We poured the walls today on an ICF build for a HfH house using Plumwall braces and a different brand of ICF blocks. The braces are a quick, easy 2 man install but does have potentially sharp edges on the upright piece where you insert the screws. There are also pinch points that could be painful if not paying attention during install. The large adjustment bolts make it very easy and quick to level & plumb the ICF wall. We installed the braces after the 8’ walls were all in place. Each brand of ICF blocks has its advantages and disadvantages. The one we used were set into metal channels on the inside and outside of the blocks, both at the bottom and the top. Installing the bottom channels into the concrete slab with RamSets took a little extra time but made it easy to keep the blocks perfectly aligned and held the blocks tightly in place top and bottom for the pour. This method does not require any common straps. The only wood or straps needed were at any large gaps between blocks (which were also foamed). 4’ vertical rebar was installed in the slab (or concrete footings) every 18”. 8’ vertical rebar was added from above once the ICF walls were in place. Horizontal rebar was added at each level of blocks as well as at each corner. The metal channels at the top of the ICF walls provided, in addition to strength and support, a smooth level base to use when leveling and smoothing the concrete for the top plate. This was the very first ICF build in our state for a HfH home. It received lots of media attention, support from the concrete manufacturers’ association, the ICF Mfg’s Assn, local suppliers, local and state government, and the ICF manufacturer who had an experienced employee on site to guide and train us. All construction is being done by volunteers under supervision of the local HfH construction manager.

I’m no builder never have been and at 73 never will be but I really enjoy your videos and your review of the product. Many thanks DP.

After watching a few of your ICF basement videos and watching the contractor pour my basement the conventional way, I would not know why you wouldn't want an ICF basement the end result is so much better.

That was a "Dirt Perfect" explanation of the Pulmwall ICF bracing system. I'm sure their engineering department got to work in a hurry on those improvements that you recommended in this video.

They should make corner braces. Especially for outside corners. Not only would it hold the wall up but it would hold it straight and plumb. An inside corner would need the brace on the outside and that could be a little tricky to support.

Never heard the start of the tape measure called the "dummy end" before. Perfect.

I watch all your videos and manage to learn one or two things each time You are going to make a talented and wise old man when you get older.

I had the opportunity to work on this job with @DirtPerfect and the rest of the awesome crew. Gotta say couldn't ask for a better crew to work with and working with the Plumall braces compared to older braces that I've worked with on previous construction jobs was a lot better and alot easier to manage and work with, other than smashing my fingers a few times on getting them opened up...lol... they are alot better. Matt, Kleeman, Aaron and the ICF walls and other equipment I worked with was a pleasure. Thanks again @DirtPerfect for the opportunity to work with you on this job and other jobs! If your in our area and looking for awesome work done with pride and top of the line craftsmanship Dirt Perfect is the one to call.

Great info on the new bracing. Contractors really need to watch your video on Pulmwall bracing system.

Nothing more enjoyable than working with quality materials and the best of tools!

You'd have loved stacking my house. There isn't a parallel wall in the house. I had a surveyor lay it out with a total station, but they did not do well. I ended up pulling points with multiple tape measures. It seemed like a simple thing to do as the house is comprised of 17 8 foot wall segments, each 21.176 degrees apart. In Autocad, I would have done a circular array. Very simple, tell Autocad to array the walls around a point and divide 360/17. The connector between the house and garage which is a rectangle, were easy. It took me a week to stack the house, an afternoon to stack the garage. And this was my first time using ICF's. I was fortunate that the crew I hired to pour my basement had bracing. They were a few pieces short for my needs but I located those. You're talking about Zuckles and Zonts. I looked at them and had I not been able to source the bracing, I would have gone that route. For my Bucks, I used 3/4" Treated plywood and treated 2x4's. I ripped the 2x4s on a30 Degree angle and screwed the plywood to them. The angle cut created a key in the concrete. I know you don't, buy my crew vibrated the forms with a pencil vibrator. No blowouts. I had. s stepped footing from the house to the garage. The hole is rock so the forms follow the rock. I used plywood and foam to fill the gap that was created. It appears the system I used was "Paneljack". My foot stakes were in rock. I had to drill every pin. I used 3/4" nail stakes.

