This time it held...

[burnt]

Re-poured a new front porch and landing this morning.

One week after the first unsuccessful attempt when for want of a brace the forms came apart and burst . . .

Much more difficult the second time around and twice as scary when ya know what can go wrong! :?

 

[gcreekrch]

Good judgement comes from experience and a lot of that comes from bad judgement. :wink: :lol:

 

[Silver]

Good for you Burnt. I know when I poured my basement walls I was on pins and needles. Those flimsy Styrofoam blocks that formed my walls did not appear to have what it would take to hold all that concrete. The cement guy did his best to allay my fears by telling me that he hadn't seen many fail. :?

 

[leanin' H]

Glad it worked out for you. When we poured our front porch and walk, it turned into an adventure. The mud was supposed to come at 7 am while it was cool. Concrete company called and said they were broke down. I should of rescheduled but didnt. Concrete showed up at 1:30 pm and we had a 20 mph breeze to boot. Poured the porch and started on the side walk. Form on the porch started to bow a little and then a lot. Grabbed steel post and made a brace but the bow was there. Almost lost the front walk as it dried to fast. The funny thing is the bow in the porch matches the bay window over it perfectly. :lol: Have had people comment on how the porch matches the window and wondered how i did it. I tell them accidentally. :wink:

 

[burnt]

Silver, I have had big doubts about those styrofoam fomrs but my son pumps concrete into them and he's never seen any problem. They are a pretty god idea.

leanin' H, I wish all my screwups would turn out so good!

Just stripped the forms off and - well, yeah, the porch is there...

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

We built our whole house from basement to the peak of the second story eaves with Styrofoam blocks. Close to a blow out on the gable end but it held.
Had to shave a block to make the wall smooth.

 

[Faster horses]

Our basement is made out of those Styrofoam forms. It was shot and we didn't think there was much we could do about it as the garage is attached to the house. It was said we couldn't pick the house up to put a new basement under it because of that.

We found a guy that works with the Styrofoam forms and he was able to put a new basement under our house.
He just came OUT from the existing wall (he did one side at a time) a bit and built a false wall to hold the house up, then he took out the old wall and put in the forms. Worked swell and now the basement is insulated as well.
We finished it off and now we have a pretty nice basement. It was a dungeon prior to that!

A doctor moved here from Alaska and he had the same guy build him a house out of the Styrofoam forms. I've seen BMR and Tams house. It's very nice!