Steel/ICF Home, Ponca City, Oklahoma - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

**joasis** · 05-28-2009, 09:14 PM

We completed the set up and poured the walls on this unique home, a combination of steel framing and ICF curtain walls. The pump truck arrived at 1 pm, an hour early, and concrete didn't show until 3:30....one of those days, The mud was hot by the time we got to the second truck

and it still went ok. But it was a long day.....

1800 sq/ft, in case you think it looks small.

Chris Johnson · 05-28-2009, 09:52 PM

Give me some close ups of the ICF tying into the Red Iron...

Clean looking job by the way

**joasis** · 05-28-2009, 10:00 PM

I'll be back up there in a few weeks. No problem on the pics. This job came to me from BuildBlock, and they sold the customer on using 9 inch forms.....since they don't have a practical roofing system, they had the brilliant idea to combine steel building and ICF walls.

Had I been in on this from the start, we would have built conventionally, and then trussed with steel.

**joasis** · 06-28-2009, 08:13 AM

A few more, and man, was it hot lost week. 102+ average temps after 11:00 am . Makes for a miserable day. If anyone asks, I can tell you the name of the steel supplier and I would never use their building or design again. This one is a project that will be a looser (money) in the books when done.

**joasis** · 06-28-2009, 08:15 AM

And the inside and safe room: For some of you who may not know, safe rooms are the above ground version of the "fraidy hole" in tornado country. This safe room has a 6 inch concrete cap poured with the wall forms. The ceiling height is about 7'2" to allow for the LiteDeck form.

**genecarp** · 06-28-2009, 08:19 AM

Not familiar with this type of construction, i see the services stubbed out from the floor, but how do services get into the walls? (outlets, switches, water, etc)... G

**joasis** · 06-28-2009, 08:27 AM

The home will be steel framed interior, so typical installation. The walls get a "slot" cut in them to allow passage of wire and a cut out for boxes. Remind me, and I will take some detail pictures.

Chris Johnson · 06-28-2009, 08:56 AM

Did you have some sort of 'Nelson Stud' welded to the columns where the ICF meets to make a bond? How come the designer did not just have ICF all around and start the red iron on top rather than all these breaks throughout the building?

**joasis** · 06-28-2009, 09:15 AM

We welded r-bar stubs to the columns for security.

The design was not mine, but rather a collaboration between the HO and the ICF sales guys. Had I been part of the initial planning, this would have been full ICF walls, with weld plates on the top sill, or bolt attachments and either I beam frames or steel trusses welded or bolted on.

And Chris.....if you ever pour 9 inch blocks, I hope you have better results then I did. a 4 inch cavity is pretty tight, plus the vertical and horizontal bars really make consolidation a bitch. We vibrated and vibrated to get the walls solid. I would use only a line pump next time with a 2 inch hose for this also.

Chris Johnson · 06-28-2009, 09:23 AM

I have never poured 4" walls, I was warned from day 1 to stay away from them and convert everything to 6" minimum which I have done. Rebar is tight enough try and add concrete with gravel and get a vibrator down there, no thanks.

Yes, I would have pushed to get the design the way you speak of, makes more sense to me.

**joasis** · 08-04-2009, 07:40 PM

Today: