Well I have my land cleared and my well in. My excavator has my basement hole dug. I am considering building an ICF wall. I took the certification class and it was a lot of fun. Kind of like building with legos.
However, my excavator thinks block might be cheaper. Now for my question and yes I know it will vary from place to place, but I wanted to get an Idea what people are paying for block walls. I talked to a mason yesterday and he qouted about $11 a block, that is with all the steel reinforcement and all of the blocks filled. It seemed steep to me, so I thought I would get a reality check and ask people here, what they have paid.
Thanks.
chuck
My (3 year old) Tenn experience may not help you ... but it went like this:
.Paid for rough footing excavation by person putting in septic system .
.Finished hand digging the footing. Placed reinforcing rod, elevation stacks, etc.
.Since it was a rather simple pour, I had ready mix concrete ( to #3500 specs) delivered. Installed vertical rebars to tie to block walls ... 2' or so. I also had forms ready for custom lintels .
.Had 2 tons of sand delivered ... placed on tarp... covered with tarp (to keep it clean). Had several "cubes" of block delivered ... including some "half blocks". Bought a few bags of Portland and masonry cement ( I like a bit of Portland in my mortar for additional strength).
.Using my own small mixer, I laid the first two courses ... just to make sure the thing was square and level.
I then hired a couple of local masons to finished the job. They supplied their own mixer and tools. but I supplied all materials. I gave them a detailed drwg to follow. They charged me $.75 per block.
I came back and installed the lintels and vertical tie anchors.
Just for the block wall ... I figure I have $2 - $3 per block.
I later plastered the inside and outside surfaces with surface bonding cement.
.
Overkill with that surface bonding cement?
Although just after I'd become barely competent with a narrow aisle reach truck (baby electric forklift), a new person came in, hated them, and took out a corner of a nice freshly built block building that was going to hold the air conditioning for the plant, and we did want that AC. Freshly laid block is easy to move. ;)
If you want insulation with a block foundation, you get to add that cost, which your excavator might or might not have done.
Was he including footings? (different people, wouldn't think so, but....)
If you build with ICF's you get to add some kind of finishing so the foam will be covered. That costs too.
Why not try a dry stack concrete block wall? There's plenty of info available on the web; google it. In case you don't find anything good, here's one of my favorites; lots of pictures. They are easy enough to build you can do it yourself for the cost of the materials alone.
http://www.solar.org/solar/location
P.S. I'm using dry stack for the foundation walls on my 30x57 house that "I" am building (pretty much alone).
When insulating a foundation, ( basement in my case,) is it best to put the foam on the inside or outside?
Outside will give you a break from the cold soil and leave the walls warmer. Most plans I've seen have it outside.
Thank you Glen.
Some people start the insulation at the top of the outside of the wall, gradually flare out so that the insulation is protecting both the the foundation proper, and giving you more thermal mass with down there.