Is it the Sale or the Service
by Ian Giesler
(this article appeared originally in the May 2002 printed edition)

Here's the situation. A homeowner comes to you and tells you the story you've heard a hundred times:

"I'm interested in building my homes with ICFs. I saw it at a home show and I looked up a couple of web sites on the Internet. Now I want to hear more about these claims. I want to know the cold hard facts. I want someone to give me a price to build my walls and to help both my general contractor and myself figure out how to build the rest of the structure. I have a plan that my wife and I like that we picked out of a magazine several years ago. Can you build this with ICFs?" 

This is where you, the ICF professional, come in: 

"Yes, it probably can be built with ICFs, but we should look at the plan to see if there are any design issues that may make ICFs tough or economically unfeasible. We will look at the locations of windows and doors, determine lintel depths vs. spans, look at the bay window that has glazing on each wall because the thicker ICF walls may make downsizing of the windows necessary. We will look at the front entry that is recessed into the structure because some dimension changes may be needed so that the door will still fit between the two walls. We will look at the bathrooms where the tub is meant to fit between two exterior 2x4 stud walls because if the thicker ICF walls encroach on the tub space additional dimension changes will be required. We will look at the family room that has a wall littered with windows and small pillars in between because we may want to come up with some options that allow or wider columns of concrete between openings."

"What about the dryer vent, you ask? We probably ought to mark the location of the dryer vent on the plan. You want to know how high off of the floor is the dryer vent located and about the electrical service and meter location? Well, we probably should consider putting in a block out or sleeve for the electrical conduit. We should also discuss the idea of moving as much plumbing as possible to interior walls. Once we look the plan over, we can derive some sort of budget for the ICF related portion of the structure."

"However, before we determine a real budget number, we want you to have your house plan analyzed by an energy audit expert, someone like Richard Rue of Energy Wise Structures in Texas. Richard's energy audit will set a tone for the value of ICF that can be compared directly to the alternative method of construction. Richard's evaluation will give a comparative energy consumption cost between the two methods of construction and also a comparison of the equipment requirements of both methods. This is a powerful piece of the ICF value pie, right here. You must learn and understand some basic fundamental features that ICF walls will give to your new structure. Once you learn and understand these basic fundamentals of ICFs, you must investigate other materials and methods that will be utilized in the construction of your house so that you incorporate complementary products and methods. If you don't understand the energy efficiency value of ICF, you won't understand the budget number." 

"Now, back to the budget. Just how much will building with ICFs cost you? At first glance, if you compare it to the deduction of wood framing, ICFs will cost you a lot more, or at least that is what it appears at first glance. You see, you are now more informed about energy efficiency, thermal mass, insulation values, lifecycles of materials, HVAC equipment sizing requirements and efficiencies. Not to mention that you now see many benefits of ICFs that you didn't realize before such as cleaner air in the home, superior sound deadening qualities and you truly believe that these are there! Before we put a real cost on these walls, we should go visit several projects that are both complete and under construction. See for yourself that these walls can be installed plumb square and level. I also want you to see what happens when things aren't right because I want you to see the difference our company's expertise means for your building project." 

Okay, here's your budget number. This number is on the high side. It will probably cost less than this, but we're going to leave it alone. Why you ask? Because right now, you are investigating and researching many products that complement the performance of ICFs. You are more interested in the Uvalues of windows than who makes them. You are looking at equipment such as Heat Recovery Ventilators that you didn't know existed before we started talking. You are looking at different types of insulation for the attic and some of these cost three times that of fiberglass batts. So let's leave this budget number alone knowing that we will beat the budget on this phase. The savings can be used to upgrade something else down the road." 

Let's fast forward now to the project: 

"What? You're getting ready to pour the footings or slab? You want to know how you set the vertical reinforcing dowels? No problem, I can fax a sketch or if it's convenient for both of us, we can meet at the site with your concrete subcontractor and discuss the layout. By the way, you did talk with the plumber and make sure that all of your vent pipes are located on interior frame wall partitions right? Well, try to get in touch with him and have him move those pipes. We should review your plan once again to see how the adjustments in window sizes and dimensions were done so that the ICF and your plan aren't square pegs and round holes. We should do this before you pour the slab or footings so that we can make any required changes before it is too late and before it costs more than it is worth to change. You know, I feel like we have already built this house, we know the details more intimately than "just any new house!" Are you ready to get started building walls? Building the walls is the easy part because we have done all of the hard part, which is making the decisions before that can delay the work in progress."

Is it the sale or is it the service?

The last time you bought a new car, did the salesperson tell you that if anything went wrong with the car that you could fix it yourself? There must be some reason why car dealerships have extensive service departments. Should ICFs follow the service model? I for one think so. 

I recently received a call from an owner/builder of an ICF project. He bought the forms from a "distributor" under the pretense that he would build his ICF walls himself and save big bucks. He put up the ICF walls all right, but now he is having trouble getting everything straight and square. Not to mention that he doesn't have a wall alignment system to aid in accomplishing these tasks or in assisting with concrete placement and adjusting the walls after they are filled. What can possibly pass through the mind of the eager ICF salesperson that sold the forms to an owner/builder without qualifying the individual's abilities to build? I asked this very question of the potential client, and he replied that this was never mentioned and that he didn't realize he'd need it until now!

