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The 5,200 square foot cus­tom home is built on a large rock on the side of a moun­tain.

Absolute­ly. The exte­ri­or walls are two lay­ers of con­tin­u­ous insu­la­tion, the den­si­ty of sol­id con­crete and a lay­er of ½” gyp­sum board on the inside all con­tribute to supe­ri­or sound sup­pres­sion of STC 50 for the whole build­ing enve­lope. Note: A wood frame sys­tem of equiv­a­lent STC rat­ing would be 2 x 4 studs spaced 16˝ o/​c, with 3½˝ absorp­tive mate­r­i­al, 1 lay­er of 5 /8˝ Type X gyp­sum board on resilient chan­nels spaced 16˝ o/​c, and 2 lay­ers of 5 /8˝ Type X gyp­sum board on the oth­er side. (Cour­tesy of 1995 NBCC Sec­tion A9.10.3.1 Wall #W5a)

The design team at SMP Archi­tec­ture want­ed to cre­ate a safe and secure, sus­tain­able struc­ture with low main­te­nance costs for the own­ers.

For gen­er­a­tions, the con­struc­tion of exte­ri­or walls has fol­lowed tra­di­tion­al prac­tices that have pri­mar­i­ly involved wood or steel fram­ing. These meth­ods have been the back­bone of res­i­den­tial and light com­mer­cial con­struc­tion, by pro­vid­ing shel­ter, sta­bil­i­ty, and a cer­tain lev­el of insu­la­tion.

To keep up with Cal­i­for­ni­a’s strict ener­gy stan­dards, many builders and archi­tects are turn­ing to ICF con­struc­tion.

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.

Prop­er con­crete mix saves time on labor, facil­i­tates con­crete con­sol­i­da­tion and ensures a suc­cess­ful Fox Blocks wall pour.

Sev­en spe­cif­ic prob­lems with wood frame con­struc­tion include fire- and wind-resis­tance, dura­bil­i­ty, low ther­mal mass, shrink­age, and com­pro­mised acoustics and indoor air qual­i­ty (IAQ).

Our insu­lat­ed con­crete forms are sol­id mono­lith­ic walls and with­stand the worst of rain­storms, fires, and high winds — includ­ing tor­na­does.