I had my structurals done, in CO (expensive, but not quite  as high as CA) and it ran me about $2,400. For this I got

- Stamped footing/foundation design and plan/drawings
- Open hole inspection (to verify soils report/foundation design/soil match)
- Spec'ing beams, spans, interior footings, and rebar schedules for walls
- Locating bearing walls, spec'ing headers and blocking for those walls

Hope this helps.

Kelly, I am installing geothermal and have done a bit of research. I'll dump it here and hopefully it will give you a starting point.

The most important thing is the quality of the installer, period. You can take the nicest equipment and make it work horribly if the installer doesn't know what they are doing.

I have looked at waterfurnace and several other brands of geothermal units. (www.waterfurnace.com, www.eposch.com). Esentially, a geothermal unit is a heat pump (common in the midwest) that is tied to the ground (with a loop of piping or to a well) and energy is pulled from that loop instead of the air, meaning that the heat will work even when it's really cold. The websites above will give you details on how this works. Your electric bill will be higher, but your gas bill will be almost zero (hot water heating, and that will be lower since a geothermal unit can pre-heat your hot water using a device called a desuperheater). In the summer, the heat pulled from your house when you run the air conditioner is used to heat your hot water, and there is generally enough heat that in the summer, you get all your hot water for free just for running your AC.

Geothermal is kinda tough to bid and price, because in some areas, there are not many qualified installers. I've had some great installers out here, but they try to sell the technology like it's space shuttle parts because they don't think you have anyone to compare too. However, there are web-based dealers of geothermal systems that can give you a system price for your house and let you check the local guys.

On my project, I'm having a local guy install the loop field (the most important part, since you can't get at it easily later) but I'm buying my geothermal unit from a vendor in another state, because I'm saving about 40% on the unit cost.

I have heard of people having problems with geothermal, and it has always fallen into one of these two categories:

1) Loop field sized improperly or installed incorrectly. Let me stress this - Don't skimp here.

2) Using the latest new wave geothermal units. Some manufacturers (and virtually all furnace makers (trane, etc) sell geo units) have had problems with first generation products (bad circuit boards, etc) that had some bugs. most of the common ones now have solid records.

Oh, and also, one thing that you don't want them to do is "fudge" the load calculation to size the heating/cooling unit. If you put in too big of unit, you spend more than you need and end up with problems with dehumidification & such, depending on your climate.

It's really important to make sure your installer does a load calculation to size the unit. (That is good advice for any heating/cooling system, but geo it's really good advice). A lot of HVAC guys don't know how to do this right and just guess from similar houses that didn't have callbacks. The guys who do know how will show them to you.

Nothing surprising there... masonry fireplaces are getting pretty rare. Walk through the McMansion neighborhood down the road, and you won't see a single one... cost, building envelope efficiency... but the biggest factor is the EPA!

Around here, labor is so expensive that a masonry fireplace (unless it's a prefab) can only compete with the most expensive ($6K+) direct vent units. All depends where you want to spend your money, but when the guy mixing mortar takes home $180 a day in cash, it's gonna be expensive.

Building envelope - regular fireplaces are flues for your heated air, even with a damper. The damper also becomes a conduction zone, where you have cold and hot on each side of a surface with a high thermal coefficient, so it's not going to be as efficient, although all (even DV) fireplaces have some of these issues.

Finally, in my county, and most of my state, you cannot install a regular masonry fireplace... only EPA-approved wood burning or gas inserts - which means an engineered combustion chamber with fans and whatnot if you want to burn wood, otherwise, gas/DV. I suspect this will be more and more common, but has been the norm here for quite a while.

Every bank will be different, so if you have a good person to talk to, it will help. Generally, they are looking for a list of materials that will dictate the quality and level of finish, so that they can properly value the project. Then, you have to build your house, and these materials need to be the minimum level finish. For example, if you tell the bank that you are putting in granite countertops, and then get short on money at the end and put in Formica, you'll be in violation of these specs, and then comes the problem - If your appraisal doesn't have enough equity because of a lower finish/quality, then you might not be able to qualify for the permanent financing and the bank would be stuck with the house...

My advice - If you are pretty sure you are going to have enough equity to qualify for your construction loan with a completed house value of moderate finishes, spec the moderate finishes, and when you put in what you really planned (stainless steel appliances, granite, wood floors, etc.) you'll just be building above spec. Where this doesn't work is if you don't have an expensive enough house to justify the money you are spending with the equity you have...

