In the Jan 06 issue of Fine Homebuilding, there is a house built in Idaho that is a combination of ICF and timber frame (P82). Looking at the construction photos and reading the text, it seems that the house took a long time to build and that the timberframe and ICF were done concurrently. In fact, the photo shows the boom truck pouring with full timberframing in place, including ridge beams, etc. However, looking at the interior photos of the house, it seems that there are no posts on the exterior walls, leading me to believe that the beams were placed onto the concrete forms before they were filled and the concrete cured. There was minimal bracing on the outside during the pour. My question is this – would the interior posts provide enough support for beams such that they would not compress or destroy the ICF blocks (effectively a cantilever)? Or, did the Rastra blocks provide enough support to hold the beams in place? Would other ICF brands (Reward, Logix, etc) provide similar support for beams before a pour? Can the normal exterior ICF bracing be minimized as was shown? Has anyone else built this sort of hybird? Lots of questions, but it seems like a good way to achieve a timberframe look yet achieve a tight building envelope.
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Greetings big,
This post, in response to your question, will bump the thread through the 'recent discussion' listing again.
Perhaps it will catch someones attention that can help you with advice.
Cheers
'Nemo me impune lacesset'
No one will provoke me with impunity
bump
'Nemo me impune lacesset'
No one will provoke me with impunity
Hi Big,
There's a lot I can't talk about here, but I can say I have never braced an ICF job from the outside. You could, if you wanted to, but it's easier from the inside.
The forms I am familiar with such as Logix, Arxx, Integra Spec, would not support much weight by themselves. Would a temporary jack post on the floor be unworkable? Building the roof above the empty forms seems to me like tempting fate, though.
Ron