Basically, you could say the U.S. insulated concrete form (ICF) industry started here. We brought the first foam block to the United States from Germany in 1986, after one of our principals lost their home in a fire in the Santa Cruz Mountains. In his quest to design and build completely fire-resistant structures, he recognized the enormous benefits of using foam blocks (which were not yet called “ICF” at the time). Since then, he has been involved in thousands of ICF projects and, through his architectural design firm, has designed and consulted on many more.

The two pictures on the previous page show his own family home in Napa under construction, as well as the first custom home in California built with foam blocks. By that point, we had already developed the proprietary H-Form Stucco System, which was successfully used in both projects.