US Build­ing Coun­cil.