Friday, May 05, 2006
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.
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.
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.
Saturday, February 11, 2006
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.
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.
Thursday, October 20, 2005
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.

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.


























