Icon News: High-Rise Walls Go Up In Record Time With ICFs




Concrete Construction and Insulating Concrete Form (ICF) Specialists

Icon News

HIGH-RISE WALLS GO UP IN RECORD TIME WITH ICFs

March 2002, Ft. Myers, Florida--Wall construction using Reward Wall Systems insulating concrete form (ICF) infill walls is complete on the fourth of eight high-rise condominium buildings planned in the Waterside development located near Ft. Myers, Florida. Construction of the walls of the fifth building, also using Reward ICFs, is scheduled to start in mid March.

At eleven stories Waterside IV is one of the tallest buildings ever built with ICFs, and the walls were completed in just four months. Wall construction began in October 2001 and finished in February 2002. General contractor Robert Ambrose of Ostego Bay Construction estimates that he shaved over a month off his total construction time by using Reward ICFs for the infill walls instead of concrete block.

The wall subcontractor for the project was Icon Southeast, a construction company that specializes in large commercial and multi-story residential ICF buildings. Icon’s general manager of construction, Harry Pilkington, attributes the speed of the wall construction to the teamwork of his crew, the excellence of the Reward iForm, and the support of the Reward corporate organization.

“The teamwork and organization of our employees really made this project go smoothly,” says Pilkington. The way Pilkington described it, as each deck floor became ready, the Icon crew moved in and stacked and braced the Reward ICF infill walls. “We did half a deck at a time,” says Pilkington, “and while part of the crew was placing the concrete in the walls of the first half, the rest of the crew had moved on and was stacking the second half.

Pilkington also gives credit to the ease of building with Reward’s iForm flat wall ICF, and to the technical support from Reward Wall Systems, Inc. “I was fascinated that Reward has all the code approvals needed to build anywhere in the country—even the Type I Non-combustible approval, which is essential for this type of construction. Reward always had the forms there on time and usually two decks ahead of time. They even developed a bracing system for us that kept the walls straight plumb and true during the pouring and curing process.

“Really, we had it down to such a science that it isn’t that exciting to talk about,” laughs Pilkington. “The exciting thing was to get on schedule and to end up ahead of schedule.”