For a good project, you really do want to know as much as you can. For the mid details, give your best guess. Your framer/panelized company can help with headers/lumber/structural bits.

Things they will want:

Roof type and grade/warranty

Siding/Exterior type and quality

Flooring type/quality

Fixture type/quality appliance type/quality

Window type wood/vinyl

Insulation type

Stud framing type (2x4 or 2x6) or other materials

Foundation type

Perimeter drain present?

Sanitary system type

Water supply type

Heating type

Plumbing supply material type...

A word of caution - Some of these things are used by some banks to decided if they should finance the project. Any really weird house might have problems getting financing (by really "weird" I'm talking about straw bale, rammed earth) because the bank doesn't understand it. Weird shapes are OK though. :) Good luck, John

"In this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics" - Homer Simpson

I would research it, but be VERY WARY.  I have a degree in heat transfer, and perhaps this could be an _effective_ R-value, for a particular climate, a-la radiant barriers in attics, etc., but it sounds like marketing hype, since EPS tends to be on the 3-R to 6-R/inch scale.

It might FEEL like R-60, especially if  the seams are detailed properly.  The biggest heat loss is generally air infiltration.  You can fix a lot of air infiltration with housewrap.

This kind of marketing is common everywhere - all building products, especially now that building energy efficiently is becoming more important, are trying to sell using claims, some valid, some not.

For example, many ICF manufacturers advertise their ICF's has having an 'effective R-50' wall.  I live in an ICF house, and it's great, and perhaps, feels and heats like an R-50, especially subjectively when compared to an average stick-frame house.  But if I take the approximate R-value of the components, which is 2 5/8" of ~R-3.6 foam on each side, and 6" of concrete at R-0.9 per inch, I get a real value of R-19.4 for the foam and R-5 for the concrete, so it's "really" an R-24... 

Virtually every manufacturer is doing this kind of stuff.  Local window companies here are advertising R-30 windows, which are not really.  Every building material has some value... Some house companies offer a wall with a particular R-value, but to get that R-value, they are counting the insulative properties of the drywall (low, but there) and the air boundary layer transitions on the inside and outside of the walls (again, small)...

You can't do any "real" planning until you have your plans - all other prices/quotes/estimates will be based on other ballparks or other plans. And you really need numbers that match what you are building, so that it matches your budget. Get your plans as early as possible, once you know what you want. Then spend the next year (it will be a lot of work) and plan out every detail, and locate every supplier and sub, and start meeting and building a relationship with them. It will make your project go much smoother. Get them early, so that all of your hard work is relevant.

If you live near water, it can be MUCH cheaper to install geothermal. A properly designed geothermal system (read SYSTEM!) will give great comfort. Some things to keep in mind:

1) Low plenum temperatures do need to be overcome, but is usually done with a higher mass flow rate (volume of air). Designed right, it will feel the same.

2) It's great if you couple it with radiant, since then you are using water-> water.

3) It's not really free, but it is cheap - Probably equivalent to running your AC for both heating and cooling. Geoexchange units are typically rated with a COP (Coefficient of Performance) of 2-3 or so, meaning for every Btu/watt of energy you put into the compressor, you get out 2x-3x (even high 3's, e.g. 3.5) the amount of energy from the ground. In heating mode, the electricity consumed mostly generates heat, which helps heat your house. In the summer, with an option called a desuperheater, you can actually heat all of your domestic hot water with the hot air you remove from inside your house.

4) If things go wrong with the loop field, you are looking at some bucks to get things fixed. In my case, we would have used six 180' vertical bores, each with a loop of pipe in it (down and back out) and grouted with a thermally enhanced grout. This would be tied to a geoexchange unit that would convert the geothermal temperature difference to ~120 degree water, used to feed my radiant and pre-heat DHW. Loop fields are typically:
 
a) Pond or lake field - A big loop of pipe on the bottom of a lake or pond. Low cost, best heat transfer. 
b) horizontal trench - Dig hundreds of feet of trench, lay pipe in, backfill.
c) Vertical wells - Used in rocky soil, size constrained lots. 
d) Open system - Pull water from one well, extract heat, put down another well.

I ended up not installing geothermal - Too expensive for me (~$13K more than AC and a 95% efficient condensing boiler). 

Hope this helps.

North of Denver, two acres will run you $165K. In the Boulder area, an acre will top $800K, if you can find it. People buy houses on 1/4-acre lots for $750K, and then bulldoze the house without ever walking in it...

Kinda sad...

