Arizona homeowner’s family goals dictated ICF as only choice of building material
text by Stacey Enesey Klemenc
photography by The RUDD COMPANY
When homeowners Jamie and Scott Bourdo decided to build their family a home in Chandler, Ariz., there were four things on their must-have list.
They wanted the house to be low maintenance and energy efficient. They wanted it to accommodate entertaining groups large and small. And, perhaps the most important of all, they wanted a well-designed house where their young children could comfortably grow up into early adulthood.
“The goal of the owners is to live in this house for 20-plus years,” says Robert Klob, president of Robert Klob Designs (www.rkdzns.com) based in Chandler and the architect who designed the home. Because of the insulating concrete forms (ICFs) structural superiority, “ICFs were integral from the beginning.”
Curved radius walls made with ICFs were not a problem for Kye Leslie, a veteran ICF installer.
ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN
Klob, who has worked with a variety of ICFs for the past 10 years and has designed more than 100 ICF projects and consulted on more than 100 more throughout North America, was very familiar with the Nudura system selected by Bourdo, who doubled as the general contractor. Klob says he has a vignette ICF wall in his office complete with cutouts that show how an entire Nudura wall system works together. “That helped the owners and design/build team see the ICFs in action,” he says.
The architect, who has programmed his company’s CAD system to draw up plans based on specific ICF brands, stresses the importance of integrating into the design the actual size of the block system, which in this case was 8 feet long, 18 inches high and 11¼ inches thick (2⅝-inch foam on each side with a 6-inch concrete core).
“These measurements were used in the layout so the overall and interior walls matched the block sizing — minimizing waste,” Klob explains. If clients change their minds about which ICF they’re using, the program will automatically update to accommodate new sizes and generate a revised set of plans. “It’s really key to your success to have your dimensions right on the money so contractors don’t have to make adjustments in the field to line things up. Not to mention it’s extremely expensive to move a concrete wall.”
The 5,200-square-foot main floor of the Bourdo residence encompasses a large entry foyer and rotunda, four bedrooms including an expansive master suite, five baths, a home office, a play room, gathering room, formal dining room, breakfast nook, utility room, several galleries and two kitchens.
To help keep the Bourdo home energy efficient, Energy Star-rated appliances are installed throughout the home, including the family’s main kitchen. Separating the kitchen from the dining room is a butler pantry and service bar.
The family kitchen, featuring a large island with bar seating, opens up to the gathering room. A “dirty” kitchen with a huge walk-in pantry is tucked behind the main cookery and can be closed off when not in use. The gathering room, which also could be called a great room, has two 16-foot openings with multifold doors. One opens up to an interior courtyard while the other opens to a patio and a well-appointed pool area beyond — a great perk when it comes to entertaining large parties, something the homeowners do often.
Roughly U-shaped with several interesting architectural projections, the main house is designed around an ample courtyard to take advantage of the Phoenix area’s typical 300-plus days of sunshine each year. Besides providing a perfect setting for year-round outside activities, the courtyard allows surrounding rooms and corridors to be bathed in natural light much of the day through an abundance of doors and windows.
The sprawling residence also features a detached six-car garage, as well as a separate one for an RV; a man cave for the guys; a stable for the horses the family may own someday; and a guest casita, which the homeowners envision will one day be a mother-in-law’s suite for one of their parents.
A shade trellis marking the entrance to a large motor court is one of the home’s many passive solar designs.
PLEASING QUALITIES
Unlike the shoebox designs many architects used in the past when ICFs were involved, “The Bourdo residence has lots of ins and outs and corners,” Klob says, and plenty of curves pleasing to the eye.
He credits this accomplishment to Kye Leslie, general manager of Leslie Construction in Apache Junction, Ariz. “He’s one of the top installers of this system,” Klob says, “and can install curves, angles and corners as specified without any issues.”
“Radius walls and arched windows are really easy to do with ICFs,” says Leslie, whose company specializes in ICFs. “They’re a lot easier to work with than having to frame with wood.”
In particular, Leslie praises Nudura for its blocks’ built-in interlocking system. “You don’t have to glue them or clip them,” he says. “And that saves a lot of time.” He also points out the blocks fold down, so they ship and store easier.
As for ICFs in general, Leslie continues, “I like the fact that concrete homes are structurally sound, airtight and well-insulated.” And after the exterior walls have been erected, “You drywall on the inside and on the outside you put a traditional treatment like stucco, brick or siding — just like you would with stick building.”
