SEARCH RESULTS FOR “7”

Three sus­tain­able build­ing mate­ri­als for 2019 that stand out are the TRUE­GRID® Per­me­able Pavers, Fox Blocks and Bam­boo.

ICF con­struc­tion for com­mer­cial build­ings has sky­rock­et­ed over the past few years. ICF ben­e­fits rang­ing from sound insu­la­tion to dura­bil­i­ty to build­ing strength and dis­as­ter resis­tance have piqued a lot of inter­est for builders and archi­tects. But it has some scratch­ing their heads, mis­tak­en­ly think­ing ICF is more expen­sive and then won­der­ing, ​“Is ICF con­struc­tion cost worth it?”

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.

Today’s home­own­ers demand ener­gy-effi­cient and high-per­form­ing homes. As ZERH builders strive to accom­mo­date these demands, they also strug­gle with decreas­ing prof­its.

Archi­tects and con­trac­tors in hot cli­mates must design and con­struct ener­gy-effi­cient build­ings.

ICF homes in Cana­da help builders main­tain their prof­its because of ICFs sta­ble pric­ing and quick con­struc­tion com­pared to above and below grade con­ven­tion­al con­struc­tion.

Con­trac­tors, archi­tects and engi­neers are design­ing and con­struct­ing new build­ings that are using renew­able mate­ri­als, invest­ing in sus­tain­able HVAC sys­tems, and are improv­ing the build­ing enve­lope to reduce the amount of ener­gy waste.