# ICF House/Geothermal Progress (Warning PIC Intensive)



## Chuck R. (Apr 24, 2008)

_Rather than hijack another thread......_
_The house was designed by a local architect, after we drew the basic design out using PowerPoint. The house sits on our 80 acres overlooking our 9 acre pond. Home features:_

_Walkout basement/lower level, ICF Construction, Geothermal, R50 insulation in the Attic, Anderson 400 windows (mostly Casement to maximize view). _
_3BR, 1 office, pantry, downstairs family room, mud/laundry room, dog wash station in the garage, large covered deck. Pantry entry is through a "secret cabinet" in the kitchen (Initially I thought this was stupid, but it turne out pretty neat). Under the 3 car garage is secure storage (650â) with a vault door. _

_Upper level is 1700â, lower 1400â (+ Storage), then the âsafe roomâ. _

_The upper level was designed to be the primary living area, and everything has been designed to be wheelchair accessible (Wide doors, roll in shower etc.). The lower level has a kitchenette in case our boy boomerangs after he leaves. The house has 3 heating/cooling zones, upper, lower, and the âsafe roomâ. The geothermal has an air exchange system and humidity control. _

_The biggest thing is to find a builder that you get along with, trust and has a good/great reputation in your area that does the type of construction youâre interested in. Our builder is fantastic, great guy and is now about 2 months ahead of schedule. So far weâve been very impressed. Some pics:_
_Front_








From across Pond
_







_
Side with ICF Blocks
_







_
Great Room
_







_

_







_

_Safe Room_








Master bedroom View










We're about 1 month out from moving in.

Chuck


----------



## Honeymoon Acres (Nov 9, 2009)

I am truly impressed with your new home, and especially interested in the construction of the safe room. It is exactly what we have been asking for, and many contractors have told us that we simply are asking too much to have such a room in our next home. I suspect they have no idea how to build such a thing. Would you mind sharing a few construction details of the slab?


----------



## BoldViolet (Feb 5, 2009)

Very, very awesome. Thanks for the thread!


----------



## Jayfl77 (Jan 12, 2008)

Can you share the floorplan? We are just beginning to layout our next house in Visio and have been pouring over floorplans to see what we like and what we don't.

We are definately going to use ICF, I'm leaning towards Apex blocks myself.


----------



## MushCreek (Jan 7, 2008)

The main thing is to find a contractor with lots of ICF experience, and use the forms he is comfortable with. I used Fox Blocks, and got excellent results. I'm doing most of the work myself, but hired the contractor to actually pour the walls. I was lucky to find a good contractor willing to let me do my own work.

Beautiful home, Chuck! You're ahead of me; it's slow going with one old man working alone. I just now got my roof finished after 10 months.


----------



## Chuck R. (Apr 24, 2008)

Iâll try to answer questions as best I can. 

1. The floor plan upper level consists of from ânorth to southâ (very hard using words!)
A. 3 car garage
B. Entry through mud/laundry room into great room (kitchen, dining room, family room combined.
C. Kitchen is oriented towards the road/drive.
D. Dining/Great room oriented towards west/pond.
E. From the kitchen and adjacent to the laundry room is the pantry, concealed by a cabinet door. Not that itâs hidden, just the cabinet guy came up with the door idea and itâs kind of cool.
F. The great room has a soapstone wood stone with tiled pedestal and stone veneer hearth. The ceiling in the great room is vaulted with a chandelier (Nothing fancy) over the dining area and a ceiling fan (very fancy).
G. From the great room, down the hall to the south is the office/quilt room on the left.
H. Straight ahead is the guest bathroom (simple pedestal sink and commode with vanity mirror/lights)
I. The master bedroom is oriented south west to maximize the view of the pond, with an additional window facing south for breeze. 
J. From the MBR you head east to the bath, which contains a roll in, tiled shower, and 2 sink vanity with a linen cabinet in the end. 
K. From there you get to the walk in closet, which is kind of huge with a bunch of shelving and hanging areas. 
2. Downstairs: Consists of a family room, two bedrooms, full bath, and an unfinished storage area (which leads to the safe room).

Thatâs about it for the floor plan.

The engineered slab is 10â thick and reinforced with REBAR in a 10â grid. The slab is supported by two I-beams which are tied into the poured concrete walls (8â) and have pole supports mid-span. The door is a vault door with firing lining, inswing, and a panic button that I ordered from the Sturdy Safe company. The geothermal unit heats/cools/dehumidifies as itâs on its own âzoneâ. The cost for the âsafe roomâ construction was $7K before door, framing, electric, insulation etc. which we did ourselves. I donât know why your builder might object, ours actually suggested it. 