Marsha,

I hope this gets to you before you get into problems. The Form-a-Drain is 8" thick, meaning your footings will be 8" thick, but they should be located deep in the ground. The exact depth will depend on your location, and is mandated by the local building departments. Generally, this depth is 24"-48", depending on how cold things get in your area. The idea is that moisture in the ground can freeze and cause a footing to heave, wrecking your house, unless the footing is buried deep enough. So the Form-a-Drain is correct, but you need to have dug down to put the Form-a-Drain in the ground.

Once the footings are poured, you will need to pour a cement or block wall to go from the footings to above grade, and then the framing (wood) portion of your house sits on this short wall, called a stem wall. Also, ICF walls are heavier, and may require thicker footings, although my ICF walls were formed up using Form-a-Drain. Generally the building department will want to inspect everything BEFORE you pour any concrete.

I am midway through construction of my ICF house. It will likely cost you more than people are letting on. It's one thing to check sheets for a typical construction (framing) house, another to ensure footings and rebar are all spec'ed right, that your steel for lintels, slump, aggregate size, and wood-> ICF connections are correct. I ended up paying $2,400 for the engineering on my ICF house, (2,700 sf + full size basement) - Also, depending on the jurisdiction, you may have to pay the engineer or his agent to inspect the walls, because many building departments are shirking the responsibility when it comes to ICF walls, even though they are pretty much identical.

Finally, from the sound of your project, I'd highly recommend hiring someone local for your engineering. Ideally, your engineer should design your footings for your soil and the ICF walls extra weight, and when you get into problems with a building inspector who doesn't understand the wall, your engineer will be very valuable, as a PE can trump an inspector virtually everywhere.

I started out keeping a log and tracking every set of blueprints - then I realized I was spending so much time nagging and chasing plans, I gave up. 

A big advantage to designing your own plans, instead of buying internet plans, is that often you can get the drawings. My contract with my designer stipulated that I owned the plans. I got plot files and AutoCAD drawings, and that it couldn't be reproduced without MY permission. Kinda turns the tables a bit. I paid ~ $1.20 per finished square foot to turn my plans (done in Home Designer) into plans to take to the building department. See the other plans threads; I'd have done them myself if I had realized how easy the building department was to work with. When my designer was done, I got a full set of plot files to take down to the blueprint place, and a full set of AutoCAD files for my own future editing.

Anyway, I digress. I evolved to where I would only print 3-7 sets of plans, and I would tailor the set, i.e. the mechanical guys didn't need sheets with details on trim or cabinetry, etc.

As construction progressed, I began updating my drawings in AutoCAD, so that the drawings would reflect as-built conditions, and that eliminated any mess-ups - Of course, I did also involve a concrete saw on a window opening before I started doing this... :) 

Not sure about the best way, but hopefully these ideas will help.

I have a flat roof, no deck on it.  There are systems for putting a deck over a roof, the deck has little adjustable risers that you raise/lower to get the deck level; Water falls through onto the roof below and drains as normal.

After lots of research, my dream roof would have been welded stainless steel.  Expensive, durable, and hard to find.  I've only found one guy from Europe who would come over and do it, I suspect his travel costs were more than my entire roof installed.

I chose a fully adhered commercial 65 mil EPDM roof, installed over a 3/8" dens-deck class A fire rating underlayment, over 3/4" OSB sheathing on trusses.

Alternatives are ballasted EPDM (but the rocks can blow off in high winds, and have to be moved/offloaded to inspect the membrane), single ply TPO (new, usually white, but not as long of track record as EPDM) or BUR (Built up roof).  Nobody around here will even do built up on residential work, the insurance costs are too high.

The fully adhered allows easy inspection.  I beefed up the trusses over a section where I plan on installing a 15x25 patio some day, using one of the leveling systems.

Hope this helps,
John

If you drawings are really good, then it might be worth a try, but I found that incomplete drawings (lacking engineering, steel schedules, etc) pretty much just resulted in subs giving me a WAG (Wild A$$ Guess) that was high.  Once I had my full set of drawings complete, then I was able to get real bids and the numbers were much closer to what I ended up paying.

One the plus side, talking to people early helps you adjust your design construction to save money or add features.  On the minus side, a lot of subs will pretty much laugh at you if you look like you don't know what you are doing.   Some folks I dealt with were like that until I had some other details.

Don't start seriously until you have a complete set of drawings.  A lot of the details in those drawings can mean a lot of things price wise. 

You might look at some of the home user cad packages to get a basic plan which might help.

