Insulated Concrete Forms

Specific Inspection Topics Structural Inspections
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Builders are using Styrofoam in Jefferson County house to go green
By Justin St. Clair
SPECIAL TO THE POST-DISPATCH
Friday, Jun. 29 2007

A St. Louis-based company is promoting what may seem an unlikely building
material for new houses that it hopes will gain popularity as an energy-saving
alternative to conventional construction.

Applied Energy Solutions, based in University City, is building a house in The
Parc at Kimmswick subdivision in Jefferson County where concrete is poured into Styrofoam forms that then stay in place to insulate the concrete on both sides.

Co-owner Tim Michaels said the Styrofoam is an efficient insulator that should cut energy bills by 40 percent, offsetting the $350,000 price for the company’s initial 2,000-square-foot prototype.

“You’re going to have more money left in your pocket at the end of the month,” Michaels said. “We’re doing this as sort of a proof-of-market concept. As we hone our craft, we expect this to become more and more competitive.”

Michaels said construction should be complete and the house should be open for viewing by next month. As well as buyers, he hopes to attract builders who want to learn about the technique and help popularize it.

While the Styrofoam form concept — known by builders as insulated concrete forms — has been around for about two decades, it has not caught on in the St. Louis area. Michaels said that with energy costs rising and the concerns of more and more homeowners about their energy consumption and its effect on the environment, the idea’s time may have come.

Stephen Melman, director of economic services for the National Association of Home Builders, said the concept has gained popularity in Florida because of its energy efficiency and for protection against hurricanes and other severe weather.

“It’s very structurally sound as well,” Melman said. “Sound-wise, it’s also
well insulated. It’s a perfect sort of building.”

Others in the building industry, however, have doubts about how quickly the
trend will catch on in the St. Louis area.

Jay Swoboda, a principal at St. Louis-based EcoUrban Homes, another company that specializes in environment-friendly construction, said problems such as the high cost, the low number of contractors experienced with the technique and the existence of less-expensive alternatives that achieve similar results could stand in the way of Styrofoam form houses.

“I think it will catch on eventually. Unfortunately, cost-wise, it doesn’t make
any sense yet,” Swoboda said. “I think you can get the same outcome spending less money.”

Two other St. Louis-based companies, SG Blocks and the Lawrence Group
Architects, are working on construction projects in California and North
Carolina that utilize recycled metal cargo containers coated with a special
insulating ceramic paint in a process also aimed at cutting energy costs while
saving on initial construction costs as well.

They hope to use the containers in new houses in the St. Louis area soon. Dan Rosenthal, a principal at the Lawrence Group, said he hopes both ideas can flourish, though he also had concerns about the costs of Styrofoam form
construction.

“It think it’s an excellent application of green principles. The jury is still
out on the cost,” Rosenthal said. “It’s excellent from an insulation standpoint.”

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What about the problem of termites between the layers invading unseen?

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Termites don’t eat much concrete.

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This has been in use for quite a while around here, the only thing that concerns me is the foam breaking down over time…

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It’s seen as a green thing here and is mostly used for foundation walls. Above the first floor deck they usually switch to SIP’s.

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Biggest problem with this technique is that it isn’t really ‘green’ nor ‘energy efficient’ nor ‘cost effective’.

Processing and placement of concrete can cost way more than conventional stick builidng a home, and wood is a renewable resource.

Foam insulation is an oil by-product, hardly ‘green’ and increasing in price every day.

Exterior foam, as mentioned needs to be covered with (usually) masonry parging to protect it from UV breakdown. Interior foam needs to be thermally isolated to protect it from ignition during a fire.

This add up to still having to frame out the concrete-formed home’s interior with wood studs to run wiring, plumbing, and hang install drywall.

All this means is that a concrete form home will cost you FAR more than a conventional stick built home even if it can use less insulation.

The bottom line is that a concrete form home will cost more and save less.

