This ICF home
The flagship design shown on this page
Annual heating demand
19.0
kWh/m² each year
Insulated Concrete Forms · Design intelligence
Know the build before you build.
See how it will look. Know what it will take and cost to build. Understand what it may cost to run. ICF Designer connects the visual, the ICF design, the quantities, the build budget and the thermal performance to one live project model.
Flagship model ≈ $303/year heating vs typical NZ code-built home ≈ $2,351/yearNo credit card required · One complete building design at no charge · Exports from $50 one-off →
The look · rendered from the project model
One live model
The picture and the numbers stay connected as the design changes.
ICF WALL AREA259.4 m² · 2,792 ft²
·
FLOOR AREA179 m² · 1,931 ft²
·
WASTE0.3%
·
CONCRETE35.46 m³
·
ICF ESTIMATE$78,888 NZD
·
HEATING COST EST.≈ $303/yr heating
The look, the take-off, the build estimate and the heating estimate come from the model behind this render.
Built by New Zealand's Nudura distributor
15 years with Nudura
250+ ICF projects
2022 International ICF Award
Act I · Know the look
See the home before it is built.
Start with the plan, inspect the building in live 3D, then show the finished idea—without disconnecting the visual from the build information beneath it.
Draw or trace the plan
Inspect the live 3D model
See the finished look
Change the project once. The visualisation, ICF layout, quantities, build cost and performance evidence stay connected.
Act II · Know the build
See what the picture is made of.
"Renders sell the house. Bills of materials build it."
Thermal heat-loss view
One model gives you two useful x-rays. See where the building may lose heat, and see how the walls are actually coursed and reinforced. The design is resolved block by block, with offcuts from one wall matched to the needs of another.
- Full-module optimisation that minimises cuts and waste
- Thermal feedback tied to the same roof, walls, floor, windows and doors
- Corners, gables, mono-pitch walls and openings resolved using ICF-specific rules
- Offcuts tracked for reuse across walls
- Bar-by-bar reinforcing schedules, not just total weights
301 blocks
0.3% waste
Those design decisions become the quantities—and the quantities become the cost.
Act III · Know the build cost
Know where the build cost comes from.
Green means a verified rate. Amber means an honest estimate. You can see the difference before either becomes a commitment.
The budget is built from the geometry: blocks, concrete, reinforcing steel, labour and waste. ICF Designer never dresses an estimate as a fact, so you know which parts of the budget to lean on and which to pressure-test.
| Line item | Model quantity | Rate basis | Estimated total |
|---|---|---|---|
| ICF wall materials — blocks, corners and accessories | 259.4 m² | LOCAL VERIFIED | $48,434.36 |
| Ready-mix concrete and pumping — ICF walls | 35.46 m³ | LOCAL VERIFIED | $12,933.70 |
| Reinforcing steel — walls | 1,867.1 kg | LOCAL VERIFIED | $4,658.95 |
| ICF installation labour | 81 hrs | LOCAL VERIFIED | $4,860.00 |
| Bracing & temporary works | 103 braces · 66 planks | LOCAL VERIFIED | $8,000.80 |
A border moves the price, not the building. For a fixed design, the measured quantities belong to the building, wherever it is built; only the applied rates change by country, region and supplier. These flagship lines use locally verified rates in green and estimated rates in amber.
- Labour effort estimated from real quantities
- Live budget that updates as you design
- Costs in your own currency
A budget you can defend — because we showed you which parts to defend.
Why trust the numbers?
An estimate you can challenge, adjust and trust
Every headline number is backed by the model. Inspection views show how bars, laps, openings and quantities were derived — so an early estimate can be questioned and verified rather than taken on faith. Confidence comes from traceability.
Flagship model · normal ICF specification
Act IV · Know the running cost
One floor plan. Same weather. The way you build it decides the rest.
We ran the 179 m² flagship floor plan as this ICF home and as a typical NZ code-built home. Both sit in Queenstown, New Zealand — 45° south, in the Southern Alps, with 5,976 heating degree days a year and 571 hours below freezing. For heating demand that is Denver, Colorado, within 1%. The floor plan and the Queenstown climate stay the same, so only the construction choices differ — and these are two of many. Rotate the model to see how much orientation alone moves the answer.
Typical NZ code-built home
Code-minimum insulation and glazing, more air leakage and no heat recovery
Annual heating demand
147.4
kWh/m² each year
Lower numbers mean less energy is needed. In this model, the flagship requires 87% less annual heating energy than the code-built case.
Explore the thermal model, assumptions and evidence →Field-tested
Built from real ICF project experience
PHD Building is New Zealand's Nudura ICF distributor and Australasia's ICF trainer — 250+ projects, including Te Toka, our 2022 International ICF Award winner. Across every one of those projects, the same problems kept appearing before the pour. ICF Designer is the tool we built to fix them, and today it's the same software we use when pricing and planning our own projects.
Jeremy Chisholm
Director, PHD Building · NZ Nudura Distributor · Australasia Trainer
15 years supplying and training on Nudura ICF across New Zealand and Australasia. I built this tool because I needed it.
Know more before the first block is placed.
Design one complete building free, then export its drawings, quantities and reports when you are ready to use them.
One complete building design at no charge · exports from $50 one-off for a single project