Building ICF house in the Tenn MTNS!

[Raider Bill]

Does anyone have any experiance with AMVIC ICF's they have a distrubitor in Cleveland TN which is close by.

[mometal77]

I like the view nice piece of country you have. A perfect spot to build a place.
bob

[Raider Bill]

Thank you!
I put the house site on the highest ground which just happens to overlook my pine "plantation" and that beautiful veiw. What you don't see in the pix is just below that I can see about 200 beef cattle grazing in a pasture. Real; nice guy owns that, Old "hill Billy" who has offered me 1/2 a Angus beef for $1.00 lb plus packing costs. He's my new best friend!

[metalspinner]

Real; nice guy owns that, Old "hill Billy" who has offered me 1/2 a Angus beef for $1.00 lb plus packing costs.

I'll take the other half!

[Don_Papenburg]

I don't have experiance with Amvic  . My ICF was a panel system from a now defunckt company .  The reason I used them was most of the ICFs I had seen at the time were so congested in the cavity that all the concrete had to be rodded or viberated to fill the forms .   I would stay away from forms with steel mesh holding the foam together , the tremal bridge  defeats  the porpose.   Look for a open cavity that lets you use normal concrete . You want to stay away from pump mix and the cost  of a pumper truck .   Another option is to line the outside of a regular form  with 25 psi extruded foam . That would make the concrete inside the heated/cooled envelope.   That would give a very nice thermal mass .  I will see if I can find some info I got reacently on some ICFs that had lego type interlock

[Don P]

That stirred a memory Don. We built off a foundation that had the foam in the middle once. It was a 4" outer pour, foam center and 4" inner pour connected together through the foam.

[Greg Cook]

Bill, I've thought a lot about these ICF's over the years, and when they first came out, I was all for 'em.  I'm older (and supposedly wiser) now, so I have to think about things more these days.  I was thinking about your place and situation over the weekend, and I realized that every time I have left styrofoam lying around, or leaned against a building, eventually ants begin eating tunnels and nesting/laying eggs all through it. Hasn't mattered if it was expanded polystyrene (white pellets compressed together), extruded polystyrene (the pink or blue rigid sheets) or even the polyisocyanurate (I think that's correct) like the middle layer of osme SIP's and freezer panels. 
Do ants bother the ICF's? Is there some way to treat them? These forms have been around a while now, so I'm sure if it was a problem, someone would have it.

Also, the thought of all that exremely poisonous smoke should fire get to the inside of the ICF's would make me want to have several GOOD smoke detectors, and lot's of batteries for them.

Guess I just like the old commercial way of forming with plywood, then you can use the plywood for decking, sheathing, etc. after pouring the walls.

If I get to go to Sawlex, I may be coming through your area in TN taking the backroads. I'll be watchin' for ya on that bike 

Greg

[tomboysawyer]

I've been leary of SIPs because of rodents.

But my ICFs will have all the above ground EPS removed, the below ground sealed and the inside stuff - well, inside.

It just seems to me that roof rats love to chew and particle board with foam between just sounds like rodent lunch.

We're using QuadLock for our ICF. We liked it because of the simplicity of materials and the fact that the form components are 1' x 4' with 2" intervals. Really simple to use. Really simple for design. The forms have the Lego-style connection.

Dealer isn't too far away either.

I'll let you know in June how that forming went. Our last project we built our own forms with plywood (used for 3 or 4 pours each) that was then used for our roof sheathing.

[Raider Bill]

I've been leary of SIPs because of rodents.

But my ICFs will have all the above ground EPS removed, the below ground sealed and the inside stuff - well, inside.
Why would you remove the above ground EPS? That is your insulation. To my way of thinking going along those lines it would seem you would remove the below ground EPS to accomplish the same thing but then why not just pour a solid wall?

I'll let you know in June how that forming went. Our last project we built our own forms with plywood (used for 3 or 4 pours each) that was then used for our roof sheathing.

I look forward to your report!

Also, the thought of all that exremely poisonous smoke should fire get to the inside of the ICF's would make me want to have several GOOD smoke detectors, and lot's of batteries for them.

I am big on smoke and gas detectors.


If I get to go to Sawlex, I may be coming through your area in TN taking the backroads. I'll be watchin' for ya on that bike

Metalspinner and I plan on attending Sawlex also. Look forward to meeting everyone there!

Greg

[tomboysawyer]

Why would you remove the above ground EPS? That is your insulation. To my way of thinking going along those lines it would seem you would remove the below ground EPS to accomplish the same thing but then why not just pour a solid wall?

I don't really need or want the extra insulation. I have three buildings to build and I may be wrong about the plan for the office in that we are probably keeping the foam on the outside above grade. But one building is a barn and the only thing exposed is 2' of wall. I think we talked about removing above ground foam on those.

So, why we were talking about removing foam is mostly because we selected one method of a forming system and need to stick with it for cost purposes on all three structures even though the insulation properties are not required on all the buildings.

We are forming my studio first. The basement will be used as a guest room for the compound. I'll be sure to post pictures.

