ICF Concrete Home- Texas
January 19th, 2010 | Project Showcase
Concrete Home Scope
- -1st floor is a raised ICF floor using 12.5″ Insul-Deck for the occupied spaces and 7″ Insul-Deck for the outdoor and pool deck area.
- -Stem walls and exterior floor support are ICF using Reward Wall Systems, Inc. 11″ iForm.
- -1st and 2nd floor exterior walls are ICF using Reward Wall Systems, Inc. 11″ iForm.
This custom home is located on the southwest side of the Houston, Texas metro area, inside IH-610 loop, in the City of Bellaire.
Due to local building codes, new construction in this area is required to use raised floors, not “slab on grade” as is common in the Houston area. The home owner did not want to use wood or wood products for the raised floor, but wanted a raised concrete floor which will be completely covered with tile. Several construction methods are available to build a well insulated raised concrete floor. An ICF floor using Insul-Deck provided the best option considering speed of installation, insulation properties, strength of finished floor, and total installed cost (TIC) of the finished floor compared to the other methods.
ICF Construction Information
Almost 7,600 square feet of Insul-Deck was used in the raised floor, approximately 2,400 square feet in the front porch, rear porch and pool deck, and approximately 5,200 square feet in the occupied area of the home. This resulted in a total raised floor of approximately 8,400 square feet in total raised floor area.
When you walk on this floor, you would swear that you are walking on a concrete slab on grade. It’s very hard to convince people that the floor is raised until they look in the ventilation openings and can see completely through the crawl space under the floor.
Supporting this raised floor is an engineered pier and beam foundation, along with structural steel on pier supports, and a perimeter wall using Reward Wall Systems, Inc. 11” iForm ICF. Reinforcing steel, supports, and concrete for the floor are engineered to provide a strong floor by incorporating all of the elements into a single structure.
Thursday’s post will include more on ICF A/C tonnage and a couple more pictures, bringing this project to completion.
