Building new home
Designing Homes for Aging in Place
For­tu­nate­ly, with the grow­ing pop­u­lar­i­ty of sus­tain­able and acces­si­ble design, it’s eas­i­er than ever to help clients cre­ate a space that will meet their chang­ing needs over the years. Con­sid­er these options for clients who want to plan for the future while ensur­ing style, com­fort and func­tion­al­i­ty for today.
Reduce Moisture Problems with ICF Construction
Reduce Moisture Problems with ICF Construction
You can avoid stud-fram­ing mois­ture prob­lems by choos­ing a mois­ture-resis­tant insu­lat­ed con­crete form (ICF) foun­da­tion for your new home.
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Why ZERH Builders Profits are Decreasing
Today’s home­own­ers demand ener­gy-effi­cient and high-per­form­ing homes. As ZERH builders strive to accom­mo­date these demands, they also strug­gle with decreas­ing prof­its.
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The Advantages of ICF over CMU Construction
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.
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Why Real Estate Investors Should Rebuild with ICF Instead of Fix and Flip
Real estate investors can lim­it the finan­cial risks of fix and flip con­struc­tion by demol­ish­ing the old struc­tures and rebuild­ing with insu­lat­ed con­crete forms (ICFs).
How much will it cost per square foot to build an Fox Blocks ICF home?

Build­ing with Fox Blocks ICFs pro­vides you with a high per­for­mance wall sys­tem for the foun­da­tion and above grade walls. Build­ing any high per­for­mance home, with either ICFs or con­ven­tion­al wood fram­ing, has many fac­tors that define the end cap­i­tal costs.

What addi­tion­al mate­ri­als and labor are required to make a con­ven­tion­al foun­da­tion equiv­a­lent to an Fox Blocks ICF foun­da­tion which exceeds ener­gy code require­ments in most loca­tions? Con­ven­tion­al wood fram­ing requires con­sid­er­ably more mate­r­i­al, insu­la­tion and atten­tion to air seal­ing to make it qual­i­fy and per­form as a high per­for­mance wall. All of this, for con­ven­tion­al con­struc­tion, adds mate­r­i­al and labor costs to the over­all project. Fox Blocks ICFs pro­vide a sim­ple method to build high per­for­mance walls that pro­vide ongo­ing ben­e­fits from the high insu­la­tion val­ues and mass con­crete walls that are ener­gy-effi­cient and pro­vide cost sav­ings for the life cycle of the build­ing.

Com­par­ing cost per square foot between con­ven­tion­al con­struc­tion and ICFs for a high per­for­mance build­ing, is like com­par­ing apples to oranges. To devel­op con­struc­tion costs, more detailed infor­ma­tion is required, for instance the num­ber and size of open­ings, the shape and size of the home, the region­al costs for mate­r­i­al and labor, etc. If you have a project you’d like us to review and pro­vide a mate­r­i­al esti­mate, Fox Blocks would be hap­py to have one of our rep­re­sen­ta­tives con­tact you. Please com­plete and sub­mit a lead infor­ma­tion sheet on the web­site or call Cus­tomer Ser­vice.

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Integrated Design in Architecture and Construction
In the field of archi­tec­ture and con­struc­tion, inte­grat­ed design is a pow­er­ful solu­tion that tack­les the inef­fi­cien­cies of tra­di­tion­al iso­lat­ed process­es. This approach com­bines dif­fer­ent project ele­ments under a uni­fied vision, and proves par­tic­u­lar­ly effec­tive with Insu­lat­ed Con­crete Forms (ICF) like those from Fox Blocks. By using ICF, the build­ing process becomes more effi­cient and col­lab­o­ra­tive.
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Fox Blocks Series
For proven strength and per­for­mance, the Fox Blocks Series is the basis for suc­cess­ful foun­da­tions, walls and build­ings.
What is a ‘blow-out’?

A blow-out’ is a break in the form, gen­er­al­ly due to the pres­sure from the liq­uid con­crete dur­ing the con­crete place­ment and/​or con­sol­i­da­tion. Fox Blocks ICFs are designed to main­tain a high safe­ty fac­tor of pres­sure from the liq­uid con­crete. Dam­aged forms or fail­ure to sup­port areas where forms have been cut leav­ing a large area of EPS between the web sup­ports may cause a blow-out. Over con­sol­i­da­tion may also cause a blow-out.

Fox Blocks rec­om­mends the Pre-Place­ment Check­list be reviewed for all wall assem­blies pri­or to the place­ment of con­crete, to find poten­tial prob­lem areas and install addi­tion­al strap­ping or sup­port to pre­vent blow-outs. Gen­er­al­ly, for an Fox Blocks form, the size of a blow-out may be lim­it­ed to the EPS between the webs, 6″ or 8″ wide by the height of one form. If a blow-out occurs, the con­crete pour moves to anoth­er area on the wall, the hole is patched by replac­ing the EPS, installing wood sup­port over the area, and then resum­ing the pour.