But, if you really want to know about ICFs you should start a new thread. I know engineer did his house with ICFs and has a number of opinions and tips.

[Don_Papenburg]

Check out        www.rewardwalls.com       

What ever you use make sure that you use more braceing than is called for. Check too make sure that the walls are straight and plumb  then check again.
  After pouring my basement I installed cable from end to end and side to side on the first floor wall pour.  That kept the tops of the forms from pushing out.

 My basement walls from outside in  2" foam 4"concrete brick ledge 4" foam 10" concrete 2" foam  5/8 drywall .    I need to install a driveway alarm 'cause i can't hear a car coming in the drive.

[Raider Bill]

Just got back from 10 days working the property.
I met with the County septic people on the land, she showed me where they wanted the septic and signed my permits.
Scheduled the well for next week and also having the used doublewide I bought moved to the site I cleared for it next week. This will give me a on site  place to stay when I up there working on the new house.

After getting all the running around done I got to play bull dozer again! Didn't catch anything on fire this time.
Here are the latest pix!
My footprint plus a few extra feet to work in. Basement was supposed to be 2 ft deeper but I hit a limestone ledge that wouldn't budge even after digging 8 ft deep on 3 sides.

First to park in the basement!

Back road down. Used 144 tons of gravel, 12 trucks carrying 20 tons each.

This one is the main drive to the top. I circled the road around the top and then back to the bottom. It's just about 1 mile longround trip.
 
Here is where the doublewide is going.

Next trip in about 2 weeks will be Elec., footers and hooking up the doublewide.

Still looking for a tractor I've pretty much decided on at least 50 hp 4wd with FEL, Backhoe with thumb, Brush hog, grader box and post hole digger.

Took time off to ride along with Metal Spinner to Sawlex 07 where I learned a lot about equipt. Although truth be told spending 10 hours talking with Chris in the truck I got a very good, quick, education about saws, boards, trees, just about anything!
Thanks Metalspinner {Chris}

[metalspinner]

spending 10 hours talking with Chris in the truck

He's in trouble now -  "The World According to Chris".   Maybe I should right a book so all of you can be enlightened.

That sure is a beautiful piece of property you have there.  Things seem to be moving smoothly with the schedule.

[thurlow]

Gorgeous piece of property; I know you can't wait.  There's a road which runs from Franklin (South of Nashville) Westwards toward I-40 which we sometimes take to avoid the Nashville traffic.  Lots of houses sitting on top of (what to me, a flatlander are) mountains.  One house per peak;  yours reminds me of them.

[Raider Bill]

spending 10 hours talking with Chris in the truck

He's in trouble now -  "The World According to Chris".   Maybe I should right a book so all of you can be enlightened.

That sure is a beautiful piece of property you have there.  Things seem to be moving smoothly with the schedule.

We covered it all, Sawing, boards, trumpets, jazz, piloticks, food, my ex wives, kids,. Solved all the worlds issues. Movie first then all the books.

[Don K]

Hey Bill,   That is going to be a beautiful place you have for yourself. I know you will enjoy it. Keep the pics coming.

Oh yea, I studied those pics real close and I hate to inform you that I did not see any mountain girls hiding in the woods.    I know this must make you sad.  However on a more cheerful note, I am sure that if you will run a ad in the local paper that they come boiling out of the woodwork.

Glad I got to meet you at Sawlex.  Don

[wwsjr]

Looks like a great spot. Enjoyed meeting and talking with you at Sawlex.
Take Care

Willie

[scgargoyle]

spending 10 hours talking with Chris in the truck

He's in trouble now -  "The World According to Chris".   Maybe I should right a book so all of you can be enlightened.

That sure is a beautiful piece of property you have there.  Things seem to be moving smoothly with the schedule.

We covered it all, Sawing, boards, trumpets, jazz, piloticks, food, my ex wives, kids,. Solved all the worlds issues. Movie first then all the books.

Don't get me started on trumpets and jazz! Been playing on and off for 45 years... I can't believe the progress you made, Bill. My place is still...trees. Gonna get up there this summer, maybe get a lttle bit of driveway in. Evidently you've finalized a design for your house?

[WDH]

Looking great, Bill.  You got it going wide open .  A new John Deere 50 Hp tractor should fit in nicely .  You will definitely need a good one to maintain your mile of road.  It looks like you "daylighted" the road real well.  That is so important for the sunlight to be able to easily reach the road to dry it out.  On my 6/10th of a mile road, the daylighting is not an issue, and the road bed is well shaped so the ditches carry away the water.  The problem is the mowing.  One one side of the road or the other, we left a good many very large trees that were growing on the property line.  Having to mow around all those trees is a pain in the tractor seat.  Better the way you did it I think, but I could not bring myself to destroy those big oaks.  If they were regular trees, it would not have been an issue to remove them.  Here is a pic of one of the big oaks next to the road that I posted in the Southern Red Oak thread.

 

By the way, that is a gorgeous piece of property you have there.  Old Bowater land I think I remember you saying in another post .

[Don K]

Danny, from what I can tell from your pics you have a really nice place yourself. I am quite envious.  Don