ICF Home

rino1494

I have noticed that everyone that uses ICF's, pour the basement slab before pouring the walls. Why is this ?

__________________
Life is hard. It is harder when you are stupid

Uncle Sam wants YOU....to speak ENGLISH

joasis

Corner lots, 25 wide by 140 deep, total 3 lots 75 frontage...local code is 50 feet from the centerline of the street, 5 feet from the side property line...we have a variance for the other street...42 feet from the front porch....the house is bigger then it looks...2136 sq/ft...tight fit in an older neighborhood.

__________________

mdshunk

Yeah, that's what I was commenting on. That's tight. Do you have any prescriptive requirements (fire related) due to these tight side setback permissions?

joasis

Nope....and believe it or not, some communites like Enid, Oklahoma, have neighborhoods that allow 5 feet between homes. Our code generally makes it 10 feet, but all homes have alley access....of course, most homes are fenced..so going between them is precluded.

__________________

mdshunk

Wow. That's almost unheard of for new construction. I surely hope they have some sort of exterior fire resistive rating requirement.

concretemasonry

rino -

That is probably so you can pour the wall on the floor slab. It makes it easier to tear off the foam and plug the wall/slab joint with hydraulic cement when it eventually leaks. Usually, preparation and cleanlness of the bottom of the floor inside any forms is poor, leading to a poor bond.

Even at best, you have a cold joint, which is not very good for preventing leakage under pressure. Just hope everyone has a good drain tile system.

Block and conventional poured basements usually have the walls in place before the slab is poured. This gives you additional horizontal resistance against the wall and allows you to get at the wall/slab joint for easy plugging if there is a moisture problem.

__________________
Dick

Engineer, designer and consultant recently active domestically and internationally on construction and design in about 35 countries.

woodmagman

We use Logix ICF, good stuff. For you and those in tornado alley this is a home that is not going to have the walls blown out or fence post stuck through the wall.

And the mass of the concrete is going to help with sound proofing.

Wish our frost line allowed for at grade footings. Does your design require a lot of rebar or is that not a required factor.

joasis

4 bars of #4 in the footing, which is 24 X 24 inches...#4 bars on 16 inch centers vertically with 1 horizontle bar every course.....still a lot of steel.

__________________

woodmagman

It can be a bird cage. We use a 1" vibrator so that it does not get caught up, our design requires a inner and outer row every coarse with a 6" wall design. Have you done many, it is a newer construction method?

joasis

I have helped with a few, but this is my first one...I am following the steel layout by the book...I know some guys will run more.

__________________

woodmagman

It is amazing the reaction you get from average Joe walking by. They have to come and take a look. An admission fee needs to be imposed.
The biggest thing with these are the forms lifting during the pour and the walls leaning out after the pour. Our solution is to lean the wall in slightly then crank the scaffolding jacks out after the pour, and good old nylon packing tape in the center of every block from top to bottem and on the corners horizontal for about six feet to prevent blow out. The packing tape is a 20 dollar insurance policy that pays thousand in dividends.......

SmithBuilt

I've done 3 homes with icf basements. I pour the wall first then the slab another day. One of my competitors does the wall then the floor right after using a movable scaffold. I don't know yet how they plumb the wall as they pour, but I would like to.

UpIACrete

Do they set up their turnbuckles on the outside of the building? We always hammered drilled 2x2 strips of treated on the footing and screwed into the studs, never had one pick up.

__________________
"Pride puts perfection into the work."

SmithBuilt

They may set the braces up on the outside. I'm going try to see one of their jobs.

I've always used the supplier's braces and never had a problem. Never had a blowout. I've used Arxx, Logix, and the last was Amnvic forms. An Amnvic plant is close by so I'll probably keep using them, plus they are reversible. You don't have to worry about right or left corners you can just flip them over.

woodmagman

It would be great to pour the slab same day, but with the supplied bracing and scaffolds the supports for the brace would be cast in place, unless your supported them on treated blocks that were left in the pour. That would work and you have the pumper and labour there already. I may consider it, never even thought of doing this…

joasis

Here is the progress as of 5pm today...we are holding off going higher til the severe waether goes by tomorrow....hoping to pour about tuesday. The steel door frame standing in the middle is the safe room door....tornado country here, so the master closet will be a concrete capped saferoom, 6X11 inside dimensions.

__________________

woodmagman

Looks good...Are you going to be using acylic stucco as a finish or somthing else?

AtlanticWBConst

J....looks great...thanks for posting this....very informative info...and the pics really make this thread...

Thanks!

__________________
- Build Well -

joasis

Brick veneer....11,600 ordered....$329 a thousand from Acme in OKC....

Thanks, Atlantic. I decided to run a few photos of current projects...I'll post on this home til it is down, concrete countertops and stamped patio...all of it.

__________________

747

Jo thats a great choice brick veneer. Also nice pics.