Has anyone used this block to have a opinion on it. I will be doing my own work and proximity and shipping is great. But if it is not a good product that does not matter. It will only be 2-1/2 courses tall and used to build vinyl liner pools.

It will work for your project with no problem

For a 40" tall pool wall, I would think it would be cheaper to just dry stack 8" concrete blocks and fill the cores with concrete. That is unless you need the insulation provided by the ICF.

A great pool insulation is the Barrier, rolled EPS foam see at www.barrett-inc.com

I understand what you are saying. i believe and i could be wrong but i think the 6" core icf is a more professional and marketable product and stronger. I am a pool builder and have built over 600 pools and i think its my responsibility to constantly look and offer my customers the best options for a reasonable price. My first thoughts was to purchase a 100,000.00 dollar set of aluminum forms. And would have to always deal with stripping the forms plus i could not offer the added value of a insulated pool.

the added value of a insulated pool.

How much of a pool's total heat loss is through the walls?

Its real close to the same as surface area. In no way am i going to use that as my main reason. Just a added value.

Do you have to pour a footing before you build the pool perimeter wall?

Posted By ICFcoatings on 25 Jan 2013 11:47 AM
A great pool insulation is the Barrier, rolled EPS foam see at www.barrett-inc.com

Seems like a waste of $ to put a vapor barrier under a vinyl pool liner.  What's the reasoning for doing that?  If you want insulation under or around the vinyl pool liner, I would think that regular sheets of XPS would be more economical.

If you're going to be doing a lot of these ICF pools and stocking inventory, you should take a look at Polycrete. Its' a huge block that folds flat and stores easily. Also does not have molded corners so you never have awkward, bulky stuff taking up space in your yard or truck. Plus, they're so big, you can fly on something with no openings like a pool.

Polycrete is not close and shipping cost is too much. I liked the look of there product but numbers dont work

Posted By arkie6 on 26 Jan 2013 11:29 AM
Do you have to pour a footing before you build the pool perimeter wall?

There is no vertical load so i would not think you would need a footer.

Its real close to the same as surface area. In no way am i going to use that as my main reason. Just a added value.

Hope it doesn't cost anything extra because it looks to me like conductive heat loss through the sides might be 10% or less. And, depending on pool location and other factors, there might even be a mechanism for recovering some of that at night

Posted By ICFHybrid on 27 Jan 2013 12:25 PM

Its real close to the same as surface area. In no way am i going to use that as my main reason. Just a added value.

Hope it doesn't cost anything extra because it looks to me like conductive heat loss through the sides might be 10% or less. And, depending on pool location and other factors, there might even be a mechanism for recovering some of that at night

My main purpose for using icf is building a concrete wall vinyl liner pool. Which is should be stronger than steel walls which rust over the years

Okay i have ordered enough to do my next 3 pools. I will take pictures and update as i progress.

Posted By eiland29 on 12 Mar 2013 04:30 PM
Okay i have ordered enough to do my next 3 pools. I will take pictures and update as i progress.

Please do. Also details of the liner to icf attachment would be nice.

Liner attachment to icf is no problem. My biggest concern is the foam compressing to much when people kick off the walls.I will instruct home owners to not do this

I haven't done this yet, but when time comes I was thinking about an ICF pool and spraying gunite (or equivalent) over the ICF would work (wouldn't need to worry about denting the walls), along with a waterproofer like CeramKote.

I also thought about stripping off the inner ICF foam once concrete is cured -- I remember reading about a coating to apply to the ICF to make stripping easier (which would work best with non-monolithic blocks such as those from quad-lock where you can coat the inside effectively).

Sider-crete also has some interesting waterproofing coatings.

I would assume a Koi pond is also possible with ICF. It would be fitting because a lot of Koi ponds are rectangular. It would work really well because one can dig 4 feet down, square it off, and then have a 2 or 3 foot above ground wall with the ICF. So the Koi pond would be 6-7 feet deep with 2 to 3 feet above grade. The above grade ICF wall can then be finished off with stucco or veneer stone.

The inside of the Koi pond can be lined with the EPDM (45mil) fish safe liner or they even have paint on liners but the EPDM is less expensive. 

Lbear,

Would a Koi pond in the picture be subject to the law like a swimming pool?  That is, in some cities, either a 4' or 6' high fence would be required to keep children from the pool/pond.