Another World of Concrete has finished up last week. One of the years biggest shows and the show where every ICF brand out there comes too, well the ones with money anyways. Nothing out of the ordinary this year, its a great time to catch up with some of our customers and hopefully snag a few new ones for the coming year.

All of our sales staff and upper management comes to the show, they even let me out of my marketing cage to travel to the show. Setup begins early on Monday, so it can turn into a long week if the show is slow. Luckily this year it was a bit more steady of traffic compared to last year, although overall it was about the same. Couple observations:

• Concrete paving area was crazy busy all the time,which is indicative of the times where there are large scale road projects and funding throughout the country.
• We are pretty confident in saying we truly did see the bottom of the downturn so going forward here’s to (raising my coffee cup) slow and steady growth. We understand it takes time, and nothing will get better overnight. It takes time and investments, and leaders to push innovation and to educate the marketplace.
• It’s very clear the folks are familiar with the concept of ICFs, well as far as the World of Concrete market goes. Just 3 years ago I was explaining the whole feature/benefit routine to people. It’s good to see the awareness and general education has increased to the point we can have more in depth conversation such as- thermal and dew point properties of an ICF assembly, or the most important things to consider when using ICFs on projects.
• I celebrated my 29th birthday in Vegas.

Below is a quick little clip I threw together of the show floor and out booth. If you couldn’t make it out this year we hope to see you guys next year hopefully with some big surprises. Until then we will be at the CinemaCon show in April and the AIA National show in May!

Our search tool above has proven to be very useful for our readers in finding topics, projects and regional issues specific to the reader. If you ever want a topic/project covered or think there is something that everyone should know about insulating concrete forms, green building, premium envelopes etc feel free to contact me (Troy) directly by calling 800-468-6344. On to the list!

Flooring Options with ICFs Series

We reviewed different types of flooring, builders use in conjunction with ICFs, and listed the pros and cons of each one.

The Truth on Energy Efficiency and R-Value

This post has pulled its weight through the years, as it was one of the first posts I wrote when the blog started in 2009. Leads me to believe R-value is still misunderstood and companies that post misleading numbers are not helping the matter.

Getting Educated on ICF Building Science

Reward has made an effort throughout the years on consciously educating industry professionals on the SCIENCE behind why ICFs work. This post outlines the key courses we now offer, that are beyond the basic “using ICFs for commercial/residential/schools blah blah blah”. These educational presentations have exclusive information, some of it one of a kind in the industry. By this post being on this list (and the shear number of training presentations we do), its apparent AEC professionals are yearning for this type of information.

Insulated Concrete Form Wall Estimator

This post rolled out our new all-inclusive estimating program. We brag about it because WE wrote it with OUR 30+ years of insulating concrete form expertise and the info you get is thorough enough to confidently bid all components of an ICF job.

Concrete Placement Heights

One of the most common questions on ICFs and pouring concrete I the placement heights. Some people play it ultra-conservative, some go more “aggressively, however we go on record with our recommendations and go over what the ACI says as well about free falling concrete in regards to quality and compressive strength.

There you have it, and to cap it off the most recent popular post not on this list is the post on why

ICFs are Zombie proof

icf

Happy New Year

2012 with bring some exciting changes/additions to Reward and we are looking forward to continuing to grow the industry and creating better building envelopes, WORLDWIDE.
Reward Wall Systems wishes you a happy new year!

I am by no means up to speed on lingo of politics and the processes in order to take a  proposed sponsored bill and turn it into a law(or Act, or Measure), so forgive me if i use the wrong words. The goal of this post is to share these news stories to you,so you can do you own research and maybe contact your local government official to make these initiatives pass.

Tax Credits for Insulated Concrete Forms

There are some generally basic tax credits for builders when using ICFs. You can read more about that per sq. ft. tax credit on our website, but those tax credits do nothing for the homeowner. While you get a tax credit for an Energy Star refrigerator or putting in low-e windows, there is nothing to give the homeowner a credit for building their home incredibly tight, energy efficient, and indestructible to forces of nature like ICF construction does.

