As a true Custom Home Builder, Jensen Quality Homes is familiar with all types of home construction. ICF, or Insulated Concrete Forms is an energy efficient form of concrete home construction. The home pictured to the right is one we did recently and whether you want brick, stone or any other traditional look, ICF is a good structural foundation.

From the outside, it looks like any other home, but when you walk inside, or you look at your utility bills, you will immediately know there is something different about this home. Most people have never heard of an ICF house. Each ICF piece is like a large Lego block, with 2.5 inches of foam insulation on either side, and 6 inches of concrete in the middle with structural rebar support. This building technique results in a strong, tight, energy efficient structure. An ICF home is truly 'set in concrete'.

Insulated Concrete Forms (ICFs) give you all the benefits that have made concrete the material of choice for home building worldwide: Solid, lasting construction that resists the ravages of fire, wind, and Father Time. But ICFs do plain concrete one better - or rather, two better - by giving you two built-in layers of foam insulation.

This gives an ICF home some sizable advantages over an ordinary stick-built home. Greater energy efficiency. More peace & quiet. More sheer day-to-day living comfort. All wrapped up in a solid, high-quality building package that gives an ICF home an utterly remarkable feel that really has to be experienced to be believed. As soon as you step inside, you can tell that an ICF home is not an ordinary house. It's not just beautiful, comfortable and quiet. You can feel that it's solid, built to last.

Greater Comfort & Lower Energy Bills

Energy savings and comfort are built into every ICF system. ICFs start with a high R-Value. Five inches of ASTM C 578 polystyrene foam insulation, combine with a five inch concrete, depending on the region the performance R-Value will change. If you are in the far North the standard R-value will be around 30 and if you are in a warmer climate you are looking at 50 or so. The change is due to the temperate swings during the day. Other insulating form configurations and materials also exhibit high R-values.

But that's not all! Air infiltration in an ICF Home is minimal due to the continuous air barriers provided by the foam insulation and the concrete. Likewise, there are no convection currents within wall cavities.

The concrete walls of an ICF home have high thermal mass, which buffers the interior of a home from the extremes of outdoor temperature during every 24-hour cycle. This reduces both peak and total heating and cooling loads.

This combination of high R-values, low air infiltration, and high thermal mass is believed to account for the amazing 25% to 50% energy savings of ICF versus wood or steel-framed homes.

Peace and Quiet

New ICF homeowners almost always remark on how unbelievably quiet their new house is, compared with their old stick-build home. They expect the new-found comfort and energy efficiency, but the peace and quiet - the protection from outside noise - never fails to surprise and delight them.

In sound transmission tests, ICF walls allowed less than one-third as much sound to pass through as do ordinary frame walls filled with fiberglass. With double-glazed windows in ICF walls and beefed-up roof insulation, you will rarely hear street noises or airport traffic.



Solid & Lasting Security

The high-mass walls of an ICF home not only give it a remarkably solid feel, but they also make it safer for the family. And make it a remarkably solid and secure investment, too. Concrete homes have a proven track record of withstanding the ravages of hurricanes, tornadoes and fires, when all the stick-build houses around them are in ruins.

In fire wall tests, ICFs stood exposure to intense flame without structural failure longer than did common frame walls. The polystyrene foam used in most ICF forms is treated so it will not support combustion. Also, tests show that its tendency to transmit an outside flame source is less than that of most wood products. [Many insurance carriers offer a premium reduction on a home owner's policy for an ICF home.]

Less Repair & Maintenance

With ICF homes, the equation is simple. No Rot = Less Repair and Maintenance. Neither polystyrene nor concrete will ever rot or rust. Concrete can even be exposed to the elements for centuries with few ill effects. Reinforcing steel, buried deep inside and protected by concrete's alkalinity, does not corrode.

A Healthier Home & Environment

Building with ICFs is healthier for the environment in a number of ways: by minimizing the number of different building products involved in construction, by reducing the amount of waste generated on the construction site, and by lowering energy requirements for heating and cooling.

ICF homes provide a healthy indoor environment, too. Nothing held within or ordinarily emitted by an ICF wall is toxic. The measurement of the air contents of actual ICF houses shows an almost complete absence of any emissions.

Customer Quote

We had the great pleasure of working with Jensen Quality Homes to build our very own custom home and we feel that they truly are the very best in the business! They have a solid reputation for delivering an excellent product and did not disappoint. From the moment we signed the contract up through the final walk-through, their team went above and beyond to make our dream home a reality. The process along the way was extremely smooth and well laid out.

Their quick response to questions and concerns made what could have easily become a stressful and exhausting process, really fun and exciting! They even met us several times at the job site for consultation without ever making us feel as if we were being burdensome.

Our new home is more beautiful than we could have ever imagined. The craftsmanship and attention to detail is evident at every turn and we look forward to living here and enjoying this home for many years to come!

We would highly recommend Jensen Quality Homes to anyone wanting to build a custom home.

- John & Rhonda Stansberry