WhatsitCost

What's it Cost?

A question I’ve been asked many times, and one that’s been difficult to answer is simply,

“What does it cost?” A corollary to this question

“What’s better (or less expensive)

SIP’s or

ICF’s?”

A friend of mine, Tom Hildreth, who runs Advanced Building and Development (www.

AdvancedBD.net), is very knowledgeable in building with scientifically proven materials

and methods to lower costs and improve energy efficiency. So, knowing his background

and experience, I put the question to him. We started making phone calls, and asking for

information from building contractors, ICF foundation contractors, concrete companies,

and SIP’s builders, gathered all the numbers, crunched them, and I think he came up

with

some answers.

Now, these figures are for the Denver and the surrounding area, including the mountain

areas. The figures for the 6-1/2” SIP’s do not include freight. Freight to Colorado would

add for the average house walls and roof $0.88/sf. Tom used the Oak Ridge test data

for the R-value for the ICF’s and SIP’s. Concrete has an R–value of 0.4

per inch

, so all

insulating properties are in the foam. The Federal Oak Ridge Report can be found

The second page addresses the question of whether to use SIP or ICF walls. Personally,

I think if you are going to use your basement as a living space, ICF’s will out perform a

poured concrete wall by a large margin. So, unless you have some strong reason to go

with ICF’s, such as sound reduction, it appears that SIP’s are the more economical way

to go.

To see the results, click