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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.

The clear R‑Value of an Fox Blocks is R22, how­ev­er cur­rent Ener­gy codes rec­og­nize the lack of ther­mal bridg­ing in an ICF and the con­tri­bu­tion of the mass con­crete on the influ­ence of the ther­mal per­for­mance. Whole wall cal­cu­la­tions indi­cate a Fox blocks wall assem­bly pro­vides an R24 rat­ing.

The con­tin­u­ous dou­ble lay­er (inside and out­side) of insu­la­tion, the elim­i­na­tion of ther­mal bridg­ing and min­i­mal air infil­tra­tion through the mass con­crete wall assem­bly, allows Fox Blocks walls to per­for­mance in the high per­for­mance wall assem­bly cat­e­go­ry. Com­plet­ing the enve­lope with ener­gy effi­cient win­dows and doors and roof insu­la­tion, Fox Blocks homes can eas­i­ly meet and exceed ener­gy code require­ments and exceed the min­i­mum require­ments for Ener­gy Star and Ener­Guide. A Fox Blocks struc­ture requires 44% less ener­gy to heat and 32% less ener­gy to cool.

Fox Blocks has con­duct­ed numer­ous fas­ten­er tests for pull-out strength and shear capac­i­ty for var­i­ous fas­ten­ers – screws, ring shank nails and sta­ples into the plas­tic webs. The rec­om­men­da­tion for inte­ri­or and exte­ri­or appli­ca­tions of fin­ish mate­ri­als is for the use of screws which pro­vide the best hold­ing capac­i­ty into the plas­tic webs or fas­ten­ing strips in the forms which are iden­ti­fied on each block.

The EPS insu­la­tion does not pro­vide any hold­ing capac­i­ty for fas­ten­ers.