Good luck,
John

Don't forget that a lot of these guys have to rent their equipment, or purchase and maintain it. I've found excavation to be expensive relative to other trades, for the amount of time they are actually "working" (e.g. compared to roofing or stucco). 

Not that that price seems even close to reasonable. I'm getting a 1,500-gallon tank with a leach field for four bedrooms (tank sized for five) for $5,750, but that includes several hours of probing for a diggable area to set the tank (probing between subsurface boulders) and then piping to everything. My leach field is around 300 feet from my tank, with some wicked rock-intensive digging between points A and B. Even after adjusting for higher costs of living in CA, the bid seems high. Don't forget transport costs of the rock/pipe/etc. If you are a ways from the rock supplier, import/export costs can add up. Do you have to export the extra fill/material? Don't forget to add that on too. 

Also, find out what type of pipe they are using. Code here requires a specific heavy grade pipe on each side of the tank, but cheap guys will save $40 by switching to the lightest stuff they can once they get past the tank, whereas the better installers will use the heavy gasketed pipe throughout the system. My excavator/neighbor said that the lighter pipe will fail over time, especially if you ever have to have the line chased/cleaned.

As Ken alluded to earlier, don't fall into the trap of getting sick of subs and doing the work yourself (not that you were about to, but just as a rule). I constantly have to keep myself from jumping in and doing stuff because it's easier for me to do it than to find a good sub and get it all explained. Even with detailed specs and plans, you still have to keep a close eye to make sure it's done how you want. I have started to have some great experiences with some of my subs (plumbing, electrical, stucco) and these guys just get things done right, and ask me when there is a question. My project goes from an angry monkey on my back (when I'm working on it every night after work) to a fun process when I have good subs and keep myself from doing too much.

Maria, A rough guess for early planning would be 20', but you will not be able to build your house in most locales without an engineer designinging and specifying the types of beams and supports. The exact spacing will depend on what material, size, and grade of beams and posts you are using, what the house is like above the basement (bearing walls, flooring, radiant heat, etc) as well as other loads such as truss bearing and snow loads. An engineer will need to specify this in most cases. Sorry I can't be more helpful, but there are too many variables to be able to say for sure.

Pete,

I used the soy-based stuff (biobased), the installer is in Longmont.  It costs around $1.55 psf for me, and definitely sealed things up very tight.  Icynene was similar in cost.

Drawbacks  - Well, it took the installer about 2 1/2 weeks to spray my house (2,900 sf), which was painful on my schedule.  And it costs a fair bit more than most other insulations.

Wow!  2 things to clarify:

1) The biobased guy I used had just started.  His bid was $1.55 psf (after I wrangled with him) for attics only.  His inexperience cost him and me money, it took him weeks to spray the attic with 11" of biobased.  In a lot of places, I probably have 18".  It took him a while, but I'm happy.  This was also just about a year ago, before katrina, oil, building materials, etc.  His pricing may have been too cheap.

2) The Icynene guy who bid out my project only does 6" of Icynene, period.  He sprays a lot of fancy custom homes here at the ski resorts, and even there, 6" of icynene.  He says by stopping the air infiltration, that provides the majority of savings, and that  inches beyond 6" are just a waste of money.

I had it made up in my head that I wanted 11"...  That went nicely with my ICF walls.

Unfortunately, the biggest expense of this foam has to be A) the special equipment these guys invest in and B) the setup and masking, etc.

Based on what my Icynene guy said, adding insulation below would be a smart idea, and easy to do.  I only had my garage sprayed with 3", to seal things up and keep the decking above the dew point, and although I have radiant out there too, I don't turn it on.  Bringing the warm cars in (a truck and a VW beetle) seems to keep the garage above 60 non-stop thus far, but I'm sure that will fall some as things get colder.

On the note of construction guides - there are a wide variety, some are really bad from what I've seen, and some are great. 

I'm using a guy, who is not affiliated with any "big" company - he has his company, (you are basically paying for his and his office staff's service) and does budgets, initial schedules, etc., which he supplies in binders (including things like site maps, lien waivers, contracts, insurance-verification sheets, etc). He then supplies a list of pre-approved contractors and suppliers that he has worked with. This list is gold. He updates it every week, and I get the latest copy.

I am the only one who really manages the project, but when I stumble into a problem, say, low water pressure, he knows various solutions, and better yet, various people I might want to talk to for more ideas. Anytime I have questions, a phone call or email helps me out. And every week or so, he stops by and walks the site with me, pointing out places to watch or things that are looking good.