Boning Rods are what we used to use to get our levels in the sixties, the same tools the ancient Egyptians used to build the Pyramids.

Excellent review, great feedback for the manufacturer to absorb and hopefully tweak - they seem like easy mod's. I like the fact that the adjustment threads are protected from concrete spills too! :)

You would make a great salesman. Good video.

Looking forward to seeing how these braces handle the concrete pour.

Nice honest review of plumwall. Looking forward to the pour for final thoughts. I'm not even a builder nor ever have been one. Really enjoy your channel,the banter between all the guys from small town usa. You guys are what make America great. Guess I have too much time on my hands but it's okay I'm retired.

I’m ready to add ICF to our scope of work after watching this video!

YAY the Captain makes an appearance again 😁. There is a lot of work setting all of that up!

Another great video Mike. Learned something new today about ICF and the braces.

Looks like a good system, seems a lot better than what you had before. I guess time will tell if the foot pieces will hold up. Stay safe boys.

Nice job showing and explaining the new supporting system. Very detailed and based on use Look forward to the poor Merry Christmas Bruce from Mason Michigan

Nice video, thanks for sharing. I’ve been a fan of the ICF since I first heard of them. Have spent many random hrs checking out the many different brands of ICF and accessories web pages. Looking forward to seeing you build a multi level building some day. Merry Christmas, wishing you and your family the best.

1) Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to you and yours DP! 2) I'm 65 now and not a fellow Dirt person, never will be. I like watching your videos because you are the folks who take a site to the point where a building can definitely be built. Foundation laid, septic system set up. Thank you for showing how you do that at all sorts of sites. I have some ICF questions I'll put in follow up comments.

best video yet on doing icf walls

Never messed with ICF and never used a brace like it, but everything you said made sense to me. Plumwall had an ad at the end of your video and it looked like they tried to make the foot so you could stake or bolt it down in just about anyway possible.

Very Good instructions should be a sales man on the braces . loved the 10 year old blue print drawings lol

Merry Christmas to you and the whole crew!!🎄🙏 Thanks to all of you for a great year! Keep it going strong and enjoy your holidays!! 🎁 can't wait for 2021!

Wow Dirt Perfect going all nerd on us now 🤣 great explanation of how they work as I had no idea but feel more knowledgeable about them now thanks DP 👍

As always you Sr. did a Dirt Perfect job explanation on this system, I have been in the Material Testing Bus. for over 45 years, the first ICF i saw used was over 30 years ago in Orlando, i liked it then and believe it should be use more, seen Cells up to 12" wide and they used a lot of 2x4's and plywood on the bracing, lots of concrete and Re-bar, keep up the great work Mike, looking forward to the video.

I use bracing that is very similar. It's nice having the scaffolding and bracing integrated. Adjusting during the pour is easy. We always assign 1 to watch string and 1 to turning the adjusting leg. All hands on deck that day. Ya'll do a good job installing the forms. A lot of form manufacturers tell you in the instructions to not do vertical seams but the guy writing those doesn't understand that keeping the walls the exact same length top to bottom is much easier using a vertical splice. We use 18 inch strips of plywood over our splice and usually place a brace at that same point. Using Integraspec we pump 10 feet high all in one pass and never check up. Great video!

About 30 yrs ago I worked on a job using this material but we did the entire house. We had to frame out the windows and doors. And had to put ledges on the inside due to concrete floors on a 3 storie house. Reason being it was right on the water up north. It was for the Daughter of the owner of a major hardware chain. And money was no object. First time we ever used it. Used the hot wire knife to cut what was needed. On top of that was a metal roof.

These ICF walls are amazing to me. The ease at how they go up. How easy it is to get plum with these new wall braces. I set quite a few what is called pre-fab concrete basement walls. They are a pre-poured wall 6" thick concrete that has 2" foam on each side, usually 10ft tall was standard. Using a 100ton crane to set each in place. Corners are held together with 1" dia. 18" long lag screws. Its either those or traditional cement block walls up here in this area. I can recall doing a 28'X68' ranch home with the pre-fab walls took 12hrs of crane time. the 28' walls were 1-piece and the 68' walls were 3-piece.

great vid that was the reason i got out of doing icf in the 90s the bracking was such a pain i went back to steel forms

I really like those wall brace's DP....Cant wait for the next vid to see how it go's mate....🦘🦘👌👌

Another "Perfect" day

I've said it before. This has to be one of the best ways to make a basement wall. Styrofoam as insulation and reinforced concrete as load-bearing.

