A Martensville-based company specializing in insulated concrete forms (ICF) for the construction industry recently earned three prestigious awards.
Prairie ICF won an ICF Builder Award at the World of Concrete trade exhibition January 17-20 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
More recently, the company was also named the 2022 Trade Partner of the Year, and won the Environmental Stewardship Award at the Saskatoon and Region Home Builders Association (SRHBA) Awards in Saskatoon February 12.
The World of Concrete event, hosted by ICF Builder Magazine, recognizes significant projects within the ICF industry from around the world.
Although a few Saskatchewan projects have been finalists at the event in past years; Prairie ICF, now in its 17th year of business, is the first Saskatchewan-based company to be named as a category winner of an ICF Builder award at the international event in Las Vegas.
“We’ve entered the award competition three times,” said Prairie ICF co-owner and manager Tyler Dagenais in an interview February 15. “This is the first time our project was selected as a finalist in the specialty application category; and obviously, winning the award was icing on the cake.”
This is the second straight year the company has earned the SRHBA Trade Partner of the Year award, first introduced last year. The award is designed to recognize service or supplier members in the residential construction industry.
In addition to winning the SHRBA Environmental Award, the company was also one of the finalists for the SRHBA Safety Award.
Dagenais said insulated concrete forms are a good fit for energy-efficient buildings because they have high insulation qualities, while being inherently air-tight and providing a high level of thermal mass.
Insulated concrete forms are interlocking modular units that are dry-stacked, without mortar, and filled with concrete. The units lock together somewhat like Lego bricks and create a form for the structural walls or floors of a building.
While ICF construction methods have been around for awhile, the technology has become more widespread in recent years, according to Dagenais. And with the sharp spike in lumber prices over the last twelve months due to supply-chain issues, more contractors are utilizing ICF materials.
“It’s become progressively more mainstream over the last eight to ten years,” said Dagenais. “For the first few years, people didn’t want to risk their investment on a relatively new technology. But as more and more contractors got familiar with it, and the manufacturing and product line grew, it’s become much more accepted throughout the industry.”
Dagenais said the ICF Builder Award in Las Vegas is aimed at recognizing projects that utilize ICF materials in new and innovative applications. The Martensville-based company supplied a newer type of ICF form that the contractor was able to use in a way that overcame the challenge of space constraints. The forms are manufactured by Nudura in Coaldale, Alberta, and Prairie ICF is an exclusive distributor.
“There was a major multi-storey construction project on Broadway Avenue by Baydo Developments,” said Dagenais. “Our portion of the project involved supplying materials for a three-storey underground parkade.
“The excavation was quite deep – about 30 to 35 feet – and required a lot of shoring material to keep it stable. That meant a very tight space – about one or two inches – between the shoring and the outside of the parkade wall. So the contractor couldn’t use a conventional concrete form.”
Dagenais said his company and the contractor, Howden Construction, worked together to come up with a solution that involved individually waterproofing specially-designed, 18-inch by 8-foot-long insulated concrete blocks that had removable plywood on one side. The total project involved over 12,000 square feet of concrete walls.
Prairie ICF started business in North Battleford and moved to Martensville ten years ago. The company has a staff of six (with additional seasonal students hired during the summer), and distributes product across western Canada.