Why is Concrete So Much Better?

Concrete forms an integral, continuous wall, surrounded by a continuous layer of foam insulation. In comparison, wood-frame walls are composed of many pieces: studs, sheet rock, sheathing, and insulation. The result is potential air leaks at each connection. The continual insulation of ICF walls virtually eliminates cold spots, keeping your house at a more even temperature.

The concrete walls of an ICF home also have high thermal mass, which buffers the interior of the home from the extremes of outdoor temperature and prevents large swings in indoor temperature as the furnace or air conditioner cycles on and off.

Concrete walls are also extraordinarily air tight. The interlocking foam forms, sealed with continuously poured concrete, of an ICF wall cut air infiltration (drafts) sharply. In tests, ICF walls prevented between one-half and one-third of air infiltration experienced in a typical frame house.

Finally, the mass of concrete walls provides a drastic reduction in the amount of noise entering an ICF home. In sound transmission tests, ICF walls allowed less than one-third the sound than did a typical wood-frame house. During the tests, researchers would describe speech on the opposite side of a frame wall as “audible, but not intelligible. "On the opposite side of an ICF wall, a listener would “strain to hear” the virtually “inaudible” speech.

Concrete walls built with ICFs buffer a home’s interior from the outside world. For a quiet, comfortable haven, choose concrete.

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