Required? Absolutely not - I do think it helped me with the planning phase, though. He charges a flat fee per finished square foot.

The subs on his approved list are pretty much gold - some of them do so much work for this guy's clients that they have learned where to bid to be cost competitive, and they have a vested interest in keeping the quality of the work up. My electrician and plumber came from this list, and are fantastic guys you could trust with anything. And when I find people I might consider working with (other sites, phone book, etc.), my consultant will go verify their work, do a background check, verify insurance and references, check supplier accounts, etc. Just makes things easier for me.

So I think I'm getting my money's worth - but it is not required. If I built again, I'd do it without, only because I'm pretty knowledgeable now.

J

What type/model of grinders are you guys using for these? 

Great work. They look fantastic.

I ended up writing my own spec sheets.  It really helped me to cement what I wanted, and get it all in writing.  I started out by writing a bulleted, organized list of every detail and grade/quality I wanted. (With a new document for each subsystem/trade).   Then I talked to subs, and often, would realize that I needed to add to my specifications...  i.e., the Electrician would ask if I wanted an ATS (Automatic Transfer Switch)... I did, but didn't have it in my specs, so I would go back and update my specs.  By the time I got done bidding with 3-5 guys, my specs were pretty solid, and were simply attached to my contract.  Put a version and date at the top, so you can be sure that you know what version people are referring to.

The other thing you may find, is that some guys don't read the specs, and end up calling you to ask questions that are identified/listed in the specs.  If they do, then that should be a red flag that they don't have enough attention to detail to really understand your project.

See my post in another thread about drawing your own plans -

These plans won't include specific engineering for soils, excessive wind/snow. They may not come with electrical sheets. Plan on spending quite a bit of money on engineering/stamps, even if an architect stamps it, depending on your area. A plan company cannot provide an engineered foundation - the foundation design has to be done to exactly match your soils and lot.

If you are in an area with few engineering requirements, it might be the way to go.

Be sure to check your local/state codes. Capturing water from your roof and doing anything other than letting it go on it's way to the natural "general drainage" here in Colorado is technically illegal. It's not like there are "impoundment police" that come around and inspect where your gutters drain to, but if you have plans showing a water catchment system, it might get static if your jurisdiction is governed by a state engineer.

Here, all impoundments (stopping water, by dam, tank, etc.), wells, etc. all fall under the state engineer. By capturing water on my roof and using it for watering my garden, technically I'm depriving some senior or junior water-right holder in that "basin" of some of their water... you certainly wouldn't find a development here reprocessing their neighborhood gutters/storm drains for water to water the golf course; that would violate the whole "flow" and mess up someone's water rights...

It's a big mess, water taps outside of an urban area in an area that has municipal water are over $30K now, just for the water-supply tap. If I had spent $30K on water in 1970, I could sell those water rights for over three million right now...

Anyway, my only real point here is to just advise that you walk lightly/quietly unless you know your area's rules. (If they are encouraged, great!)... water law is weird, and  I suspect Colorado, being a state with a lot of headwaters, gets more scrutiny than states farther down the line. My gutters happen to drain to a very flat pasture, where, presumably, the water could continue to flow down to the proper water-rights holders... my pasture just happens to absorb a lot of it on the way. :)

Because of excavation difficulties (250' of solid rock between my electric and the house!) I bought an 8,500 watt generator and ran that until I could get my service feeders run. All I can say is the cost of the generator is nothing.

Expect to burn a minimum of 5 gallons a day of gas, and by the time you get dried in and your electrical in, the generator will probably need a rebuild. It's hard on it.

I didn't have to worry about theft, but it's a very legitimate worry. I actually had an old generator that died my 3rd day of construction that I left out as a "token" but nobody took it. :(

It gets real old hauling gas up to your site every other day. I used 3 5 gallon gas cans, and would usually have to fill them up every other day. At the current gas prices here, it was $30 per fill up, usually 3 fills per week.

Plus the noise. When I got real power, I was in heaven.

There is a converse to this - if your sub supplies the material, and it is defective, he's the one who fixes it. If you supply the material, you have to do the fight yourself... This is of course, assuming you have a decent sub.

I ran into a problem where my basement slab was poured, by a sub who let it dry out too quick. I got shrink cracking, which while not a real structural problem, was a cosmetic problem.

Now, I saved some money because I bought the concrete, and I had negotiated with the concrete companies myself, building an ICF house. I paid the sub a flat per square foot rate for pouring/finishing.

