New ICF time-lapse videos

11 years ago

Time-lapse video/photography updates on the build, for all who are interested:

Note that near the end of this one, I began employing a new camera - one of those $100 hunting cams. My DSLR was blown off the mountain. It fared well, actually, and still works fine, but it scared me enough to consider $100 of insurance. The images aren't as great, so there's more artifact in the movies, especially in low light, but it's still good enough to see what's going on. If you can see at the speed of light. :)

The old ones...

Basement Partition Walls

- Deck and Pour

excavation and site prep

plumb and slab

http://youtu.be/E1TwcsBnd4Q -- walls

Comments (10)

sweet.reverie
11 years ago
Very cool!
gaonmymind
11 years ago
love your vids!
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dbrad_gw
11 years ago
Love your videos - thanks for posting! I need to figure out how to do time lapses like this myself - we are planning on starting our build next year and I'd love to have this kind of history of the build.
doubletagger
Original Author
11 years ago
@dBrad: start thinking first about locations. When it's time for excavation, there may be some options for where piles are pushed, and you may be able to say: "can you push a pile right here?" -- having a nice perch for your camera makes a big difference. It's usually pretty late in the project that they need to pull the mountain(s) down for backfill or final grading, though if you've got a basement digout and a story on top, like we do, be aware that the backfill after the basement level is done will take some of the material.

Otherwise, consider trees, other buildings, etc., that may do the trick at getting your angle on affairs.

Re: cameras: I mentioned that I recently got one of these time-lapse cameras, made specifically for the task. One thing I don't like is that it tries to bump the ISO way up as the evening comes on, so, rather than a fade-to-black you get a nice fade-to-noise. ISO noise is then made even worse when you lace the pics into a movie. I'm sure there's a way to filter it out some, but it would be nicest if the camera let you max the ISO, or something. When I was using my DSLR, I just used it in manual mode, so there was never any lighting adjustment, which wasn't always optimal when I didn't get things just right at the start of the morning and, e.g., wound up with over-exposed pictures most of the day (easy to do with an all-white ICF house). So, there are some small challenges whatever way you go.
dbrad_gw
11 years ago
Hmm ok, thanks. Definitely some things to think about.
lazy_gardens
11 years ago
WOW! That is the answer to some design dilemmas we're running into.

1 - Do they need propping up while you pour the concrete?

2 - What is cost per 100sq feet?
lazy_gardens
11 years ago
I was referring to the insuldeck flooring
doubletagger
Original Author
11 years ago
@lazygardens: What design dilemmas are you running into?

1) Yes, usually every 6-8 feet of run you'll need a partition wall, below, or will have to build an elle and prop it up with scaffolding other jack/bracing.

2) I don't have a ready figure for you on cost - you may be more successful getting data like that from your local sales rep.

Note that it can be pretty versatile stuff. E.g., you can build beams "into" an insuldeck using rebar and pouring to an engineered beam spec. You can pour and stamp your concrete floor and take care of your deck insulation, decking, and finish floor in one fell swoop. Etc.
lazy_gardens
11 years ago
The house we are planning is an "American Foursquare" (it's a cube, just a cube with verandas). Want to be as zero-net energy as possible in a temperate climate (Socorro NM).

That gives us a lot of design dilemmas ... maybe features :)

This flooring material gives us:
1 - 20 foot clear spans in some rooms
2 - easy in-floor heating/cooling (solar-heated) so the thermal mass in the floors would be good.
3 - good substrate for tile
4 - easy to attach ceiling finish for first floor
5 - easy to run wires and control cables in ceilings
6 - low sound transmission flooring

We looked at AAC slab flooring (no pour, it arrives ready to "drop and top"), which is still under consideration, but we had not spotted the related ICF floor products.

One real bonus is the ability to pour floor and walls beneath it in a single pour ... zero infiltration around the perimeter with that method, and we could pour the verandas as an integral part of the house.

One remaining question ... how long before you can take the scaffolding down?

Here is a link that might be useful: Really close to the interior layoutt, but we'll have more baths
doubletagger
Original Author
11 years ago
"how long": 1 week usually does it. You're right on all of your points. The sound-abatement is unbeatable, of course. One point: "easy to run wires" -- this is especially true in one direction, but cutting across the grain is not always a sinch b/c the metal "studs" can try to get in the way. It's still fairly easy, but not as easy as cutting with the grain. Also note that it does take a little bit of time cutting out the ICF material atop the deck, to get the continuous pour into the walls below. But it's worth it.

And I like concrete better than gypcrete. Insuldeck floors really are nice products.