Insulated Concrete Forms- Importance of ICF

There are many ways to keep your home cooled, heated, and safe from weather conditions. The best solution is ICF- Insulated Concrete Forms.

Most people want to know what the difference is between wood frame structures and ICF walls. Insulated concrete forms are simple, eco-friendly, and supportive.

SIMPLE

ICF is meant to stay-in-place to offer superior benefits when building a new home. The forms consist of two panels of polystyrene foam that connect together through a recycled material. Within the concrete, there are steel rods to reinforce the development and durability of the home. That step completes the building in one step rather than multiple steps from a wood frame. ICF is meant for builders and architects to eliminate stress and a timely process.

ECO-FRIENDLY

Insulated concrete forms turn your home into an eco-friendly home. With the rising fuel costs and energy requirements, ICF allows you to make the most of your heating and cooling. It will better heat and cool your home by being more green. ICF structures results in savings you up to 70% when you’re comparing traditional wood methods. How does it attain the superior performance? It comes from the stable thermal mass that the concrete provides. Having that solid concrete wall, enables maximum energy efficiency, strength, and comfort within your home.

WHAT TO EXPECT

Insulated concrete forms can be used for ICF projects alone and various ICF products can be used for traditional methods of building. ICF can be installed by a contractor or a home owner if they’re willing to do the work themselves.

Our Insulated concrete forms incorporates an R-Value. What is the R-Value? The R-Value measures the resistance a material has to heat transfer. The R-Value itself does not fully describe the energy performance of a building.

Within the ICF community, ICF buildings outperform framed buildings with comparable stated R-Values in terms of energy efficiency and other benefits. How? There are three factors that affect the performance: thermal conduction, convection, and radiation and mass.

The Thermal Conduction is the heat transfer through a material by contact of one molecule to the next, which the R-Value measures. With a typical wood frame structure, the R-Value is low compared to the ICF walls. ICF walls consist of a center cavity to contain concrete between two layers of EPS that helps provide two largely continuous layers of insulation that is rated at R-22 and higher. The difference is the rated value and the thermal bridge being absent.

As for thermal convection, that deals with the air filtration in the home. In wood frame buildings, you can tell when there is a draft, but with insulated concrete forms there is an effective air and vapor barrier because of the solid walls.

For radiation and mass, the radiation transfers heat through mostly sun rays and the mass refers to the capacity of the storage of heat.

With having ICF incorporated within your home, you will reduce energy loss anywhere ranging from 30 to 45% from ICF walls.

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