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If you are looking to build a warm house for little money, consider building a house with SIP (SIP) panels. The cost of a two-story “box” 10 * 10 meters without finishing – in the region of 17-20 thousand dollars. At the same time, there is no need for additional insulation, you can move into the house immediately after construction (if communications are connected) and you can immediately start finishing.
What is a SIP panel
The construction of houses from SIP panels began in the second half of the last century in Canada. The technology is simple, the construction of a building requires very little time (from two to three weeks, depending on the complexity of the project), only a frame house can be cheaper, and even then not in all regions.
Houses are built from heat-insulating panels, which in themselves have sufficient strength. In English, these panels are called SIP, which is an abbreviation of the following name: Structural insulated panel. It translates as “Constructive Thermally Insulated Panel”. It turns out, in theory, in Russian, the name of this material should sound like QFT. In reality, the usual transliteration is used (replacing English letters with Cyrillic). As a result, the name “SIP-panels” is in use.
This material consists of two OSB boards, between which a layer of expanded polystyrene (polystyrene) is laid. It turns out a kind of sandwich (construction “multilayer sandwich”). Hence another name sandwich panels.
When building a house, there are two types of assembly:
- With a frame (frame-panel technology). In private housing construction, a wooden beam is used; in the construction of high-rise buildings (there are some), the frame is made of steel.
In frame technology, panels are connected using a wooden beam - Frameless technology provides for the connection of panels using thermal splines – strip-inserts from SIP panels of smaller thickness.
In our country, the first option is the most popular. The wooden frame gives the building extra strength. The bearing capacity of sandwich panels and without a frame is more than enough for the construction of one-two-story private houses. But knowing that a solid wooden beam is at the heart of the house is reassuring. This technology has another plus – maintainability. In case of problems, you can remove the damaged panel and replace it with a new one, which is impossible with frameless technology.
Advantages and disadvantages
Like any technology new to our country, building a house from SIP panels has its adherents and opponents. For opponents, the most important argument is the unnaturalness of materials, the possibility of releasing harmful substances. Indeed, these plates are composed of foam and OSB. Styrofoam is a familiar material and it is dangerous only during combustion. OSB has also been on the market for a long time, it is made from pressed large chips and wood chips. Resins containing formaldehyde are added as a binder. It is this binder that raises the most questions: formaldehyde is a strong poison and its presence in the atmosphere in large quantities causes poisoning.
Formaldehyde emissions should be controlled by SES (sanitary and epidemiological station), only safe building materials should be on sale. So if you decide to build a house from SIP panels, carefully choose the manufacturer – the quality of the material depends on his conscientiousness. The panels assembled on the German OSB company Egger (“Egger”) are recognized as the highest quality and safest. Their formaldehyde emission is E1 (safe).
Extract from GOST R 56309-2014 (date of introduction 2015-07-01): “Depending on the content (emission) of formaldehyde, the boards are produced in emission classes E0,5, E1 and E2.”
| Formaldehyde emission class of boards | Application of plates |
|---|---|
| E0,5; E1 | As structural elements of residential and public buildings, including for public premises, as well as products and structures operated inside residential premises |
| E2 | For industrial products operated outside residential premises |
At the same time, they easily tolerate high humidity, do not absorb water and do not deform.
The German Glunz Agepan panels are also good, but few people use them. If we talk about Russian manufacturers, then you should pay attention to the products of the Kalevala company. In production, only safe and high-quality materials are used:
1. OSB-3 Kalevala Russia E1 emission class; 2. Glue – TOP-UR (Russia); 3. Expanded polystyrene – PSBS – 25C Knauf (Russia).
Speaking about the advantages of building from SIP panels, it is necessary to pay attention to the fact that the technology has been thoroughly developed. Panels are produced for various elements of the house: external walls, partitions, interfloor ceilings, etc.
Why do people build houses from SIP panels? Because such a house has solid advantages:
- Light weight, which saves on the foundation. Under this type of buildings, pile or pile-grillage foundations are ideal.
- Small heat loss, low heating costs. Expanded polystyrene is an excellent insulation, and it is clamped on both sides with OSB sheets. This makes the sandwich panel house very warm.
