To avoid these ads, REGISTER NOW!

Structural Panels

vegasK9

Member
Joined
Mar 15, 2019
Messages
13
Location
Las Vegas, NV
I was watching Fox and Friends this morning and they had a segment on New building supplies. They had structural walls with plywood on one side with insulation in the middle and drywall on the inside panel all in one panel. You just put them up side by side to make your walls. I think they said Home Depot had them. Anybody seen these. They looked like 3 x 8 panels.
 
To avoid these ads, REGISTER NOW!

MushCreek

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 14, 2015
Messages
9,763
Location
Upstate South Carolina
A true structural panel (SIP) would have plywood/osb/steel on both sides, as drywall isn't structural. I thought about building my house with steel SIP's. They custom make them (up to 54' long and 12" thick!) to your plans so you just assemble them like a kit. Strong and energy efficient. I ultimately went with ICF, as it was easier for one old man working alone. If I had had the money, I would have used SIP's for the roof.

Both SIP's and ICF present some challenges with wiring and plumbing, but it's not insurmountable. For a shop, I'd just surface wire it with conduit.
 

paredown

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 12, 2012
Messages
544
Location
Pomona, NY
When I first started dreaming about my dream garage, I got a quote from a SIPs manufacturer.

They are cost competitive with stick build, and the advantage is speed. You can get SIPs panels for the roof as well, which means you can be dried in very quickly--to me, that alone made the whole idea attractive. We priced SIPs for our Habitat builds--and may still do it, if we can find any property we can afford for our next project.

I thought for garage construction it was an especially good idea, since it would be easy enough to run all wiring in conduit on the surface, and not worry about using the wire chases that are usually put into the panels. From what I have seem, most use some kind of spline system for attaching, along with construction adhesive.

I have never seen anything like a SIP at Home Depot though, although it is not a bad idea. I'm not sure that their typical customer would be capable of building with them and meeting code.
 

LB-1911

ALLIANCE MEMBER
Joined
Sep 24, 2011
Messages
5,742
Location
Northwestern Il.
I was watching Fox and Friends this morning and they had a segment on New building supplies. They had structural walls with plywood on one side with insulation in the middle and drywall on the inside panel all in one panel. You just put them up side by side to make your walls. I think they said Home Depot had them. Anybody seen these. They looked like 3 x 8 panels.

Here ya go.

Fox segment -
Basement renovation with DRIcore Subfloor, Smartwall & Pergo Extreme



Home Depot
DRIcore SMARTWALL 4 in. x 2 ft. x 8 ft. All-in-One Wall Panel
Internet #205351492 Model # FG10019

SMARTWALL FAQS
 
Last edited:
To avoid these ads, REGISTER NOW!
OP
V

vegasK9

Member
Joined
Mar 15, 2019
Messages
13
Location
Las Vegas, NV
Thanks that's the one. I caught part of it as I was doing other stuff in garage at the time. Sorry guys thought structural, finish wall. Man those are pretty steep in price.
 
Last edited:

Jackfre

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 26, 2010
Messages
4,408
Location
N CA
In '63 my first construction job was building National Homes pre-fab panel houses. get the foundation and subfloor on, roll the trailer up and in 8 hrs we would have the two story building up. They were primitive compared to todays engineered panels, but man they went up fast. 2x4 walls with a Homasote exterior sheet. Drive a 16 into the panel, grab it with the claw of the hammer, lift, push, out the door and in place. Boom! House!
 

manwithtools

ALLIANCE MEMBER
Joined
Aug 24, 2015
Messages
13,729
Location
Lebanon, TN
They are SIP's as MushCreek said. When you understand how quick they go up, what the insulation value is and few other virtues, they are really not that expensive.

The ones with drywall one side had pretty much been abandoned at one point because the drywall would get damaged during transportation and installation, requiring a lot of drywall repair. Most use SIP's with OSB inside and out and then drywall after SIP's are in place.
 

NUTTSGT

Super Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Sep 14, 2009
Messages
50,901
Location
Northern Central Ohio
I think Matt Risinger did a video on a similar product a few months ago.



EDIT: nope, those were insulated studs.

 
Last edited:

Stuart in MN

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 8, 2005
Messages
23,065
Location
Minneapolis
My next door neighbor built his garage some years ago using SIPs for the walls and roof. It went together very quickly, the insulation is great and it's very quiet inside. He did have some trouble finding a contractor who was comfortable working with them, but today they may not be as big a problem.
 

mikegt4

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 12, 2005
Messages
3,265
Location
sw ohio
I used SIP panels when I built my house 25 years ago. IIRC the OSB/foam/drywall panels were designed specifically for timber frame homes and were not structural panels.

I built my house as a 2 story cube, SIP walls and 2nd floor ceiling (like a flat roof) then put std. roof trusses on top. Roof sheathing was a snap, just stand on the panels that formed the 2nd story ceiling.
 
To avoid these ads, REGISTER NOW!
Top Bottom