Question about Attic insulation

Posted from ‘About Me’ page

We just purchased an ICF home in June, 2009. We live in Arizona and it’s very hot, over 100 degrees most days. We were hoping to save on the electric bills but for July, it was over $300. We don’t think there is enough insulation in the ceiling. What do you recommend?

Thanks,

Ron

If you think attic insulation is the culprit to losing cooling capacity then I would definately go with a spray foam insulation. The spray foam insulation will create a barrier to keep the heat out and the cold in. It will be more expensive then just doing the spray insulation or fiberglass but you’ll save that money in no time. I used Icynene and am very happy with it, you can do some research at http://www.icynene.com/ I have no affiliation with them so it’s not an ad, but I used them on my home and can speak first hand about the product, it’s good. There are also some DIY kits available such as Tigerfoam and Fomofoam, you can do a Google search on them if you want to try and do it yourself. I also recommend getting an Energy Audit done on your home, most electric companies do it for free and will take an Infrared Camera around your house to find the problem areas such as window and door air leaks, water heater problems, bad breakers in the breaker box, problems with your air-conditioning system, ect. These can all lead to high electricity usage. Call your electric company about coming out to do one. Also, a lightly colored tin or terra cotta roof will reflect heat if you don’t already have that, believe it or not, this makes a big difference. But if that’s not an option the others mentioned above should get you enough savings to smile about. Hope this helps, let me know of your results!

DIY Tools for Building your Energy Efficient ICF Home

Whether you’re a first time home builder or a Contractor with many homes built under your direct supervision I’m sure you’re both asking – “Do I need any special tools to build an Energy Efficient ICF home?”  The quick answer to that is ‘No’.  To help explain I’ve taken the list from the ICF installer’s manual of recommended tools to help explain everything you’ll need to build the ICF portion of your home.  The good news is that if you are a Contractor then there’s a good possibility that you will have everything on the list.  If you’re a first time home builder then you’ll probably have most of the items also (especially the DIY’ers), if not then you have a real good excuse to go out and buy some other tools that can and will be used on many other projects.  So if you want to know what tools you’ll need and how you’ll use them, keep reading.  Like I said there are not really any special tools that you’ll need to build an Energy Efficient Home yourself.  In this article I’ll help you know how you’ll be using the following items on your project. 

BASIC TOOLS 

Framing Hammer: Of course you’ll need a good hammer to build a house.  You’ll use a hammer to put 2X4 braces on the exterior ICF walls.  All corners, window and door openings, and ICF walls will need to be braced very well with 2X4’s so they are level and plumb and have the extra support when you make the concrete pour.  I would highly recommend that you use screws instead of a hammer and nails.  They have better holding power and it’s much easier to remove and reuse the boards later. You will also use the hammer claws to remove the Styrofoam in the areas that you’ll be running your plumbing and electrical lines.  Later in this article you’ll read about a ‘hot-knife’ tool for this purpose but I found it to be all but worthless.  I’ll explain more about this in another article but you can make faster and more effective cuts with a drywall saw and hammer claws than the hot-knife.  Plus it’s hard to get deep enough with the hot-knife so you have enough clearance to be code compliant. (Electrical wires must be 1-1/4 inches deep) 

Good Cordless Drill: You’ll be using a lot of screws.  Screws are used for everything being attached to ICF walls.  The metal strips in the ICF forms cannot be nailed into, you MUST use screws.  So a good cordless drill with extra batteries is a must! 

Deck Screws: As mentioned above you’ll be using a lot of these.  Make sure they are galvanized since they’ll be out in the weather and in contact with Pressure Treated wood.   

3/8” Drill & Bits:  Sometimes it difficult to get a screw started into the metal brackets in the ICF forms.  Screwing a pilot hole helps a lot.  There is an even a better way however.  Sink the screw down until it touches the metal brackets in the ICF form, stop, then hit it with a hammer.  This will punch the screw into the metal and act as a pilot hole.  It works very well and will be much faster and easier than drilling a bunch of pilot holes, especially when you get to the drywall. 

Framing Square:  You’ll need to make sure all inside and outside corners and cuts are square.  It’s very important that as you cut out the areas for doors and windows that they are square!!  I can’t emphasize the importance of this.  If the window cut-outs are not square then the window trim done toward the end of the process will be a nightmare! 

