Hi Sas,
I'm considering using Euromac for my house, have been out to view one of theirs currently under constuction. Any comments on how you found the Euromac system??
Cheers, bats
I have no expertise in house building or ICF but I can give you my impressions on the systems I've seen while trying to decide on a build type for my own house i.e. polarwall & euromac.
The Euromac system has the EOTA certification which is good if you have an architect willing to look beyond the IAB certs.
Euromac has a BRE certificate which is more relevant to Ireland but only if you build the wall like cavity wall, i.e. with a masonry wall outer leaf. That is not how polarwall sold the system to me. The sheer depth of the wall on that basis would have expensive implications for your foundations.
Euromac push alot more on you than polarwall.
For example, polarwall build the external wall of your house, full stop. Internal load bearing walls are standard block walls. For the first story floor you can use hollow core slabs. The roof is up to you to sort out also.
Euromac build the external and all internal load bearing ( and in one house I've seen non load bearing) walls. They also are pushy about you using their first floor system and roofing system. They also tried to sell me windows, doors and fireplace systems.
Euromac also don't talk in any great technical detail about their product. I've spoke to a guy on another forum that has actually built with them. He is very happy with the build but 2 things did annoy him. 1, the original builder recommended to him by Euromac was apparently very dodgy when his work was looked into, and 2, the lack of technical support from Euromac. You ahve to depend on your builder heavily.
Another thing that I found a little off putting was the Euromac were dictating that you are wasting your money if you go for anything other than their +2 product. I think this gives an overall U-value of 0.2. This is good but not good enough for me if I'm going for an alternative system. They didn't mention the term passive house in the 2 hours I was with them.
Polawall can do a wall with a U-Value down to 0.11 and he did speak about passive houses. He also said that if I was to insist on having an open fire then he'd only sell me his cheapest system because I'd be wasting my money otherwise. Sounded harsh but at least he was straight with me.
Polarwall come out themselves to build the system, Euromac sell you the materials and recommend a builder to you and off you go.
Also, I felt that the EPS polystyrene Euromac use is considerably softer than the XPS polarwall use. I've done a "kick" test on both. However, once you plaster either type they are very hard to the touch.
The one thing about Euromac and most of the other systems versus polarwall is that the walls are supplied as components that are manufactured and just fitted together.
The polarwall product comes in parts. i.e. blocks of polystyrene for the internal wall face, block of polystyrene for the external walls face and the rail system that they use to hold the 2 faces together. The fact that the outer face is separated by the H-Rail between each layer of the wall suggested to me that there is a risk of a cold bridge forming. This is purely a personal theory of mine though.
Euromac is poured 1 full storey at a time which seems a better idea than the layering that Polarwall do. Polarwall do pour the a full storey in a day but they do several runs around the wall as opposed to Euromac who start in 1 corner and work around the house once to that same corner.
I don't like the fact that the fixing of slabs to the internals walls is a dab and slab effort in Euromac houses. I'd prefer the mechanical fixing that is possible with polarwall.
Thats about all I can think of.
SAS