Makes sense for some areas (like hurricane prone regions) where other than insulation savings come into play.

The reality is that a concrete formed home will cost more to build, be less green, use more oil, and be made of less renewable products than a conventional stick built home…and take far longer to pay for itself before any real energy ‘savings’ kick in.

If concrete form homes where ‘better’, everyone would live in one.

Could get the same if not better energy savings using a mass wall log home…

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here’s my experience building with icf’s and conventional wood forms. i’ve built one foundation (a walk out, finished basement) with icf and many with wood forms.

with foam on both the inside and outside of the concrete there is a substaintial R value (22?). that may be a “green” factor. as far as whether or not the manufacture is green, i can’t speak to that. but if you had to insulate anyway, then it becomes a moot point, especially if you are going to insulate with foam.

since they stay in place, you don’t have to strip the forms.

the cost is about the same (last year in new hampshire) to sub out either wood or icf.

carpenter ants will hole-up in foam insulation (either icf or foam applied to regurlar concrete).

if the basement is being finished, you don’t need studs as gwb will fasten directly to the plastic inserts within the icfs. i wasn’t real thrilled with that system, but it worked.

it was no harder to pour the icf wall than a wood form wall. pump & vibrate & go around the wall – build it up evenly. what makes a wall pour difficult is how thin the wall is - sometimes because of the amouth of rebar in the wall. or sometimes its just being able to stand and control the pump and the vibrator. but the forms themselves, in the application i have seen, have little influence over the difficulty of the pour.

most form guys have 8’ high forms so a finished ceiling height in a basement is about 7’ to 7’6". icf’s are 16" high and you can cut them horizontally very easily. my basement has 9’ high ceilings and doesn’t feel like a basement. altho wood form guys can do a wall higher than 8’ they charge alot more per sf when its over 8’.

grace makes a heavy duty waterproofing membrane that self adheres to the foam. it goes from grade to below the footing. where the foam is exposed, they recommend “parging” with a cementicious stucco-like application. i’ve seen that stuff crack.

there are no tie rods to rust out or that leave holes that have to be grouted.

i would use them again.

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Check this out, you might change your mind.

http://www.greenblock.com/

Marcel :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

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Here are some links to USDOE info on various foundation and wall systems, including ICF and SIP construction …

http://www.eere.energy.gov/buildings/info/components/envelope/foundation.html

http://www.eere.energy.gov/buildings/info/components/envelope/framing.html

:wink:

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Just because they call it “green” doesn’t make it green.

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Richard, if you think this is not green, then please explain what you think is or should be in your opinion.
Green block is just happened to be another name ironically of what we are talking about.

The trend toward “Green”, sustainable, environmentally responsible construction is here to stay. Pick up any newspaper or magazine and you’ll see that the trend is exploding, both in residenatial as well as commercial construction. In fact, many local, state and federal agencies are now adopting Green building standards as a way to preserve our natuaral resources and reduce our dependency on fossil fuels. Public and private building owners are demanding high-performance, earth-friendly construction methods and materials.
It has been documented that the ongoing energy use of a building is the single greatest environmental impact of that building and continues to impact the environment for decades, even centuries. As a member of both the United States Green Building Council-USGBC, www.usgbc.org and the Green Building Initiative www.thegbi.org, Greenblock is committed to providing products and services to the green building community that will result in conservation of our natural resources. Greenblock insulated concrete forms can have a significant impact on energy use as well as create a structure that is safe, strong and sustainable for centuries to come.

