Building a house

[sapperleader]

Off topic, and I'd love to comment on another thread, but how far along are you in your house? What kind of construction are you using?

To answer your question we started the process (vetting builders, designing the house, finding the land) October 2013.  We closed on the construction loan early January 2015, and started clearing the driveway and house site last week.  The build itself is going to take ~10 months, and we are using a construction loan that will roll over into a permanent VA loan at final closing.  Its been a ton of work, and will cost more cash than we initially thought but we are very excited by the process.  Our builder is awesome, and does custom ICF(insulated concrete forms) homes, so when its all done we will have the house we want, with nice energy efficiency and low maintenance costs.

Fire away

[Pointedstick]

Oh awesome! I applaud the choice of ICFs. Much better than wood framing.

However, ICFs have the insulation and mass in the wrong place, IMHO. The concrete is stuck in the middle of two pieces of insulation, so it doesn't give you any thermal mass benefit. And the vulnerable foam is outboard of the concrete, not protected by it, so it needs to be protected on the inside by drywall and the outside usually by stucco, but sometimes people just cover it in siding. Insect infestation can be a risk because the outside foam is exposed to critters and they love digging tunnels through it.

Have you looked into concrete sandwich panels? They reverse things so that the insulation is in the middle of the panel, where it should be. Examples:

http://www.solarcrete.com/
http://www.eastcoastprecast.com/pages/view/10
http://www.concreteconstruction.net/pan ... nels1.aspx
http://siptec.com/sipcrete/

With these, the insulation is in the middle, protected by the concrete. And the fact that there's concrete on both sides makes it braindead easy to finish both sides. You can get thin coat veneer plaster on the inside cheaper than a typical drywall job (and then you have plaster, not drywall!), and on the outside you can do a simple one-coat stucco or adhered brick or stone veneer. The absorption of the concrete means that things will bond to it without the need for metal lath or multiple coats or anything.

With this approach, the walls may be more expensive (but maybe not!), but the cost of finishing them will probably be cheaper, and they will be more more durable and more energy-efficient due to the increased amount of interior thermal mass. If it's not too late to switch, you might be better served by these instead.

[sapperleader]

We are big fans, and I love the sturdiness of concrete over stick. I grew up in tornado country, and even though we live in a area now with rare tornadoes, I like knowing the house can withstand the winds.  I have heard of the sandwich panels, though its been a few years.  I look forward to reading your links   When we looked around for builders, I didnt see any locally that did the sandwich panels.  Of the three builders that made our  final list, 2 did ICF, and one was mostly stick(though had a sub for ICF)  At this point we are under contract for ICF, so that is the way we are going even if they are not perfect .  As I recall the sandwich walls did have more energy efficiency, though ICF was a little easier to put up and had a little more sturdiness.  Our house is going to be pretty tight energy speaking, we have to bring in a dedicated air return for the wood stove  

The insects in the foam was definitively a concern of ours, it is treated against that, but we plan on keeping a close watch on it as part of our routine maintenance.  We debated doing hardiplank, but went with wide plank vinyl siding due to cost.  We wanted a metal roof, so some things had to go

[Pointedstick]

Nice, sounds like you know what you're doing. Good choice the metal roof, too. Exposed fastener or standing seam?

[sapperleader]

Thanks, tend to do my research   Standing seam