ICF's?

[williams_a99]

Has anyone used ICF's for a full foundation on a 30 x 30 or 35 x 35 stock cabin? I'm wondering about cost up front vs a traditionally formed and poured foundation, as well as whether the savings they claim in HVAC costs are as tangible as they are advertised to be. What about block?

[williams_a99]

sorry if this question has been asked before, I've been reading a lot on here and have found some info about ICF's but I wanted a better idea of cost.

[rocklock]

sorry if this question has been asked before.
info about ICF's but I wanted a better idea of cost.

Yes it has...
cost for the icf's for a 30X30 is about 4300.

This is what you get. You can pour the footer in one week, then pour the basement the next week. No other system will allow that. You also get the ultimate sound suppression system ever, plus an r-20 insulation that has literally 150,000 pounds of thermal mass.

I have many pictures of the footer, and foundation...

[jrdavis]

Williams......
***Tease alert*****

There are 5 pages in ICF stuff on the "other side".
See you when you get there. :)

Happy hunting.
JD

[williams_a99]

I figured that there is a lot on the other side.:) I'm not making any concrete plans...ha...just looking at options.

Thanks rocklock! that's very helpful.

[Tom Featherstone]

Yes it has...
cost for the icf's for a 30X30 is about 4300.

This is what you get. You can pour the footer in one week, then pour the basement the next week. No other system will allow that. You also get the ultimate sound suppression system ever, plus an r-20 insulation that has literally 150,000 pounds of thermal mass.

I have many pictures of the footer, and foundation...

Dave pretty much nails it down with that he wrote. I'm not sure if that includes the concrete. I'll let Dave respond to that.

I did do a 40x50 ICF 2 story house a few years ago and If it wasn't for this crazy desire to build a log home, it should be the #1 method of construction of what is available today.

What's The Cost?

We'll, like anything there are many variables. You have to fill in your own blanks to come to an informed answer.

ICF Blocks are nothing more than Giant Lego's. If you can build this Log home, putting together the Lego's is pretty easy and light. Instructions are easy. Or you can pay someone to pour you a basement, build piers or a stem wall. How much it costs will depend upon what size and method you choose and what part you pay for, or do yourself. Then you must add the cost of whatever it takes to reach the insulation factor to a poured wall, stem wall or floor insulation with piers. If ALL things are counted equal.

The "Lego's" give you that once poured and more depending upon how you decide to insulate.

"Thermal Mass"

There are better scientists here that can explain that better than me, but I do know this. It's Real! Everyone of the members here that already live in their's will testify to the fact of how these buildings respond to the temperature swings in all parts of the world. The same scientists recognize this same "mass" effect with ICF's.

My footings by building code here require me to go 1/2 the distance to putting in a basement. Piers are out of the question because of size & depth and volume of concrete. Not including the time and cost to build them and the excavation to get them there. Excavating out a square hole is pretty easy with a piece of equipment. 20 years ago I may have considered digging the piers out by hand, no longer an option. I can run equipment, my grandkids can carry the Lego's!

I'll end this with this.....

"How Much does it Cost?" Or? Should it be?? How Expensive is that engine part for that airplane you're planning to fly in?

[williams_a99]

Thanks Tom. I plan on doing everything myself. I have excavation and construction experience and I'm confident I can do it. I was just wondering what the cost of the actual materials (ICF'S) was.

[Tom Featherstone]

Thanks Tom. I plan on doing everything myself. I have excavation and construction experience and I'm confident I can do it. I was just wondering what the cost of the actual materials (ICF'S) was.

W99, We used the Logix block. Find what's available local to you, who's doing it. There are many good manufacturers of ICF's. It's the local support that I most value. Ours will be a piece of cake compared to what I help build. The experience was invaluable as far as doing it for us.

Find your closest supplier, call him up and tell him what size you need and it short time you'll have a real number for the ICF and the amount of concrete needed to fill it. He should also be able to calculate what you need for your footer at the same time.

Cost? Dave I think again was about right on as far as an average for his size build. Concrete prices are amazingly about the same across the country, so another variable is How Thick? 6"-8"-10"? I only need 8" here but have considered 10". We're pretty much set going 32'x32' on a full ICF basement, root cellar and walk out from basement, all out of ICF, one pour. I'll be nailing down this price soon and will post over in the members forum.

Other Members already have completed these and have posted their costs. I'm hoping to keep my cost of excavation, forms and concrete below $15k. Not including pouring the floor. Most all of that work I can do myself with a helping hand. On pour day, I'll have many hands on deck for a short period.

God willing, we should be pouring sometime this spring.

Best wishes to you , it's a wonderful journey!

[loghousenut]

Just for the record, I wish we would have left most of our sloped lot natural and hogged our a daylight basement. Then those ICF things would have been a no-brainer. No offense Rod.

[panderson03]

many ICF sites have calculators you can use to determine what you'll need and for what cost.

[patrickandbianca]

If I ever build another house it wil be ICF's.

Not that I don't love the logs.

Patrick

[Mosseyme]

Don't overlook your local concrete supplier. We ended up going with them and were glad we did. They have a second motivation for getting you a good deal and were excellent source of info and invaluable help. The sales rep for our concrete supplier made two 5 hr trips to help make sure we were setting up everything right, then came back to check everything before the pour. It went well except the pumper guys were trying to rush things a bit and over vibrating in one corner. We had to do a quick bracing to prevent blowout at the top of corner. It wasn't suggested but if I were doing it over I would spend an extra $100 and run a strip of osb around the top edge. Every thing is locked together by overlapping icf except the top doesn't. We used Nudura brand which comes out of Canada. It comes in 8' sections instead of 4'. It is 18" tall and comes already together with the ribs in place and it folds up for shipping. All it takes it one movement to unfold set and on to the next one There was no tracking on the footers, we just popped some nails in 2x4s at the corners to hold them against the pressure coming from 2 directions and a couple of places along the wall. We did rent the inside bracing and scaffolding to set things up and to use when pouring. Really, really easy system to use. Some of the companies were going to charge big bucks to do any help at all.
We also poured the day before Thanksgiving and could only return the braces right after. The business was closed when we could return them so they said we could keep them for the 2 weeks until we could get back out there to return them for no additional charge. We did ours with 10" core. There was almost no difference in price between the core sizes.
When setting these up two guys could place them as fast as I could pull them out of the wrapper and unfold them.

[williams_a99]

Great info Mosseyme! Thanks!