Q.) How much are they? Do SIPs walls cost more than frame walls?
A.) When evaluating the cost of building with a SIPs you need to look at the overall construction costs and long-term operating costs, not just the cost of the material. SIPs result in less waste, less field labor requirements (along with the associated field labor overhead costs, such as transportation, lodging, meals, benefits, etc.), much faster construction time (and fewer weather delays), lower HVAC equipment costs, and greater comfort. Long-term operating costs for utilities are greatly reduced. SIPs are even more competitive when the design is optimized to incorporate them. Consequently, architects design dimensions at two-foot and four-foot increments, engineer roof pitches at steeper angles to increase loft square footage, and make other similar adjustments to take full advantage of SIP capabilities. SIPs, therefore, usually result in lower overall building costs and better value.
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This is one of the most asked questions by potential SIP builders, and, unfortunately, most frequently dodged by SIP manufacturers, who can’t bear to publish any cost/sf – “typical”, “average”, “historical” or “rule of thumb” – that could be used by their competitors or stick-framers to devalue the merits of SIP construction.
In my opinion, this is one of the reasons that SIP construction is not more widely adopted by individual builders and designers, who can’t get a straight answer from manufacturers short of a hard quote based on a specific and complete project design. Even SIPA can’t come up with much better than reprinting the well-known 2006 RS Means case study, which only covered labor costs.
Why not just report sample costs for blank 6″ OSB-skinned PUR 4×8 panels and let the project estimates fall where they may? Realistically, aren’t material costs (excl. delivery) going to be in about the $4/sf range?
Thank you for the comment. And yes, you are correct in saying that this is a question asked many times by builders, developers and even the architects.
Your comment about posting the cost per square foot of panel is correct but also something that we have to consider when working with our customers and dealing with competitors. The SIP manufacturing system currently in place here in the United States is much smaller than it may appear to the general public. Therefore we do have to be concerned with others when pricing comes into play.
I’ll give you my opinion on your comments and hopefully it will help others to understand the SIP market in general. Since I’ve a lot to say on the matter, I’ve created a separate post on this topic. ( the link will be at the bottom )
For the record, anyone who calls us can in fact get some real world numbers with a few more details provided by the caller. We also try and make it easy by including a SIP request for quote from from the website
Reply to your comment can be found here: http://sipsupply.com/sip-blog/sip-panels-price-per-square-foot/