The success of ICFs is happening despite the continual backward steps that the industry faces as a result of overzealous salespeople that allow ICF products to go into the marketplace in a manner that one good sale (note, that is sale, not installation) will inevitably kill ten potentially good sales. Just think if nine of the ten killed sales were to be good sales, and of the exponential growth that would be present as a result! Instead, we have the same used car salespeople out there saying "YOU CAN DO IT" (fix it yourself) without qualifying the individual's knowledge or ownership of a single hammer let alone a level. I think there is a solid market for onsite technical service that is akin to hiring a lead carpenter to build a deck with an owner/builder. Shouldn't we offer prepurchase and on site technical service that includes all tools, knowledge, bracing and planning steps to help an owner/builder or new contractor build with ICFs? (At a price, of course)

Some distributors promote price of the product as a way of selling while others have built in margins that cover the costs of having the quasi-salesperson/technical support person on site. The breakdown here though is usually that the salesperson is usually unqualified for the job or else too worried about where the next sale will be. Did I mention that most on site sales and technical people rarely show up with all of the tools and equipment required to install an ICF wall? Did I mention that many times those very same people spend more time on the cell phone than they do actually performing real physical work and mental game planning about how the project should progress?

We sell on site technical assistance services to clients. Unfortunately, we sell more of this service to people such as the one I mentioned earlier than we do to prospective owner/builders. We don't get too many plugs from the distributors and you may be able to guess why (the earlier example typically doesn't make one speak too highly of ICF'ers that are more interested in selling block than making sure it gets installed correctly). To the unknowing first time user of ICFs, this occurrence typically isn't anticipated, so they oftentimes look at it as if the breakdown may have been that they tried to bite off more than they could chew. But to an experienced ICF salesperson, they know the end result, which is that ten percent of these people will be successful and the other 90 percent will fail.

Most of the people selling ICFs do so on a part time basis or work for someone else. What does it matter to them if there are failures? The paycheck will still be there on Friday whether ICF sells or not. The serious full time salesperson working to build the business cares and so does the full time installer that gets paid when walls are poured straight, plumb and square. When these full time individuals become the norm instead of the exception, maybe ten good installs will kill the one bad install instead of vice versa. Ah, but first things first. We have to get more installs. 

Maybe an organization should be formed to start an "onsite technical service" group of independent capable leaders that have all of the necessary knowledge, tools and equipment that can work independently for first time users of ICF regardless of ICF brand. These people can bring not only tools and equipment, but the knowledge required to get the job done right and quickly. True, the cost of this service would appear to be expensive, but in the end, it's the best money that the novice could spend. At first glance, nobody would need the service, kind of akin to the first time you went up on the high dive at the local swimming pool to show off for your friends. You climb up the ladder, get to the top, walk out, look down and think to yourself, "what did I get myself into?" But once you jump off and discover for yourself that you didn't die, you find that you can do it again and again. The real athletes that move on to jump off the high dive in the Olympics get a coach. Think of these on site technical support persons that have all of the tricks and shortcuts as nothing more than coaches that will be paid by the client to ensure a good ICF install. The "coach" will want to make sure that the client has all of the right materials and supplies to get the job done right, all the way through the final finishes. In our case, we look at the coach as becoming a lifelong mentor for the owner builder or new ICF installation contractor, helping them become the best installer around. 

Most potential ICF customers discover the benefits of ICFs, do some investigation and research, and decide they want to use ICFs. How many of these people are told to take a second look at the entire house so that they match the benefits of ICFs with the rest of the construction process and materials? Probably very few. For example, many ICF homes are constructed with the idea that ICFs alone will deliver lower utility costs, lower maintenance costs etc. etc. However, are ICFs truly the only piece of the home building puzzle that the prospective owner or builder should look at? NO! Many ICF homes don't perform near the optimum that they could. If you are selling ICF homes, but not using a service such as Energy Wise Structures, you are selling ICFs short. This is worse than selling an ICF basement and telling the owner or builder that the foam will waterproof the walls and that no additional waterproofing needs to be applied. What about having the walls reviewed by a structural engineer that is knowledgeable of ICFs? An engineer can hopefully spot a potential problem before it happens on site. True, to the experienced ICF installer or salesperson, most of this information may be old hat, but think back to the time you were the pioneering individual that decided to take on ICFs. I'm sure you can agree that it sure would have been nice to know what you know today back then, just like that first date.

So how do we qualify the ICF technical experts? How do we ensure that they have the correct knowledge? How do we ensure that they own the best tools? How do we know that they have a solid base of knowledge that give us confidence that they can assist, train and guide others to successful ICF installations? This is a tough question because how do you measure experience and expertise? The short quiz on ICFweb showed us that misinformation is rampant, so how do we teach old dogs new tricks before they teach new dogs the same tricks? These questions are not specific to ICFs but relevant in nearly every part of life. Becoming informed is probably the only route to cleaning up the business. I challenge everyone reading this to make a concerted effort to finding the backup facts to the everyday claims of ICFs and to make it a point to share information, learn how tasks are done with ICFs, ask others how the work with ICFs. Just "getting by" is a waste of time and money. Ignorance leads to loss. Refining techniques and implementing knowledge leads to success.