I was planning to build a PerfectBlock/EFBlock house with flat Litedeck second floor and roof before I found your channel. It has been priceless to watch your journey. Thank you so much for sharing this experience with us. We're going to be off grid, and our area has very soft water. We're planning to add a parapet wall, scuppers and rain catchment for our primary water supply here in NE TX were we get 47" of rain annually. Otherwise...pretty much the same as your setup. One twist I'm working on...I think I'm going to do do "bays" with the Litedeck running sideways and a center wall separating the living side and the bedroom side. I think I'll get more square footage for the money.
Glad I stumbled on this. I'm building a garage and basement underground and moving my manufactured house onto this summer. I'll have to check the price of this versus making my own forms
It is a lapel mic with a really long cord plugged directly into the phone we use for filming. I was looking for the exact model on Amazon, but I can't find it. It was really just an inexpensive lapel mic.
Ha! Knew the deck view would be worth doing :D EDIT: also curious what in/ft pitch you're going with for rain run-off, and if the engineer gave an indication of what snow load it's calculated to handle? (reason i suggested the deck was partially cause i had the idea for a Casita we've yet to build, but wanted to see it done somewhere 1st so we'd learn from it, lol... -thx!)
No worries about snow load. We never get more than a couple of inches here,but that said, you could park cars on this roof, so it can hold plenty. Our slope is somewhere between 1/8 and 1/4 inch per foot.
We are as close as we could afford 🤣 That, and if you're close to the lake, you actually only get a very small viewing portion of the water. Like I know some people who are on the water but they're back in a cove and they might as well be living on a pond instead of a huge lake like table rock. Being up high on the mountain we get to see a huge swath of the lake and people always remark about how beautiful the view is when they come in the front door. We're happy 😁
Concrete cracks, so are you going to put a waterproofing membrane on the very top? How will you end a waterproof membrane? Extending the concrete over the outside edge of the ICF is a good idea but you don't seem to have a drip edge.
We have Xypex in the concrete which is a waterproofing additive. We will also use a multi-step roll on product with a walkable finish over the concrete. We will be filming that process soon.
@@LakeLotBuildFinally! Someone mentiond Xypex additive in the concrete. This was my plan for a future build. Did you add a super plasticizer like Kel-Crete as well? Or even fibers (glass, basalt) ? What psi will the concrete cure at?
I am building an ICF house in Florida with similar ICF flat roof. The main roof is approximately 40x38 feet, 17.5 inch foam + 3.5 inch concrete. The ICF roof rep suggested to embed the channel into the concrete along the perimeter to serve as gutter. The engineering company suggested that the contractor slopes the concrete layer for water management. My fear is that with 3.5 inch concrete overall layer they will make it super thick in higher areas and skinny thin in lower areas and it will not be consistent. What I was thinking is to shave the top of ICF walls to make a slight slope and then laydown / shore the LiteDeck according to that slope. This way the concrete guys would just care to pour 3.5 inches of concrete throughout the entire roof span. Could you please elaborate on this?
I know what you are talking about; I saw the concrete ceiling of a huge tank for a water treatment plant collapse in the middle of the pour. Things started shifting as they do when a lot of weight is added unevenly and eventually, a shoring post buckled causing a chain reaction with the others. What a mess that was! The contractor declared bankruptcy the next day.
Thank you for watching! We are shooting a video this week that explains the design process and will include drawings of the final house plan. That video should be up in two weeks.
Hi Norman! We did the garage floor with LiteDeck and it is suspended and column free over our master bedroom. It is meant to hold two cars,so I would think you could creat a cantilevered room. That would be cool!
I think the answer is "maybe." We really like the fact that it is insulated so that we don't lose or gain heat through the garage floor. We researched pan and pour and just though the insulation factor of LiteDeck was better. There may be a better option out there though for other homes and situations.
Looking to do something similar. I have a question as to why you chose LiteDeck and not one of the other systems, since there are several ICF Deck Systems (Amvic, BuildDeck, Insul-Deck, EPS Deck, Fortruss, and LiteDeck) available?
Both! We are acting GC and homeowners. The ICF crew is subcontracted but also does full custom build outs. We will have them get us dried in and then we will subcontract and/or do everything else ourselves.
Is there a way to do an icf addition and do foam over the existing structure? I've got asbestos siding in decent shape and would rather encapsulate than remove.
