Friday, May 05, 2006

Here's an interior view showing floor system above and below, arches and litedeck stair

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Pictures of just about every consideration you may find with ICF except curved walls!!
The Rake walls will have litedeck panels on them spanning up to tall wall in the middle of the house....an 8:12 pitch Litedeck roof!
Here's an arch with the templates laying on the floor beyond. I like to use foam templates because the arches then turn out near perfect.
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Here's a nice shot of a cantilever balcony using lite deck.


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Thursday, February 16, 2006


This is a closer shot showing the consolidation of concrete mentioned with the following photo. The largest "bughole" is no larger than a nickle at the surface and no deeper than 1/4". These "bugholes" are created by bleedwater or excess water that is forced out of the concrete and "puddles" against the form. Bugholes that are less than 1/4" deep and smaller than a quarter are considered to be of no consequence structurally. In an ICF wall, the appearance of the concrete is not an issue either. Posted by Picasa

This shows how well 6" slump, internally vibrated concrete consolidates full height inside the forms. This wall is 12' tall with concrete placed in two passes. Posted by Picasa

Here are some more arched openings on the main floor of the house posted earlier. There are about 17 arched openings on the main floor. The reinforcing you see above the walls are for tie-in of the floor and walls above.  Posted by Picasa

Saturday, February 11, 2006


This is a picture of a balcony that does not have supporting columns to the ground Posted by Picasa

This is a project that we did not build but were asked to bid at one time. This is an option for balconies that do not have columns supporting to the ground. Posted by Picasa

This is a project that we did not build that has balconies that do not have columns to the ground. Posted by Picasa

Sunday, January 22, 2006

A simple concrete mix design, natural materials

A great concrete mix design that we have used on many occasions in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas...

This mix design works great with a boom pump (L&G Pumping)

1/2" topsize aggregate, 1788#
sand, 1485#
Cement #1, 317#
Fly Ash, 106#
Admix:
Degussa poly 997, 17 oz
Degussa AE 2 oz

Water, 21 gal

On site may add h2o to slump at 5-7"

Remember, mix designs vary by area and source of ingredients, so this should only be used as a guide.

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

This is the lower garage level. There will be a garage above with the entry from the opposite side. Notice the walls are spanning from pier to pier to allow for expansion of the soils. The soils here are some of the worst in the nation, commonly rising as much as 36" This is an 8" concrete wall 14'-8" tall all poured at once. The wall to the right with the vertical dowels extending out has already been poured. In all, the walls in the basement level consumed 160 yards of concrete to fill. Posted by Picasa

Entry level housing

This is part of the basement level Posted by Picasa

This arch opening is on a rake wall that will have a concrete stair cast along the rake. There is a lite deck floor system going in above these walls and there is a lite deck floor system under the walls with ICF beams spanning from pier to pier. Posted by Picasa

This is another shot of an arch opening Posted by Picasa
This is one way of forming eyebrow and half round arched openings. In this case, we are using Vbuck. The Vbuck is kerf cut to conform with the arch. The arch is formed on the negative side with a solid piece of cut foam and the Vbuck rests on it. Posted by Picasa

Arch opening forming option

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Thursday, October 20, 2005


The scabs over the windows were put on to aid in keeping the single course of wall over the windows from pulling apart. Posted by Picasa

A view of the inside of the gable wall. Posted by Picasa

Wall finished showing the stringline running over the exposed edge of webs and weld plates Posted by Picasa

Another shot of the gable turning the 45 degree corners. Posted by Picasa

Build Block in Hubbard, Texa Posted by Picasa

Build Block, Hubbard, Texas

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Although the photo doesn't show it as clearly as if one were here in person, the wall is waving to you as if to say "Bye Bye" Posted by Picasa

This shot shows how little some people care about taking pride in one's work. This house sat for nearly two years along a major highway......constantly exhibiting a message to potential ICF customers that "THIS COULD BE YOU NEXT" Posted by Picasa

Thursday, February 24, 2005


This is something to avoid. The copper (in red and blue) are placed just right for a 4" concrete wall. They will be right in line with the foam but the vent stack should be located in a frame wall in another location. If this is not avoidable, then we would simply cut the stack off at the drain point, cut the ICF foam and reinforce that area for concrete, then after concrete is placed, use an electric chainsaw to remove a wide strip of foam so that the pipe may be set in place of the foam all the way up the wall. This is better than allowing the pipe to fall within the concrete cavity, especially when the wall is only a 4" wall. Posted by Hello

closer shot of plumbing. It could also come up right in line with the outer shell of ICF. We would then cut a notch in the ICF wall to accept the pipe. Posted by Hello

This is a shot of a hand trowelled keyway and reinforcing dowels with a brickledge around the perimeter of a slab. We typically specify a #5 bar dowel 4' in length, set in the slab two feet or not within 3" of the bottom of the grade beam. Note that plumbing is in the brickledge for a hose bib. This is ok in the warmer climate of South Texas. Otherwise we would have the plumber stub the pipe up in line with the interior 2.5" of foam so that they could then use a long frost proof valve and have the dog ear on the face of the inside concrete. Posted by Hello