Glazing position on ICF

[EverHopefull]

Thinking as you do at 3am this morning.

If you were building with Nudura and the house was "upside down" with lounge upstairs and were planning wide opening glazed units. Would the really heavy glazed units have to sit centred on the concrete middle of the ICF?

Is this the same for all windows and doors?

I was thinking of the visual appearance as well as the structural and thermal issues.

Would you be able to have block and beam floors on the first floor?

[Jeremy Harris]

It makes a lot of sense to have the windows in the middle, so there's insulation outboard of their location.  Apart from being structurally a lot easier, it will tend to reduce the thermal bridge around the outside of the frames a bit, too.

 

Although not ICF, I made sure all our doors and windows were set into the insulation layer, so well back from the outside face of the walls, in order to reduce thermal bridging a bit.

[EverHopefull]

Makes sense. I was concerned about putting weight on the outer I insulated layers but am determined to have level thresholds on the door system.

[Jeremy Harris]

Our external door cills are fitted to the finished surface of the slab, which is level with the base of the walls, so the only additional thickness we have is the floor covering (about 14 to 15mm).  That's about as level as you can get, I think, as the bottom edge of our doors only clears the finished floor by about 8mm, and I don't think it's very practical to have much less than this clearance at the bottom of an external door.

[EverHopefull]

That's fine but the wide track for sliding units in my present house cause a step of 10cm  high and 35cm wide between inside and outside. More step onto the track than over. New house has to be flush tracking.

[willbish]

Depending on how thick the outer insulation of your ICF is, I can see why you may want to move your windows and doors towards the outside for aesthetics.

For a large glass door, sitting it on the concrete core would make sense from a structural perspective though. Although it may be possible, by adding some steel that would cantilever the door over the insulation, to move the door out.

 

My windows will be installed in ply boxes so they can be moved closer to the outside but will have insulation surrounding the frames.

 

Block and beam as a first floor, yes no problem.

Pour the ICF up to height required for the beams to bear on, subsequent ICF poured on top.

 

Edited March 2, 2019 by willbish

[Jeremy Harris]

6 minutes ago, EverHopefull said:

That's fine but the wide track for sliding units in my present house cause a step of 10cm  high and 35cm wide between inside and outside. More step onto the track than over. New house has to be flush tracking.

 

I'm at a bit of a loss to understand how any supplier can sell a non-Part M compliant threshold, so the 100mm bit seems really puzzling.  Part M is pretty clear, so threshold steps inside and outside cannot be higher than 15mm IIRC.

 

Edited to add:

 

Just found the details referred to in Part M for accesible thresholds.  Any new door should comply with this:

 

Edited March 2, 2019 by JSHarris
Added more info

[Adam2]

Mounting on concrete seems logical and what I would want though check fixing methods allowed as some may only use straps rather than fixings through the frames. Straps will need an amount of solid area inside the frame.