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Is burning EPS toxic?
Test reports con­duct­ed by the Nation­al Research Coun­cil state: ​“The max­i­mum tox­i­c­i­ty index obtained from the com­bus­tion of poly­styrene was of the same order as that of wood.” Fox Blocks ICFs have been test­ed to meet build­ing code require­ments for flame spread rat­ings, smoke devel­op­ment and tox­i­c­i­ty
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Where can I purchase the product?
Fox Blocks has a wide-rang­ing net­work of knowl­edge­able prod­uct dis­trib­u­tors and trained installers across North Amer­i­ca; con­tact Fox Blocks Cus­tomer Ser­vice to find the clos­est Fox Blocks prod­uct dis­trib­u­tor or trained installer in your area.
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What if my contractor doesn’t know how to build with it?
Fox Blocks offers the most com­pre­hen­sive installer train­ing in the indus­try. We can train your con­trac­tor or help you locate a trained installer in your area.
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Can you build and pour concrete in cold weather?
Yes. The forms insu­late the con­crete and enhance the cur­ing process. The top of the forms, or exposed con­crete areas will need to be cov­ered, tem­porar­i­ly, with insu­la­tion to pre­vent the exposed con­crete from freez­ing. Fox Blocks projects can be con­struct­ed any time of the year, no delays for cold weath­er.
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How do I apply an acrylic stucco finish to an ICF?
Acrylic stuc­co is a thin coat fin­ish which can be direct­ly applied to the EPS insu­la­tion on the exte­ri­or face of the ICF. Fox Blocks pro­vides a con­tin­u­ous EPS sur­face con­ducive for the appli­ca­tion of acrylic stuc­co. All acrylic stuc­co man­u­fac­tures are famil­iar with ICFs as a sub­strate and each have their rec­om­men­da­tions for appli­ca­tion over ICFs. Note there is a dif­fer­ence in the instal­la­tion pro­ce­dures between acrylic stuc­co and tra­di­tion­al stuc­co.
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Is a high performance ICF home less expensive to build than a wood framed high performance home?
Yes, mar­gin­al­ly high­er on the ini­tial cap­i­tal costs, but, it is a record­ed fact that Fox Blocks high per­for­mance homes out per­form in com­fort and oper­at­ing costs over a wood framed home. These cre­ates month­ly cost sav­ings for the life cycle of the Fox Blocks home.
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What is EPS made from?
Poly­styrene is vir­gin mate­r­i­al, man­u­fac­tured from petro­le­um. Poly­styrene beads are expand­ed with steam heat to be up to 40 times their orig­i­nal vol­ume and then the expand­ed beads are mold­ed again by steam heat into 25⁄8″ rigid insu­la­tion pan­els to cre­ate a Fox Blocks ICF.
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What is the typical Interior finish on an ICF?

All build­ing codes in the USA and Cana­da spec­i­fy that plas­tic insu­la­tion (EPS) must be cov­ered by a ther­mal bar­ri­er equiv­a­lent to 15 min­utes of fire pro­tec­tion in hab­it­able spaces. This is achieved with ½” gyp­sum board or an equiv­a­lent mate­r­i­al. Fox Blocks has spe­cif­ic fire test­ing that proves reg­u­lar ½” gyp­sum board with reg­u­lar dry­wall screws fas­tened into the plas­tic webs remains on the wall for the required 15-minute time peri­od.

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Can the plastic webs be detected by using stud finders?

A stud find­er typ­i­cal­ly uses the den­si­ty of mate­ri­als to locate studs. The polypropy­lene (plas­tic) web mate­r­i­al will show up on high qual­i­ty den­si­ty stud find­ers. Note, the webs in Fox Blocks are spaced at 8″ (200 mm) on cen­ter and will be con­tin­u­ous ver­ti­cal­ly on each side of the wall.

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Is an ICF house faster to build?
The assem­bly and place­ment of con­crete may take the same time as to build with con­ven­tion­al meth­ods. The advan­tage with Fox Blocks is that the walls are now insu­lat­ed, have a vapor and air bar­ri­er installed and are ready for fin­ish­es once the win­dows and roof are installed. These ben­e­fits will save weeks and/​or months depend­ing on the size of the projects.
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