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About Pow-R-Wall

We got tired of fighting block ICF

So we spent twenty years engineering out the bracing, blowouts, and plumb check. We lab-tested and patented, creating the vertical-panel system we always wished existed.

20+ Years

of engineering, testing, and refinement as we work with builders across North America.

20+ Years

of engineering, testing, and refinement as we work with builders across North America.

Verified Engineering

Structural performance verified by Iowa State University's Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering.

Verified Engineering

Structural performance verified by Iowa State University's Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering.

Patented System

on the Fail-Safe Locking Grid that keeps vertical panels plumb without specialty bracing.

Patented System

on the Fail-Safe Locking Grid that keeps vertical panels plumb without specialty bracing.

Our Mission

The first time you install an ICF wall the traditional way — stacking foam blocks course by course, setting specialty bracing, watching crews climb foam stairs in the rain — you start thinking about a better way. The second time, you start designing one.

Pow-R-Wall was engineered by builders who'd installed too many block ICF walls and gotten tired of the same problems. Slow installs. Specialty bracing rentals that ate margin. Walls that came out of the pour bowed because a block shifted when no one was looking. Two layers of foam doing the job of one wall.

The fix was to stop treating the form like a stack of blocks and start treating it like a panel — pre-cut to height, set vertically, locked in place by engineering rather than guesswork. Twenty years of refinement followed. independently tested the structural performance. The Fail-Safe Locking Grid earned a patented. The result is Pow-R-Wall: the vertical ICF system the builders who designed it always wished existed.

We didn't build a faster ICF block. We replaced the block.

Corner bracing on a vertical ICF wall
Resilient Building Products logo

Part of the Resilient Building Products family.

Pow-R-Wall is one of two product brands on the Resilient Building Products platform. Both brands solve different parts of the same problem: building structures that stand the test of time.

Vertical ICF interlocking wall system with overlaying Pow-R-Wall logo

Pow-R-Wall

Vertical ICF System

Patented vertical-panel insulated concrete form system. R-33 continuous insulation, no specialty bracing, pre-cut to wall height. Engineered for foundations, above-grade walls, multi-story residential, and light commercial.

A man spraying Rub-R-Wall waterproof coating on a concrete foundation with overlaying Rub-R-Wall logo
Waterproof Coating System

30-year residential foundation waterproofing system. Spray-applied, seamless membrane. The most-installed below-grade waterproofing in the U.S. for residential foundations. Visit Rub-R-Wall.

Vertical foam panels on a new build

About Resilient Building Products

Why we build the way we build.

Resilient Building Products is built upon the philosophy that when someone asks you to walk a mile with them, you walk two.

That philosophy shows up in how Pow-R-Wall is built and sold. Every project order includes free virtual installation training. Every wall ships with project-specific engineering already done. Every customer gets a real specialist on the phone, not a chatbot or a sales funnel. Going beyond what's expected isn't a marketing claim, it's how a family of companies stays in business across decades.

For Pow-R-Wall, that translates into a product that's harder to engineer than a generic block ICF and easier to install than a kit you bought at the lumber yard. Builders, homeowners, and architects who choose Pow-R-Wall get a system that's been refined for two decades to take the friction out of what they're already trying to do.

Andy Hobbs on a job site talking with a builder
"I watched the wood construction industry continuously improve its engineering but then realized the ICF industry had not kept up. So we engineered a better wall that we have tested and proven to be stronger, while also being more cost-efficient, and better for the environment."
"I watched the wood construction industry continuously improve its engineering but then realized the ICF industry had not kept up. So we engineered a better wall that we have tested and proven to be stronger, while also being more cost-efficient, and better for the environment."

Andy Hobbs

Technical Lead

Andy Hobbs

Technical Lead

Pow-R-Wall History

The road from Hobbs to Pow-R-Wall

Pow-R-Wall is a rebrand of Hobbs Vertical ICF — the same product, the same engineering, the same team, with a name that fits where the system is going.

Hobbs Vertical ICF logo

2005

Engineering begins

Andrew Hobbs sets out to design a better ICF system. Two years of material research, physical testing, engineering analysis, and tooling design follow.

A man smoothing concrete poured into an ICF wall

2007

First wall goes up

The first vertical-panel ICF foundation is poured in Eldora, Iowa. The framer who walked the cured wall calls it "the straightest foundation he's ever seen."

Testing wall strength at Iowa State University

2009

Independent structural testing

Iowa State University completes full-scale flexural testing under Dr. Max L. Porter. The system achieves 14.56 kip-ft — 41% above comparable reinforced concrete.

Interlocking wall system

2013

Fail-Safe Locking Grid

U.S. Patent #8,371,082 and Canadian Patent #2,621,021 issue for the Fail-Safe Locking Grid — the geometric design that keeps panels plumb without specialty bracing.

