RESIDENTIAL PROJECTS
At Up to Kode, our goal is to take the stress out of your home building experience while exceeding standards and building codes.
When you build with us, you can ensure that you are choosing the best building solution available because we build custom ICF Concrete Homes. We are always on site and taking care of every step of the whole construction process.
Worried about how to implement ICF construction into your business schedule? Use our expertise in ICF installation and journeyman Carpenters to take your project to “lock up” stage all in one step! We take the hassle out of hiring separate ICF installers and separate framers and all the coordination involved in completing the shell of your home.
What are
Insulated Concrete Forms?
ICF – Insulated Concrete Forms – is the only construction system that is flexible, easy to use, and maximizes energy efficiency. It creates a monolithic wall that doesn’t require a roof or floor to hold itself up.
ICF stands for Insulated Concrete Forms, which you may associate with giant Lego.
Insulated Concrete Forms is a construction system where lightweight foam blocks, made of expanded polystyrene are stacked together to make up walls which are then filled with concrete. The foam blocks act as insulation, which makes ICF blocks stay-in-place forming system, which complete four steps of the construction process into one! (Foundation, framing, insulation, and vapour barrier).
ICF wall systems are assembled by placing blocks on top of each other. Steel rebar is used every 16” on the horizontal plane and every 16”-24” on the vertical. Rebar is used to keep concrete in a tensile state because on its own concrete has low tensile characteristics. In other words rebar holds the concrete together. Different sizes of steel are used over windows to create headers within the wall. Once completed, an ICF structure is a monolithic wall that takes advantage of thermal mass.
Why do we ONLY build with ICF?
Comfort: Nothing blows through reinforced concrete. There will be absolutely no drafts or cold spots. ICF homeowners have commented how temperatures stay constant in their homes. This is thanks to a layer of continuous insulation on the inside and the outside, with concrete in the centre.
Safe + Healthy: There are no CFCs, HCFCs or formaldehydes as well as no wood to rot or mold in the foundation of the house. This makes ICF Homes the answer for allergy and asthma sufferers. The foundation is also termite and pest resistant. Most importantly the structure can withstand a severe storm and is said to be 800% stronger than a 2×6 wall.
Quiet: Whether you are building near train tracks, airports, highways or even a busy road, your outside noises are eliminated.
Energy Efficiency: Homes built with ICF Exterior walls require an estimated 44% less energy to heat and 32% less energy to cool than comparable framed houses. This means reduced energy costs for homeowners. As well, every ICF home saves approximately 8.5 trees.
Up To Kode’s Experience with ICF
Up to Kode first starting working with Insulated Concrete Forms in 2008, and introduced complete ICF homes in 2012, taking the concrete to the underside of trusses. To date, we have personally built 5 basements (2 with walk-outs) and 3 complete homes with Insulated Concrete Forms (2 of which were walk-out basements).
