Today the construction of the daylight basement walls began. The South (front ) of the house will be at grade level with a drive in two car garage and the rest of the basement will contain 2 bedrooms a bathroom and a bonus room. For the foundation walls we opted to use ICFs ( Insulated Concrete Forms ). We choose to use this construction method for the entire basement level.
There are many advantages to using ICFs. The construction process is faster, as forms do not need to be removed after the foundation is poured. For the interior of the basement it is not necessary to fur in the wall, and insulate to create a livable space. After the ICF wall is constructed, drywall may be attached directly to the ICF wall. Electrical and Plumbing chases can be cut into the ICF wall with a variety of methods. All of these things save time in the construction process.
We are going with a 14 inch wall and using
Quadlock ICFs. The concrete cavity is 8 inches and each foam panel is 3 inches thick, 12 inches high and 4 feet long. A metal guide is nailed into the footing and the first row of foam board is attached to the channel using spray foam. The panels are joined to each other using plastic ties placed into pre cut openings in the panels. These plastic ties are strong enough to be anchors for drywall and siding. The tops of the panels look like legos and each subsequent row is placed on top just like building a lego house as a kid. The plastic ties have channels cut into them specifically for the purpose of holding rebar to strengthen the foundation walls.
Ended up getting rained out on Monday. The materials were delivered and some work done, but the rain won. Here are some pictures from Tuesday.
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| Northwall |
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| First row of ICFs. Northwest Corner. |
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| More ICFs |
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| Starting to look like a wall |
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| ICFs with ties attached |
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| Had to extend the footing a bit due to a slight miscalculation |
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