I've been looking at both SIPs and ICF construction techniques.
I was curious what you used to vibrate the concrete during pouring?
For the insides of the ICF walls, are you going to apply the drywall directly, or are you going to have some type of furring strips to space the drywall out for drywall anchors for pictures etc?
Did you have electrical conduit in the exterior walls with junction boxes for outlets/switches?
What type of concrete did you have poured into the forms?
It appears that you had minimal bracing for the blocks, is this because of the type of blocks you used? I've seen forms that were supported front and back with plywood/bracing to keep from having blow outs and keeping the walls straight.
Keep up the good work, it's impressive to see it come together.
The concrete can either be consolidated with a pencil vibrator, or simply rodding with some rebar. I chose
latter, and it seemed to work just fine. The slump is so high that voids are minimal to begin with. When attaching the garage foundation walls to the main structure, the foam at the joint was cut away, and you could see that the consolidation was good.
Drywall will get attached directly to the foam - any anchors needed for pictures can go right into the foam. Anything more substantial could be anchored through to the concrete.
I chose to not run conduit through the concrete - too many unanswered questions about switch and outlet locations, plus a lot more cost. For the few switches and outlets on exterior walls, I will be using special ICF electrical boxes that anchor directly to the foam, and using a hot knife to cut channels for the wire.
I don't have the specs handy for the concrete, but each ICF manufacturer will have a set of recommendations. I just called the concrete supplier and asked for the specs on their 'ICF Mix' and it was right in line with the recommendations so that's what I used. Seems to me mine was 3000 psi 5.5 slump 3/8 aggregate?
The bracing was supplied by the foam vendor, and per the manufacturer's manual it was all that was needed. The foam block and plastic cross ties take all the side load, and the bracing is used to keep the wall from tipping over and staying straight. I did use additional bracing for the curved sections as they were inherently weaker. The only place I even came close to having a blowout was one corner where I screwed up and missed placing one of the plastic ties. Even then, it didn't fail, just bowed out a bit. Fortunately that little boo boo is below grade!