ICF Progress

ICF construction started today with a vengance. Kyle and I had played around over the weekend putting the blocks in pretty rows. We put about 10 blocks in place and ummmed and aaahhhed about placement and where to trim and how to fit blocks at angles.

Then enter Mr Evans from Evans Construction and he along with Dustin went to town.

This was the shot at 10am, 2 hours onsite:

This is Dustin, he and Mike are the nicest guys to work with but don't get in their way, you might end up in a styrofoam block, encased in concrete by accident.

By noon (4 hours onsite) :
The house looked like this - poor Kyle was trying to get the rough electrical in as they went but finally had to give up and he will add it later.

This is Mike working on fitting in a small block next to the spare bedroom door. It is hard to get a picture of him as he always has a block in front of him.

Kyle is putting the electrical rough-ins in the wall here but really couldn't keep up with these guys and how fast they moved.

This is the interior structure of the ICF blocks. 5/8" rebar run vertically in the walls every foot or so that are embedded into the foundation and 1/2" rebar runs horizontally and the blocks are also tied together. The blue "smurf" tubing is the electrical that will run through the walls.

This is the view through the front door, we tried to plan a perfect view through the house and I think we got it pegged. Thinking a glass front door might be called for here.

The view out one of the back patio doors, the fireplace is just to the left of here.

4:30pm (a little over 8hours onsite):

This is what our house looked like. It is ridiculous how fast it goes up. The window frames are in place and Kyle spent the evening foaming the bottom blocks to the concrete floor both inside and out while I vaccumed the floors and base where the blocks sat.

Front of the house showing the front door and to the left the spare bedroom east side window and the right of the front door will be the staircase.

This is the view out of the spare bedroom window, hopefully our first guests won't be looking at a tractor by that time.

This view is looking out of the front door.

This is looking out of the spare bedroom window and you can see the south door of the living room and the west doors beyond that.

This is the south wall patio door - that power pole will be gone by the time we move in so we will just look at that apple tree.

They guys have about a day and a half more of work before the first wall will be ready to pour. We are pouring the concerete in two batches so we have time for the lower concrete to set up and we can fit in two county inspections.

I am flabergasted at how fast these walls went up. Once we pour the concrete then all that is needed is the plaster on the inside and outside, windows in and the bottom of the house is complete. It is so fast and easy.

More tomorrow.............and hopefully inspection on Monday.