Wisconsin Insulating Concrete Forms

Wisconsin is leading the way with a proposed bill that will give tax incentives for using insulated concrete forms in construction- home or commercial. My hope is this passes soon so other states, most notably Minnesota, would follow suit and give and extra incentive for folks to build. The link below links you to the .pdf of the official bill that was introduced. It has since been amended to only building with ICF, not manufacturing ( After all the amendments pass let’s see if this bill gets watered down anymore)

Wisconsin ICF Tax Credit

Energy Costs Affecting Appraisals

This article was recently reported by the Washington Post. In summary, there is a bipartisan bill, called SAVE Act (Sensible Accounting to Value Energy) on the table that would put energy costs and savings into underwriting equations. This bill would force lenders to take those factors into consideration for insurance and guarantees and would require appraisers to adjust property valuations accordingly.

While this is an indirect effect on the insulating concrete form industry, it is good for us as our product directly effect the energy consumption of a home. We see apprasiers across the country failing to give any credit to the homes value even if energy saving are topping over 60%!

Wouldn’t it be nice to say with certainty because its a law, your home is worth more because it saves energy. Makes sense to me…isn’t a Prius “worth” more because you save gas? I guarantee you couldn’t sell one of those cars if they had 20 mpg. So why wouldn’t that logic pertain to homes and buildings? Link below is to the Washington Post article

Mortgage lenders could soon take homes’ energy costs into account

Big things happening

These are two of the many things out there that are really pushing the envelope on getting true incentives for homeowners and building owners to use ICF as part of their next project. If you know of more things like this on a statewide basis or locally for your town, let us know in the comments below and we will add to this list. The more people that are aware of whats going on can motivate and inspire your local government…or heaven forbid the federal government to copy these types of incentives.

Reward ICFs have become the building material of choice for families wishing to protect themselves from zombie attacks

You see Zombies everywhere- on TV, in magazines, in the news, online, walking the streets and in your home. It time to stand up and protect yourself from the imminent attack this season by fortifying your home with Reward insulating concrete forms. ICFs are the first line of defense separating you from the undead.

Many folks ask us, “How can foam blocks hold back thousands of hungry zombies, from tearing down the walls and dining on our flesh.”

Well it’s simple and very easy actually.

• ICFs are strong- If they can stand up to 200 MPH winds, they can withstand the incessant pounding of zombie fists. Also, with the superb blast resistance ratings, ICFs can limit the collateral damage, from say, your neighbor throwing a grenade in the street.

• ICFs are soundproof- Everybody knows zombies are attracted to loud noises. They have been conditioned to respond to noise as if there was food nearby- similar to how monkeys are conditioned to respond to the sound of a banana peeling. If the undead can’t hear you, they don’t know you’re there. Having a sound proof home allows for other benefits as well. Feel free to:
  • practice chainsaw wielding attack moves in the basement
  • sleep peacefully without the outdoor noises of moaning and gnashing teeth
  • blare Alan Parson’s Project “Sirius” to get pumped up to stay alive every morning

• ICFs are airtight- The solid wall of concrete and foam ensures no unwanted air comes in, and air won’t leak out. Why is that important? Part of that air is scent. Zombie’s smell horrible, obviously, so Zombies can smell the unrotten scent of humans, and especially so if their “prey” (you) is wounded. The ICF walls will prevent your natural human scent from escaping the walls and building.

• ICFs are Energy Efficient- You wouldn’t think this would matter, but with the added stress on the power grid and the possible zombie intrusion on the power supply as a whole, you need to make sure your safe house operates while using the least amount of energy as possible. Eventually power will run out and you want to be able to use a generator to supply the needed heating and cooling to keep you alive and comfortable. Let’s be serious here, you don’t want to hole up in a safe house with 5 other people and be sweating and splashing water to cool down or having to “hug it out” with the same folks to stay warm.

Bottom Line: Zombies Hate ICFs

Stay inside your ICF home and you should be in good shape for awhile… well at least until power, water, and sanity complete run out and you think its time to find the 8 hour away “safe-zone” that’s being reported over the emergency channel. Reward ICFs can’t do anything for you then.

• The new code is now going to require a building tightness test, otherwise known as a blower door test
• Blower door performance requirements changed for all climate zones
  • Climate zones 1-2 reduced to 5 ACH (from 7 ACH)
  • Climate zones 3-8 reduced to 3 ACH (from 7ACH)
• Wall insulation requirements increase
  • Climate zones 3-4 now require R-20 (From R 13)
  • Climate zones 6-8 now require an R-20 cavity insulation coupled with a R-5 foam exterior insulation
• Attic insulation requirement increase
  • Climate zones 2 and 3 require R-38 (from R-30)
  • Climate zones 4 and 5 require R-49 (from R-38)
• Basement and Crawl Space insulation increase
  • Climate zone 5 requires R-15 (from R-10)

These highlights aren’t all encompassing, obviously, as there are more changes than that, but since you are reading from an insulated concrete form blog I figure I would point out the ones that insulated concrete forms can apply to directly!

