ConorB

Wondering if anyone's got a step by step guide to fitting limestone window cills into an Amvic ICF wall? Cills are 220mm in width, so with a 50mm overhang it sits on 70mm of the concrete core. Will they sag under their own weight and lean forward onto the outer leaf? Also, do I need to set the cills in Mortar? Total newbie trying to fit cills here!

Suppose the slip adhesive acts as water barrier in that system whereas standard building stone mortar is not technically a barrier. Eitherways, Any moisture would have to make its way through outer ICF plus 150mm concrete plus another 150mm inner ICF to cause any damage. Will probably still use a concrete board for peace of mind. The limestone slips I want to use are chunky enough so think it's best solution. Working out around €16 per sqm to buy plus fixings.

Any idea how thick that stone was or what weight it had per m2?

Mentioned this to my engineer and talked with raft manufacturer but in the end didn't go for it. I'm still looking for ways to stick natural stone veneer to EPS. A stonemason suggested I fasten concrete board direct to ICF then stick stone onto it.. could be a good alternative?

Hi Paddy, I'm wanting to apply real stone veneer onto my ICF. I've sort of come to the same conclusion here that the best method might be to screw cement board direct to ICF webs with a vapour control membrane in between. Then apply adhesive to stick 1.5" stone slips to the board. The stone is around 80kg/m2. Most of the stone companies will only stand over the manufactured stone (<25kg/m2) sticking direct to ICF. Do you anyone who's gone with this approach and had success or otherwise? Any other ideas for attaching real stone slips to ICF? Any thoughts from anybody appreciated.

Hi, Had natural building stone as exterior in plans. Have specified an insulated raft foundation and engineer isn't happy to specify a separate strip outside the raft to hold the weight of stone due to potential for variation in settlement rates. So I'm left looking at using brick slips. Has anybody got a good detail using expanding mesh to help hold the load from the brick slips? I'd like a heavier cut slip, maybe 30mm thick cut which is heavier than the slimline ones which can be stuck on. Also, do I definitely need to have a scratch coat applied before applying stone and is there any concern with putting expanding mesh/wall ties through the external leaf at regular intervals? Maybe an issue during pour or potentially a water ingress route? Thanks for any input! Conor

The two roofs are pretty simple A-Framed gable roofs. Airtightness I suppose would be achieved with membrane wrapping around the perimeter down onto the inner leaf ICF wall. Good carpenters are hard to come by but I do have a friend in mind who I think would be happy to put up a standard trussed roof for me. Noise is not an issue and as I'm in Ireland, heat waves are fairly uncommon! Not easy to make a decision for sure. Think I'm leaning towards a pre-made truss with a simpler cold roof detail. The attic space is not going to be used for anything other than storage so reckon might make more sense for cost reasons to go that route.

Hi all, hoping to drag this topic open again! About to start self building an ICF house with raft foundation. Looking at using the Castleform wall & raft systems and am fairly happy with my choice there. For the roof though, I'm finding it hard to pick between the Thermohouse panels and a standard pre-framed truss roof. Has anybody ran the figures and got a cost comparison for finishing out a warm roof space? Based in Ireland. House design relatively simple T-shaped plan with a flat roof joining 2 A-roofs. One A-roof single story vaulted and the other a standard 2story. Any advice is greatly appreciated! Conor