A little short..

The ICF is on going, with more of the basement walls being constructed.  The system we're using is new to the contractor - while the ICF idea is pretty much the same for all there are detail differences, such as distances between ties, sleeve & lintel details etc.  So its been a little slower going now while we learn the best approach of using the maximum material to fit with the dimensions of the house.  We also amend some of the dimensions, 50mm wider may allow easier cutting and could be preferable to 150mm shorter - especially when talking about room area.  Doesn't sound much, but I'd prefer to have it rather than not.

.  This section is the forward room in the basement, and you now see the size of the windows we're putting in down here.  More light is better, and in this section we're looking at having a study and a small home gym - so some welcome relief of contemplating the scenery is needed.  The bottom of the windows will be closer again to the finished floor, as there is 100mm of insulation and 100 of a concrete floor screed to go in.  With underfloor heating, I'd of liked to go thicker with the insulation, but the danger is that the concrete screed can crack on thicker levels of floor insulation.

The ICF Suppliers are also looking to get full up -front payment on the entire quantity of ICF.  They started with an initial amount, which should have been enough to complete the basement, but 'forgot' to leave enough of the sleeves for closing the window/door openings.  So we have to sort them out before pouring the basement.

You can see above the jacks to hold the ICF in place during the pour, as well as a walkway to use when pouring the concrete in the top.

Inside we have the steel rebar - and before pouring more will be placed perpendicular to these horizontal ones.  The inside of the ICF block is ridged - this is to allow the sleeves to slot into these ridges at the openings, but also to increase the internal surface area of the block to give the concrete more area to bind onto.

One question I wondered about was the ability hang heavy items off these walls - such as TV's shelves etc.  The insulating polystyrene itself isn't going to hold anything, but the plastic ties you can see have a head on them inside the polystyrene.  These are evenly spaced every 200mm and you can fix into these - they support pretty much whatever you'd consider fixing to a wall.  Rooted in the concrete, they have plenty of backing.