The Graber Home

Perfect Location, Perfect Product, Perfect Home

The Graber family loved their home and community but felt like it was time for a change. They had lived for years in a beautiful neighborhood that surrounds a lake in Oklahoma City. Their house was wood framed with an ICF addition and they felt like it was time to reap the benefits of a full ICF home. So what did they do? They found the perfect lot in the same neighborhood on the other side of the lake and built this 5,000 square foot dream home.

The Project:

5,000 SF house in Oklahoma City, OK
4,620 SF of ICF used
100% of exterior walls built with ICF
340 SF of ICF walls were used for the interior including under-slab insulation and a safe room
ICF installation time was 32 days
Total construction time was 60 days
Utilized Plumwall bracing, rough cedar bucking, and a stone exterior finish
Total project cost- $1.75 million

Overcoming Obstacles

This project has wall heights of 10′ throughout the structure, including a large ICF garage. The design includes many large openings, some of which spanned across corners. There are 24 corners in the house. There are large openings throughout the structure that required big reinforced bulkheads and some extra planning. Extra care was given to pouring this project, especially around windows. The crew worked together to pour, consolidate, and clean, making sure that the complicated areas of the structure were finished to the highest standard.

Not every job is perfect. That’s the nature of construction. This project had some unique complications that were expertly handled by a team of ICF professionals. The job was started by one contractor and finished by another. The first contractor did the layout, foundation, and stem-wall. The job was then handed over to Green Machine ICF Building Solutions who completed the home. The home also offered several design challenges. This was an ambitious build that ultimately exceeded the owners very high expectations.

Precision and Teamwork Lead to an Exceptional Build

The crew on this job did really excellent work. Given the difficulty of the site when they arrived, complications from the architect, and the owner’s appropriately high expectations, they really knocked it out of the park. You can see from the images below that the ICF crew ran an efficient build. They kept the site extremely clean and organized and worked as a team on every aspect of the build. Even though the foundation was complicated, adjustments were made and the walls were finished to be perfectly straight. The owners had built an ICF add on to their previous home and the walls were not consolidated correctly. They made those concerns clear and the walls of this house were finished without any voids or honeycombing.

Beauty and Performance

The design of this home is truly stunning. The home has several walls with large windows. The exterior boasts a beautiful stone finish that transitions nicely into the interior of the house. The front porch and door are covered by a large vaulted roof that is supported by steel and stone pillars.

The owners designed this home with energy efficiency as their chief objective. They had used ICF on a small portion of their previous house and knew the benefits up front. ICFs are the key component in the homes excellent efficiency but several pieces were added to enhance the performance of the house. The house has high quality insulated windows, open cell foam under the roof line, slab encapsulation by ICF, and a geothermal unit for heating and cooling. The house also has an all ICF safe room to keep them safe in disaster-prone Oklahoma.

Industry Exposure

The home is built in a beautiful, established neighborhood. It is the only ICF home in the neighborhood and has received a lot of local attention. The home is featured in several sections of BuildBlocks on-line training course and training videos. Thousands of people have learned ICF construction strategies (specifically in regards to finishes and installing plumbing and electrical) from images and video taken of this project.

The project is a great success. The finished house is beautiful inside and out. The owners are very satisfied with their new home and couldn’t be prouder of all the work that went into it. The couple knew what to expect from ICF but have been pleasantly surprised by the drastic difference that a full ICF home has made on their energy bills and overall comfort.