- Low cost per square meter.
- Short construction time. A box of a two-story house can be assembled in a month.
- No shrinkage. Sediment may be at the foundation. The construction of SIP panels has no draft.
- Finishing work can begin immediately after the box is assembled.
In general, it is this set of properties that makes people choose a house from SIP panels. They build both houses of permanent residence and summer cottages for seasonal visits. So, with a limited budget, building a house from SIP panels can be a very good way out.
How to build with your own hands
There are two ways to build a house from SIP panels with your own hands:
- Buy a house kit for a specific project in a company that deals with this, and assemble it yourself. Not all firms agree to this, but many have a supervised installation service. This is when a company specialist controls your installation.
- Buy plates. Cut them to the desired size, buy timber, all this on your own. In this case, the entire responsibility for the quality of construction will fall on you. If you have carpentry skills or you have someone to tell you, you can choose this option.
Briefly about what a house kit is. This is a set of ready-made SIP panels, a wooden beam of the right size and fasteners for the construction of a particular house. All components are cut at the factory, numbered. When assembling, you use the resulting blocks in a certain order. The process is reminiscent of building a house from a children’s designer, only you are assembling a real house.
Domokomplekt is good, if everything is done accurately. This is not only about the quality of SIP panels (it must be checked separately), but also about the use dry wood (chamber drying), and about the accuracy of the cut. The edges of the panels must exactly wrap around the beam, the two panels must meet with an expansion gap of about 3 mm – all this is achieved using precision equipment.
Help. The expansion gap is the necessary distance that is left between building materials subject to expansion (dilation). If a house is being built in a region with a humid climate (for example, the Leningrad Region), then it is imperative to leave an expansion gap, otherwise the OSB will be swollen. In dry climates, there is no need for a gap between OSBs.
Stages of construction: photo report
Building a house from SIP panels, like any other, begins with the selection and construction of a foundation. The pile foundation is considered optimal for light houses. That is what they do in most cases, starting building a house using SIP technology. Sometimes it is impossible to put a pile foundation:
- on hard soils that are too expensive to drill (rocks);
- on unstable soils with low bearing capacity (peat bogs);
- in the presence of cavities in the rock mass.
In these cases, they make tape or slab (usually UShP – insulated Swedish plate). They are much more expensive, but more reliable.
After the foundation has been selected and calculated, its construction can begin.
We make a pile foundation
Since the foundation of screw piles is most often made, we will illustrate its manufacture. Piles are screwed into the ground manually (if the soil and strength allow) or with the help of special equipment. The height of the heads is 80 cm above the ground, the distance between the piles is not more than 2,5 meters.
Heads are welded to the installed piles, a strapping beam is attached to them (in this example, 200 * 200 mm).
Important! The joints of the beam must necessarily be on the heads. When laying the strapping beam, do not forget to coat the locks with a protective compound (bituminous mastic) before joining.
To protect against decay and insects, the strapping timber is impregnated with a protective compound. Roofing material was laid under the timber (on the heads) in two layers.
This stage takes from 3-4 days to a week. Depends on the complexity of the soil, you work with the equipment or twist it yourself. Now you can start laying floor slabs, but before that, we should familiarize ourselves with the methods of their connection.
How to connect SIP panels: the basic principle
When connecting the panels, a wooden dowel (beam) and or a thermal dowel (a section of the SIP panel of a smaller thickness) is inserted between them. As mentioned above, in our country, the technology using a frame is more popular, i.e. dry timber is used as a dowel. It is on this option that we will focus our attention.
The beam is inserted into the groove and fixed with self-tapping screws and / or nails, which are twisted / hammered through the OSB into the body of the beam. In the presence of a nail gun, we initially recommend grabbing the panels with “yellow” wood screws 40-50 mm long, and then punching the joints ruffed nails 50-65 mm long in increments of 10-15 cm.
There is always a risk that the connection will turn out to be leaky, and the entire construction technology from SIP panels is based on the thermos effect, that is, on maximum tightness. Therefore, before assembling this assembly (and any other), mounting foam is applied to the side surface of the panel. It fills all the cracks, providing the proper level of heat and moisture insulation.