So basically, if your child loves playing LEGO'S, you would advise encouraging it based on what you just showed us. WOW! This video seems very useful as a 'training video' for PLUMWALL personnel or customer base. You seem to know the product well and they seem to work well. Nice when people can THINK! Thanks. Sonny (CT)

Thanks for the excellent advice. Very good video makes my day to watch yall. Merry Christmas hope u are blessed

MERRY CHRISTMAS to you and your family and crew. God bless.

Thanks for explaining about the braces very interesting. I think you will like them just as much as your speed binders.

As a Canadian I’m glad to hear you like and would buy a Canadian product. You build a lot of cool houses

You really take your work seriously and do a great job. You do it like your own house or property. A very great crew! Like your channel

This video brings up a memory of me and my dad watching home on Holmes and talking about a Thermal break

I like the fact they lean into the whole Plum color thing as well.

Total station is very nice but also very expensive. If you do alot of complex jobs you should look into it. I would recommend leica, the software is very easy to use. Also you can set up on a pin but not necessary, you can set control points to shoot which allows it to be set anywhere you have line of sight. This gives the instrument its location to start layout. Even very complex basements dont take long to layout. Merry Christmas and happy new year.

Very interesting video a lot of good information and your honest opinion

Very thorough and understandable ICF primer. Thanks!

Wow I’ve been looking into getting started with icf walls as part of my business but I kept looking the other but this video by far the best I’ve seen online lots of great info

Mike, you definitely have a great crew.

Just because of who you are we will see the improvements in the areas that you point out. :) Thank you for the video and have a safe and happy holiday.

Very interesting and well done review. I watched the whole thing, even though I'm not sure I've ever even been inside of a house with a basement. Merry Christmas to you and yours!

I got my hat and stickers today! Thanks for getting them to me so quick. Merry Christmas to you all!

A Merry Christmas to you, your family, and your protagonists. Stay safe and keep the camera rolling!

Mike just showed the brace company how to make so many improvements to a already good product.

Enjoyed buddy . You run a tight job site . Thanks for showing.

You could also use a stabila layout station (like a LA180). It's about 2,000$. Not sure if you do enough foundations to justify the investment though. Pythagoras however is still free.

Hope you and your family had a great Christmas!!

I can already tell you had problems keeping the brace footing from twisting. They need to add the rebar hole directly behind the leg of the brace. You could kill two birds with one stone, by having MBTS weld a plate in the 2x4 hole with a 1"hole in the center. It would double the thickness of the flimsy bracket and put the anchor dead center of the brace. GL Dirt (better than) Perfect!

Pretty cool seeing how far things have come and the new tools you have available. At a pretty penny I’m sure. Lol. Enjoying the diversity of your content in the handful of videos I’ve watched. Thinking back I guess that’s one of the things I’ve always liked about Chris and Brandon’s videos that kept me coming back. Never know what kinda mess they’ll be getting into. Lol. Take care Mike

Wow...! Mike great video. "Plumbwall" could have sent a guy-gal/rep., out to be on site for this set-up (course they would no doubt had to have been quarantined for 14-days prior). I have watched all your "ICF" set-up & pours, and wondered what was involved with resetting the walk ways for each level of concrete. This system is sure gonna streamline your labor & time for sure. Your video will give them great feed back (i.e., those "footplate" issues you pointed out). Those "Canuks" folks make some pretty awesome equipment. My experience with them has only been snowblowers that mount on tractors, and they are the go to for those. I am sure looking forward to the "pour-day" video. Thank you sir.

