SEARCH RESULTS FOR “form”

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

Despite under­stand­ing the need for sus­tain­abil­i­ty, many archi­tects, design­ers and build­ing own­ers see the asso­ci­at­ed costs as a bar­ri­er. The real­i­ty is that, while switch­ing to sus­tain­able build­ing prac­tices does require an ini­tial invest­ment, it’s not as much as many assume.

Over the past few years devel­op­ers have observed that LEED reg­is­tered build­ings lease more quick­ly and with rent pre­mi­ums of up to 30%.

Jan­u­ary through April is when we plant our seeds for the year by dis­play­ing our prod­uct for the mar­ket in trade shows. I’ve par­tic­i­pat­ed in these trade shows for 17 years now in the ICF indus­try and it has always been the same old thing, but this year was notably dif­fer­ent.

The own­er of this 6,000 square foot home was attract­ed to Fox Blocks because of its ener­gy effi­cien­cy but was also hap­py with the ease of con­struc­tion that save time and mon­ey.

When the Fox Blocks inter­lock was designed our Engi­neer­ing staff made the choice not to focus on being with­in 1÷2” to 1” from the build­ing dimen­sion but to give the strongest inter­lock pos­si­ble.

We have found it to be a waste of time and ener­gy to attempt to off­set or stag­ger the block as in the pho­to to the left. By cre­at­ing a ver­ti­cal stacked seam you will be more accu­rate with the job dimen­sions and will increase your prof­it by gain­ing effi­cien­cy.

We built a test wall 440 feet long x 9′-4″ tall with 24 turns, with no brac­ing or strap­ping, to test the 90 degree blocks with con­crete.

I was a believ­er in using truss wire when installing oth­er ICF’s but now that I’m using the Fox Blocks ICF I have been con­vinced by con­trac­tors that it is not nec­es­sary.