ICF (insulated concrete formwork) is a way of building houses which is greatly promoted by many building experts in the world. ICF blocks are made of EPS with hollow cores inside. When we build houses, we put steel rebars inside, then fill the hollow cores with concrete. After it cures, the concrete can work as the load-bearing part and eps can work as the insulation layer. It has the advantages of easy operation, fast construction speed, heat preservation and insulation, earthquake proof, etc.
Let’s talk about the advantages in detail.
1.It has a good function of heat insulation and it can save the energy.
ICF blocks are made from EPS, it is a kind of building structure with closed cell polystyrene. Both the internal and external has a minimum 5mm thickness, after pouring concrete, the heat conductivity coefficient of the wall is only 0.03. The heat insulation result of a wall of 250mm thickness is equal to that of a 3200mm-thick brick wall. In very cold winter, when the outside temperature is -5℃, the room temperature is 10℃. In summer, when the outside temperature is 33℃, the room temperature is 26℃. This greatly reduces the energy consumed by heating and cooling and plays an important role in the environmental protection.
2. Seamless installation, easy and fast.
ICF has different shapes and sizes. It can make different types of walls. On each side of the block are male and female connection parts, on the surface there are grooves. During construction, we can easily connect the blocks and make seamless walls which avoid the leakage of concrete and ensure the strength.
Normally the height of ICF blocks is 30cm, after installing two or three layers of blocks, we pour the concrete. After pouring, we can immediately continue installing the blocks, no need to wait until the concrete cures. This also makes the speed faster.
This kind of fabricated construction lowers the labor cost a lot and speed up the construction. To build a two-story villa of 200m2, it takes less than 1 month, it is at least one time faster than traditional brick houses.
3. Fire proof.
ICF blocks are made from fire-retardant eps. Besides, after the house is completed, both the internal and external walls have a layer of concrete. It can greatly increase its fire-proof function. Test shows that it can reach B1 grade of fire-proof. Even there is a fire, it can’t spread fast. After the fire is put off, the burning is stopped immediately.
4. The whole structure has great capability of anti-seismic.
The floor slab is the same as traditional frame structure buildings, it uses cast-in-place reinforced concrete floor. In this way, the structure of the whole house is integrated, so it has a good anti-seismic performance. The house made of ICF can stand a magnitude-8 earthquake.
5. Cheap price.
Comparing to traditional brick houses, houses made of ICF blocks are cheaper. Take a 200m2 two-story villa, its material cost is about 105USD/㎡, the labor cost is very low, it is only about 21.5USD/㎡, less than 40% of brick houses. So the total cost is about 15% lower.
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