4-foot Level:  You’ll be doing a lot of leveling with ICF walls.  You’ll need to make sure that all walls are plumb, level and straight.  You’ll need a good level to perform these checks. 

Hand Saw: A good hand saw is used for not only cutting wood but also for cutting the Styrofoam.  You can use a handsaw to cut the ICF forms, then go back and cut the metal ties inside the forms with tin snips or bolt cutters.  It goes a little faster with a handsaw than with a drywall saw sometimes.  You’ll need both. 

Drywall Saw: Get a couple of these.  You’ll use a drywall saw to cut the ICF forms both during the initial construction and then also again when you start your electrical and plumbing.   

Circular Saw w/Metal Cutting Blade: VERY handy.  Get a bunch of metal cutting blades since you’ll go through lots of them cutting the metal brackets in the ICF forms and also by cutting rebar.  It goes faster to cut through 5 pieces of rebar all the same length than cutting them one by one with a rebar bender/cutter.  When you cut crossways over the ICF forms you’ll be cutting through the metal brackets embedding in the Styrofoam.  It goes very quickly with this tool, and then all you have to do is cut the metal ties inside the forms with tin snips or bolt cutters. 

Electric Reciprocating Saw: You can use this tool to cut the metal brackets embedded in the ICF forms but I found it much faster with the circular saw.  Even when you use the fine tooth metal blades the vibration is so intense that it kind of makes a mess of the form.  The form will still be usable of course but the cuts come out cleaner with a circular saw.  There are some cases when it’s easier with the reciprocating saw, like making small square cuts for plumbing and main electrical lines. 

Bi-metal Fine Tooth Blades: Use only these blades on the reciprocating saw; wood blades are worthless on the metal brackets in ICF forms.  Even when you use the fine tooth metal blades the vibration is so intense that it kind of makes a mess of the form.  The form will still be usable of course but the cuts come out cleaner with a circular saw.  Some ICF manufacturers do have plastic brackets instead of metal, but I liked the metal brackets and would recommend them to you.  If you go with metal brackets you’ll need the metal blades. 

Concrete Trowel:  You use this to skim the top of the ICF forms after you pour the concrete down the center.  You’ll want to have enough concrete in the form to trowel the remaining concrete off the top so when the concrete dries you have a nice smooth finish on top to attach your wooden top plate and trusses. 

Tin Snips: You’ll use these to cut the metal ties inside the ICF forms.  A pair of small bolt cutters also works pretty well but you may find tin snips easier to get down into the form and cut the inner ties.  You’ll also need these to cut tin for different material installations.  For example, if you put vinyl siding on the exterior of your home you’ll need to install heavy gauge tin on the outside corners of the house to give you something to screw the corner pieces into.  Tin snips will come in handy. 

Tape Measure – 25’:  Obviously you’ll be doing lots of measuring. 

Tape Measure – 100’: You’ll need to make sure your walls are square at the top and bottom of your home.  Just because it’s square at the bottom doesn’t mean its square on top.  A 100 foot tape will come in handy with all of these measurements. 

Step Ladder – 6 ft.:  I highly recommend getting a multipurpose ladder (the kind that can be used as a step ladder, extension ladder, on stairs, ect). You can get one at Wal-Mart for about $100.  If your building a two story home I’d suggest getting a larger one, I got a Werner from Lowes and it is positively the best ladder I’ve every had.  It has a 13 foot working height as a step ladder and 22 foot height as an extension ladder.  It’s a bit heavy for indoor use but you’ll use the heck out of this thing on many projects.   

Chalk Line: You’ll use the chalk line to make long line marks on ICF forms to make straight cuts.  You will use this everywhere so get a good one with an extra bottle of chalk. 

Nylon String Line: Nylon string can be used as a straight edge along walls, roof lines, decking, or just about anything.  When you have long runs of ICF walls you can pull a tight line to check the straightness of that wall.  It’s very important that your walls are straight so some nylon string is a real handy thing to have. 

