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We are at the planning stage with a small Timberframe over a Insulated Concrete Form/block basement. I’m a First-timer with the ICFs. Any words of wisdom? or problems anyone has experienced. My distributors’ experience is with reg frames and whole house projects not timberframe.
Derek Johnson
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Derek- Assuming you are going to frame a floor off your ICF foundation I can't imagine what sort of special challenges a timberframe would present in the use of ICF system.
How you attach your posts to your floor seems to be the issue. I know some timberframes have a ledge poured so I suppose that might be a problem with ICFs. But it seems like there ought to be a way to put those efficent and easy to work with forms into the timberframe plan. Good luck.
*Our timberframer specs 10" walls though I am not sure that this is at all necessary. This leaves 4" to support the SIP's which probably don't need any support since they are nailed and glued to the frame. An ICF foundation should work well.
*Derek, That's what I'm currently doing. I need some details on exactly how you're tying all of this together. What are you thinking about for flooring? I mean are you planning on timberframing the floor joists, a hybred or? There is an easy way and a much more difficult way to approach this. Are you planning on a DIY approach or are you going to try to contract this out? If you want to contract it, forget it. your contractor will do it his way and if you try to tell him what to do you won't like the complications you run into. If you're doing it yourself are you planning on designing it yourself or use a kit or hire that done too? If you have it designed, that detail will be spelled out for you too so again forget about it. I don't suggest that to get you to hire it done, rather to tell you that you can do it yourself if you want to. I may get flamed when I say this but most professional builders have very little formal training. They've learned by rote/experiance how to do things. I designed everything my self because I wanted to. It was fun and I checked everything against the manual and building code. Code and the timber construction manual will tell you the minimum you need to do. I overbuilt because I could and I wanted to, but you don't have to to get a nice home. This conversation can get very long so why don't you E-mail me and we'll discuss everything...