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Structural Insulated Panels Bring Savings and Efficiency to the Job Site

If you’re a movie buff, you might remember the classic career advice from “The Graduate” in which Dustin Hoffman is told to get into plastics because “plastic is the future.” My tip to everyone in the construction industry is to get into SIPS because “building with Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) is the future.” And here’s why.

To be a successful general contractor these days, you have to be able to coordinate many subcontractors and make sure they do what you want, when and where you want it to be done. You have to make sure materials are delivered when and where you need them, and that they are the right product in the right color to the right specifications. There are lenders to please, clients to please, and you still have to get the job done in a timely manner.

As if all that weren’t difficult enough, we face these additional challenges:

• Skilled labor is in short supply and the work force is aging.
• The building code now requires additional measures for earthquake safety.
• Insurance availability is limited because of construction defect lawsuits.
• We have to address our customers’ concerns over mold.
• Our homes need to be energy-efficient.
• We need to recycle and take care of the environment.
• We need to be always looking for ways to build more efficiently and cut costs.

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If there were one change you could make to your construction process that would ease these seven challenges, wouldn’t you want to know about it? Here’s how SIPS can accomplish just that:

• Skilled Labor. It doesn’t take as many skilled carpenters to assemble SIPS. Panels are custom cut, numbered and ready to put in place without additional cutting. Working with them requires a very short learning curve because most of the hard work has been done at an off-site plant. Only basic carpentry skills — and a level, nail gun, caulk gun and skill saw — are required for their installation.
• Codes. The building codes are stricter on issues of lateral and shear strength. Panels have been tested in a laboratory to ensure they are two-and-a-half times stronger than conventional stick framing.
• Insurance. Improving your construction techniques by using SIPS is a way to demonstrate to your insurance company that you’re serious about reducing defects and increasing quality.
• Mold Prevention. SIPS are solid and don’t hold the moisture that enables mold to grow.
• Energy Savings. Panel construction can cut heating costs by 50%-60%, a savings that home owners will see in their monthly electric and natural gas bills.
• Less wasted material. About 25% of the materials used to build a conventional stick-framed house end up as waste that is usually carted off to the landfill. Custom-cut SIPS can help solve this problem. No waste saves time and money and it's good for the environment.
• Cost Savings. Fast to install, SIPS reduce framing time and total construction time significantly by enabling workers to put a wall together that is sheathed, insulated and with an electrical chase in place all at one time. This reduces interest payments on construction loans. Panel manufacturers that custom cut panels recycle materials at the plant and that reduces your dump fees. The contractor can review the panel layout in his office before construction starts, and the framing will be more accurate.

Building with SIPS is a simple solution and one that is ideally suited to responding to the unique challenges and demands of today’s residential construction industry.

Donna Shirey, CGR, CAPS is the president of Shirey Contracting, Inc. in Issaquah, WA. She is a member of the Remodelors™ Council Board of Trustees and previously served as the chair of the CGR Board of Governors in 2002. Shirey is the January 2003 recipient of the Professional Remodelor Magazine Achievement Award for Built Green.

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