Install heavy door in ICF wall
I’m building a house with ICF, 6″ core with 2.5 inches of foam on each side. The exterior door that I’m installing is a pretty heavy steel door, and I’m using a hollow steel frame, standard width, which will not be cast into the concrete. The frame will be punched and dimpled and installed after the walls cure. There will be no wood bucks.
I want to make sure the door and frame are sturdy and secured well…kids tend to close the door hard. I also want to install the door on the interior edge of the wall so it opens 180 degrees to the interior, and I’d rather not use throw hinges.
The issue I’m running in to is that if I move the door/frame to the interior edge, then only half of the frame has concrete behind it to attach it to. The other half will have foam behind it, and thus nothing sturdy to secure the interior half of the frame to. I worry that the metal frame will sorta twist as the door opens and closes b/c only half of it is well secured to the concrete.
Any ideas?
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Replies
Correct to be worried about this. HM frames twist.
1. Can you order a HM frame with a deep throat dimension so the center of the frame is well within the concrete area, so at least the anchors go into concrete?
2. Can you install a cold form steel stud against the ICF? These are usually C channel type - I'd let the open part face the HM frame. The C will give some more rigidity to the HM frame and reduce the twisting without taking any space from the rough opening if you get one sized to fit within the HM throat dimension.
3. Are you putting drywall on your ICF? You can get straps that clip into the HM frame and then surface fasten - they usually fasten to Cold form or Light gauge metal studs, but there is no reason you could not fasten them through the ICP into the concrete with long fasteners. If you install about three on each side they will work together to keep the HM frame from racking.
4. Get a knock down HM frame. Install the jambs first by removing some of the foam inside the rough opening to expose the concrete in several places each side, drive some pins into the concrete that stick out into the frame throat, put some bonding agent on the concrete, the grout fill the knock down jambs. Be sure to block out the hinge and strike pockets before you grout fill. It won't go anywhere. Then put the header in.