Reviving this thread...
For those who are enclosing a timber frame wall with ICFs---do you mean building a full timber frame and then inserting ICFs between the timbers and filling with concrete, or just using the raw ICFs as insulative infill material?
We are planning a home on the northern California coast and have been warned away from using bales in our cool and humid climate (our relative humidity is normally around 85%, lots of fog). We plan to use Rastra at this point. ICFs in general are so strong when filled with concrete that we have decided not to use timber posts, as they would be superfluous and expensive, even though we have wood (doug fir) to use on-site. We do plan to use exposed timber beams for the 2nd floor, where we can see them, but we can't afford to "build two houses", as much as we would like to.
thanks
Jeff
