Our friend Susie let us tag along when she went to check out
insulated concrete forms at a job site in Santa Fe, N.M.
She was interested in using Faswall Wall Forms
and had gotten permission from local contractor Doug McDowel
to let us visit his building site where he was using Faswall.
He has built many houses with this system.
Check out the link above for Faswell.
It is a well thought out concrete form
made out of recycled wood chips and cement.
The concrete is poured in to form both a horizontal and vertical grid.
If you look at the very top you can see sections
of either foam or mineral wool insulation.
This wall is ready to be poured with the rebar in place.
Rebar is run every 16" horizontally and every 24" vertically.
You will notice the rigid insulation in this photo also.
The wall is dry stacked about 4' to 5', braced, and the concrete is poured.
The next section is then stacked up for the next pour of concrete.
It is best not to go too high in a single pour to prevent the sides
from bursting out from the weight and pressure of the concrete.
Bracing is very important before the pour begins to prevent
any problems with the wall moving while pouring concrete.
One of the beauties of this system is that both interior plaster
and exterior stucco can be applied directly over the wall
with no house wrap or stucco wire necessary.
This saves a lot of time and money.
A completed pour for this section of wall.
This 2x4 was added when a section started to bulge out during the pour.
Foam spray is used plug up gaps
and the wooden shims are used to level the blocks while stacking them.
Doug Mcdowel runs a nice clean job site, always a good sign,
but this is the first time I have seen a no smoking job site with a sign.
I was very impressed.