Crowbar – Small: Crowbars are always handy to have around.  You’ll use this to move window and door bucks into position.  Once the buck is in place you must make sure it is square and plum and perfectly even with the inside and outside walls.  A crowbar will really help out, especially if you have large window openings. 

Polyurethane Adhesive: This adhesive will be sold by your ICF supplier.  This adhesive is kind of like an industrial version of Great Stuff ™.  It’s a VERY sticky expanding foam that is used to glue the ICF forms together and also used to glue them to the concrete foundation slab.  I’ve seen two types, Foam2Foam® and EnerFoam®.  You’ll use lots of this foam but your supplier should give you an estimate of how much you’ll need.  

Applicator Gun: This applicator gun is used to dispense the polyurethane adhesive above.  

Extension Cord – 50 ft.: This should also be obvious but I wanted to list it just in case. 

Sledge Hammer: A sledge hammer is used to drive stakes in the ground.  The ICF walls will need bracing to hold them square, level, and plumb.  Once you build the walls you’ll need to square and level them and the 2X4 braces will hold them this way until the concrete is poured and dried.  These 2X4 kickers will extend down to the ground and be screwed into the stake, which is driven into the ground with the sledge hammer. 

Transit/Surveyors Level:  A must have for a two story home.  I did not use this piece of equipment at all on the first floor but you absolutely must have it for the second floor.  The concrete slab will not be perfectly level so if you go off of that for your second floor heights your second floor won’t be level either.  A transit will help layout the perfectly level lines as a guide for building your second floor.

Rebar Bender/cutter: You’ll be using a whole lot of rebar.  You’ll need to make lots of bends and cuts so a good quality, heavy duty bender/cutter will be helpful.  Rebar goes from the foundation vertically all the way up to the roof, and then also horizontally around the entire house at roughly 4 foot increments.   

Rebar Saddles:  Rebar saddles are used more for the foundation than for ICF forms. The metal ties inside the ICF forms can be used to support the rebar. 

Electrical Zip Ties:  Zip ties are used to tie the rebar to the metal grid the inside of the ICF forms.  Since rebar is used quite extensively throughout the entire exterior portion of your ICF home you’ll need a way to secure all of it.  That way the rebar doesn’t move around while you’re pouring the concrete. 

Permanent Markers:  For marking rebar and ICF forms for cutting. 

Protection from Sun:  ICF forms are white and due to the reflective nature, hats, sunglasses and sunscreen lotion come in handy.  

ADDITIONAL TOOLS FOR THE PROFESSIONAL BUILDER 

The following tools are listed for builders that may want some different options on tools or plan on building several homes and thus would need a few more tools than the average owner/builder.

Electric Hot Knife:  As I mentioned earlier you’ll hear lots about this hot knife from your supplier and possibly even from a few contractors.  I found this knife to be worthless.  It does cut some very nice grooves in the Styrofoam but unfortunately you’ll run into two problems.  First, the grooves won’t be deep enough to pass code.  You must have electrical lines at least 1-1/4 inches deeper than the drywall face to avoid screws hitting the wires when the drywall is installed and also to avoid screwing into these wires when you hang photos and such.  The hot knife simply won’t get the groove deep enough.  You can try doing several passes but that is very time consuming and that brings me to my next problem with the hot knife.  Time….the hot knife is only supposed to be used for 30 second intervals and then let it cool down for 30 seconds.  This is to avoid overheating and messing up the tool.  It does get very hot.  So after several hours’ worth of waiting for it to cool and trying several passes I came up with my own way to make the grooves and it worked spectacularly!  You basically use a drywall saw to cut two lines down the Styrofoam about 2 inches apart the entire length of where you’ll be running the wire or plumbing.  You’ll cut all the way through the ICF form to the concrete (2.5 inches deep). You then start at the top and use the claws of a hammer to scrape out the Styrofoam between the lines.  Then when you scrape out enough you’ll be able to use the claws to get behind the Styrofoam and pry out between the cuts.  You’ll be removing about 6 inch section at a time.  Now you have a 2.5 inch deep groove to run your plumbing and electrical lines.  Once you run your lines you fill the groove with ‘Great Stuff’ expanding foam and your done!  It is very simple and very fast.  It does take a little more elbow grease then with a hot knife but you’ll cut the job in half by doing it this way.  There will be more on this with pictures and such in another article. 

