Performance Statement: Under a 90 mph wind load, a Pinkform Xtra^TM wall comprised of 4" of 3000 psi concrete with #4 reinforcing steel at 32 inches on center is 8.6 times stronger than typical wood-framed walls consisting of 2x4 studs at 16 inches on center.

Debris driven by tornado force winds up to 250 mph will penetrate through typical wood-framed construction but will be stopped and fail to damage the concrete within a Pinkform Xtra^TM wall.

Properly reinforced, Pinkform Xtra^TM exterior concrete walls can be built to meet the most severe earthquake design standards.

What Does This Mean For You? A home constructed with Pinkform Xtra^TM exterior walls offers unmatched protection from severe weather events such as thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, as well as protection from earthquakes. As a result, homeowners are experiencing significant reductions in their homeowner's insurance rates, not to mention greater peace-of-mind.

Explanation: The greatest hazard to homeowners and their homes during tornadoes and hurricanes is debris driven by the high winds. According to tests, wind driven debris (represented by a 2x4 wood stud traveling at 100 mph (the estimated speed of debris in a 250 mph tornado*) completely penetrated a wood-framed wall.** The ICF wall, however, was not penetrated, nor damaged in any way.

Hurricane wind conditions are less severe than the conditions tested above. Missile testing, designed to mitigate property damage losses from hurricanes, use a 9 lb. missile traveling at 34 mph.

Wind, blowing at a rate of 90 mph, exerts about 15 psf pressure on walls. Under this condition, the axial strength of a concrete wall is more than eight times the strength of a 2x4 wood-framed wall. In fact, the concrete wall also loses less of its axial strength under wind loads. As the below chart indicates, a wood-framed wall loses nearly 70% of its strength when subjected to a 90 mph wind load; whereas, a concrete wall loses only about 12%.

Source: PCA Unpublished Calculations

Prescriptive standards presently exist for designing earthquake resistant walls in seismic zones 0,1, and 2. Professional design assistance is required for concrete walls located in seismic zones 3 or higher.

Kiesling and Carter, Investigation of Wind Projectile Resistance of Insulating Concrete Form Homes. PCA. 1998

PCA Unpublished Calculations

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Performance Statement: Depending on wall thickness, Pinkform Xtra^TM walls will withstand 11/2 to 4 hours of fire exposure without structural failure. Compare that with typical wood-frame walls that will fail in as little as 20 minutes if regular, non-fire rated gypsum board is used as the interior finish.

What Does This Mean For You? If faced with a fire inside or outside of your home, you are significantly more protected in a home constructed with Pinkform Xtra^TM walls. Increased fire resistance ratings may provide your family with more precious time to escape from a fire, or provide more structural protection to the walls before firefighters arrive.

This increased fire resistance is recognized by the insurance industry; therefore, you may receive a reduction in your homeowners insurance rate.

Explanation: Concrete, the structural component of the Pinkform Xtra^TM forming system, is inherently more fire resistant than wood framing. Concrete is a mixture of cement and stone aggregate that, when cured, becomes stone. Stone is an inorganic material that is noncombustible, and possesses significant mass, able to absorb much heat energy before decomposing. Therefore, concrete has very high fire resistance. As the thickness of concrete increases, its fire resistance increases. Walls 4" thick will resist fire without structural collapse for 1 1/2 hours; whereas, 8" concrete walls last over 4 hours.

Wood, by contrast, is an organic material, and is therefore combustible. Wood will ignite a short time after being exposed to a developing fire. Therefore, it is necessary that wood frame walls be protected by gypsum board covering to prevent their easy ignition by home interior fires. Commonly, 1/2" non-fire rated gypsum board is used. The gypsum layer gives a wood frame wall a fire resistance rating of about 15 to 20 minutes. The same gypsum board applied to a 4" Pinkform Xtra^TM wall will extend its fire rating to nearly 2 hours.

Building codes require all foam plastic insulation, such as Pinkform Xtra^TM, to be covered with a minimum 1/2" non-fire rated gypsum board. Fire testing designed to simulate a typical developing home interior fire has shown that gypsum board will perform acceptably if held in place using standard drywall screws set into the Pinkform Xtra^TM plastic wall ties.

Toxicity testing has shown that the combustion byproducts of Pinkform Xtra^TM, a Foamular extruded polystyrene product, are no more toxic than those of wood.

Underwriters Laboratory Inc., Fire Resistance Directory. 1998.

VanderWerf, Feige, Chammas, and Lemay, Insulating Concrete Forms for Residential Design and Construction. McGraw Hill. 1997.

Building Officials and Code Administrators International, Guidelines for Determining Fire Resistance Ratings of Building Elements, 1994.

United States Testing Company, Inc., Combustion Product Toxicity Testing of "Foamular", Test Report No. 04078, September 9, 1982, reissued April, 1986.

Southwest Research Institute, Department of Fire Technology, Investigation of the Internal Room Fire Characteristics of a 2-in Thick Extruded Polystyrene Foam Insulation Identified as Owens Corning's "Pinkform XTRA^TM" Insulated Concrete Forming System and Tested in Accordance with UBC Standard 26-3, "Room Fire Test Standard for Interior of Foam Plastic Systems", SwRI Project No. 01-1205-203, August 1998.

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