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Commercial ICFs
Comfort and Quiet
Comfort and Quiet with
Concrete
Concrete walls built with
insulating concrete forms effectively buffer a building’s interior
from the outdoors. The thick ICF sandwich of a massive material
(concrete) with a light one (foam) sharply cuts fluctuations in
temperature, air infiltration, and noise. They keep buildings'
interiors more comfortable and quiet than ordinary wood frame walls.
How do ICF
walls increase comfort?
1►
Consistent Insulation. The continuous layer of foam insulation
along the ICF
wall helps keep the temperature the same everywhere. It virtually
eliminates
the “cold spots” that can occur in frame walls along the studs or at
gaps in the
insulation.
2►
Thermal Mass. The heavy concrete of the ICF wall gives it the
heat-absorbing
property of “thermal mass”. This smoothes out swings in temperature
over
time. Therefore, the building does not tend to overheat or get
suddenly chilly as
the furnace or air conditioner cycles on and off.
3► Air Infiltration. The interlocking foam faces,
sealed with continuous concrete in
the center, make ICF walls exceptionally airtight. This means that
drafts are
cut sharply. In tests, structures built of ICFs had only about
⅓
to ½
as much
air infiltration as the typical frame building.
What
about noise?
Massive materials like concrete tend to reflect noise. Compared to a
typical wood frame wall, only about
¼
to ⅛
as much sound penetrates through an ICF wall. Scientists would
describe loud speech on the opposite side of a frame wall as
"audible, but not intelligible." On the opposite side of an ICF
wall, a listener would "strain to hear" loud speech. It would be
virtually inaudible.
But is the difference really
noticeable?
ICF homeowners appreciate these benefits more than they ever
imagined. In a 1997 survey, interviewers asked owners of 74 new ICF
homes and 73 new wood frame homes what they liked about them. Over
80 percent of the ICF owners mentioned the great comfort, compared
with 22 percent of the wood frame owners.
Typical
comments were, "It’s the most comfortable house I’ve ever lived in,"
and
"I didn’t know what I was missing until we were in it for a while.”
Over 60 percent of ICF homeowners mentioned the quietness of their
homes, versus only 2 percent of the wood frame homeowners. The ICF
owners told two common stories over and over again:
•
"I looked out the window and saw the traffic on the road, but I
couldn’t hear it."
•
"While talking with my neighbor one morning, he asked if the
thunderstorm the
night before woke me up, too. But until that moment I never even
realized we’d
had one."
What’s
the bottom line?
When planning a building, consider the greater well-being that could
come from living with a more even temperature, sharply reduced
drafts, and noticeably greater quiet. These things are available
with concrete walls built with ICFs. They effectively shelter the
interior environment from the harshness of the outdoors. ICFs
provide a building with quiet and comfort all year round. |
