Major ICF Problem?

hey i'm eric perkins welcome to our youtube channel about construction stuff and if you're new to the channel i've owned a construction company with my little brother jamie called perkins enterprises for about 20 years building residential homes mostly and we also have a youtube channel perkins builder brothers you're watching it so today's video is to just answer a simple question that i keep getting on a video that i just put out where we're laying some block just to build a basement wall and the main question that i'm getting is why would you use block if you're gonna do it yourself now of course we could hire a concrete forum guy but in this area their way out like you have to book them four months in advance and we usually don't have that much heads up on starting a project and the other good option of course is icf forms insulated concrete forms if you don't know what that means basically this is a hollow form almost like legos that stacks up and it's foam on both sides with some pieces that connect the two sides you put steel in there and then you pour solid concrete so in the end you have a solid concrete wall sandwiched between two layers of rigid foam and that's great you get insulation on both sides and that's why it's called insulated concrete forms there you go so there's a couple reasons why we don't generally use them the first one just real quick this isn't the point of the video but the first one is they're just a little a little more expensive they're not terribly more expensive than the labor and the cost of the block but a little more so that's one reason so the second reason is what this video is really about and it's something i've never heard anyone talking about in person or on a youtube video so i thought it would be a great topic for youtube something i've never seen on youtube and that's the fact that in this area where i live in north carolina western north carolina in particular you cannot get a reputable termite treatment company to come pre-treat or do bait traps or any kind of termite treatment on your house if the foundation that you have is these icf blocks and the reason is the embedment of the foam into the ground this could potentially give a way for a termite to get into the foam layer and eat its way up into the wood of your house without leaving the evidence like the tubes that these people look for when they're inspecting like on the outside of a concrete wall going up to where your house is wood so it potentially gives a way for insects or termites to get in your house with no evidence and for that reason the local termite treatment company here has turned me down on retreating this house the house i live in and i'm sitting in right now by the way you should get a couch for your basement garage has these icf foam form walls it's the basement and i called to get a retreat because i bought this house as a foreclosure so i don't really know the history but i thought it would be a good idea i called them they came out they checked it out and in about five minutes they said well we cannot help you sir i said well uh you can't do anything they said we can't touch this house with a hundred foot pole because that was the exact words they said i was like huh and they continued to explain the rest of that to me so i even said look how about i just pay you cash you do the chemical there's no contract you walk away i'm a good person i'm not going to sue you if i get termites i just want the treatment for for my own just peace of mind i said absolutely not so that is a major problem in my eyes and i'm not sure how people in this area are still using them because you have to have a termite treatment card to pass your final inspection and get paid hope this video was helpful let me know your thoughts is this the same in your area and subscribe if you like this video we'll see you next time thanks [Music] you

Channel: Perkins Builder Brothers

Views: 525,112

Keywords: Insulated, Concrete, Form, How to, Problem, Using, Icf, Foundation, Wall, Building, With, Benefits, Advantages, Disadvantages

Id: JxJkYAA5jTU

Length: 4min 12sec (252 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 20 2020