Second Floor Walls of the Ventura-Gutek ICF House

Some of the second floor walls are more than 20' tall. This required some creative bracing, since the braces were designed to only support 10' high walls.

The braces were raised and the bottoms were supported with 2 x 4's screwed to the wall. The braces, themselves, were then screwed to the plastic inserts in the ICF walls as usual.
 
The walls were raised to the height of the sloping roof. Metal trusses were placed inside the block to help keep the wall straight.

This is the south side with the front entrance (on the left) and the garage door openings on the right.
 

This is the north side (back) of the house.

Concrete was pumped into the walls in sections, beginning in the west.

 

Mike will trowel the concrete after Ryan finishes pouring it into the window sill. Care with the sill level and smoothness will save lots of work later!

Andrzej hoses the excess concrete off the wall while Ryan pumps concrete into it.

Chris pumped concrete into the south wall. The roof will be poured in place after all the walls have been poured. Too bad they didn't use a vibrator because we discovered lots of air pockets around the window and door openings when the final rough openings were installed. Banging on the walls right after pouring helps, but is not enough.
 

North side (back) of the house.

Footer and slab construction.
Link to ICF wall construction.
Link to construction of second floor.
Link to ICF roof construction.
Link to stovepipe installation.
Link to insulated rubber roof installation.
Link to the window and door installation.
Link to steel framing.
Link to steel stairs installation.
Link to brick laying.
Link to overhang installation.
Link to gutter installation.
Link to electrical work.
Link to plumbing installation.
Link to septic tank installation.
Link to sheetrock/drywall installation.
Link to mudding / sheetrock finishing.
Link to painting of the walls and ceiling.
Link to the installation of the floor tile.
Link to the installation of the flexible solar panels.
Link to the installation of the exposed aggregate driveway.

Back to the ICF main page.

Web page, text, and photographs by Carol Ventura in 2006.