I'm not sure. An ICF builder in your area could at least look at what you have and give you their opinion. Good luck on your addition and thanks for watching!
Hello, What type of roof system did you used. What was your square feet/per dollar. We are getting ready to do a ICF build but I am still trying figure the roof system and cost. How did you run A/C ducking?? Thank you.
Hi! We used an elastomeric roll on product for the roof. We also used Xypex in the concrete to help wit waterproofing. We are still not entirely happy with our roof as the slope was not done right and we have ponding water. Be sure to do a good slope on the concrete for the roof. We put in our own HVAC system. Here is the video on that ruclips.net/video/FqhquG0NEdw/видео.html
Thank you for your reply, Yes, will be using an elastomeric paint finish and anything else recommended to make sure is is done right. Pitch will be 2”-3”/12”. I will look at your video for HVAC later today. Material and installation did you came out with $14.50 per square feet.
Can I get a cost breakdown from start to finish just starting my journey into ICF and I'm just wondering what the prices are from laying the foundation to laying out the forms for the actual house thanks
Thank you for watching! It is so difficult to tell you what you might encounter with your lot and build versus ours. We had a lot of excavation work first because we are built on a steep slope. We also have a concrete roof,which is uncommon and not typically bid in an ICF house. We also have two huge concrete decks going on the back of the house. Our ICF contractor is doing all of that work, so it is hard to break it down. What I can tell you is that the US Department of housing did a research study for HUD and found that a typical ICF home only adds 3 to 5% more over a typical build. Of course this is when lumber was much less than what it is today. We figure that we actually saved money building with ICF and current lumber prices. The cost of your ICF blocks will also vary based upon your builder. Our builder builds several ICF homes and so he's able to buy semi trucks full of block. If your builder is just doing your home, he or she would not be able to get the volume discount pricing that our builder is probably getting. I would definitely encourage you to reach out to Fox blocks or a local ICF builder and just ask them if they could offer am estimated cost per SQ. Foot. What I can tell you is that we wouldn't build with anything other than ICF at this point. It's a vastly superior product to a wood, in our opinion.
We did the excavation separately but the ICF contractor did some of his own backfill and prep for the foundation. He poured the foundation in a monolithic pour. We have a video of that too if you want to see that process.
No problem with bending since we make a "T" with two 2x4 for the bracing. It makes them very strong. We reuse the wood over and over until it finally ends up as our interior walls.
Lake Lot Build yeah if you did that type of work for a career it might be cost effective to invest in metal shoring. However for a one time project your method is better. Looks good!
We actually don't block their view because we are doing a flat roof. They are thrilled! A traditional style house with pitched roof would have taken their view.
@@LakeLotBuild that's nice. I can imagine a solid 2 story icf house replacing that single wide on the side of the hill already. Try to talk them into it.
We added Xypex to the concrete which is a waterproofing concrete additive. In addition, we will be doing a multi-step roll on waterproofing system with a walkable surface. We will be filming all of it once we get the railing on.
@@LakeLotBuild my personal plan is to get on a building crew one day and pick up the skills to do a job like this before spending money and blowing it for lack of knowledge and experience.
Best complete and well explained icf video I have found! Thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
I was planning to build a PerfectBlock/EFBlock house with flat Litedeck second floor and roof before I found your channel.
It has been priceless to watch your journey. Thank you so much for sharing this experience with us.
We're going to be off grid, and our area has very soft water.
We're planning to add a parapet wall, scuppers and rain catchment for our primary water supply here in NE TX were we get 47" of rain annually.
Otherwise...pretty much the same as your setup. One twist I'm working on...I think I'm going to do do "bays" with the Litedeck running sideways and a center wall separating the living side and the bedroom side. I think I'll get more square footage for the money.
Sounds awesome!!! Make sure they get the slope right on the roof so that you get the correct drainage off the rooftop.
Very informative video, thank you for posting
Glad I stumbled on this. I'm building a garage and basement underground and moving my manufactured house onto this summer. I'll have to check the price of this versus making my own forms
Been waiting on this video long time
Thank you for watching! We will have another one featuring the actual concrete pour on the roof soon!
@@LakeLotBuild okay great
An your welcome
So do you need any support Columbus after it’s been poured and had the 30 day drying time or does all that floor to ceiling bracing come out?
All the bracing comes out. We have no columns in the house at all.
Surprised it can span that far without post tensioning, even the garage floor. Missouri is made of different stuff than Calif*.
