My wife and I contacted Dave with ICF Homes of VA toward the beginning of 2017 as his company was one of the only ones in the state than had experience constructing ICF homes. I had wanted to build a concrete home since I was a kid living over seas in the Middle East where everything is built with concrete. As I got older I continued to read about various construction methods, and really was drawn to ICF for all the energy savings and thermal stability this type of construction brings. My thoughts were that energy prices would continue to rise even after we retire and if I could limit that expense retirement would be more comfortable.
Dave agreed to build our house even though the plans were quite smaller than his usual project because we were looking to go “All Out” with this build. ICF walls, concrete basement, 1st floor, and a slab across the roof with a stick built hip roof for looks. We incorporated rain roof capture and plumbed the house for a possible grey water system to be installed later. Indirect hydronic heating, variable speed heat pump with an air exchange system, and finally an addition Dave thought might be too much for this super insulated house, a Tulikivi wood stove. If you limit yourself to 1-2 small fires/day in winter it works like a charm 😀.
Dave sheparded us through custom design with an architect familiar with ICF construction. We broke ground on the project in late 2017, and it took about a year and a half to complete largely due to the incessant rains that we had in 2018 delaying construction progress.
Toward the end of construction, Dave did a blower door test to measure the efficiency of our house. It scored very high with a .97 air changes/hr. Not quite passive house, but Outstanding nonetheless and I believe 7X better than code requirements. We have about 5000 ft.² of conditioned space, I ended up installing a mini-split system to condition my garages. With all that our electric & gas bills runs about $210/mo.
Overall we LOVE LOVE LOVE our house and urge you to consider this method of construction. The Temperatures do not swing much with all the mass and it is the most quite house I’ve ever lived in.