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How do you improve an Insu­lat­ed Con­crete Form wall that already out-per­forms most wall sys­tems in all cli­mates? You move the con­crete mass toward the liv­ing side of the wall.

Con­crete mason­ry units (CMU) and insu­lat­ed con­crete form (ICF) walls have sev­er­al fea­tures in com­mon: ener­gy-effi­cien­cy, dura­bil­i­ty, and good indoor envi­ron­men­tal qual­i­ty (IEQ). How­ev­er, ICF is quick­er and eas­i­er to install com­pared to CMU, which saves time and mon­ey.

This arti­cle will out­line the impor­tance of con­struc­tion work­flow in com­mer­cial projects, the process­es that often take the most time dur­ing con­struc­tion, the ben­e­fits of using ICF and how specif­i­cal­ly Fox Blocks’ ICF can help save time and costs on your next project.

High-Tech Infin­i­ty Pool Cre­ates Resort Style Oasis. The Condor’s ICF infin­i­ty-edge pool high­lights EcoFin­ish, 90-foot inte­grat­ed clear acrylic wall, 20-foot mul­ti-fold glass doors and col­ored LED light effects, which con­tribute to the show-stop­ping res­i­den­tial court­yard.

ICFs have been used with great suc­cess for projects such as hotels, the­atres, mul­ti-sto­ry res­i­den­tial, office, retail, mixed-use retail, edu­ca­tion­al projects and all man­ner of pub­lic works and fed­er­al mil­i­tary appli­ca­tions. How­ev­er, some peo­ple argue that Steel Fram­ing is best for com­mer­cial con­struc­tion, so we decid­ed to get to the bot­tom of the ICF vs. Steel Fram­ing face-off.

No. Spec­i­fi­ca­tions in the Amer­i­ca Con­crete Insti­tute (ACI) do not lim­it the max­i­mum dis­tance con­crete can free fall. Engi­neer­ing stud­ies and reports have shown that free fall from up to 35′ doesn’t reduce con­crete qual­i­ty and there is no evi­dence of seg­re­ga­tion or weak­ened con­crete strength. ICF con­crete design calls for a high slump mix which assists in reduc­ing seg­re­ga­tion.

The Oscar goes to…

Fox Blocks rec­om­mends that all installers using Fox Blocks ICFs com­plete a Fox Blocks train­ing pro­gram to ensure they have a bet­ter under­stand­ing of the basics. How­ev­er, for first time installers, it is pre­ferred that a Fox Blocks trained, expe­ri­enced installer inspect the instal­la­tion pri­or to place­ment of con­crete and assist in the place­ment of the con­crete, as they are famil­iar with work­ing with con­crete and can ensure the build is struc­tural­ly sound and safe and the walls are con­sol­i­dat­ed prop­er­ly, built straight and plumb.

We are excit­ed to announce that Fox Blocks is now a mem­ber of the Nation­al Ready Mix Con­crete Asso­ci­a­tion (NRM­CA).