Band Saw with Metal Cutting Blade: A band saw will really help cut all that rebar much faster.  You can set it up to cut lots of rebar at one time and save yourself a lot of time. 

Metal Cutoff Saw: A metal blade on a cutoff saw works well too when cutting rebar and window/door bucks.  

Heavy Duty Hammer Drill: This is a must have if you plan on building an ICF home.  If you build more than one then you must buy one.  If you only plan on one project then you could get away with renting one.  No matter how well you plan there is still going to be that dryer vent, main electrical connection, water hose line, or something that you’ll forget to account for before you pour the concrete.  That’s where the hammer drill with concrete bits will come in.  A little hammer drill that came with your tool multi-set will not work; I’d recommend a heavy duty large hammer drill, one capable of drilling holes 1 inch in diameter or better.  

Rebar Twist Ties:  You can buy packs of metal rebar twist ties and they work great.  You may like using these better than the zip ties.  I used both and found great uses for each kind.   

Rebar Twist Tie Tool (pigtail): This tool is used to twist the ties above.  It’s very handy and you must have the tool to use the metal twist ties. 

Flatbed Trailer for Hauling Forms: If you plan on building more than one house with ICF’s then a flatbed trailer will come in handy.  You’ll be moving lots of forms around from one side of the house to another anyway so even with one house it’s nice to have but not necessary.  If you decide to become an ICF builder than I would invest in a trailer and some storage space for the forms. 

Bracing Turnbuckles:  You can use a steel bracing system and turnbuckles to brace your ICF walls instead of wood if you like.  These tools come in handy and are re-usable.  I used wood and then got to use the 2X4’s on the interior framing of my home so I didn’t have a lot of waste, that’s always an option for the professional builder as well. 

Steel Bracing System: Used for bracing the ICF walls.  The bracing system can be used instead of wood but I found the wood to be better since I used the wood to frame my interior walls and now I don’t have to worry about where to store all the parts for the bracing system.

Build an Energy Efficient ICF Home

So, you’ve decided to build a home and you want to make the most of this HUGE investment?  There are a few things you should know about the building process and the many years to follow before jumping off the deep end.  Most people that I’ve come across getting ready to build a home put a lot of thought and energy into the process of designing and building their home and absolutely no thought about living in this home and paying the bills to run and maintain this home.  Don’t make that mistake!  You CAN have your cake and eat it too, if you plan for both.   I built my own home with no prior home building experience and am very proud of that fact.  My home is a 3400 sq-ft two story home with an open floor plan, wrap around porch, two car garage, balcony on the back of the house, two fireplaces and a game room.  It was a huge accomplishment and took me right at two years to complete.  I had to learn a lot of things a long the way but I hope to pass on all the tricks and tips to those interested.  You’ve come to the right place for help and discussions along the way.   First you need to decide if you’ll contract the building process out or do the work yourself.  I did about 75% – 80% of my home and contracted out the rest.  If you have the patience, time, and some mechanical aptitude you’ll gain immediate equity in your home by doing some of the work yourself.  This is called sweat equity and I have well over $100,000 dollars of it in my home!  Even if you don’t decide to build the home yourself I strongly recommend that you learn as much as possible about the process so you can speak your concerns to the contractors and not get taken advantage of.  I would recommend buying either BuildWisely or How to Build a New Home to learn about some of the major steps to building a typical home.  After reading these you’ll be in a better situation to ask the right questions about building an ICF Energy Efficient Home on here.  Of course you’re welcome anytime and there are no stupid questions as far as I’m concerned.  Remember, I had no prior experience and am sure I asked some pretty stupid questions along the way. 

