All About SIPs
Structural Insulated Panels
STRONGER, FASTER, BETTER
All Woodhouse® timber frame homes are built with Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs), one of the greatest advancements in energy efficient home construction to date. With tighter construction, straighter walls and roofs, faster installation, reduced thermal bridging, and increased R-values compared to a typical stick-built home, it’s easy to see why SIPs are a leading choice for homeowners seeking an energy-efficient method of construction.
At its most basic definition, a SIP is a foam core sandwiched between two skins. In conjunction with timber frame construction, SIPs are typically used to envelop the frame. As a free-standing structure, the timber frame is perfectly suited for SIP application.
Woodhouse offers two varieties of SIPs: polyurethane (PUR) and expanded polystyrene (EPS). Woodhouse recommends the use of polyurethane SIPs to provide a superior R-value with thinner wall and roof profiles. This means less trucking to job sites, and less on-site finish carpentry, both of which give you the most value for your budget. As with the SIP cores, there are also multiple skin materials, with Oriented Strand Board (OSB) being the most common.
SIPs are provided in various sizes and thicknesses depending on your home’s geographical and code requirements. We provide standard pre-cut panels with all dimensions, angles, valleys, and window and door openings factory cut to minimize construction time in the field, reduce jobsite mess and waste, and increase accuracy. In regard to thickness, many options are offered both for energy efficiency (R-value) and strength considerations. Our standard polyurethane wall panel is nominally 4 ½ inches with an R-27 value. Standard roof panels can be nominally 5 ½ inches (R-34), or nominally 6 ½ inches (R-41). Other thicknesses and R-values are available.
STRUCTURAL INSULATED PANEL BENEFITS:
Benefits include construction efficiency – one BASF study conducted by the RS Means unit of Reed Construction Data shows that residential builders can reduce their framing labor needs by as much as 55 percent by using Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) compared to conventional building methods. Also, OSB sheathing is continuous, allowing owners to nail into the walls virtually anywhere, without the need of finding studs.
Testing at the Oakridge National Laboratories found that a SIP structure is tighter than a typical structure, resulting in less energy requirements for heating and cooling. SIP homes qualify for ENERGY STAR certification and have a proven track record of exceptional blower door test results.
Straighter walls and roof lines make finishing material installation much easier and faster resulting in a higherquality finished product. Further, with the polyurethane panels typically specified by Woodhouse, system installation time is decreased up to 30% over other SIP systems, callbacks for nail-popping and cracks normally caused by lumber shrinkage are reduced, and little or no temporary heat is required when building in colder climates
