Are Insulated Concrete Forms and Gigacrete panels good?
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Are Insulated Concrete Forms and Gigacrete panels good?
Dallin Sumpter
Feb. 21, 2019Last updated: Aug. 3, 2020
I want to build a house to passive house standards and keep it to a relatively small budget by potentially doing some of the build myself. I stumbled upon the history of ICFs and Gigacrete while researching building materials, but haven't seen a lot of passive houses built with these type of insulating materials. Is there a reason why? Insulating concrete forms would seem to be a pretty efficient method of building houses, and can be air tight without a lot of additional work, dont have thermal bridges, and they tend to have a hard time catching fire (important where I live). I'm looking for an educated opinion because I am such a construction rookie - but ICF as a construction system has got me interested.
TypicalICF blocksdon’t offer nearly enough thermal protection to meetPassive House performancerequirements, that's likely contributing factor as to why you don't see as many. What manufacturers usually offer is about R22, and getting a homePassive House certifiedwould generally need about double that. It is also not the most affordable construction method, so given the higher costs of shooting for PH levels, builders often look for ahigher R valueper dollar wall assembly.
If you are planning ICF and Passive house, I would suggest having a look atThermalWall, a rigid insulation panel designed to attach to ICF blocks(above or below grade) that can help you meet performance targets. I'm not sure if it has achieved PH certification yet as a product, but it was conceived specifically to make ICF a viable option for Passive House.
我还计划建造一所房子，不一定要达到被动房屋的标准，但要尽可能环保经济。对于外墙，我非常考虑使用Nexcem ICF墙体形式。你可以在网上找到关于这个ICF砌块和ICF施工先驱的技术细节，以及一位建造者描述他如何在施工中使用Nexcem ICF墙形式的视频。Note, Nexcem was recently known as Durisol, so you may find additional information online under that brand - or if you're interested inthe definitive history of ICFs blocks & ICF Construction including Durisol, that's here..
I looked at Nexcem too but I found lots of comments in forums about the blocks when they were Durisol - apparently they can shatter easily unless they are handled very carefully and building with them looks like hard work! see http://www.theenclosure.ca/relief-2/ Also, they wont get you above R22, which isn't helpful if you want a well insulated envelope...
A few years ago I built a very large home using Durisol. We had more than 12,000 SF of Durisol walls and experienced none of the shattering problems you cite. A crew of five experienced masonry workers put up the walls in about 6 weeks. We lived in the home for eleven years and it was a fantastically energy efficient home - but then that is in comparison to a standard stick built home with 4 inch insulation and which leaked air like a sieve which is all we had before. I hadn't realized before reading the article mentioned above that Durisol ICF had such a long history !
谢谢你！