Materials, such as ICF block. What we suggest is exactly what Mushcreek is saying. IF youâre going with a general contractor/builder, then youâre paying for a level of advice based on experience. IF your builder has a preference, chances are itâs for a reason, might be cost, but the way our contract works, thereâs no advantage or disadvantage to our builder based on the end cost of our house. Our builder is getting a straight building fee for overseeing the project. Any savings realized come back to us, as do the cost overruns. He also has subs that he's used to dealing with and has a relationship with. Again, we could pick anybody we wanted to do some of the work, but that's what the builder is hired to do. 

Our builder, really is a great guy, so some sub-projects weâre doing on our own such as finishing the lower level, and the safe room. All of the tile, appliances and light fixtures, weâve purchased ourselves, rather than have to use him as a middleman to get what we want. Weâre also doing all the landscaping.

Thatâs about it! Other than Iâll stress one big thing and that is in picking the right builder IF you're using one, if for some reason he/she doesnât âfeelâ right find another one. Theyâre the guy pulling the whole thing together and will if allowed make decisions in your absence. IF youâre not in synch and not on the same wavelength, youâre going to have issues. 

In our case, I was deployed to Afghanistan when we broke ground, so the primary interfacing was between my wife and our builder, zero pronlems. 

Chuck


----------



## Ostie82 (Jul 19, 2013)

Looks great Chuck. I'd love to see the completed pics, if they're available yet. I am very interested in ICF construction, but not sure if anyone in my neck of the woods is familiar with it.


----------



## BlueRose (Mar 7, 2013)

Nice view


----------



## Chuck R. (Apr 24, 2008)

Ostie82 said:


> Looks great Chuck. I'd love to see the completed pics, if they're available yet. I am very interested in ICF construction, but not sure if anyone in my neck of the woods is familiar with it.


Not the best with a camera! The pictures don't really relate to the ICF construction, it looks like any other framed house, except for the foot thick walls.

Front with some landscaping....


Back:


MBR1:


MBR2:


Office:


Great RM Woodstove:


Great Room1:


Great Rm2: 


Kitchen with hidden pantry entrance:


Pantry Open:


There are a couple ICF websites, and they usually have contractors listed. We found our builder by word of mouth.

Chuck


----------



## Ostie82 (Jul 19, 2013)

Beautiful home! I like the hidden pantry!


----------



## SimplerTimez (Jan 20, 2008)

Thank you for sharing your ideas and your familial home. I particularly like the hidden pantry and the safe room concepts that you incorporated into the design.

Best wishes, and enjoy that delightful master bedroom view!

~ST


----------



## Glade Runner (Aug 1, 2013)

Really like your place. It will be interesting to see what your energy use is as time passes.


----------



## Travis in Louisiana (May 14, 2002)

That is one lovely build!


----------



## tarbe (Apr 7, 2007)

Great job Chuck, and thanks for sharing.

We are 2 or 3 years behind you, and absorbing every good idea we can find!

You certainly have done a number of things with your place that are on our "list"!


Tim


----------



## Chuck R. (Apr 24, 2008)

All, thanks for the compliments. All told it has been close to 8 years in the making since we bought the 1st 40 acres.

Glade Runner,

So far we're averaging about $160 a month for electric while running the AC. That's also while running a dehumidifier in the safe room. The Geo keeps the humidity down while running the heat, but the room stays about 67 without the air one, so Iâd have to cool it to about 65 to get the dehumidifying action. 

Weâre comparing it to are old house which is about 2000 squareâ Vs. close to 4000, the old house averaged about $120 in electric and another $30 or so for gas (hot water heater). So weâre close to the same consumption for about twice the size. 

Donât know about the winter heating yet, but when we moved in during APR this year we hit a pretty decent cold spell down in the 20s at night. With the wood stove the heat hardly kicked in. So weâll seeâ¦â¦

Chuck

Bonus feature: 385 meters of the back deck to my Turkey swinger!


----------



## rideatrail (Jan 30, 2011)

Beautiful home, it shows that a lot of thought was put into the planning and building, Thanks for allowing folks a view at something most folks just dream of. Most of all, "THANKS FOR YOUR SERVICE TO OUR COUNTRY" GOD bLESS AND WATCH YOUR 6


----------



## kilgrosh (Apr 29, 2014)

Nice house! What would you say was the total cost to build out your house? I am considering building our farmhouse vs. renovating an existing one.


