Traditional Concrete Buildings

Comparison of ICF to the traditional building system with concrete.

Greece is a country where regular 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:

Building with a concrete skeleton and brickwork Bulding with a steel skeleton and ICF (AMVIC)
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. The building time with a steel skeleton and ICF takes less than 2 weeks, thus saving a lot of time and money.
Only after completion of the concrete skeleton (at least 4 weeks), the brickwork for the walls between the columns can be started.
Before this no other building activities can start and therefore there are unnecessary losses of time		 With ICF the walls are built right after the steel skeleton has been placed, which takes no more than 2 days.
A concrete skeleton and brickwork have different expansion coefficients. This sometimes results in cracks.
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.		 With the steel skeleton and ICF there is no such problem.
An important disadvantage is the insulation of the building. The many and large concrete columns and beams are very poor or not well thermal insulated.
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.		 With the steel skeleton and ICF we have at least 6 cm insulation on the outside and inside of the house. The result is the saving of 70% of the energy costs.
The concrete beams in the interior are clearly visible, take unnecessary space, and need to be painted to be in harmony with the interior. With the steel skeleton and ICF we don’t have visible columns and beams inside the house.