Pay attention! The figure above shows a key from a double bar. Often, such recommendations are misunderstood, and in order to save money, an unplaned edged board 50x150x6000 mm of natural moisture is purchased. After the board dries, the connection is unlikely to remain airtight.
In the manufacture of a composite wooden key 100 * 150, in our opinion, it is preferable to use three dry bars with a section of 50 * 100 mm – in this case, the connections overlap (see video below).
If we are talking about wall panels, then it makes sense to insert and fasten the dowels in advance.
The foam was applied, a beam was inserted, secured with self-tapping screws. Foam was applied to the side face of the second plate, a groove was brought under the protruding part of the beam, an expansion gap of 3 mm was set, and secured with self-tapping screws. The foam that came out during the installation process from the seams is cut off after polymerization.
This technique is repeated with slight changes in any connection of SIP panels. The diagram of this node is presented above.
After cutting the plates, it becomes necessary to remove the expanded polystyrene to the required depth. For these purposes, an electric thermal knife (cutter) for foam is used. They come in various designs, but without fail, the thermal knife must be equipped with a limiter. Only in this case you will be able to remove the expanded polystyrene exactly to the required depth. “Brute force” is fraught with the fact that cold bridges may appear at the junction of the panels.
The cutter can be made by hand, but at the same time do not forget about safety precautions when working with electric current.
First overlap
The first floor is nothing more than a floor that does not require insulation. As melted, it is assembled from SIP panels 224 mm thick and 625 mm wide. With this width of the slabs, the wooden beams are arranged in increments of about 60 cm, which is enough to withstand the load.
If you have plates with a width of 1250 mm, then they must be cut lengthwise into two equal parts.
When installing the ceiling, the panels should be laid like bricks in the masonry – with a mismatch of the seams (in a row). This is necessary so that the seams do not warp with increasing humidity.
To protect the lower OSB slab from moisture, each of the slabs on one side is smeared with the same bituminous mastic. You can use other compositions with similar properties.
When connecting the plates, a mounting bar is laid between them (diagram in the previous paragraph). The beam is attached along the edges to the strapping (with long nails), and the edges of the plates to it with self-tapping screws.
The side sections of the slabs (all floors) are closed with an edged board of a suitable size. We apply foam on the side surface of the plate with a snake, then attach the board, fasten it through the OSB with self-tapping screws into the end of the board.
On top of the sandwich around the perimeter, a starting (crown) board is laid, on which the wall SIP panels will rest. It is laid around the perimeter and in those places where partitions will be installed.
The crown boards are fastened with nails / self-tapping screws, but to be sure, they were fixed through with studs to the pile heads. Holes were drilled for the studs. A stud is driven into them, pulled together with bolts.
Walling
We continue to build a house from SIP panels: we mount the walls of the first floor. For this work, it is desirable to have two assistants, then the process will go faster and easier.
Installation of walls begins from one of the corners. When installing, the panel with a recess in the lower part is “put on” on the installed starter board (pre-apply a layer of foam on the board or the end of the sandwich). The panel is placed, aligned vertically, attached to the starting board on both sides with self-tapping screws in increments of 10-15 cm.
Foam is applied to the side surface of the installed plate, another plate is set at an angle of 90 °. An embedded board (end bar) is pre-attached to its side part, the thickness of which is equal to the depth of the groove. Like the first, this panel is attached to the strapping starter board.
In addition, with the help of long self-tapping screws we fasten the corner.
The length of the self-tapping screw must be such that it passes through the slab and the entire thickness of the embedded board. The installation step of this fastener is 40-50 cm.
Further, the walls of SIP panels are assembled according to the same principle: we put a beam between the plates (if it has not been inserted previously), we attach the next plate to it and to the lower trim. Simple and fast.
In window and door openings, for more reliable fastening, you can install metal perforated reinforced corners. The element is optional, but gives rigidity and inspires confidence.
