Foam Blocks Arrive
Exciting day! The Fox Blocks arrive. Guess I'm committed now.
In addition to the foam blocks, I ordered thirty-four 2x12s for the floor and rim joists, all of which I'll be sending back to the lumber yard. Decent quality Doug Fir seems to be in short supply up here, but the crappy Canadian Hem-Fir stuff seems to grow on trees. The yard certainly sent me some of their crappiest (last order I place with them). Lowes actually has better wood, so I'll get my joists there myself (the slow way). On a separate pallet came 5 rolls of waterproofing membrane, 5 gallons of primer, a box of j-bolts, a second box of HV clips, 104' feet of pressure treated 2x6s, and a pile of joist hangers.
The ICF blocks showed up stacks of 24, all wrapped up in plastic. I disassembled each pallet and walked them down to the slab in groups of 3.
A few blocks were trashed by the shipping monkeys.
I put the 1st course down and staged the remaining blocks (~135 straights, 20 corners). Fox Blocks are each 48" long x 16" high x 13" wide. They are stacked three high in this photo. I used a pro-style spray gun loaded with low-expansion window/door foam to glue the blocks down to the footings (2 large cans used). Fixed string lines guided block placement. When all of the blocks were set, three of the four walls had gaps of about 5". My wall length isn't a multiple of 48". I positioned the gaps near the centers of each wall as the manufacturer suggests and cut pieces to fill each. The truck showed up at 8:30am and I had the first course down by 1pm. I spent another 2 hours moving block and restacking lumber.
The door bucks went up pretty easily. I trimmed the blocks to fit tightly against the bucks and sealed the small gaps with spray foam.
Four HV clips span each horizontal joint between Fox Blocks. I'll add some zip ties to the lower 2 courses here and there as a precaution. The lower courses feel a lot of concrete weight. Very few gaps and straight lines - things look clean and tight so far. You can see how the foil-faced EPS foam on the door buck keys into the Fox Block.
Judy at Dimond Fabricators got me squared away with $1000 of rebar. I ordered 14-foot horizontals (#4), vertical dowels (#5), 90-degree corners (#4), lintel bars (#5), and stirrups for the lintel assemblies (#3). Rebar shows up Tuesday.