The main reason for this article is to convince you of which material you should use to build your home and the best resources to get the job done.  There are a lot of decisions to make when designing your home but I hope that you take my advice on the construction material.  I built my home using Insulating Concrete Forms (ICF) from Polysteel ™.  I don’t get any money from them or anything and don’t have any experience on other types of ICF’s; Polysteel is just what I used so it’s what I know.  Some of the important factors of building an energy efficient home are categorized below:

Cost to build 

If you’re wondering about the cost to build an ICF Energy Efficient Home then here are some considerations.  There was virtually no difference in cost for me to build my home using ICF’s vs. wood or block construction.  Block in fact would have been much more expensive.  One thing to consider is the price of concrete.  At the time I built my home concrete was about $75/yard, now it’s around $100/yard.  Wood prices have also continued to climb but I don’t know at what rate compared to concrete.  A block home is very labor intensive and I would not recommend doing this yourself unless you’re a mason.  It takes experience to get straight walls and good bonding of the blocks.  In contrast to building a block home, ICF’s are very easy to use to build your home, even with no experience.  It’s like using building blocks to build the exterior of your home. They come pre-formed and simply glue and snap together, then you brace all corners, door and window openings, make sure the walls are straight and braced off, then pour your concrete.  You can rent a concrete truck and do the pour yourself as well!  Then all the wood that you used for bracing the walls and corners are used to frame the inside of your home so there is little to no waste!  From the calculations that I made on my home taking current concrete prices at $100/yard it would still take me less than 3 months to break even with the lower electric bills!  And from then on those lower bills are pure savings!  So for me there is no doubt that ICF’s are the way to go.

Ongoing and Maintenance costs 

When thinking of building an ICF home you should also consider the ongoing and maintenance costs compared to other building materials.  If you build your home with ICF’s the exterior walls of your home are nothing but concrete and Styrofoam.  You don’t have to worry about termites, carpenter ants or any other type of bug infestation, which is very important where I live in Florida.  You don’t have to worry about wood rot or any maintenance regarding the maintainability of the exterior walls of your home which will literally save thousands of dollars over the life of your home.  You don’t have to worry about termites and bugs with block homes either but you don’t have the insulation R-value either, which brings me to my next point.  The savings with ongoing costs such as electric bills and gas bills will blow your mind!  My bills are almost three and a half times lower than houses comparable to mine!  That’s right, this summer my highest electric bill was $150 when other homes of comparable size where anywhere from $400 – $600!!  OUCH!  I asked around and collected data from friends in those homes so you can take that information to the bank, I’m not making it up, I have no reason to.  Plus, my home is entirely electric and I’m on well water.  I say that to show you that the cost to run my home in its entirety, at its highest, was $150.  Some people had the same electric bills as me but were on city water (no electricity used for a well pump which I have) and gas heating and cooking (which is not reflected in electric bills).  I couldn’t find anyone to come even close to my bills if you added in their gas bill.  And before you say I tried to keep it that low by skimping on comfort, forget it!  My wife and I kept the house at 76 degrees F all summer long and several days there was a heat index outside well above 100 degrees F.  My wife cooks every night on our electric stove, I watch TV every night on our 46 inch LCD TV, and my wife loves to keep just about every light in the house on (we do use energy efficient bulbs though).  So we aren’t trying to save every dollar on our electric bill, it just happens on its own because of the construction that I used to build my house.  And the icing on the cake is my house has an open floor plan (the upstairs is open to the downstairs below so you can see down into the living room and foyer).  This type of floor plan is notoriously hard to heat and cool because the open space is so large.  That didn’t matter though; my home was much cheaper to operate HANDS DOWN than both single story and two-story homes of comparable sizes, COMBINED! 

Tax Benefits

Another cost consideration when building an energy efficient home are tax credits.  That’s right.  Your going to build your home for the same or a slightly higher cost (which will be redeemed in less than six months), your going to save money on ALL your bills, and the kicker……..the IRS is going to give you some benefits on your taxes!  Why would you build anything else?  You can check out all the tax benefits, grants and loans out there by going to www.energystar.gov  I will be getting several tax benefits and credits on this years return!  And I actually paid less to build my home than using conventional methods.  Of course I put a lot of work into it but its well worth the small sacrifice.  

