The bones of the house

Since it's nearly Halloween, let's talk about exterior wall construction or the house's skeleton.

When we first decided to build, I really wanted to go with some unconventional framing for the walls. Typical framing is 2X4 studs maybe 16" or 24" on center, with fiberglass batt insulation. That just doesn't cut it for me. The fiberglass batts don't do a good job of sealing and blocking air infiltration. When you take that into account, the fiberglass batts really aren't that energy efficient. But hey, they are the cheapest alternative.

So then i decided to look into structural insulated panels.

This is basically large panels pre-cut in a shop and delivered to the homesite. The panels are made of rigid foam glued between two 7/16" oriented strand boards. In layman's terms, it's a styrofoam sandwich between two pieces of wood.

You might not think it's sturdy, but in fact these things hold up better than stick built in hurricanes. The walls down here are typically 6 1/2" thick and the roof would be about 9 1/4". What are the advantages? Well there's a good bit of time savings in framing the house if you have a contractor that can set the panels quickly. There's also no need to insulate with fiberglass or blown or spray insulation.

So I had my mind set on using this stuff. I called and got quotes from about 4 different suppliers. Additionally, I searched under every rock to locate someone here in Tallahassee who could frame with it. Let me tell you, most framers don't want to try it out. They actually put a premium on using this stuff, even though they can get the job done in nearly half the time. I guess some people are just slow to try new things.

The materials definitely cost more than conventional 2X4 framing and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. In the end, the combined labor and material costs were just too much to overcome. If we knew we were going to live in this house for more than a few year, then we'd consider it.

Long story short, we are going with conventional framing and using the sprayfoam insulation. It's not cheap either, but at least it gives us an airtight home that needs no attic venting. All of our storage space in the roof will be conditioned space.

If you want to find out more about SIPs, I recommend a good book:

Also check out http://www.sipa.org/

For anyone looking to build with SIPs near Tallahassee, I highly recommend you first go to http://www.sipsteamusa.com/ . Ron Harrigan and his folks were quite helpful. They gave me a tour of their facility at the Bainbridge airport and they provided me the most reasonable quote of everyone I contacted.