Does the portion of the bolt protruding from the exterior EPS after the pour get cut off flush with the EPS?

Do you prefer the concrete floor or using wood joists. Wondering if it would be worth it to do the whole house in icf/litedeck?

4:34 BBBRRRRRRRRTTT!!!!!! 'Murica!!! F@#% Yeah!!!!

I’m surprised that lumbers holding it no problem

Excellent video and tremendous accomplishment! Three ICF questions: 1) Any problem getting termite protection and warranty? 2) If you find additional wiring is needed inside an exterior wall (add an outlet or LAN drop), how can the wire be fished through? 3) Why do you think ICF construction remains in the minority?

Testing for a few days tells you nothing. Radon gas is intermittent and comes out of the soil a little at a time or in big bursts if it comes out at all at any given moment in time. You need at least a month or 3 to get a full picture of your radon exposure, even a full year. Those little tests are a waste of money.

Excellent information.

Installed a 24,000 btu Senville ducted unit on my ICF build in northern Indiana and it is amazing, still dont have the ductwork in place but the ICF house is warm as toast while I finish it up inside.

What determines whether joists go on top or in hangers against a ledger?

John, i see those LGS joist are 14 gag, I believe they are 12" spaced O.C. and 12" deep? Great work

Great video guys. Good tips and insight.

John great work - I've been watching your build and videos, learning and applying on my build. I am interested to hear if you could share that would be great, what rock did you use for backfill between street side and icf wall where your front entry and garage is. I see it's backfilled. How many truck loads of those rocks did you have? Any compaction done beside excavator ? Thanks Sir

What about earthquakes? That's a lot of concrete to land on your head.

Great video. I recently finished my basement and we knew there was radon levels over 4 present so we did the typical radon mitigation with the pipe going beneath the slab and the blower (depressurizing beneath the slab). After $160k and a nice finished basement...radon levels still high. I had an ERV installed using existing ductwork. The tech used a different brand than you show in your video. He used the ATMO 150 cfm. Like your video, Radon levels went up! I changed the times as that was clear to do and the levels stayed up. I tried to reduce the exhaust relative to new air like you did to make a positive pressure. Tech didn't know how to control the fan speeds and tech support wasn't helpful initially. Tech support finally helped and explained how to reduce one or the other speed by %. I'm still unclear if it worked as the pressure in the vents isn't noticeable. The duct work currently goes into the furnace and initially the fan on the furnace would kick in when the ERV went on. That's not even working now. The tech is trying and explained that the air is probably not noticeable as it's going not just to the basement but to the main and top floor as well. He just suggested trying to run the air intake directly to the basement supply line. Only negative is the air won't be as hot. Let's see how that goes. How did you run your ductwork?

The design should come first before the start of installing your mechanical equipments

Grateful for the info! Thank you. You just saved me some misery 🙂

Just recently found your channel and wanted to say thank you so much for the wealth of info you've posted. I hope to be building an ICF house in the next couple years and having your process to reference will be a great help. Thank you 🙏

Appreciate the video! Love your content! However, the Seiko Rolex analogy doesn't make much since. Grand Seiko actually has more advanced movements that are arguably constructed better than Rolex. Their attention to detail and precision us much better. The reason people buy a Rolex is because of the branding. A Rolex has more appeal and holds its value better because of the brand. Rolex has simply gotten comfortable and they haven't innovated or improved their practices substantially to fully utilize newer technology and materials like Seiko ha through their Grand Seiko. The reason one pays for ICF is not a matter of branding. It is about innovation, quality of construction, and performance. If you were looking for those things in a watch you would actually buy a Grand Seiko and not a Rolex even though they cost less.

Very nice countertop! Have searching quite a lot between various solid surface companies. Do you know color, specific version name ? Feks clam shell corian (which seems similar albeit more beige tham yours)

Can you use cinder block concrete walls. Or use icf for interior walls. I want to build a safe room out of my master bedroom. Like have all the other ealls be wood but the walls of the master bedroom be concrete to make into a safe room with a metal door to fall back in to in case of an emergency.

Beautiful view

Awesome house

never build on a property owners or home owners association, they are greedy narcissists.

Great content thank you. Are the horizontal parts of the joists made up of smaller lengths butted together and then plated? Or singular lengths. Id imagine singular lengths? Thanks!

John do you have video detail of reinforced beam over garage door? That is I think 16 feet wide opening. How did they put rebar in there , assuming they had to strip away those plastic webbing depending of beam depth . Thank you

My father built his home in the 1950's. The entire home was built with concrete and steel. Every single wall was 16 inches thick and the foundation of the home is 36 inches. There was no cosmetic appeal done to the home. All the concrete surfaces on the floor, interior and exterior walls and ceilings was prepped and painted. The front and back door was created with 2inch solid steel 40in x 96in. All the windows were custom made 12in x 42in and all was placed 2 feet from ceiling heights. My father always focused on security and functionality. Cast iron fireplaces and cast iron stoves for heating and cooking. I grew up off grid but modernized for independence. We grew our own food and have always been self reliant. The home still to this day looks brand new after 70 years. My father recently passed and the last thing he did was install solar power and he closed in the garage to create a hydroponic garden space. My sister is moving away from the city into my fathers home and now she can live in our family home with no cost of living. She has strong shelter for safety, solar power off grid and unlimited resource of food. All the water comes from a well and there is a preservation tank that collects rain water. The basic survival that everyone complains about and its a free resource. There is no con to concrete homes unless its just done wrong and built in the wrong places.

