Long time reader(years of), first post!

[Pete89]

Hello all. I’ve been a long time reader of the forum.
We live on the border of North and South Yorkshire. I’ll just give you a little background. We have gutted, extended and renovated a 1900’s semi detached cottage around 2018 which was our first major project. We lived there for 5 years and then bought a bigger property for our growing family (which has loads of opportunities and work to do to it). 

The reason I’m posting is we have planning permission for a replacement dwelling on my wife’s family farm. It will stay in the family and not be sold so we want to make sure it is built very well and to be well insulated and airtight. I am looking at either traditional brick and block or ICF. Can anyone share their thoughts or ideally if anyone has a project ongoing or completed locally, and would like to share some advice or show us the end result it would be much appreciated. 
I know there are many people on here who have built with ICF and seam to be very pleased with it, but I don’t know their location or where to start asking. 
I hope I’m not asking to much, and thank you all in advance 

Pete
 

[Bonner]

Welcome, can’t help you with ICF but I am sure someone will be along in due course. If you search the forum, there are many who have done it.

[Thorfun]

ICF companies you approach will be able to give references and will, hopefully, have some in progress sites to visit. 

[Nickfromwales]

20 hours ago, Pete89 said:

Hello all. I’ve been a long time reader of the forum.
We live on the border of North and South Yorkshire. I’ll just give you a little background. We have gutted, extended and renovated a 1900’s semi detached cottage around 2018 which was our first major project. We lived there for 5 years and then bought a bigger property for our growing family (which has loads of opportunities and work to do to it). 

The reason I’m posting is we have planning permission for a replacement dwelling on my wife’s family farm. It will stay in the family and not be sold so we want to make sure it is built very well and to be well insulated and airtight. I am looking at either traditional brick and block or ICF. Can anyone share their thoughts or ideally if anyone has a project ongoing or completed locally, and would like to share some advice or show us the end result it would be much appreciated. 
I know there are many people on here who have built with ICF and seam to be very pleased with it, but I don’t know their location or where to start asking. 
I hope I’m not asking to much, and thank you all in advance 

Pete
 

ICF is a great choice, and you’ll be very happy.

 

I'm not a fan of woodcrete, so my advice would be to go with the EPS based systems.

 

My experiences are direct, not hypothetical, as I’ve worked with a lot of self builders and have been on all types of projects, through to PH / PH+ and beyond, with the benefit of these being anything from masonry EnerPHit style refurbishments, to turnkey TF, and all types of ICF.

 

Seen the good, bad, and ugly.

 

Good to see you getting this in check before breaking ground, as early planning will pay huge dividends later on. 

[RedRhino]

We have built brick and block as well as ICF. 
We lived in our ICF house for 7 years - when I measured the gas bill it was £365 per year, in other words £1 per day. You start saying it is not worth insulating any more than that. It's a good system and living inside so much thermal mass is beneficial. 

Our builder had to go on a training course, and with oversight from the supplier all went well. 

[dustyb]

55 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

ICF is a great choice, and you’ll be very happy.

 

I'm not a fan of woodcrete, so my advice would be to go with the EPS based systems.

 

My experiences are direct, not hypothetical, as I’ve worked with a lot of self builders and have been on all types of projects, through to PH / PH+ and beyond, with the benefit of these being anything from masonry EnerPHit style refurbishments, to turnkey TF, and all types of ICF.

 

Seen the good, bad, and ugly.

 

Good to see you getting this in check before breaking ground, as early planning will pay huge dividends later on. 

Could I ask why not a fan of the woodcrete ICF system? That was the one I would probably lean towards but have no experience in any

[Nickfromwales]

1 hour ago, dustyb said:

Could I ask why not a fan of the woodcrete ICF system? That was the one I would probably lean towards but have no experience in any

Just using a porous block which has a continuous woodcrete bridge from external leaf to the internal

leaf, doesn’t bode well.
 

Needs a lot more detailing, such as parge coat for airtightness, but it’s just very poor vs EPS and let’s rainwater through which is annoying and caused delays on a previous project.

 

If you’re rendering, it’s also much more of a process to get it to a point where the walls are flat / smooth enough to flat(single)-coat.

 

Nudura are very good blocks, and are 8’ long so produce much straighter walls and fill area faster.

 

PM me if you need a good ICF installer to do founds / frame / roof / floors & walls etc via one contractor. 

[JohnMo]

As @Nickfromwales is aware my real life view of woodcrete ICF is very different from his.

 

We have never had any water come through the walls, no damp issues period, 5 years and counting since the walls went up. Yes we did parge coat to the inner wall for airtightness, 2 days work. We then attached 50mm battens (service void) and then plasterboard.

 

Out of all the systems (Durisol) was easiest for me, no special props required etc. Just simple had tools.

[Nickfromwales]

I wasn’t referring to damp issues, just that during the construction phase there was a lot of rain that made its way indoors, or had soaked into the lower sections of the interior woodcrete leaf.

 

Not an issue with EPS, but it’s less DIY friendly (depending on what block you go for).

 

I'd steer well clear of Velox, had loads of blowouts with that. 
 

 

[ToughButterCup]

On 16/01/2026 at 19:48, Pete89 said:

....

I know there are many people on here who have built with ICF and seam to be very pleased with it, but I don’t know their location or where to start asking. 
I hope I’m not asking to much, and thank you all in advance 

Pete
 

 

M6 Preston area. PM me if you're passing. 2 minutes from the motorway.

Ian

[Nickfromwales]

I’d just say beware anyone of anyone who is partisan because they’ve used one system. 
 

I’ve been fortunate to work with multiples, warts and all, so am giving a balanced and real life overview from hands-on experiences.