Traditional Concrete Buildings

Comparison of ICF to the classic building system with concrete.

Greece is a country where regular light earthquakes take place. This has resulted in a different building method compared to other European countries. To construct a building that has a large resistance against earthquakes, the Greek Building Ministry demands building by a SKELETON. Not the WALLS, but the COLUMNS and the BEAMS carry the house and resist earthquakes to the strength of 8 on the Richter scale.

The building of a concrete skeleton with floors and the necessary brickwork has a number of disadvantages. Below we offer a comparison between the traditional concrete skeleton and building with the ICF skeleton system:

• The building time for a concrete skeleton takes an average of approximately 2 months. As a consequence, skeletons built in this way are expensive, need a lot of labour and a lot of time. The expenses for the concrete skeleton are approximately one third of the total expenses of the house.
• Only after completion of the concrete skeleton, the brickwork between the columns can be started. Before this no other building activities can start and therefore there are unnecessary losses of time.
• Another big problem that arises when using this way of building is the difference in the warm and cold expansion coefficient between materials uses, in this case the brickwork and the solid concrete skeleton. In Crete the daily temperature difference can go up to 25 degrees Celsius; at night the temperature can go down to 10 degrees, whereas the next day it can be 35 degrees. As a consequence of these variable temperature differences cracks will appear between the brickwork and the concrete. Although there is no danger to the stability of the house, the sight of it is not attractive and extra maintenance will be needed to repair it.
• An important disadvantage is the isolating by this way of building. The many and large concrete columns and beams are very poor or not well thermal isolated. Various so-called cold bridges arise, which, all year round, cause higher energy expenses and will bring down the level of comfort in the house.
• The concrete beams in the interior are clearly visible, take unnecessary space, and need to be painted to be in harmony with the interior.