House as solid as a rock
Sunshine Tartter brought her Legos to the Dutchess County Fair.
Of such simple formulas ”“ a woman and her interconnecting foam blocks ”“ revolutions are made. In this case, one home at a time.
Fair visitors had a chance to play with Tartter”™s brand of Legos ”“ only hers are made of polystyrene and are used for building life-sized houses. If they wondered aloud what a house made of foam block and concrete might look and sound like, Tartter brought her passion to the fair along with her blocks and her building skills.
A house built with insulating concrete blocks may conjure up visions of prison walls but fear not, says Tartter, president of Hudson Valley Green Builders Inc. in LaGrangeville. “The idea of living in a concrete home may sound a bit confining, but the concept is gradually taking hold here in the Northeast as we look for ways to build a stronger, more energy-efficient home.”
Tartter and her husband, Fred, a design-build contractor, started working with insulated concrete forms (ICFs) in 2003 and have now made them the focus of her construction company. “Simply put, it is an amazing product to work with,” said Tartter. “Homes in New Orleans built with ICF are still standing. To me, it”™s a statement about the durability and reliability of the product.”
ICF construction is not a new idea. It has been popular in Europe for more than three decades and gained ground in the U.S. over the past 10 years, particularly in Southern states like Florida and Texas, where the weather can wreak major havoc on homes.
“The beauty of ICF is that no one knows it”™s an ICF-built home once we are finished with construction,” said Tartter. “When the house is built, you can use any exterior application you want ”“ stucco, brick, vinyl siding or wood ”“ and its insulating and noise-reducing capacity exceeds that of traditional stick-built homes.”
ICFs ”“ like Hudson Valley Green Builders uses ”“ are approximately 2-feet by 2-feet interlocking squares held together with plastic connectors that hold steel reinforcing bars in place.
ICFs can be shaped and formed to any contour the designer has in mind. Â Once the builder has framed out windows and doors, concrete is pumped into the completed structure. Interior walls are then studded and sheet rocked, and the exterior is ready for the chosen application.
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“The end result is, you can”™t tell you are walking into an ICF-built home until you close the door and realize how quiet it is inside,” said Tartter. “The concrete encased in polystyrene not only acts as an insulator, but reduces interior and exterior noise as well.”
It also helps lower heating and cooling costs and has very little air infiltration ”“ unless you open a window. Â To make the homes even more energy efficient, “solar paneling and geo-thermal heating can be incorporated into the design,” said Tartter. “Yes, it is more expensive to build this way, but in the long run, it significantly reduces your heating and cooling costs. You have to multiply it out when you factor in the cost of heating, cooling and maintaining a traditional stick-built home,” said Tartter.
“Appearances can be deceiving ”“ you can”™t tell a concrete block home from a traditional stick-built ”“ unless you literally rip off the siding, but you can tell the difference once you are inside,” said Tartter”™s husband, Fred. “It”™s quieter and cleaner. Working with ICF makes sense in today”™s energy-conscious climate ”¦ and while this type of construction is more popular in the Southern and Northern regions of the country, it”™s gaining in popularity here as well.”
“I like working with ICF because I believe it offers a ”˜healthier”™ house than a conventional stick-built home does,” said Tartter, who said the homes using ICF construction have between 30 percent to 50 percent humidity and are virtually allergy-free as a result. The R-rating can range between 25 and 50, depending on what the customer chooses. “After seeing what Hurricane Katrina did to New Orleans, the best validation ICF construction has are the structures built using this method down there: They were still standing after the storm.”
Tartter did her first ICF construction job in 2003, and five years later, with several projects under her belt, she says ICF is becoming an attractive, albeit more expensive, way to build than conventional stick-built housing. Â Other energy-efficient applications can make the application even more attractive to cost-conscious consumers.
“When you add solar paneling, geothermal heating and other LEED-certified building products, you may find yourself  among the lucky””rather than paying for your utilities, you”™ll get a check back from your local electric supplier,” said Tartter, referring to leadership in environmental and energy design cerification. “The applications that can be used with this material are amazing. You can use these forms and shape them, not just create a ”˜box”™ to live in.”
While the cost of using ICF is approximately 5 percent to 15 percent higher than stick-built or modular, future savings can translate into significant dollars when it comes to heating and cooling costs.
ICF built-homes do have drawbacks. Walls are thicker than traditional homes, and deciding to add a window can be more complicated than traditional construction. And while they don”™t taste good to termites or other vermin, the foam blocks might make an attractive nest, “but that”™s about as far as they get,” said Tartter. “They can”™t eat through concrete.”
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And, like all construction, homes ”“ whether built of concrete, steel, brick and lumber ”“ ICF homes must meet state and local building codes. William Muente, who heads the Building Department in the town of Monroe, said one home he”™s inspected in the past two years had a basement utilizing the technology, but no buildings in his territory have been constructed using ICF technology so far.
Tartter is confident that, as more people become energy conscious, they will explore alternative methods of building and ICF is one method that may have not “caught fire  in New York, but I”™m sure it will grow in popularity as more consumers become aware of the advantages.”
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