The Build – The Audet Residence – Powell River

10 ft change in elevation

This was a great project! Nutmeg Homes was contracted to frame the ICF walls for a really challenging design. Starting with a base concept and working with the owner we designed a 3,500 sq ft 2 story curved house that would sit on the coast mountain bedrock and overlook Texada Island and the Georgia Straight. The site was grooved and sloped bed rock, and the design had about 61 corners. If we could build this house; on this site – we could build anything.

Note the adustment tabs

Over the summer of 2008 we scribed the first floor “up – over – and – around” the worn rock. Could this have been done with regular concrete forming? The Logix ICF blocks used on this project were a breeze to shape to the contours of the slope. We developed a simple jig to transfer the necessary dimensions to the block, drew a line to “connect the dots” on each side and bingo. Working in 8 foot sections it only took about 20 minutes to measure, transfer and cut two blocks. We would include adjustment/trim bumps every few feet that would be trimmed off in place to level each block. A spray foam filled the odd gap and fastened the blocks to the rock.

Survey pins mark each corner

In a few areas we filled large holes and the spanned with regular footings. On the rock face we drilled and embedded rebar into the rock it’s self every 2 feet. The concrete placing by pumper truck was painless. As the first pour was mostly only 2 blocks high we used very little bracing, the walls came out straight and true. Only in one corner near the front entry, where the slope was nearly vertical and we were in crevase that made us reluctant mountain climbers did we have a problem. The corner was about 1/2 an inch out of true. This was easily fixed as we transitioned to the next level.

2nd story nearly ready for concrete

The curve of the front of the house was a 91 ft radius in 8 foot sections. The layout was tweaked and adjusted, an inch here a foot there, so the windows, rooms and walls fit the 8 foot sections. The main living room and dining room windows were 7 foot high and 6 foot wide, with two 7 foot high side lites, each was in one of the straight 8 foot segments – so the window framing was conventional. This design presented some CAD challenges! In the end we used the Google Sketchup program and have been a fan ever since. The floor and roof layout were simple to do in Sketchup.

Hangers embedded into concrete

The floor framing should have been a nightmare, but using ICFconnect system for attaching the floor system to the walls proved to be a dream. This system, discussed in the Building Methods section, allowed us to slightly angle each floor joist to wall connection as was necessary. The layout spacing between each joist would vary from 12 inches to 16 inches and effectively every single space was different as the curve radius of front walls and back walls was slightly different. Using a laptop and Sketchup on site the joist hanger layout was simple and easy (except for the rain but a plastic garbage bag solved the problem).

The Plan Works

For this project we used a locally manufactured floor and roof truss system. 2 × 4 top and bottom plates were connected with metal ‘bridge’ ties and pressed with a truss roller. The trusses were strong yet light and webs make running utilies a very easy. The floor sheeting went down in one day with very little waste. The interior walls all followed the radius lines. The roof truss layout followed the radius center lines so the exposed truss spacing was even. This resulted in a bit more waste but a dramatic visual effect was achieved.

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