Rob & Donna Lindberg Residence

It was an easy choice for Rob & Donna to go with an insulated concrete form (ICF) building system when they were planning their new 2980 square foot home in the country. With help from Dennis Hegel at Brock White, they were introduced to the Nudera ICF system. Dennis provided the assistance needed to plan and execute the assembly of the forms, construction of the floor systems and the provision for the window and door openings. After that, it was simple. On his reason for using the ICF systems, Rob noted, “There is no system equal to the durability and weather resistance of the concrete wall. Plus the high effective R-factor means that we will drastically cut our heating and cooling costs.” Rob went on to mention how he chose the high end window product from Pella, the Contractor Series with low-e glass and gas filled interspaces. His windows even had built in shades, grills and screens.

To help with the energy efficiency, Rob & Donna chose to install horizontal ground loop geothermal with off-peak electric heat pump systems for primary heating and cooling. This required installation of 5000 feet of poly pipe in 7- 120 foot long trenches. Rob noted that, “We may have spent a little more than with stickframe systems, but the benefits of little air infiltration of our concrete walls combined with no cold spots anywhere, even in the lower level, gave us economy far better than stick-frame. We have two floors of total livable space, not one floor with a cold basement below.”

Rob noted, “Life in the country is wonderful, but self-sufficiency is necessary. We can survive in our new concrete house like no other. We need not worry as much about tornados or loss of utility services, due to our high performance home’s capabilities.” He added, “You can’t believe how sound proof our house is. Don’t bother to honk the car horn outside, we likely won’t hear it.”