What microphone were you using to record that video? It turned out really good. You can hear ambient noises plus here you really good?
It is a lapel mic with a really long cord plugged directly into the phone we use for filming. I was looking for the exact model on Amazon, but I can't find it. It was really just an inexpensive lapel mic.
Ha! Knew the deck view would be worth doing
:D
EDIT: also curious what in/ft pitch you're going with for rain run-off, and if the engineer gave an indication of what snow load it's calculated to handle? (reason i suggested the deck was partially cause i had the idea for a Casita we've yet to build, but wanted to see it done somewhere 1st so we'd learn from it, lol... -thx!)
No worries about snow load. We never get more than a couple of inches here,but that said, you could park cars on this roof, so it can hold plenty. Our slope is somewhere between 1/8 and 1/4 inch per foot.
@@LakeLotBuild awesome, thx for the info
"all hands on deck"... I see what you did there. ;-)
Great videos, I will be doing ICF too in Bonne Terre . Everything your doing is perfect, except for one thing, why so far away from the lake? ❤
We are as close as we could afford 🤣 That, and if you're close to the lake, you actually only get a very small viewing portion of the water. Like I know some people who are on the water but they're back in a cove and they might as well be living on a pond instead of a huge lake like table rock. Being up high on the mountain we get to see a huge swath of the lake and people always remark about how beautiful the view is when they come in the front door. We're happy 😁
Concrete cracks, so are you going to put a waterproofing membrane on the very top? How will you end a waterproof membrane? Extending the concrete over the outside edge of the ICF is a good idea but you don't seem to have a drip edge.
We have Xypex in the concrete which is a waterproofing additive. We will also use a multi-step roll on product with a walkable finish over the concrete. We will be filming that process soon.
Not all concrete cracks, 2. It good insulation ......I am building full concrete house, roof with iron sheets
@@LakeLotBuildFinally! Someone mentiond Xypex additive in the concrete. This was my plan for a future build.
Did you add a super plasticizer like Kel-Crete as well? Or even fibers (glass, basalt) ?
What psi will the concrete cure at?
Such a lovely house. I'd want an elevator to all floors so I could live there until your last days on earth.
I am building an ICF house in Florida with similar ICF flat roof. The main roof is approximately 40x38 feet, 17.5 inch foam + 3.5 inch concrete. The ICF roof rep suggested to embed the channel into the concrete along the perimeter to serve as gutter. The engineering company suggested that the contractor slopes the concrete layer for water management. My fear is that with 3.5 inch concrete overall layer they will make it super thick in higher areas and skinny thin in lower areas and it will not be consistent. What I was thinking is to shave the top of ICF walls to make a slight slope and then laydown / shore the LiteDeck according to that slope. This way the concrete guys would just care to pour 3.5 inches of concrete throughout the entire roof span. Could you please elaborate on this?
Yes! Your plan is excellent. Slope the roof so you can have an even pour and ensure the proper slope.
As a concrete of almost 50 yrs you couldn't pay me enough to be part of that pour. Scary as hell.
I know what you are talking about; I saw the concrete ceiling of a huge tank for a water treatment plant collapse in the middle of the pour. Things started shifting as they do when a lot of weight is added unevenly and eventually, a shoring post buckled causing a chain reaction with the others. What a mess that was! The contractor declared bankruptcy the next day.
Why is that ?
Very cool tech.
Did you ever show a rendering of what the final house will look like?
Thank you for watching! We are shooting a video this week that explains the design process and will include drawings of the final house plan. That video should be up in two weeks.
Do you have any plans within your house design to construct a column-free cantilevered ROOM/DECK with the LiteDECK solution..??? 🤔 Thanks..!!! 👍💯👌
Hi Norman! We did the garage floor with LiteDeck and it is suspended and column free over our master bedroom. It is meant to hold two cars,so I would think you could creat a cantilevered room. That would be cool!
Would you use lite deck again? There are other ways of doing a suspended slab.
I think the answer is "maybe." We really like the fact that it is insulated so that we don't lose or gain heat through the garage floor. We researched pan and pour and just though the insulation factor of LiteDeck was better. There may be a better option out there though for other homes and situations.
Looking to do something similar. I have a question as to why you chose LiteDeck and not one of the other systems, since there are several ICF Deck Systems (Amvic, BuildDeck, Insul-Deck, EPS Deck, Fortruss, and LiteDeck) available?
