There is a fundamental design misconception regarding insulated concrete forms. (ICF's) The concept is that the walls must be made so strong that you can cut an opening in them for a door or window, and whatever wall is left above the opening will support the roof load. The problem with this is that it means that the walls are overbuilt everywhere else. 

An overbuilt ICF means having too much concrete. This raises costs and reduces the R-factor. The extra concrete is not beneficial because the concrete mass inside the walls will not help to heat or cool the home. Others have theorized that the mass of concrete in the wall will heat up in the daytime when it's hot, and then the stored heat will warm the home at night when it's cold.

The problem with this is that it only works when it's very hot in the daytime and very cold at night. This rarely happens. Wall systems need to work when the climate outside is at its most extreme, that is, when it's either very hot both day and night, or when it's very cold both day and night.

Consider a warm temperature scenario: It's 110 degrees outside of your too-much-concrete home and you're paying to keep it at 70 inside. If it's 110 outside and 70 inside, the concrete in the middle of your wall will be the average of those two temperatures, which is 90 degrees. This hot concrete will not help you cool your home.

Conversely, let's imagine a cold climate scenario: It's the middle of winter and the temperature rarely gets above 20 degrees outside. Using the same math as above, the concrete mass in your wall will be 45 degrees. The cold concrete will not help you heat your home.

Conclusively, insulation is trapped air, not more concrete. In contrast, Tech Block's design is based on the notion that excessive concrete is not a good thing. Our wall system uses the minimum amount of concrete needed to build to three stories. The steel reinforced concrete grid (to the right) system within the walls provides the walls with their incredible strength. Additionally, we have a way to support the load over doors and windows (Installation Manual 4). The result is a very strong wall system with more energy efficiency for less money.

It is understood that mass inside the home (rather than inside the wall) will help retain interior temperatures; we also have a method for insulating concrete slab floors (Installation Manual 2). If the home has a wood floor, then our system provides an insulated crawl space.

All of this is in addition to the other advantages of Tech Block make it a smart and a green choice. Tech Block has a wood layer on the interior for attaching drywall and for backing under the drywall. The exterior of the blocks are also immediately ready for stucco. The Tech Block wall system is also extremely energy efficient, environmentally friendly, sound resistant, fire resistant, and termite resistant.