Building an airtight home with ICF didn’t cost Eimear and Donal Kane much more than a traditional block build. This in turn allowed them to spend more of their budget on a smart home system and a floating curved concrete staircase.
arly on in the process we looked at building methods, and chose Insulating Concrete Formwork (ICF) because we really liked its focus on insulation,” says Eimear. “We had seen ICF at the Selfbuild Live events – the walls are built out of an insulated casing, made of reinforced EPS blocks, which are then filled with poured concrete.”
“We researched other methods such as timber frame and structurally insulated panels, but quickly started comparing ICF with standard block cavity walls. With blockwork we would have to insulate inside the cavity with sheets of rigid insulation, and we felt we wouldn’t have full control over how well the boards would be installed.”
