I am ready to build a house in Upstate South Carolina and want to use vertical ICF for all levels.

I contacted a Hobbs representative in the area to get a quote.  He asked for the plans of the house so he could give an accurate quote, which I supplied, this was before Christmas.  I heard from him once in early January where he said he would have a quote the next day.  I have not heard back from him and even left multiple messages.


I received a quote from a TF contractor in about a week.  Should I scrap the idea of getting a quote from Hobbs and go with TF?  I am a little leery now about going with Hobbs because I don't want to run into the same problem of not getting in touch with someone during the construction phase, but I did want a competing quote.  Am I overreacting?

I'm not into the vertical ICF methodology but I would not consider the other first contractor at this point if I were you. He had enough time to win your business. Neglecting backlog, it should not take more than thirty minutes to take off a typical home -- perhaps a couple of hours on a complex one with many different top plates, radius wall, gables, and etc. If your drawings are half-decent it should be a fast turnaround easy or complex. Regards.

No, you are not overreacting.  If someone isn't there for you before the sale, you have no reason to suspect they'll do any better once they have your money.  Even if they were taking longer than expected, the decent thing to do would be to communicate that fact to you.  Your gut is telling you it is a bad idea to go with them.  Believe it!  Don't follow whatever it is telling you that you want the system from someone that isn't providing the service they should.  It will likely go bad and you'll kick yourself later if you went with them.

Rachelc Check your PM please.

I am sorry to hear about this situation. We endeavour to make each customer's experience using the Hobbs VICF a positive one. I immediately tried to get a hold of your representative when I was made aware of your posting.It semms that your representative has unfortunately had a difficult time health wise this month and is finally back to a point where he is able to get back to looking after your qoute. I apologize for any inconvience this has caused you.It was never his intention to have this happen. Should you give us the privilege of chosing our system on your new home, I will personally be assisting our representative on your project and you will have access not only to myself, but also to the owner of the company ,during all phases of the construction process. Which ever way you go,I wish you nothing but the best on your project and hope that your home not only lives up to but exceeds what you expected when you chose to build with a VICF. Joseph Farella Sales Manager Hobbs VICF

Rachekc,
If you haven't read the thread "questions regarding hobbs icf" you might want to search for that thread.
Also take a look at Hobbs technical drawings and compare with their r-value claims and foam claims, it doesn't add up. You can see what I am talking about in the technical drawings sections on their website when you see that every corner, 45 deg. panel, tee and filler panel only has 4 inches of eps foam and a large portion of their main panels that they claim to be r-30 only contain 4" of foam or a varying degree of foam ranging from 7.25" to 4" over a height of 7". At r 4.2 an inch thats r16.8. Again, you can verify what I am saying on their own website in the technical drawings section.

I tried to ask Joseph Farella about this in that thread and he simply ignored the question, maybe he will finally clear this up.

Joe,

Thank you for your response, I look forward to hearing from the local rep.  Hope he is feeling better now.  I didn't want to post names because I felt regardless of the situation it would not be professional.  I would just like to get this project started before the interest rates start going back up.

Greentree,

I read the other post and understand what you are trying to say.  I will leave it up to the professionals like yourself and Joe.  I am researching ICF's and have not come to my own conclusion yet.  I am an engineer in the automotive field, if you want to talk cars, I'm in, but construction, I'm learning.

MY Hobbs distributor sent the wrong size furring strips which I had to cut.

After the foundations were poured he wanted to sell me the waterproofing. Days after him assuring me that it was supposed to be delivered "that day" I had to go to my local distributor.

Seemed like an OK product but I look forward to trying the TF system on my next job.

Greentree; I assure you that you always have had my full attention, regarding your questions. It would be rude and unprofessional of me to do otherwise. How can you say that I am ignoring you? I thought my last answer to your question on R-Value, was very clear. "As I have stated before, our panel, thru design, is not constant throughout, so that the R-Value will be a variable number depending on a number of factors,( i.e. wall heights and EPS thickness, etc.) Then an R-Value is assigned to the concrete, drywall, etc.) Because of the uniqueness of our system design, we are having an engineer do the calculations and then post the results on our website with whatever parameters he chooses to assign, so there is no question." Please note in my reply, that Hobbs had already directed a professional engineer, to calculate the thermal resistance of the Hobbs VICF in accordance with the Ashrae Standard and post them on our website, which will happen in due course. Should any part of this report put into question any of the claims that Hobbs currently make on their website, about the systems R-Value, then Hobbs will immediately take actions to correct them. The consumer deserves no less. I am not sure what premise you use, to continually diss the Hobbs product and me on these forms. You use your “personal opinion” as a factual base for all your arguments. If you continue to use your personal opinion, as your only support for all your arguments, I will be unable to resolve any of your issues for you. I hope that the independent engineers report will be sufficient enough for you to overcome your apparent personal bias of the system. On a personal note, your referencing me personally by name in this form, and putting put my integrity into question, is really becoming annoying to me. I really want to give you the respect, that as a consumer, you deserve. But you make it really difficult, with your tone.

Joe,
You're the sales manager identifying yourself as such and posting on a public forum, of course you are the one making yourself known as representing your product and I will identify you as such in reference to the product you represent, and you annoy me too.

Two simple questions, for the benefit of consumers:

1.If I build a basement with your product will my basement wall system have a whole r -value of R-30 not including any openings?

2.What state or province are you headquartered in?

Hello Greentree; It is nice hearing from you again. I see that we have finally found a point that we can agree on. Now I know why the other ICF sales manager's do not openly identify themselves on this forum. Dealing with a self-appointed forum paparazzi, such as yourself, can definitely make one feel like going underground. Identifing your purpose and role in these threads, has make it easier for me to accept the manner and tone, that you ask questions and state your opinions ,and for me to respond in kind, in a buisness like manner. Our company headquarters is in the great state of Iowa. Our representative in the state of Wisconsin, would be thrilled to sell you the Hobbs VICF standard contour/stucco ready system, for use in a basement, for one of your customers. Some of Hobbs's VICF main features are, that your customer will be getting an engineered,green, basement, with all the energy savings resulting from the performance of an R-30 wall system. Best of luck with this project, and all of your projects in 2010. If I can be of any assistance , do not hesitate to contact me.

If you would like a quote from a true ICF horizontal block system I would be glad to provide you a quote. I am a distributor/installer and we work in KY,VA,TN, NC,SC,GA. If you would like a quote you can email us at concretebuildingsystems@gmail.com. Thanks

Well it has been more that a week since I made this post.  The response to the post shows that there are some Reps and builders who want my business and are willing to quote the project, unfortunately I guess Hobbs is not one of them.  I Never heard back from anyone.  But thats ok I got some good leads.

Next time please do not hijack someone's post with a bitch session.