When I got the shrink cracking, I called him up to the site.  He looked at it and says 'this is the problem', 'er, that is the problem'... When I pinned him down, he says 'Bad concrete, not my problem'. Now, I know the concrete is great, and that it was the pouring/finishing problem. The same concrete was great for my other four flatwork pours (different finisher), all my ICF walls, my three footing pours, etc. But I have the choice of A) Getting an expert, paying out of pocket, and trying to get something done, or B) suck it up, deal with the cosmetic cracking, and move on. I chose B, but there is some merit to having/letting subs supply materials.

Some trades (framers) expect you to supply the materials, others (plumbers/electricians) generally want to supply them. 

If you are getting good bids from lots of subs, usually they wont be beating you up too bad. Also, if you're short on stuff (missing a plumbing fitting, short on wire, etc.) you can expect your sub to really sock it to you when he has to make an extra trip.

I thought I had my lighting all figured out, and we had found many fixtures we liked online, at great prices. On a whim, we stopped by a new lighting store near our site. One of the salesladies there only does new construction, and is currently training for a particular and rare lighting design certification. She will do a full lighting design for $100, and credit it back if you buy fixtures from her.

She knew that we had been shopping and was going to give us their contractor price up front, and then knock another 10% off. Free delivery to our site (which we pay only 2.9% tax at). So, feeling like there were some weaknesses in our lighting design (despite many hours working on it) we gave her a shot. She put together a fantastic layout, which included several site visits (with and without us) to get a good feel for the room layouts. She also did a walk-through with us and our electrician.

Now here is the thing - she actually SAVED us a ton of money. Being that our home was generally considered a "luxury" home, we did our best working from things we liked, the Parade of Homes, other floorplans, and our draftsperson. This expert removed quite a few expensive cans, made the shape and distribution of light very precise, and made all of the lighting much more dramatic.

I suspect we got great service partially because it's a new store working on getting established, but their prices beat almost every internet price. She matched prices on some killer deals we had on specific fixtures we knew we wanted. And the service has been topnotch, even working code compliance issues while helping us develop some ideas that had never been seen before.

I think most of us have found some great deals on the Internet, and put ourselves at a big advantage over many "real builders" by using these new resources, but it makes it all too easy to forego some of the service and help that people in your area (besides your subs) can offer. Don't forget to give them a try! Still, hard to beat the Internet for information and keeping good 'ol American competition going...

It should be doable, no problem.  Here in the US this kind of architectual feature is called a cantilever, and is done using wood TJI beams, or steel beams.  With 35 cm of bearing, you ought to have no problem. 

In the US, we would have to have an engineer specify the type and placement of beams.  Otherwise, your lumber or steel people ought to be able to size them for you.

It's good to be there for another reason - It's a little known secret, but 99% of the time, the building inspector IS YOUR FRIEND.  It's another set of eyes, making sure things are done right.

As mentioned above, being there can answer questions for him and make things pass, but also, you can get feedback from the inspector.  Things might be legal and meet code, but look sloppy, or could have been done better.  You can then go back to your sub (whom you've not paid in full yet, hopefully) and say "I don't like that this looks like x, to be done properly it really should be y) and 99% of the time, they will come fix it to get that last 10%.  Managed right, it's like having a paid inspector reviewing work.

Of course, many building inspectors don't care...  But if managed right, the inspector can be excited about your project, and his work will be better too.  He's used to dealing with GC's and subs all day who are trying to skate by on the cheapest cra$ that they can get away with, as long as the finished product 'looks' OK.  Here he's working on a project with someone who can be genuinely interested in good work, and in his opinion.  YMMV.

My building inspector was great, and generally never had any problems.  In fact, he gave me my CO without my kitchen sink being installed (it was sitting on the floor) because he knew as an O-B, I would finish my sink, and he was happy with the quality of the project.  He failed an HVAC termination, and I was glad he did, I had missed it.  And he was hard on my framers (what little framing I had) but that was good, because after he beat up my framers for missing some nails, they spend a day double/triple nailing, bracing, pressure blocking.  They went way beyond what was required, thanks to a good lashing by the inspector.

We got our loan in February, mostly so we could get our utilities and road started (the banks won't want you having any work done before they have signed your loan, since they want first lien position).

