I am looking at doing an ICF basement, just wondering peoples thoughts on it vs the traditional way pro's and con's. And where to purchase the blocks at for a good price, around the Edmonton area. :d
You will not be disapointed with an ICF foundation, various different brands out there to look at. Pro's....one time deal once set up and pured, no frost wall framing insulation to do, easy to wire. Don't look at the initial cost as being a con, sure it's more upfront, but well worth the money. I did mine 1 1/2 years ago, (footprint of house was 1004, attached garage 765..yep, need the big toy box!) and cost of the block plus rental of the bracing system was around 11k delivered from Ponoka. Give Earl or Lorne a call at Bingeman Construction out of Ponoka, great guys to deal with. They also run installer courses quite frequently, and for someone doing it themselves, they will come out and supervise parts of the set-up, and help with the pour.
I used Logix blocks last year on a job. If you know how to build Lego, you can do ICF blocks. There's a company just north of the yellowhead on 184 st that was called Manstar, now they've changed there name but they had some good prices on the Logix blocks.
Logix also has training seminars that you can look into.
Good luck with the build.
There are quite a few different brands of icf available. Advanced form, Logix, and arxx to name a few. Arxx is available at ufa and logix i would go through bingemen construction in lacombe/ponoka. Personally have only used logix in my life and the whole icf system is the only way to do a foundation in my opinion. With the insulation value, lack of drafts and ease of use. Definately the warmest basements i have ever been in.
I helped my neighbor build his house with these foam blocks all the way up to the roof trusses and the only disadvantage that i saw was the deep sills around the doors and windows. Women love it to stick there trickets on but just a dust collector to me. Very, very easy to do. I bleieve his were from Beaver Plastics on Yellowhead.