the RUPPERT companies
When I left Europe and arrived to Canada in 2001, I was already familiar with
the average North-American wood frame construction that homebuilders and
contractors had been using for building subdivisions as well as custom homes &
dream homes. However, I never understood, how they can settle with that, while
ICF was already available and in an advanced stage (since then the ICF
technology has undergone even more improvements and continues to be an
amazing system to build with). To me it made no sense to keep using traditional
lumber when everyone saw the typical damages wood frame homes could suffer
often within a few years of being built. I was also surprised when mature people
were fighting against mold, rotten wall structures, all kinds of pesticides, not to
mention constant insulation and draft issues just to find out that these same
people when they built their next home used 2x6 again and soon continued
basically from where they left the previous home. I know, the fresh new paint
and other brand new finishes could be very attractive, but is that really enough?
In my eyes although the finishes are what we actually see, they make up only a
fraction of the real built in value of a home. The non visible structure is what
really defines a well built home. Don’t get me wrong, my background is interior
design and I highly and truly appreciate beautifully executed finishes! But just
like I won’t start adding all kinds of extras and costly after-market gadgets onto
an unreliable car, I also demand a solid, good foundation base to build my home
finishes on, especially, when that good foundation doesn’t even cost much more
to build. (As a designer I quickly realized that with preplanning, good strategies
and design, exquisite spaces could be created often without being any more
expensive.)
The Insulated Concrete Form technology is a great solution for today’s home
construction and it has been becoming more popular every year. Builders know
this and smart homeowners know this, too. The market for these highly efficient
and well livable residences is constantly and rapidly growing as people are
trying to act more responsible towards their environment and be more
economical for their own sake. When all these benefits come with a perfect, cozy
home feeling who would be against that?
The benefits of ICF - Insulated Concrete Form technology
The technology creates one of the best living environment. The result is a non
allergic interior with less dust and pollen coupled with exceptionally low utility
costs.
Flexibility in design
Today’s ICF systems can accommodate any kind of exiting
architectural design and enable the builders to create even
organic wall shapes just as well as traditional layouts.
Interior and exterior wall finishes
The foam web-blocks are engineered to make life simple. Once the
concrete is poured into the forms and the structure of the wall is ready drywall
could be screwed right into the embedded plastic web that is 16” oc (8"+ 8").
The same web could be used on the exterior for installing siding or masonry
clips for stone veneer. Applying stucco right onto the surface is a very obvious
and economical solution, too.
Insulation
While the foam gives you perfect instant insulation the concrete core provides a
superb thermal mass. This translates into airtight (draft less) walls and
structures that are able to withhold their temperatures and evenly radiate it for a
long time. Once you heat them up, the walls are radiating the heat even after
the furnace got turned off. The reverse is the case in the summer, when the
whole building is easily retaining the cold air you got through the night making
the use of air conditioning almost completely unnecessary. When you add
radiant floor heating to the equation you will have a ductless system and the
coziest home on Earth. All these features easily lead to more than 50% saving
on heating, cooling.
Another great advantage is that with the use of ICF you are eliminating the
thermo-bridges; there are no un-insulated parts of the wall (i.e. studs) where the
cold temperature could be sneaking into the house causing cold spots. In an
ICF home you find evenly warm, heated surfaces along the exterior walls, too. It
is not just comfortable, but healthy as well.
Bugs? What bugs?
When you decide to build your home with ICF you don’t just shut the door in
front of bothering outside noises (cars, lawn mowers, etc.), but also keep mice,
termites and other bugs out of the house. Forget about rotting from inside, that
creates a dangerously unhealthy environment you don’t even know about until
you open up your wall cavities. With ICF there are no cavities at all.
Fire, earthquake, high winds - bring them on!
Well, almost. After these disasters the owner of an ICF home most probably has
to do some re-decoration only. Surface damages usually cased by flying debris
and parts of other buildings during storms have to be touched up.
Cost
Building a home with ICF exterior walls, as opposed to the 2x6 structure, makes
no financial difference in the end. ICF technology produces less waste, enables
efficient construction of insulated walls, and effectively reduces the amount of
additional trade work. Although the ICF construction is about 0.5 – 5% more
expensive, the higher difference usually applies when customers opt for
upgraded features that may include radiant floor heating and upgraded
products elsewhere in the building to further enhance its overall quality. Any
type and style of home could be built from ICF and the minimal extra cost will be
recovered in the first two years or even sooner. However, the owner of an ICF
building is enjoying their unmatched home comfort right from the beginning and
continues to do so for generations.
How do we get into the picture?
RUPPERT contracting ltd. represents great people who are passionate about
construction and creating structures that will stand up for a long time serving
their owners functionally with an added value of individual design. Our staff has
a wealth of diverse experience in all areas of construction and we take extreme
pride of workmanship in all our projects. When we build homes it is critical to
establish a strong relationship with the customer. This is part of the job as
thousands of details have to be discussed together and we always enjoy these
times. We believe that only good materials and technologies are worth spending
money on and when someone is looking for the best wall structure, ICF is the
answer. We, at RUPPERT contracting ltd. endorse ICF and are proud to apply it
in our projects.
If we have triggered your interest, I encourage you to contact us and we’ll try to
answer all your questions and show you actual sample products. I personally
love the technology so much that no time is bad time for me to talk about it.
Best regards,
Zoltan Ruppert
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| ________________________________________________________________________ Phone: 416-939-6029 Fax: 905-508-3719 e-mail: zruppert@homesbyruppert.com |
Insulated Concrete Form
