Building My Net Zero Energy Home: Reinforcing the Garage Door Opening

Reader Contribution by Staff
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In this photo, a worker is installing 2 x 12 braces alongside the opening of the garage door before the concrete pour.

Openings in ICF walls are created for doors and windows and roughed in with plastic V-Buck. They are hollow plastic pieces that take the place of rough window openings. They will be filled with concrete during the pour and thus represent a thermal weak point in the wall. That is, they provide no insulation, just a solid hunk of concrete around all openings that permit heat to enter and leave via conduction. That’s one of the weaknesses of ICF construction. Because of this I only installed on window in the basement. One of the other openings in the ICF foundation is the garage door where bridging loss is not a major issue (unless the garage is heated). The third opening is between the basement and the garage, again, not an area where bridging loss should be significant.


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