These changes to the code, which may cost money on the front end for the consumer as well as the builders, will definitely be beneficial in the long term for the owners and builders alike. The key is to get your company ready for these code changes and implement them as soon as possible. By aligning yourself with companies that truly know what they are doing and can help you through the process, transitioning to the more stringent requirements should be painless.

Cost and Savings Using Insulated Concrete Forms

There were many upgrades given to these homes to perform better than a Building America Benchmark home. We can take a look at one of them to show you the energy savings as well as the increases in costs and how it all shakes out for the buyer of the homes, compared to the 2006 Washington state energy code and the benchmark home. All of the energy calculations were done by WSU Extension Energy.

The Devoted Builders Home saves better than 25% on energy compared to the Washington Energy Code and has a savings of over 43% compared to the benchmark home.

The home would save over $1,300 a year in energy costs alone, and the owner would will net $500 a year after the 30 years of a mortgage, when costs of upgrades were taken into account.

It goes to show even with the added expense of insulated concrete forms and other energy savings features, the performance outweighs the costs. Homeowners and building owners across the country are coming out ahead.

Project Summary on All Energy Efficient Features

• HERS Scores 54-68
• R-22 Insulated Concrete Form Wall
• R-49 blown in cellulose in attic
• 0.29 U-value windows
• Whole house air leakage below 2.0 ACH
• Duct leakage less than 6 cfm 50 Pa
• 8.5- HSPF, 14-SEER heat pump with backup gas furnace
• Energy reovery ventilator, 75% efficiency
• 3-Star Built Green Certified
• Energy Star Certified

Cost Vs Savings of Energy Efficient Measures

Mortgage payment is an estimate calculated by CARB and is based on a 30 year mortgage with a 7% fixed APR

A few months ago we met a group of architects and designers that attended our Green Building Enclosure Design Conference in Minnesota, and since then asked us to host the Iowa Chapter American Institute of Building Design monthly education seminar. So we set up shop upstairs in our office and were able to give our two newest presentations, hands on product demos, and they were able to meet our engineer (Kelvin D), our product application specialist (Darryl U), and our architectural presenter (John O).

New Advanced Insulated Concrete Form Education

These are the two other presentations we gave them, all which go deeper into specifically designing with insulated concrete forms and the science to WHY building with ICFs improves a building’s performance.

Design and Construction using Insulating Concrete Forms (ICF)

Summary: Attendee with become familiar with the basic concepts of using ICFs in the construction and design of a building, including installation techniques, structural performance comparisons, and explaining common details in regards to connections, penetrations, utilizes, finishes and waterproofing. AIA: 1 HSW and SD

Building Performance with Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF)

Summary: Attendee will learn how the inclusion of ICFs affects the performance of a facility, with an emphasis on thermal and moisture issues. Topics will cover air quality and condensation principles of ICFs versus traditional construction, introductions on specific energy modeling tools and familiarization of how finishes can affect the performance and life cycle costs of the facility. AIA: 1 HSW and SD

New ICF Professionals

After a couple hours in our office the Iowa chapter of the AIBD is now more familiar with ICF, how to design with them and how to better incorporate them in their current designs. If you and your firms would like to be educated in how to expands your expertise and being able to confidently offer your clients the access to insulating concrete forms call us and lets get it scheduled.

If you are looking more for an intro course to ICFs find our basic course online for free at AEC Daily.

The ICF Building Envelope

Each home is built with insulating concrete forms, built up to the roof line. Also, the ICF foundation goes down 30 inches to serve as the perfect frost wall. Stucco was used as the exterior finish of choice. (NO additional vapor or air barrier was used because insulating concrete form walls serve as a ARE a vapor retarder and air barrier! (See our ICF Moisture Research- login required)

Ducts in the attic are mastic sealed and the ceiling deck is insulated with over an inch of spray foam and then topped with a foot of blown cellulose to reach and R-49 value for the attic. The spray foam insulation in the attic coupled with the energy efficient ICF walls, Giacci has been able to achieve very low air leakages rates. He has all of the home blower door tested with some coming in as low as 0.8 ACH at 50 Pascals.

