ICF Homes

It’s a stronger, faster built & more energy efficient home. It’s relaxing in the quiet comfort of your modern home knowing that you have purchased proven quality and a way of living. Thermacell’s Insulated Concrete Formwork (ICF) is being rapidly adopted around Australia for it’s superior performance and can make your home up to 40% more energy efficient and resilient than traditional building systems. This type of wall form delivers advanced strength, thermal and acoustic properties that far exceeds any other building system. It is used in homes, high rise buildings, commercial, industrial and even some military applications. In addition, a Mohi Constructions built ICF home includes internal brick walls and double glazed windows, giving you extra strength and comfort.

ICF ( Insulated Concrete Formwork) homes are stronger and also outperform double brick and timber frame homes both thermally and acoustically. Thermacell Blocks have an R-rating of 3.1 The thermal rating (R–Value) of a double brick wall is 0.50. That’s a huge 520% difference. Have you ever noticed how the external walls in a double brick home get super hot in summer and super cold in winter? Trying to reverse this effect can cost a lot in energy bills and it really is just a never ending battle. This isn’t really an issue with ICF walls because of the 2 x layers of insulation as well as the concrete core keeping the elements out. Timber frame homes on the other hand are better than double brick for thermal performance but are nowhere near as strong as ICF. Timber frame homes also have the added issue of having rodents and other insects living in between the stud frame walls and the insulation in between. For these reasons (and many others) Mohi Constructions choose to build with ICF as it is simply stronger and offers benefits that traditional old school building methods can’t compete with.

ICF construction costs a little more than double brick home to build but over time that initial investment is repaid via lower energy costs as well as increased resale value. In saying that though the final cost of a home can depend on many factors such as fixtures and finishes and site costs to name a few. As a guide it would cost approx $15-20k more to build a stock standard 4×2 with ICF walls instead of building with double brick. That’s not a large cost difference considering the premium product value of ICF construction.

ICF walls provide you with a wide range of architectural finishing’s to ensure you achieve the stylish look you desire. Externally, they are generally finished with acrylic texture coat, but external cladding such as timber or stone, feature tiles and feature brickwork can also be used.

The benefits stack up! Building with ICF is the proven way to build a more energy efficient home, providing far greater value than traditional double brick walls or insulated timber frame walls. When it comes to construction costs the savings achieved in a lifetime through energy efficiency are far superior.