BuildBlock ICF chosen to replace tornado leveled White Sulfur Springs, MT water filtration plant.

Summer wind storms are common in Montana,  this particular windstorm in 2012 turned into a powerful tornado and destroyed White Sulfur Spring’s fairly new water filtration plant. With the possibility of this happening again, it was time to re-think the stability and durability of the new water filtration plant. Concrete walls became the logical choice, and the advantages of BuildBlock ICFs were soon realized and applied to the overall reconstruction of the building.

The architect, David Seabury with Seabury Design Associates, was able to design a completely new ICF structure that far exceeds and outperforms the previously un-insulated wood framed building, while utilizing the previously constructed foundation for cost savings and sustainability.  The insulation value of the walls and roof system allows public works employees to now be protected and work in more user friendly conditions throughout the year. 

At its core, the concrete walls, EPS foam, and steel siding and roofing, ensure this building will be around for many decades to come, and provide the city of White Sulphur Springs with fresh gravity fed mountain water, naturally filtered through the building by sand in the four concrete filtration bays.  The pump systems and large overhead doors allow the public works crew to drain and clean the filtration bays as needed throughout the year, and clean filtered water is stored in a large water tank downhill from the new water filtration building. 

[pullquote style=”left” quote=”dark”]This project exemplifies the versatility of ICFs in construction. This protects the water supply for a small community and ICFs were chose not just for their permanence and energy efficiency, but also for their disaster resistance.[/pullquote]

This project was very significant in Montana for the ICF industry because there are not a relatively large amount of ICF government or commercial projects specified to be ICF, historically or currently.  The project was completed on budget and 6 weeks before the allowable completion deadline.

 This shows that not only can we utilize the ICF systems for custom homes and basic foundations, but all types of buildings that would otherwise be specified as wood, CMU, or traditional concrete; and we can do it in at least the same time frame, and for about the same completed cost.  This project heavily displays the ability of ICF to act not only as an energy performance wall, but also as a long lasting and resilient wall system that does not have to add significant cost to the project.We were honored and proud to have worked on a State and local City funded job that had all walls specified as ICF from the beginning. 

BuildBlock ICFs used to rebuild Water Filtration Plant Gallery