The installation of partitions from SIP panels occurs according to the same principle: we fasten the crown board, partition blocks to it. They can be the same thickness as for exterior walls, but thinner ones can also be used. The decrease in soundproofing properties is compensated by the interior decoration.
To save money, partitions can be made using frame technology. Then, initially, only the frame can be installed, and its lining can be transferred to a later period. It is more convenient to do this when the roof is already installed.
Interfloor overlap
To install floor slabs in the grooves of wall panels, boards are installed on foam and self-tapping screws. They create a strapping for the installation of the ceiling.
Next, lay the floor slabs. If the partitions are assembled from SIP panels, their bearing capacity is quite high and no additional reinforcement measures are required. If the partitions were assembled using frame technology, we make the upper beams reinforced: they are assembled from three boards glued together. For greater strength, the beams can still be fastened on both sides with self-tapping screws.
Floor slabs from SIP panels are laid on the finished frame. They should be no more than 625 mm wide, they must be laid in a run-up (with mismatched seams). Since the panels are narrow, there is a lot of wooden beams in the ceiling. Due to this, such an overlap can withstand loads in places where there are no floor beams.
We fasten the laid plates to the strapping beam with self-tapping screws or nails. OSB edges – top and bottom to each intermediate beam. After fixing the installation of the ceiling, we close the open side sections along the perimeter of the building according to the same principle: foam + edged board. For greater rigidity, in those places where the floor beams pass, we fasten the floor panels with long self-tapping screws (220 mm) through.
This stage after the assembly of the first floor does not seem difficult. Everything is the same, only work at height, tightening sandwich panels is longer and more difficult than mounting them.
Second floor walls
The second floor in this project is attic, because the wall panels are low. Along with the outer walls, we also install partitions. Before installing the roof, a mortgage beam is installed in the upper open groove, roofing SIP panels will be attached to it.
Under the gables, standard panels will have to be cut, since the shape here is non-standard. Installation and connection of the wall panels themselves on the second floor is no different.
Roof made of SIP panels
For the roof, special sandwich panels are used. Under them, the ends of the plates are cut off at a certain angle, which is determined by the angle of inclination of the roof slope. Here, just as with flooring, you can get by with a minimum of beams, because each connection has its own beam. Therefore, the rafter system is not assembled.
Skate decoration
The roof of a small and medium-sized house made of SIP panels usually has a central ridge beam. This is where the two roof planes meet. This node can be designed in two ways (in the figures below). The first one is symmetrical. Sandwich panels are cut at an angle, the top of the ridge beam is cut at the same angle. Two planes are fastened with long self-tapping screws through the panel to the beam on both sides. Fastener installation step – 30-40 cm.
In this method, there is no usual timber between the two plates, they are connected only to the foam. After the foam polymerizes, the excess is cut off, the seam is treated with a waterproof sealant, after which a protective strip is put on the ridge – made of metal, plastic, etc. – depends on the type of roofing chosen.
It is possible to dock roofing SIP panels on a ridge in a different way. The second method does not require cutting the slabs at an angle, but one part of the panels must be longer (by the thickness of the roofing slab). The beam is still cut at an angle, the plates are joined at a right angle, fastened through with long self-tapping screws to the beam.
In this connection, embedded end bars are used. They are installed as usual – on mounting foam and self-tapping screws. To block the access of moisture to the under-roof space, the junction of the two panels is also additionally coated with a waterproof sealant.
There is an option of mounting the roof from SIP panels and without a central beam. There are options for roofs with two load-bearing beams that are not located in the center. These can be either specially laid floor beams, or partitions assembled from SIP panels or using frame technology. In the second case, it is better to strengthen the beams (make them prefabricated with glue and nails).
In this knot, the most difficult thing is to cut the embedded bars at the right angle. This can be done on the ground, which greatly simplifies the task. The panels are fastened through the slab with long self-tapping screws to the floor beams or embedded in the partitions. Also, two planes are fastened together at the junction point – from opposite sides with long self-tapping screws.