 Safety

Some other thoughts about building an Energy Efficient ICF home are the safety factors. One of the most important of all the benefits of building your home with ICF’s are the safety and security they provide your family.  My ICF home has 11 inch walls, 5 inches of Styrofoam and 6 inches of concrete.  ICF’s have proven resistance to tornados, hurricanes, and earthquakes as well as unparalleled fire protection.  They were once used to build tornado safe rooms for goodness sake, and now you can use this type of building material to build your home!  ICF walls are 2 to 4 times stronger than the maximum design wind load required by the Uniform Building Code and I know that the ICF I used, Polysteel, has been independently tested to withstand flying debris driven by a 250 mph wind.  That’s something to brag about!  I could go on and on about the safety of building your energy efficient home with ICF’s (like how ICF walls are 4 to 9 times stronger than the maximum design earthquake load required by the Uniform Building Code) but I think you get the point.

Comfort

One thing you want to consider before building your home is the comfort.  Now if your like most people you probably haven’t thought of how important it is to keep your home quiet and comfortable to be in, but think of this.  With ICF exterior walls there is a balance created by the heat being emitted from your concrete wall and your body heat loss.  This balance creates a stabilizing effect on the interior environment, leaving you with an unequaled sense of comfort in summer or winter.  And this is a huge difference that you’ll notice immediately.  And it won’t take anything on your part to make this happen, and your electric bills will be much lower for it.  Another factor related to comfort is the temperature difference between the floor and ceiling.  In buildings constructed of conventional materials, the temperature difference between the floor and ceiling will range from 5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit.  By comparison, the temperature difference from floor to ceiling in an ICF home is typically less than 2 degrees Fahrenheit.  This is why my home with an open floor plan is still half as cheap to heat and cool than a home of comparable size made from conventional materials.   

You’ll also want to think of sound protection, especially if you live an a suburban area and have neighbors.  The combination of concrete encapsulated within high density expanded polystyrene provides a superior barrier to the sounds and noises of the outside environment.  This creates a virtual sound proof barrier in which you’ll live.  So turn up the radio and don’t worry about what the neighbors will think, plus you don’t have to worry about all the outside noise ruining your sweet home escape.  For the ICF’s that I used they claim a Sound Class Rating of 48 when finished with standard 1/2″ drywall.

Environment

Now some of you out there will be made that I put this last, but for me saving the whales has never been a priority.  I didn’t build my home to save the rain forests or reduce my carbon footprint, but fortunately I still have probably contributed to both.  By building an energy efficient ICF home I used less wood cut from forests and use less power to operate my home which has some positive impacts on the environment.  This was not a priority for me but I’m glad to have contributed.  If you’re a serious environmentalist and this was the only reason you’d want to build an ICF home then by all means, go do it!  You can feel good about helping the environment and still save all kinds of money. 

So whether you decide to build an ICF home for the environment, safety, comfort, to save some money or whatever your reasons are, I highly recommend going for it!  Don’t let anyone tell you that it will take longer and don’t get in a rush to build a home that will be inferior to what you could have.  It’s a huge investment and you want to do it right the first time.  I built my own home and you can too.  I want to help all you out there build your own home using ICF’s.  Please feel free to discuss building an Energy Efficient Home on this site and talk to all kinds of people in the same boat as you.  Talk to me and ask me anything.  I will be adding all kinds of tips and tools to this website periodically to help all you out there build your own Energy Efficient ICF home.  My website is an open forum blog website so builders you are more than welcome to join in the fun, help everyone out and join the team.  Together we can all benefit in this growing industry!

What is an ICF?

ICF’s (Insulating Concrete Form) are pre-shaped forms that are used to build the exterior wall of a building in which concrete is poured down the hollow center to form the exterior wall. The form (usually made of some type of insulating foam (styrofoam for example) will stay in place as a permanent part of the wall assembly.

The forms are either pre-formed interlocking blocks or separate panels connected with plastic ties ( I highly recommend the interlocking blocks, don’t go for the ones with plastic ties!!). The forms filled with concrete not only provide a continuous insulation (that keeps your electric bills super low) and sound barrier (which keeps the neighbors happy), but they also will usually contain some type of embedded attachment to act as a backing for drywall on the inside, and stucco, lap siding, or brick on the outside.

Where am I?

I want to provide a forum for those seeking to build there own energy efficient home.  I built my home from Polysteel (TM) forms and can’t believe all the savings and benifits that I’m getting from it.  I hope to help all you out there to the same thing.  You can build your own home with ICF (Insulating Concrete Forms).  Let’s all work together.