Long time no post, as I have been busy building my second ICF Arxx custom home. Just thought some would like to know a few “lessons” learned.
I highly recommend 6″ walls opposed to 4″. The reason being ease of consolidation as well as ease of pour.
This house incorporated Durapex radiant heat in the slab…very nice!
I made sure all wall perforations were through BEFORE the pour!
Between walls and floor we poured/delivereed over 100 cubic yards of concrete.
the second house was far less stressful as I had fewer reservations about blowout, etc.
Though it is overkill we still wired each course to the previous one below it as well as each block to ite neighbor. Here I will ask if any other ICF ( or esp ARXX) builders do the same? It gives me great peace of mind ( as well as lots of scar tissue) but it would be great to avoid it if possible.
I am looking forward to your comments.
Miami
Replies
Miami: You in the Fla Miami or the Ohio one?
I built a house w/ Polysteel ICF's. Didn't do anything other than glue successive courses together w/ foam glue and use bracing. Had only one blow out & it was due to stupidity and in the top course. I kept telling myself that I was pouring concrete, which is viscous, not molten lead, that flows like water. By the time I was finished laying the blocks, I almost believed myself. I did after the successful pour.
Don
Indiana
Miami is a nickname along with Smoke.
congrats on the pour! Got any pics?
Miami
Miami,
I've done about 20 Arxx jobs in the Augusta GA area. I always tie each block together horizontally on the bottom and top courses. On the rest of the courses I just tie the blocks on both sides of each 90 degree corner. Occasionally I've tied the top course to the one below (or just use strips of fiberglass tape) but most of the time I've not done any vertical ties and never had any problem.
The extra tying and effort is probably worth the time though. The only problems I've ever had was when I was rushing to get finished before the pump truck arrived and didn't have time to see to all the details.
I'm a big fan of ICFs. Just finished building my own house with Arxx. I then used brick on the outside, so my exterior wall is about 16" thick. I've got about 3550 sq. ft. of conditioned space. Heating is done with heatpumps & a wood burning fireplace (Fireplace Xtrordinaire) and cooling is done with heatpumps. My first full months electric bill was $58 and the second which I just got was $71. Total electric house. No gas.
Dawg
"It's not denial. I'm just selective about the reality I accept."
Dawg,
just curious, did you intstall an air exchanger in the houses?
Did you have any problems with doors swelling?
Were the houses on a crawl, basement, slab
Miami
Miami,
No air exchange. Probably should have. Don't really know enough about it. The HVAC guys in this area don't seem to either. :(
I built on a slab. Wanted to do radiant heat w/ Pex in the floor, but again couldn't find anybody local with any knowledge of how it should be done in this area. So I just used an electric mat under the ceramic tile in the Master Bath. Wow, the warm tile is sure nice now that it's getting a little cold outside.
Did not have any problems with doors swelling. Why do you ask?
Dawg"It's not denial. I'm just selective about the reality I accept."
first ICF had 6 panel pine doors hung as usual ( 1/8 gap all sides) they all swelled shut in the summer when it was not occupied ( No a/c running either ) told we MUST have air exchangers in any ICF house so we put one in ($1000 ).Not really sure what caused it ( Rotten learning curve!);
Eventually planed hinge side of all doors and rehung...all seems well so far. I still own the first house so it is no real problem yet, just a vexing conundrum.
Miami
Pics? Before, during, during, during, during, after... if you've got them. Plenty of photo junkies on BT.
I have pics on a cd-R but am imprisoned in AOL 56k phoneline heck ( not sure what is appropriate here ) . I will very soon switch to DSL so uploading one single picture is somewhat quicker than the standard 2 weeks. Goshgolly diddlydarn I hate this system! ( was that too rough?) I tried to upload a pic but it would have finished sometime next fall, so later I guess. I have a new fast system but the line just kills it!
Miami
Use Irfanview to resize pics and reduce # of bytes. It's free...
http://www.irfanview.com
Regards,
Tim Ruttan
I've only done one house. mine, and in my usual overkill I made sure I'd have no problems with lift or blowouts by tieing vertical rebar to a horizontal row laid thru each level of blocks. When the guys came to place the concrete they said they hadn't seen a wall with that much steel in it in any residential pour they had done. On the other hand it only cost me a couple hundred extra bucks and my walls aren't going any where.
Oh, and I installed pex in the slab myself so I have heated floors every where in the basement. Very nice.
So what do you think of the Arxx corners. I am less than impressed. No real nailers on the exterior for siding and I had a big blow-out once. Called the factory on their corners and they more or less admitted they aren't the greatest.
I'm using the 8" and am pretty happy with the system (except the corners).
This is my 2nd experince with ICFs. I used Quadlock the first time.
Still looking for the perfect ICF
tim
Arxx has a "block" if you will in each corner ( located in the square). It is agreeably not the best situation, however all my houses are brick so it affects me little. Have you seen the new hook that Arxx put out as well as the 12" high blocks? pretty cool! I do really like Arxx ( as I am a local distributor) and will stick with them. They sell more block than the next 5 leading competators. This was told to me by a supplier of polystyrene beads. ( based on volume shipped) For me personally for now it is Arxx. I do however keep an eye on the rest for new and better supplies. I do like that the cost comparisons are getting closer to conventional framing also.
Miami