What is LEED?
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a rating system devised by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) to evaluate the environmental performance of a building and encourage market transformation towards sustainable design. The system is credit-based, allowing projects to earn points for environmentally friendly actions taken during construction and use of a building. LEED was launched in an effort to develop a “consensus-based, market-driven rating system to accelerate the development and implementation of green building practices.” The program is not rigidly structured; not every project must meet identical requirements to qualify.
LEED was created to:

  • define “green building” by establishing a common standard of measurement
  • promote integrated, whole-building design practices
  • recognize environmental leadership in the building industry
  • stimulate green competition
  • raise consumer awareness of green building benefits
  • transform the building market
    LEED provides a complete framework for assessing building performance and meeting sustainability goals. Based on well-founded scientific standards, LEED emphasizes state of the art strategies for sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality. LEED recognizes achievements and promotes expertise in green building through a comprehensive system offering project certification, professional accreditation, training and practical resources.*
    *Excerpt from U.S. Green Building Council’s website

Detailed information on the LEED program and project certification process is available from USGBC at http://www.usgbc.org/.

Thanks

Marcel :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

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check out www.concretehomes.com

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Expanded Polystyrene Foam is not affected by age or moisture. They do not break down over time - this was the big hullabaloo over the fast-food foam containers going into the land-fill. They don’t break down. This is a good this when you are using it for construction. Also EPS does not lose the effectiveness of the R value over time either. And, the EPS used in ICFs can’t absorb more than 3% moisture BY VOLUME - eg very little - which means that it doesn’t affect the R-value.

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In response to the NOT GREEN comments:

  1. Studies of Life Cycle Analysis have identified that the embodied energy in an ICF home is very nearly the same as that of a wood frame home. However, the biggest portion of the environmental footprint (ie BTUs/carbon) of a home is the energy consumed - about 99%. ICFs have proven track record of energy savings. Frame construction can also achieve similar energy savings, but with the addition of many more layers.
  2. EPS foam must not be all bad - A leading third party “green” products certifier, MBDC awarded Styropor EPS as an approved technical nutrient, and one of the ICFs was awarded a Silver C2C certification. www.mbdc.com. Quite right that EPS comes from a byproduct - it’s a good thing to put byproducts to good use.
  3. Interior framing- not sure where this came from - but it most certainly is not common practice. The ICFs have embedded furring strip to which the sheetrock can be directly attached. Electrical wiring is recessed into the foam, after the concrete is placed.
  4. And… concrete is durable, won’t rot or mold, sound resistant, and survived Hurricane Katrina, tidal surges and tornadoes. Schools in Kentucky are mostly now made of ICFs.
    All told, sounds pretty green to me.
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Interesting discussion about what is ‘green’. This discussion goes on daily on the various alternative building forums. For the most part there are two camps. One is of the thinking that it doesn’t really matter what materials it took to build the building as long as it’s energy efficient after it’s built, the other is of the thinking that the components that go into the house should be considered also.

For example, as one would expect the strawbale community thinks that their homes are more green then ICF homes because both make a very efficient home after completion, but the ICF home produces more greenhouse gasses and consumes more carbon materials to manufacture the ICFs & concrete where the straw is a by product of our agricultural system (reuse).

Of course, since I’m mostly involved with the strawbale/papercrate crowd, you can guess which side I come down on in this discussion.:shock: This is where the overuse of the term green without a single definition gets us! :mrgreen::mrgreen:

As to the specifics of ICF homes, it is a fairly common construction technique down here now adays and an option I regularly discuss with clients who are considering strawbale/papercrate, etc. ICF homes do not necessarily require wood framing around the walls as one poster mentioned earlier. You can simply stucco over the foam without it for the exterior, wires and pipes can go in channels in the foam, so there isn’t much reason for excessive framing in of the inside either. If they plan on hanging wallboard to finish the interior of the structural walls, most builders here simply bolt a horizontal board at the top and bottom of the concrete wall (pulling it even with the foam), and attach the wallboard to it. They probably also use some liquid nails to attach it to the foam.

Kenton, you mentioned that most up there are only using the ICFs for basements, and then switching to sticks for the walls, why is that? Most here are running the ICFs all the way up.

As for costs, the materials and final costs are a bit more then typical stick frame construction, but you get a bit more insulation too. I believe the costs are comparable for equal insulative values.

– bz

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