Where did you get the tiles/stones?

supply chain for sure, but that's political

I am a simple man but familiar with mechanical items after working on vehicles for 38+ years as an ASE Master Tech since 78. (Street Cred) but the magic part is simply corrugated plastic cardboard if you understand. Like a box from a product, on a cut edge, you’ll see ribs of heavy brown paper that is folded. You can see thru it. Now, they take plastic, add an adhesive is my guess but it is a sandwich between two flat sheets of more plastic. Stacking one to the other with the “Triangle” shaped bridges connect to the next sheet, running opposite of the other. So a gigantic box of straws stacked to allow a difference of temperature to transfer between each sheet. This with a fan with push or pull air thru it. I like the aluminum tape and keep it handy. But after a finished wall or ceiling, as you mentioned, the company should make a vent like “Old Work” electric boxes. A screw in the housing open these hard plastic wings that “ Cam Out” into place to grab the drywall from behind. So the flex tubing is pulled thru, clamped or taped, then placed into the hole, then tighten the screws carefully to allow the back wings to lock onto the drywall. Then the face plate can be installed. (Note; clean with isopropyl alcohol to dry, spray can of adhesive promoter used in body shops for bumpers (Sold in home stores / auto stores / paint stores) then paint to match the color. Ask about plastic spray cans that the color comes close. I enjoyed seeing the “Flow Tubing” diagram! That make me rest easier as I thought the vents are hard run into the Heat Recovery Device! Thanks kindly for your explanation. Just wish retirement would allow a purchase!

I am in NE Nebraska, that boarders South Dakota and it gets into the 100 degrees F in the summer and -10 degrees F in the winter. Do I need a larger CFM as my house is 1,550 sq ft on the main floor. Lower level is finished and trying to make this easier for my wife of 44+ years.

Instead of using osb to cover the holes in the block, why not just hang the ledger up there, install bolts through ledger, then pour concrete. you would still cut out the 3” hole to bring the concrete to the back of the ledger but a lot less work and a lot easier to match up the holes no?

My question would be about the quietness from outside noises and sturdiness. Seems to meet both goals on that.

Those floors will bounce.

Surprised it can span that far without post tensioning, even the garage floor. Missouri is made of different stuff than Calif*.

That looks sketchy. In the modern world of years of rain falling in a single day, those steep lot houses without pilings are not long for this world.

skills!

Great video! I plan to do it for my house. After 2 years of operation, do you have any feeds back ? such as noise level, cost of maintenance, filter replacement.... ? Thanks

I buidlt our home with icf. But only the basement and 1st floor. Conventional framing for the 2nd floor due to the walls not aligning, with the lower walls. Cant agree more about using metal ducting or pvc/ abs pipes placed in the walls at all of the appropriate places. Measure twice all of the window/ door openings for plumb, square. Ensure the windows openings are properly braced and supported before the pour. Run 4" pvc pipe under the slab for running electrical or plumbing lines from the house to shop. Avoid using 90' angles and use connected 45' to make pulling the wire or lines easier. Lots of other changes too many to list as well. Still love the home and the natural coolness in the summer and comfort in the winter.

Those are for rich millennials.

Hi there. Just finished a 284m2 house and 160m2 verandah suspended Lite Deck pour in Australia. 100 cu m or 240 tonnes of concrete in total. We are doing the build totally ourselves and set up the supports and lite deck. We used your video to work out the prop system and it worked perfectly, thx for the great resource. If you would like some pics of our build send us your email and we’ll send them through.

I'm not a builder, but if I were, i would not use fur on my ceilings. I would use hdroprophlyene captured from dinosurasic byproducts preseverved during the the jurassic era.

My understanding is that for new construction, the best, easiest and cheapest way to stop radon from seeping into the house is to put down a sheet of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) on top of the gravel prior to pouring concrete. Radon can't penetration a sheet of HDPE.

If you had no mortgage on your ICF house, would you consider not having homeowners insurance at all?

Maybe I missed it, how many total SF under air?

Does the ICF contractor you used work in SouthWest Missouri?

I happen to think most radon problems are because most houses have slight overall negative pressure due to stack effect. Your video is a good example of how even a slight positive pressure can completely mitigate even a fairly high radon number.

not different, use differently

Invest in acoustic panels so you don't go insane living in an echo chamber

what is the model name of the double sink? i have the same vanity and cant seem to find a sink like yours

I can't wait to retire and build an ICF in the mountains of NC. Hope I can find a lot with as pretty of view as yours. My plan is mini-splits and an ERV like you. I'll have to go watch your videos on those when the time comes. BTW, do you use your rooftop deck much?