March - Finalized plans, applied for F&F (footing and foundation) permit. My plans were pretty much finalized, but my designer still had some little interior details to clean up. By applying for an F&F permit, we were able to get going, but in our case, we knew that the incremental changes would not change anything we were doing for the next few months, so it was OK. In our jurisdiction, they turned around the F&F permit in two days, and the full permit in 10, but call your building department and ask.

(In hindsight, I should have drawn our plans - I have the CAD skills, but was worried about working with the building department. I've found the building department is very easy to work with, and wish I had done them myself - we would have started a month or two earlier and saved a lot of money).

April - Started digging. We ended up digging and blasting rock for over three weeks, went over budget and over schedule, starting in excavation.

May 10th - Poured footings, started ICF

June - July - Finished basement ICF, framed floor, stacked and finished pouring main level ICF's around the 4th of August.

August - Waited for truss plant to get act together

September - Waited for framers to get act together.

October - Got framing done, had membrane roof installed

November - Electrical and tin done (in a week!) Plumbing still going on.

If you look at my schedule, I'd be WAY ahead if I had better resolved the problems with my truss plant and my framers. But I wanted my particular framers (experienced with ICF). The ICF's went up ahead of schedule. We actually almost caught up with the three weeks we lost due to excavation until we hit the truss delay.

If you can, order your trusses early! I wanted to wait until I knew my walls wouldn't move (i.e. were poured) so I could make sure that everything fit exactly, but that was more a constraint on the architecture. Truss plants usually have an 8-week lead time out here.

Good luck,

John

I think generally, you never want to connect additional drains to your subterranean footing drain... Imagine if you get a big downpour, fill a surface drain or gutter connected to your footing drain - You then provide a direct pathway to get water _TO_ your footings, a bad idea.

Keep the two drains separate.

6:00 is a good idea, or using the black corrugated pipe with lots of perforations you don't have to worry. Be sure this pipe goes to daylight.

I really liked them, but was told by a window guy who sold pella that they have had some problems. I did however find a product that attached to the inside of windows and french doors at home depot that creates a similar solution, although it is a unit mounted flush inside the glass instead of between the panes, but should work on almost any window/french door.

I'll drop my $.02. I researched a bunch of ICF's, and ended up doing my ICF work. But in all my research and classes, I did learn a lot.

1) Anyone who says you don't need to brace is fooling themselves or has lax standards for straight and plumb. Even regular concrete walls are usually braced.

As Ken said, you need something to walk around on while you pour. I watched guys with ladders run up and down as the pump moved along on a largely unbraced ICF installation. It's hard work, you need a lot of ladders, it's dangerous, and you don't get a good finish/level on the top of the wall because you are moving the ladder so much. My ICF distributor rented me braces/scaffold system for $5.00 per level per brace. I needed around 100 braces on each level. (A brace at every corner, every opening, and every 6').

ICF bracing on the other hand, lets you walk along the entire wall with the pump at a good height for control and safety. Plus, you can adjust plumb to get good straight walls. No matter what wall system you use, good bracing and work platforms are a really good idea.

Before you commit to a system, go to several pours of the system, and similar systems. My ICF of choice changed 3 times over a one-year period as I found newer and better systems. I ended up using Nudura, and the courses lock together, so there is no gluing any joints unless you make a bad cut, in which case you glue them back toegether. Some forms need gluing, some don't. Some say they don't, but they really do (hence the need to go to pours and watch). Concrete wall systems is a fledgling industry, and a lot of the contractors and suppliers will beat each other's kidneys out (badmouthing, lies, etc) so you really have to do you own research. There are some great guys out there, and some fantastic products.

On average, we did about 1,200-1,500 square feet of wall per day, 2 guys. However, that is a bit deceiving, and a big false selling point of many systems (SIPS generally excluded, they do go fast). Sure, I had my walls up in 3 days. It takes a lot of time to do the little things, like installing window bucks, bracing weak spots, installing utility penetrations, installing beam/truss/ledger pockets, etc. We generally took about 3 weeks per level, starting from footings, stacking block, doing all the windows/doors/penetrations, installing bracing, pouring, waiting a couple days to let things set up, and tearing everything down and cleaning up (2 guys).

(These numbers are for square foot of foam wall). I paid about $2.75/sf for foam form (it has gone up now, with fuel prices), and then quite a bit for rebar (probably $.80/sf, including rebar for footings) (I had #5, but your engineer will spec it). Concrete went for around $1.15/sf, Bracing rental cost $.33/sf, misc. supplies (tape to keep the top edges of the ICF clean for the next level, foam glue, soda's, etc.) was another $.35/sf. Window bucks cost me around $1.00 per square foot, using Vbuck, and buying the fancy corner bracing. Pump rucks cost another $0.52 per square foot. There were some other expenses too.