Roof and wall panel connections
Under the laying of roofing SIP slabs, wall slabs are cut at the desired angle. The inner part of the OSB is obtained above the outer. At the same angle, the foam plastic is “cut”, the edges of the embedded beam are cut. It is this part that is the most difficult if you did not buy a house kit, and you build a house from SIP panels from standard panels, cutting them to the desired size with your own hands.
With the appropriate equipment, it is not a problem to cut them at an angle. The problem is to cut the foam between the OSB boards to the desired depth. You can choose the core with a thermal knife, and then remove the residues in a purely mechanical way. Most likely, the cut will still not work out even, so you will have to add more foam to fill in the bumps.
In the drawings, the roof overhang is also made of slabs with insulation. It’s easier to implement, but it’s an unreasonable expense. To save, the length of the SIP panel is taken to the intersection with the walls, and then only the beam goes (as in the photo). In this case, the beam is made composite: one part is longer by the amount of overhang, the second is shorter and ends where the wall ends.
Features of joining roofing slabs
The connection of two roofing plates occurs in the same way as the others: timber, foam, self-tapping screws. But since precipitation is possible here, it is advisable to seal all seams.
To improve the tightness, all seams on the roof are additionally coated with a waterproof sealant. First, the frozen foam is cut into a plane with the roof, then a sealant is applied. After filing the overhangs, we can assume that the construction of the house from SIP panels is completed. Insert windows / doors, bring communications and the home is already habitable. Finishing can be done immediately after installing the box.
Mice and other troubles
To save our readers from unnecessary headaches, we decided to talk about the mistakes made during the construction of one residential building. First of all, the material is intended for those who hire contractors for the construction. However, it will be useful for those who build a house on their own.
The object was built under the “Country House” program, and local would-be builders acted as a contractor. Unfortunately, the future tenants did not pay due attention to the quality of the work. The result is natural – a large number of significant “jambs”.
Brief information about the house:
- Date of commissioning: 2008
- Floors in Building: 2
- Foundation type: tape
- Technology: frameless
- Panel dimensions: 2740x1220x224 (ceilings), 2740x1220x174 (walls), 2740x1220x145 (key for connecting wall panels)
Problems emerged rather quickly and were associated with the most important part of any structure – the foundation. The strip foundation was filled with poor quality concrete, which led to the fact that when moisture got in, it began to crumble.
In extreme cold (below -30°C), another “jamb” was revealed – a part of the plastic floor plinth in the kitchen froze through.
It was decided to remove the lower panels of the vinyl siding, remove the cold bridges at the junction of the wall slabs with the ceiling of the first floor, and sheathe the foundation with a profiled stone-like sheet.
After dismantling the lower panels of the siding, there were signs of the vital activity of field mice.
Brief explanation of ruberoid. At the time of the construction of the house, in a particular locality, they had not heard of vapor-permeable membranes. The contractor was going to lay plastic sheeting on the walls. The customer opposed this, as a result, roofing material was used.
As a result, the owner of the house had to level the consequences using his modest building experience.
Related errors:
- The lower part of the first floor ceiling has not been treated with bituminous mastic.
- SIP-panels 1220 mm wide were laid on the floors of the first and second floors (they had to be cut in half lengthwise).
- Used raw wood.
- The panel for making thermospins is thinner than the styrofoam layer.
- The corners of the house are not tightened with long self-tapping screws.
- Self-tapping screws are exclusively black.
There were other errors, but we do not talk about them, because they do not directly relate to the construction technology of SIP houses.
Alas, the case discussed above is not the most difficult – the fatal option is discussed in the video below.
The conclusion is very simple: you should not blindly trust the customer. All stages of construction must be controlled personally, or seek the help of a knowledgeable person from the outside.
If contractors are involved in the construction, then the quality of their work can be assessed already at the stage of acceptance of the floor of the first floor.
Owner feedback
In conclusion, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with the video reviews of real owners of houses from SIP panels.
Conclusions
A house made of SIP panels assembled in compliance with the technology will serve faithfully for more than a dozen years, it will be comfortable to live in it.
If you choose between a frame house and a house made of SIP panels, then after weighing all the pros and cons, we advise you to choose the second option. In any case, the decision is up to you.