I have taken the time to get this story because I needed to wait until we were living in our home. This way I could give a fact based evaluation for the Nexcem insulated concrete forms.
Our home is in Arizona and we sit high up on a hill with all four sides of our 2 storey home exposed to the elements. We stuccoed the inside and outside walls of our home. All of the homes here are stud walls with drywall inside and stucco on the outside with bat-insulation. We built our home with 12″ R-22 Nexcem ICF block with insulation and concrete inside and stucco on both sides.
We are the first home in our town with this type of construction. When I was asked why we chose to build this way by the building department and the engineer we hired, I said that since there are termites and extreme heat, I wanted to build a 100 year home that we will be able to pass on to our children and our grandchildren.
The California style homes that are built here are a 50 year design and most that were built in the 60s and 70s are being replaced now.
When we had the stucco work done on our house the stucco company we hired said that they believe this will be a 200 year home.
We live in this house for the winter months – November to the end of March and have yet to turn on any heating/cooling source. When we first get here the temps can be in the high 80s during the day and the low 60s at night. January is usually the coolest month with temps in the 60s during the day and in the high 40s at night. We are very comfortable in the house with the temp staying between the 70s and high 60s so far. The house is also very sound proof with very minimal outside noise.
Should anyone wish further information on our house that we built using the Nexcem ICCF block they can contact us through John at Nexcem.
Sincerely
Jack and Kim Switzer