Pow-R-Wall logo

2025

Pow-R-Wall begins

Hobbs Building Systems joins Second Mile Companies' Resilient Building Products platform. The product rebrands as Pow-R-Wall — same engineering, new name and scale.

Rub-R-Wall waterproofing coating on an exterioir foundation

2026

New products

New product integrations are announced, such as Pow-R-Bar and the full Rub-R-Wall system integrations.

Hobbs Vertical ICF logo

2005

Engineering begins

Andrew Hobbs sets out to design a better ICF system. Two years of material research, physical testing, engineering analysis, and tooling design follow.

A man smoothing concrete poured into an ICF wall

2007

First wall goes up

The first vertical-panel ICF foundation is poured in Eldora, Iowa. The framer who walked the cured wall calls it "the straightest foundation he's ever seen."

Testing wall strength at Iowa State University

2009

Independent structural testing

Iowa State University completes full-scale flexural testing under Dr. Max L. Porter. The system achieves 14.56 kip-ft — 41% above comparable reinforced concrete.

Interlocking wall system

2013

Fail-Safe Locking Grid

U.S. Patent #8,371,082 and Canadian Patent #2,621,021 issue for the Fail-Safe Locking Grid — the geometric design that keeps panels plumb without specialty bracing.

Pow-R-Wall logo

2025

Pow-R-Wall begins

Hobbs Building Systems joins Second Mile Companies' Resilient Building Products platform. The product rebrands as Pow-R-Wall — same engineering, new name and scale.

Rub-R-Wall waterproofing coating on an exterioir foundation

2026

New products

New product integrations are announced, such as Pow-R-Bar and the full Rub-R-Wall system integrations.

Hobbs Vertical ICF logo

2005

Engineering begins

Andrew Hobbs sets out to design a better ICF system. Two years of material research, physical testing, engineering analysis, and tooling design follow.

A man smoothing concrete poured into an ICF wall

2007

First wall goes up

The first vertical-panel ICF foundation is poured in Eldora, Iowa. The framer who walked the cured wall calls it "the straightest foundation he's ever seen."

Testing wall strength at Iowa State University

2009

Independent structural testing

Iowa State University completes full-scale flexural testing under Dr. Max L. Porter. The system achieves 14.56 kip-ft — 41% above comparable reinforced concrete.

Interlocking wall system

2013

Fail-Safe Locking Grid

U.S. Patent #8,371,082 and Canadian Patent #2,621,021 issue for the Fail-Safe Locking Grid — the geometric design that keeps panels plumb without specialty bracing.

Pow-R-Wall logo

2025

Pow-R-Wall begins

Hobbs Building Systems joins Second Mile Companies' Resilient Building Products platform. The product rebrands as Pow-R-Wall — same engineering, new name and scale.

Rub-R-Wall waterproofing coating on an exterioir foundation

2026

New products

New product integrations are announced, such as Pow-R-Bar and the full Rub-R-Wall system integrations.

Hobbs Vertical ICF logo

2005

Engineering begins

Andrew Hobbs sets out to design a better ICF system. Two years of material research, physical testing, engineering analysis, and tooling design follow.

A man smoothing concrete poured into an ICF wall

2007

First wall goes up

The first vertical-panel ICF foundation is poured in Eldora, Iowa. The framer who walked the cured wall calls it "the straightest foundation he's ever seen."

Testing wall strength at Iowa State University

2009

Independent structural testing

Iowa State University completes full-scale flexural testing under Dr. Max L. Porter. The system achieves 14.56 kip-ft — 41% above comparable reinforced concrete.

Interlocking wall system

2013

Fail-Safe Locking Grid

U.S. Patent #8,371,082 and Canadian Patent #2,621,021 issue for the Fail-Safe Locking Grid — the geometric design that keeps panels plumb without specialty bracing.

Pow-R-Wall logo

2025

Pow-R-Wall begins

Hobbs Building Systems joins Second Mile Companies' Resilient Building Products platform. The product rebrands as Pow-R-Wall — same engineering, new name and scale.

Rub-R-Wall waterproofing coating on an exterioir foundation

2026

New products

New product integrations are announced, such as Pow-R-Bar and the full Rub-R-Wall system integrations.

For Builders, Homeowners, and Architects

Ready to build with Pow-R-Wall?

Talk with a specialist. No pressure, no obligation, just clarity.

Stamped drawings with every project

For Builders, Homeowners, and Architects

Ready to build with Pow-R-Wall?

Talk with a specialist. No pressure, no obligation, just clarity.

Stamped drawings with every project

For Builders, Homeowners, and Architects

Ready to build with Pow-R-Wall?

Talk with a specialist. No pressure, no obligation, just clarity.

Stamped drawings with every project