ICF's?

[kskshome04]

Hi - I have been reading through this for the last 6 months and another thread prompted me to enroll and post. But now I am here figured I would post this question too - anyone ever worked with ICF's (Insulated Concrete Forms)? My husband and I are really wanting a log home and are looking in to various options with log homes, and started looking at foundations and came across ICF's. Anyone do a complete home out of these?

[pietru]

Some members used it for their foundation, I know I will. As to using it to build the whole house... well they probably make excellent homes in terms of noise reduction and insulation. Also great for ease of construction. However they probably do not breathe and concrete is a very polluting material too wich is a big concern for me. I know something can be done for that but can't remember what the product is called.
In my opinion they are many times better then standard stick frame construction.

[Mark OBrien]

My son and I recently tiled a home that was constructed completely out of ICF's for the walls. It is a 2 story house nd they live completely off the grid, using a generator, a bank of batteries and a bunch of solar collectors. He has a propane fridge and heats with firewood. The house stayed extremely warm during the 2 weeks that we worked on it and that included a nasty ice storm as well as 2 snow storms. (hence the 2 weeks that we worked on it!) The ICF's were 12" thick and he had us tile 2 sunrooms with a fairly dark tile to act as passive solar collectors. His energy consumption was extremely low and the house was toasty warm during those storms.