And you can’t beat this system when it comes to energy efficiency. “I live in a 2,700-square-foot house that I built with ICFs and my electric bill in the summer is half of what it was when I lived in a traditional 1,200-square-foot house,” Leslie says.
ENERGY EFFICIENT PLUS
With an ICF house, the energy-efficient savings start before the first electric bill is sent. In the Bourdo home, the main residence required only two mechanical systems with 8 tons of HVAC. Comparatively, Klob says, a frame structure of its size would require a minimum of three systems and roughly 13 tons.
“The ICF walls were used to create a complete building envelope with high energy-efficient windows and doors, a 6-inch- thick insulated slab and expansive foam in the roof along the top chords of the trusses,” Klob says. “This was key to the long-term savings on energy costs in the years to come.”
The lot dictated that the home have a north/south exposure. Klob took full advantage of this by designing only one window and two doors on the west side, where the heat-of- the-day sun is hottest in Phoenix. The rooms with those openings are the pantry and laundry room, which block additional heat gain to the home. The design also provides shade for the courtyard during the heat of the day. “In addition, some of the larger detached structures cast shadows over the pool and some entertaining areas, making them usable even during hot summer afternoons,” Klob says.
The rotunda off the main entry foyer leads to an interior courtyard where outdoor gatherings are held regularly.
CONSTRUCTION UNDER WAY
The installation of the ICF wall systems was scheduled to last two weeks. During that time, Phoenix got hit with one of the largest rainfall storms of the year. Luckily, the walls had been set and braced prior to the storm and concrete placement was completed after the storm subsided — all within the original schedule.
“We just lost a couple of days due to the weather,” Klob says. Some neighboring builders weren’t as fortunate, he adds, as some of their wood-framed walls collapsed.
Carl LeCompte, at the time owner of LeCompte Engineering in Phoenix and now senior structural engineer with Washington River Protection Solutions, said ICF is probably the strongest residential system around. “The challenges are usually making sure the bars are in the right place and educating subcontractors who are new to the process.”
LeCompte, who was the structural engineer on the Bourdo design/build team, stresses the importance of using the right amount of rebar. “If your engineer is familiar with the material and system he can substantially reduce your overhead. I’ve worked on a couple of projects where I’ve redone the design and saved the owners several times my fee by reducing the rebar.”
Klob agrees with LeCompte’s line of thinking. “One of the problems (of) people unfamiliar with ICFs is they don’t understand the fundamental concept. They think ‘if one is good then five are better.’ But if you put in five times the steel, it becomes five times as expensive. A good structural engineer will show you where you need less concrete and less steel by letting the pre-engineered block work for you.”
Klob noted the biggest obstacle the design/build team encountered on this job was the subs who had never worked with ICFs. For example, Klob says, he watched an electrician score a section of a wall with a utility knife and then painstakingly pluck out small sections of foam with pliers. “I went over there and told him he could use a circular saw or even a chain saw or a hot knife to cut channels for the electrical wire because he wasn’t going to hurt the concrete.”
Once the subs got the hang of ICFs, Klob says, they couldn’t say enough good things about them. The plumbers said the installation is “faster, easier and cleaner,” much easier to work with than wood. The drywall contractor also was impressed, saying the walls were straighter than those stick-built, and anchored more securely with screws. All trades involved with the project thought ICFs were simple, easy and effective, and were looking forward to working with them again, Klob says.
But the story doesn’t end here. “This home backs up to a higher-end production home development,” Klob says. “The developer, K. Hovnanian Homes, sent several of its trades and many of its corporate staff to tour this home during construction.” The home, which calculates to be 40 percent better than what the International Code Council requires, also caught the attention of the vice president of Meritage Homes, who toured the home early on to review the ICF walls. And now, Klob says, “Meritage is looking into using ICFs as an option for its new ‘green’ developments.”
In addition to the ICF exterior walls, the Bourdo home features several eco-friendly characteristics including a steel roof, foam insulation in the attic, natural stones, a solar water heating system and Energy Star-rated appliances.
All in all, Klob says he’s been very pleased with the outcome of this project. “The electric bill is substantially less than it would be for a traditionally built home. The other nice thing was that we were able to capitalize on building this home at a third of the price than we would have four years ago.”
A specially designed RV garage is part of an extensive complex that houses everything from a boat and all-terrain vehicles to jet skis and cars. opposite The main entrance features ICF columns clad in stone from quarries less than 500 miles away and a shade trellis.
Stacey Enesey Klemenc is a free-lance writer and editor in Virginia Beach, Va. She has worked with the residential building industry in various capacities for more than 20 years.