The best part about custom building your home is that your get to choose everything from the windows and doors down to the handles on cabinets and drawers. Most people are excited about selecting their backsplash and countertops, exerting hours of thought and energy into their choices, but few people really stop to think about the types of walls they want for their custom home.

Lucky for you Cogdill Builders of Florida is here to help narrow your wall choices. Over the years, we have built hundreds of custom homes and always recommend solid concrete wall to our clients.

We suggest solid concrete walls to our clients for several reasons. Concrete walls are:

• Stronger and substantially more resistant to high winds
• More energy efficient
• Fire resistant
• A better form of protection against termites and other pests
• Noise resistant
• A “green” product
• Value increasing features

Most importantly, together these products create peace of mind. You simply cannot put a price on the safety of you and your loved ones and building your custom home using solid concrete wall will give you that.

Naturally, it wouldn’t be a custom home if you didn’t have customizing options and thus concrete walls come in two types:

1. Insulated Concrete Form

The first type of concrete wall to choose from is an insulated concrete form or ICF. Basically ICFs are large hollow lightweight blocks of Styrofoam, similar to oversized concrete blocks, stacked on the building foundation in the shape of walls. They are then reinforced and concrete is pumped into the hollow cavity. The result is a strong wall system and good insulation via the interior and exterior Styrofoam faces.

2. Poured-in-Place Concrete Walls

The second type of concrete wall, which we recommend over ICFs, is solid Poured-in-Place concrete walls. They are simply that solid (typically) 6 inch thick reinforced concrete walls constructed by erecting reinforcing rods at the wall locations, setting removable forms, pouring concrete in the forms, and then removing the forms to leave a solid concrete wall.

We have enough experience to confidently tell you, our clients, that you should really choose solid concrete walls when designing your home for the most soundly built custom home that will last lifetimes.
What items would you choose for your new custom home?