In creating a LEED Platinum home in Fennville, Michigan, builder Jake Vierzen knew keeping the ICF home’s window-rich walls facing south delivered passive solar warming and cooling in the design of Prickly Pear Sanctuary. The south side is completely open, “and that allows that solar heat to be in all

One of the leading builders of ICF homes in Michigan arrived at his concrete work with more than a decade of home construction experience. What Jake Vierzen has used in his ascent at his R-Value Homes is a high standard. He built homes for 11 years before starting R-Value, which

By Dave Gowers With energy efficiency increasingly becoming the focus of both commercial and residential construction, we must seriously consider ICF construction as being a realistic solution to this energy efficiency demand. But what does Zero Net Energy mean? Simply put, any structure designed for zero net energy must generate

By Dave Gowers As natural disasters sweep our nation, awareness is rapidly growing that building with Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF) has the ability to prevent significant tragic damage to home and personal safety. Building with disaster-resistant methods such as ICF pose a solution to three very topical and urgent requirements:

RPM International Inc. has acquired Nudura Corp., a leading manufacturer and distributor of insulated concrete forms in North America. This addition, which is expected to be accretive to its earnings within a year, is an excellent strategic fit for RPM, providing key competitive advantages to Dryvit business. However, the terms

BluBloc, a Portland, Oregon, ICF block company, has achieved approval the from International Code Council approval. Their block is made from 85 percent recycled ground Styrofoam and mixed with 15 percent portland cement, which is then formed into building blocks. The company produces and sells a cementitious “stay in place”

Current US construction activity is ahead of peak 2007 levels and we’re doing it with half a million fewer workers. Everyone in the construction business knows there’s a labor and skills shortage, and that shortfall is driving the trend in offsite construction. It just makes sense that the more you