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Shoutout to the crew working on the new library in Santa Fe
I drove by that project on Cerrillos Road last week and noticed they're using those big insulated concrete forms for the walls. I've only seen them in videos before but up close the foam blocks are huge and lock together like Legos. The foreman said it cuts their framing time by almost half compared to stick framing. Has anyone else worked with ICFs on a commercial job?
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tyler_burns665mo ago
Yeah those ICFs are a game changer once you get the hang of them. The trick is making sure your rebar layout is dialed in before the concrete gets poured because fixing it after is a nightmare. Also watch the bracing on the first lift, if it buckles you're shutting down half the day. Good foreman should have the crew doing regular check-ins on the alignment as they go.
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fiona_clark5mo ago
Friend of mine tried ICFs for the first time on a small basement job and thought he had the bracing dialed in. About halfway through the first pour, one of the panels started bulging out like a beer belly. They had to stop the pump, send a guy running for more struts, and spent an hour wrestling it back into place while the concrete was setting up. He said the foreman nearly lost his mind because the alignment check was supposed to happen every ten minutes but nobody was doing it. Ended up having to chip out a section later that week to fix the rebar that shifted. Bad day all around.
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