Merry Christmas. Starting off with metal music. Must have missed the Pepsi this am

I really like the design

Very thorough review of the ICF system Mike. Looks like a well thought out program and with feed back like yours hopefully they will refine their product and make it even better. When you did the high speed adjustment section I noticed the screw blocks seemed to jam up a couple of times, on a big job that would definitely get frustrating in a hurry, especially after dried concrete starts gritting everything up. I suppose greasing up those areas would help keep it smooth, but then the grease gets on everything. Lol The life of form work. That system is sure a lot better than through ties and plywood strong back forms and so much lighter. Hahaha... Wall form technology has changed so much for the better, very impressive.

...great one, have a good week..

I made a plate that bolted to bottom and a threaded bolt for a peg I use a drill and turns the stake in to the ground like a dog leash anchor

They look great only thing I b worries about is something getting in rails during pour

Could you take a short piece of two by four and put it in the pocket where they expect you to drive it in as a stake. Cut it off flush and drill a hole through it for your re-bar stake. Couple of screws to hold it in. It would keep the load path in line for less twisting.

Great video with lots of good content. Thanks for sharing. Kevin

Fit and finish, the make or break of any product!

👍 You Tube magic sure does make it look easy. Thanks for the vid.

Enjoy watching your videos, You should create playlist of the #ICF

I know you filmed this months ago. But great video. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL THE DRT PERFECT FAMILY.

The ICF wall is so much better than the old Simplex forms!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seems like a great system designed with Canadian ingenuity. Glad to see your critiques were prefaced with the caveat that you are a rookie with the system and they may play out okay in the long run. I’ve seen KZfaqrs absolutely slam an item but in the end everything was okay because their comment was purely observational without actually using the item yet. I’m sure it’s all okay. Mainly because you’ve already talked about them quickly in other videos. 😉

Setting up the braces takes more time than laying the blocks. If you use a ladder angle irons on top course to straighten that course, you can forget the braces and glue the block to the footing, Gluing the first course to the footing is like sitting on a chair to keep the chair from floating.

Merry Christmas to whole family

Been waiting for this video. I believe the pros outway the cons based on your opinion. It is amazing how similar we do builds with different block companies. Thanks for the informative video. Stay safe

Mike, that was an awesome review. Very fair and honest, not to mention professional. Great video as well. Merry Christmas.

Thank you for the giraffe comparison. Very helpful. Have you ever done reinforced, cantilevered balcony pours (say 6' overhang, 3" or 4" slab height) using regular forms or something like the quad-deck i-beam form and braced them with the same bracing you used for the main wall pour? I have a series of 30' exterior balconies to design into a pour. It seems like with those angle brackets you'd be able to just move the whole plumwall brace to the outside after the main wall cures, set up the angle brackets and lumber to hold up the balcony forms during the pour.

Amazing how the ICF's take all that weight. Great job guys! Merry Christmas!

Great job Merry Christmas to you, your family and all. God bless.

Very informative even though I don't that kind of work

DP, tell Plumwall the issues with the footer for your operation, they might send you replacements that work better for you.

Merry Christmas to you and your family

Very informative video. Thanks and Merry Christmas 🎄

Merry Christmas

Interesting video Mike!

Thanks for the education on the Plumwall system Mike - Merry Christmas to you and family...

Worst noise to hear is creaking and of course the dreaded pop. We lost alot of walls due to that. We lost a 25ft high wall 50ft long. It was old school double stack with the 6 bar form. The actual corner form latches broke

Great explanation.

Loving the funky music 🎶 DP 👌 💯 😎

Been waiting for this video.

Mikey... as mouse traps go... Plumwall seems to be doing rather darn well in the competition to build the better one. Hopefully, the mice take the bait and are captured securely... can hardly wait for you to spring the trap and see what you catch! Have a Merry Christmas!

Mike how about lag screws to anchor angle braces to ground using drill. No hammering or prying.

great content Mike!

Happy Christmas Mike and crew and family, you deserve far more subs, really enjoy your postings, you come across as a very affable man. best wishes from the UK.

72 years old and I've built lots of basements with concrete blocks. To me this ICF looks like more complex. Not sure if its a time saver or a cost saver. Definitely stronger and has the insulation installed.

Merry Christmas to you and yours sir

Great and informative video, I do not do house building myself, but in the corner where there was no room for two brackets, could you have adjusted one of them down in height so they went clear of each other?

Hi there, Here is wishing you and all your family a very merry Xmas and a happy new year.Fred UK.