----------



## Chuck R. (Apr 24, 2008)

kilgrosh said:


> Nice house! What would you say was the total cost to build out your house? I am considering building our farmhouse vs. renovating an existing one.


As it sits now....with some additional add-ons we're up to $484K for the house alone.


----------



## kilgrosh (Apr 29, 2014)

Thanks. Just a bit out of my price range on building a home. My budget is $250,000 for the build and $250,000 for the land, so max $500,000 on the whole project. Land prices around me (SE PA, Philadelphia area) run about $250,000-$350,000 for 10 acres, so my housing budget is small.


----------



## melli (May 7, 2016)

Chuck R. said:


> As it sits now....with some additional add-ons we're up to $484K for the house alone.


Ha, glad your still following your thread....curious how the house has fared in terms of heating and cooling? I just built a small ICF place.
Although your place is sizable, must feel cozy in the dead of winter. 

Almost forgot to ask, what did you use for siding? Looks like Hardi, but in panel format? 



kilgrosh said:


> Thanks. Just a bit out of my price range on building a home. My budget is $250,000 for the build and $250,000 for the land, so max $500,000 on the whole project. Land prices around me (SE PA, Philadelphia area) run about $250,000-$350,000 for 10 acres, so my housing budget is small.


I would think you could easily build a modest place for 250k. Chuck's place is large, from my perspective. Plus, he has some features which add up.
If you could do some of the work, 250k is plenty (or contract out the parts you don't feel comfortable with). I would go with Nudura, if I were to go with ICF again. ICF blocks lock into each other, saving time and money with less bracing, and headaches. Plus, Nudura have larger blocks.
BTW - I figure my place will run about 100k (CDN) all in. Albeit, I did everything (basically, material cost).


----------



## kilgrosh (Apr 29, 2014)

Yeah we think $250k will be enough but we don’t really know since we are just property hunting at the moment. I honestly don’t have the time to do the work myself otherwise I would.


----------



## melli (May 7, 2016)

kilgrosh said:


> Yeah we think $250k will be enough but we don’t really know since we are just property hunting at the moment. I honestly don’t have the time to do the work myself otherwise I would.


It really depends on what you have in mind...a million dollar waterfront budget buster that requires blasting so it can cling to a cliff, or a modest two bedroom rancher on level ground. Finding a straight shooting contractor is obviously the key. Especially, someone with experience. Best of luck in your property hunt.


----------



## kilgrosh (Apr 29, 2014)

Nothing crazy for us. Basically 32x32 box stacked up on each other. Add a porch and call it a day.


----------



## doc- (Jun 26, 2015)

We've been in our newly constructed earth-berm house for 6 months now. House/garage/utility area ~2800sf. Did most of the work myself with the help of one good carpenter ($35,000 labor) and zoning required rough electric & plumbing to be done by licensed contractors (($20Gs)- also $10Gs for HVAC guy to do labor intensive installation of wood burning furnace/hydronic heating system- total cost ~$150G.

I used ICF for concrete work- pays for itself in labor costs- snap together like clown-sized Lego blocks and no need to strip forms or install insulation after pour. The trick is to get a good pump/shoot operator for the pour so you don't blow the forms out. 

No AC needed with earth-berm construction. Heat cost me $800 for wood (too busy to chop my own this year) for this record cold WI winter, and biggest problem was that the place is so well insulated, heat loss was minimal after thermostat kicked furnace off, the fire kept going out and the slab kept cooling off requiring extra wood to get slab temp back up.


----------



## Chuck R. (Apr 24, 2008)

Melli,

We cool a little under 4000' for an average of $140 a month electric. Winter the bill drops to about $130 or so as we're running the wood stove upstairs.

kilgrosh,

BLUF: a "custom" house is expensive, especially when built on raw land. Figure about $140 per ft. IF you're not going extravagant. There's no economy of scale to benefit from like a builder of spec houses gets. So you'll order 3-4 exterior doors, whereas a contractor working a subdivision is ordering 200.....Other stuff; water, electric, septic etc. will be part of the cost.

Our general contractor cost 32K to oversee, coord and he did a bunch of the finish work himself.


----------



## FreeRange (Oct 9, 2005)

Very nice! I looked on the safe room website but didn't see a panic button. We could use one in our storm room.


----------



## Chuck R. (Apr 24, 2008)

It's there, just extra now.....



> Extras
> Fire Liner $ 239.00
> Inswing Opening $ 200.00
> Panic Button $ 100.00
> ...


https://www.sturdysafe.com/collections/vault-doors/products/vault-door


----------