Truth is, putting up the walls is easy. The scary time is when you have the pump trucks there, the concrete there, and you have a lot of people who don't know what they are doing, everybody's learning. I had the distributor there, pumping and vibrating concrete right alongside me, along with a hired experienced ICF guy helping me the entire time. And it was still tough. Your family/friends had better be really committed to working on it, or your pours will be tough. I was really lucky.

Good luck! Do lots of research. There were a few nights I was thinking I had made a mistake, but all in all it worked out good.

Utility Penetrations - I was DIY, so mine was a bit different.

As Ken said, basically you are blocking out anything that you want to go through the wall to the exterior. I used PVC pipe for most of them, sized per the needed pass-through (make them a bit larger than the pipe you need to pass so that if the pipe needs a pitch, you can do it.). Small penetrations, like wires for exterior outlets and lights, don't worry about.

My plumber installed PVC pass-throughs for all the ICF penetrations at underground rough-in time. It's easy to do though, if you are DIY. After the utility is through the block-out, I filled them in with the low-expansion ICF foam glue (really similar to Great Stuff foam). You can add block-outs for special things too, i.e. sat TV, etc.

You can do a 12' opening - I have four, plus 8' openings over the garage doors. In the 12' cases, you will probably need an engineer to spec the steel type and installation. In my jurisdiction, I had to have an engineer design the entire foundation and inspect the steel. All foundations, even poured wall for stick frame, require a site/soil specific design here, so it wasn't really any extra cost over stick-frame.

If you screw up on the penetrations, all is not lost. I forgot my DV fireplace opening, but a local guy core drilled a 9" hole in the wall for me in around 10 minutes. $50 later, problem was fixed. But every penetration you can remember will save you headaches later.

For beam pockets, we built a plug out of scrap foam that had the furring strips in it, and screwed several layers of foam together. We then cut the beam pocket, wrapped the plug with the smooth brown packing tape, put it into place, and put a scrap of OSB over it. We vibrated these areas a lot, and after the concrete cured, a claw hammer would pull the plug out, leaving a nice, smooth pocket for the beam.

One utility location had my washer on an exterior wall, so we channeled the foam in these locations. Ideally, you can run all of the plumbing in interior walls, and electrical goes in with an electric chainsaw or router. My electrician didn't blink, he just bought a new electric chainsaw, set the depth for 2" with a homemade depth stop, and cut away. This put the wire well past the minimum depth, while keeping the wire from touching concrete (I have 2 5/8" of foam). He then filled the slots back in.

A VERY rough rule of thumb that some folks, and indeed, the building department here use is that labor will be about 50% of the total price of the project, including materials, etc. So if you spent $20K on materials for framing, you'd expect to spend another $20K on labor. It will vary from area to area. Our geography is expensive, but I'll bet yours might be higher for labor.

Just a thought on getting a local company to buy extra resources on your lot - It will likely depend on the economy in your area. I've had little luck with my resources - rock. I have thousands of tons of moss rock, sandstone from blasting, etc. Most companies don't want to mess with an one-time shot for a local supplier.

I had strong interest if I was willing to let a local rock company come haul out at will, every rock they wanted... But I didn't want to turn things into a quarry. I'm trying to work with a local landscape materials supplier to trade some of my sandstone boulders (I have 500-700 ton) for a credit for landscape materials. They would be getting them for a song, but they would have to mobilize the equipment to haul them out, so it's a big expense. Unless there is enough material (wood/rock/apples/whatever) to make it worth mobilizing the equipment, it won't be worth it to them...

I think the current supplier I'm talking to is considering it, but I can tell it's on the edge. They are only five miles away, so trucking won't take long, but running two trucks and a huge trackhoe could very well cost $300 per hour, and they would probably need 16 hours, so their could would not be inconsequential... Anyway, just a bit on my experience. Hopefully you have better luck, but if you do have good trees, it can't hurt to try. If it works, let us know how you approached them and what worked!

Using propane for our on demand hot water and stove during the summer (no heating turned on) we use about 7 gallons per month.  We also heat with it, and during the winter, usage is higher.  We have a 500 gallon tank that we located in a pretty hidden but accessible area, and screed with moss rocks.

A better alternative is to bury the tank - it requires a special type of tank and inspection, and you usually have to buy the tank, although some companies will lease buried tanks with long enough lease.