LiteDeck was the only one suggested by our ICF contactor.
I just came across your channel. Are you the future homeowner or the GC?
Both! We are acting GC and homeowners. The ICF crew is subcontracted but also does full custom build outs. We will have them get us dried in and then we will subcontract and/or do everything else ourselves.
Is there a way to do an icf addition and do foam over the existing structure? I've got asbestos siding in decent shape and would rather encapsulate than remove.
I'm not sure. An ICF builder in your area could at least look at what you have and give you their opinion. Good luck on your addition and thanks for watching!
Hello,
What type of roof system did you used.
What was your square feet/per dollar. We are getting ready to do a ICF build but I am still trying figure the roof system and cost.
How did you run A/C ducking??
Thank you.
Hi! We used an elastomeric roll on product for the roof. We also used Xypex in the concrete to help wit waterproofing. We are still not entirely happy with our roof as the slope was not done right and we have ponding water. Be sure to do a good slope on the concrete for the roof. We put in our own HVAC system. Here is the video on that ruclips.net/video/FqhquG0NEdw/видео.html
Thank you for your reply,
Yes, will be using an elastomeric paint finish and anything else recommended to make sure is is done right. Pitch will be 2”-3”/12”. I will look at your video for HVAC later today.
Material and installation did you came out with $14.50 per square feet.
I was recommended litedeck srs system for flooring and roof.
Oh the LiteDeck was very expensive! The elastomeric product though was less than $10 per SQ ft.
Yes I notice that too. Going to have heave to look at other systems and come up with the total cost.
Thank you.
Can I get a cost breakdown from start to finish just starting my journey into ICF and I'm just wondering what the prices are from laying the foundation to laying out the forms for the actual house thanks
Thank you for watching! It is so difficult to tell you what you might encounter with your lot and build versus ours. We had a lot of excavation work first because we are built on a steep slope. We also have a concrete roof,which is uncommon and not typically bid in an ICF house. We also have two huge concrete decks going on the back of the house. Our ICF contractor is doing all of that work, so it is hard to break it down. What I can tell you is that the US Department of housing did a research study for HUD and found that a typical ICF home only adds 3 to 5% more over a typical build. Of course this is when lumber was much less than what it is today. We figure that we actually saved money building with ICF and current lumber prices. The cost of your ICF blocks will also vary based upon your builder. Our builder builds several ICF homes and so he's able to buy semi trucks full of block. If your builder is just doing your home, he or she would not be able to get the volume discount pricing that our builder is probably getting. I would definitely encourage you to reach out to Fox blocks or a local ICF builder and just ask them if they could offer am estimated cost per SQ. Foot. What I can tell you is that we wouldn't build with anything other than ICF at this point. It's a vastly superior product to a wood, in our opinion.
@@LakeLotBuild so they did foundation as well or was that done separate from another contractor
We did the excavation separately but the ICF contractor did some of his own backfill and prep for the foundation. He poured the foundation in a monolithic pour. We have a video of that too if you want to see that process.
How many kWhS is this home
Using annually?
Not sure yet. We just got closed in and utilities on a few months ago.
2×4 do Ben when weight on it
No problem with bending since we make a "T" with two 2x4 for the bracing. It makes them very strong. We reuse the wood over and over until it finally ends up as our interior walls.
@@LakeLotBuild hope this one goes well
Why not use metal jack
Some builders do I think. It works well. We reuse the wood over and over until it finally ends up as our interior walls, so nothing is wasted.
@@LakeLotBuild I can see that
Lake Lot Build yeah if you did that type of work for a career it might be cost effective to invest in metal shoring. However for a one time project your method is better.
Looks good!
The "ruff" 🤣🤣🤣
The people on the other side of the road gonna be pissed you block their view.
We actually don't block their view because we are doing a flat roof. They are thrilled! A traditional style house with pitched roof would have taken their view.
@@LakeLotBuild that's nice. I can imagine a solid 2 story icf house replacing that single wide on the side of the hill already. Try to talk them into it.
@@LakeLotBuild what are you doing to finish your roof/waterproof it?
We added Xypex to the concrete which is a waterproofing concrete additive. In addition, we will be doing a multi-step roll on waterproofing system with a walkable surface. We will be filming all of it once we get the railing on.
@@LakeLotBuild my personal plan is to get on a building crew one day and pick up the skills to do a job like this before spending money and blowing it for lack of knowledge and experience.
I know David and his dad