Building a new home is something that people typically dream about for years before it 
actually happens. While buying an existing home is a wonderful and exciting accomplishment, building a home of your own that can be customized and tailored to fit your specific preferences is ideal. Traditional building materials such as brick and lumber are still the most popular for building new homes, but alternative materials such as ICF blocks are being used more frequently as people realize the amazing benefits of using them in new home construction. Read More
The Advantages of Building Your New Home with ICF Blocks
Building Earthquake Resistant Buildings With Insulated Concrete Form Walls
Building earthquake resistant buildings does not need to be extremely
expensive as long as the proper construction materials are used and the structure is sufficiently engineered. One of the most earthquake resistant materials available is concrete. Concrete structures in countries such as Japan, Guam, the Philippines, and the United States have proven the capacity to withstand quakes with magnitudes of over 8 on the Richter scale. One of the costliest earthquakes in U.S. history, the 1994 quake in Northridge, California (6.8 on the Richter scale), caused an estimated $20 billion in damages. Most of the engineered structures that included concrete components, however, remained mostly undamaged.
Homes that are built with steel-reinforced concrete have a very good record of surviving earthquakes largely intact and structurally sound. Reinforced concrete walls perform well under seismic stress due to the composite system: Concrete has the ability to resist compression forces and steel can withstand the kind of tensile forces that an earthquake produces. Even building earthquake resistant buildings with walls that are only lightly reinforced can provide over six times the load resistance of framed wall constructions. Read More
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Basic Overview of ICF Walls
Insulating concrete forms, or ICFs, are composed of plastic foam forms that are rigid and can be made into many construction materials, including icf walls. They are a type of thermal insulation that hold concrete in place while it is curing, and remain there afterwards. Other uses of ICFs include structural configurations such as grid, as well as post and beam. These sections are a durable, lightweight, and energy efficient option for your construction needs. Materials that are used in creating ICFs are commonly expanded polystyrene (EPS), insulating foam, or extruded polystyrene (XPS). Some basic forms of ICFs are 4 x 8 panels with plastic ties or integral foam, hollow foam blocks, and foam planks that are held together using plastic ties. They all serve the purpose of providing backing for exterior and interior finishes. Read More
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Uses and Applications of Foam Concrete Form
Foam concrete form is a type of insulating structural formwork that is used in building energy efficient reinforced concrete structures. These structures include flooring, walls and roofs. The concrete forms come in the shape of modular units that interlock, allowing the builder to stack them without using mortar and fill the entire interlocked structure with concrete, which reinforces the structural element. Read More
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Building Green Using Insulating Concrete Forms
Insulating concrete forms are the type of formwork used to place concrete in building structures, that remain permanently in place and function as insulation that can help to save energy in the completed building. Such forms make walls that are sandwiched between two layers of insulation. This sort of construction is normally used for low rise buildings, whose facades are then completed so that they look similar to traditional construction, both from the inside and the outside. Read More
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Insulated Concrete Form Homes
Insulated concrete form homes, or ICF homes, are one of the newest, and brightest construction concepts. They make up an estimated six percent of all new home construction in the United States due to their amazing energy efficiency, which makes them very eco-friendly. When looking into building a home, or even a commercial building, it is good to know all the facts. What is an ICF, what makes them better than traditional materials, and how much do they cost are all questions that should be asked in order to choose the best solution. Read More
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Designing Spaces Shoot A Big Success
The home improvement television series, Designing Spaces, was onsite in Southern Oregon to showcase an Apex Block constructed home for an upcoming show. Despite the wet cold weather, filming went off without a hitch and many are highly anticipating the finished product. Read More
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The Attributes Of Concrete Foam Block Construction
Today’s building professionals are making great use of concrete foam block construction for all types of construction projects. Made of Expanded Polystyrene (EPS), concrete foam blocks can be cut or molded into a variety of shapes and sizes. These blocks are made of 100% recycled material and are quite affordable for projects requiring green building. Because they can be cut and reused, construction material waste is greatly reduced when EPS materials are used. Read More
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Insulated Concrete Forms Make For Energy Efficient Buildings
Concrete is in a liquefied state when it is first placed in position and requires some sort of formwork to keep it in place till it has gained sufficient strength to support itself. This formwork is then removed and normally reused. There is a certain type of formwork that is left in place to act as insulation. These insulated concrete forms act as cast in place building insulation that helps to make a building energy efficient. It can be used for roofs, walls and floors. Read More
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ICF Block Construction Can Lead To Savings In Energy
ICF refers to insulated concrete forms that stays in place as permanent building insulation. Such forms allow a building to become energy efficient. An ICF block is a modular unit that can be dry stacked and then filled in with concrete to form a wall that has the required insulation properties. Such units are put together, rather like building blocks used by children, into the shape and size that is required by the architect. Read More