The tight envelope is a must to control the indoor environment and ultimately- the energy use. Tight enclosure gives the control back to the occupant for temperature, controlling outside air, and moisture. An energy-recovery ventilator is installed in the homes to redistribute tempered air though out the home

Commitment to Quality Sustainable Homes

All of Devoted Builders homes are 3^rd party tested and inspected, and since 2007 every single one of his homes built, exceeded savings of over 50% of the 2004 IECC code, and performs better than the Building America Benchmark by over 43%.

They are continuing to improve the technologies in the house and are looking forward to implementing photovoltaic’s, solar hot water, ductless heat pumps and many more green strategies- with the ultimate goal of achieving net zero energy homes utilizing Reward insulating concrete forms.

Check back in another week as we wrap up this Devoted Builders project highlight and discuss the costs and energy use of the townhouses.

Devoted Builders’ Fred Giacci, has been a long time customer of Reward Wall Systems and is a very experienced builder when it comes to building sustainable homes. He was the first builder in his area to start using insulating concrete forms in 2002, and since 2006 he made the commitment to build all of his homes to qualify for the Northwest Energy Star, using Reward ICFs.

Washington Insulated Concrete Form Community

Giacci is in the process of a 230 unit Mediterranean Villa community in Washington, with 206 already built. Each one of his homes has a HERS score of under 60 and achieves a minimum of 50% energy savings over the model energy code. He partnered with the Department of Energy’s Building America Program too for some demonstration projects as Devoted Builders was one of the few in the area taking advantage of an federal energy savings tax credit program.

Throughout the course of a year or so the DOE did a case study on the homes and all of their green features so they can measure the energy savings, air tightness, as well as costs of building and net cash flow for the home owners.

The next few blog posts will highlight the energy efficient features of his homes and we will walk you through the energy use and energy savings of a specific house.

ICF Concrete Villas Project Scope

Size of Development: 230 homes
Square Footage: 1, 1.5, 2 story, du/triplexes ranging in size of 1140 to 2100 ft2
Price Range: $145,000- $300,000
Sustainability resume:

• All homes have been Energy Star since 2006
• Started local Green Built program and has received 3 stars (highest level) on all of his homes since 2007
• Northwest ENERGY STAR builder of the year in 08-09

See more in depth analysis on the features and performance of the Mediterranean Villas.

A metal lath is fastened directly to the Reward formwork to hold the stone to the wall and withstand the dead weight.  The lath is fastened to plastic furring strips that are located every 6 inches on center.  The 1 ¼” wide furring strips are embedded into the EPS foam plastic panel and are recessed ½” from the foam face.  They are marked on the foam panel for location.

Reward recommends a sharp pointed, corrosion resistant course thread screw.  Typically a #6 to #10 screw approximately 1 ¼” to 1 ½ inches in length is common.  A screw with a lath washer is recommended to ensure that the lath is fully secured.  Nails or staples are not recommended.

Reward has tested different fasteners for both direct withdraw and also for lateral resistance from the plastic furring flanges (see fastener test results).  The direct withdrawal value is used to calculate the fastener spacing to withstand lateral loads from wind pressure and seismic loads.  The lateral resistance test result is used to calculate the fastener schedule to withstand gravity dead loads such as the self weight of the stone.  The ½” recess distance was included in the test.

The test results in the Reward test summary report are all shown as ultimate loads.  A safety factor must be applied to each of these ultimate values for designing the fastener schedule to withstand the project specific design criteria.  The Reward ICC ES evaluation report, ESR-1552, lists a select few of the tested fasteners.  The values in the ESR-1552 report are allowable loads and already include the safety factor.

Once the screw to be used for attaching the metal lath is determined, the fastener schedule must be determined utilizing the tested direct withdrawal and lateral tests.  Consult the design architect or structural engineer for applying these tested values to the project’s design criteria.

For example, if the design wind and seismic load is 25 psf and the allowable direct withdrawal of the screw is 50 pounds.  The fastener spacing should be no greater than 2.0 square feet.  Similarly, if the dead weight of the manufactured stone is 15 psf and the allowable lateral value of the screw is 45 pounds, than the maximum fastener spacing is every 3.0 square feet.

The steps beyond the lath attachment to the Reward ICF wall are the same according to the manufactured adhered concrete masonry veneer’s manufacturer’s requirements.  Follow the stone veneer manufacturer’s installation procedures.