In the thread entitled "Sip ageing test," it was concluded by Louis Fisher of FisherSips that bottom line Steel sips are a better product but ultimately it is the cost that drives the industry, so if you are counting the cost over the advantages then OSB is your better bang for the buck.  However this has not been my experience as an owner builder.  In 2003-2004 I faxed my floor plan for a two story 32 X 60 home to the top ten panel makers listed on the Sipweb page, this included FisherSips, PanelCrafters, R-Control, MarquiseConst, Value build etc  I received a bid from each of you and the average bid for the sip “kit” was right at $40K for the kit alone.  The bid that I received from Marquis Construction, now called SouthernSips, for steel Sips was $68K.  The difference however was the steel sip bid included a Steel Sip roof instead of a conventional roof system.  The steel bid included all labor to erect the house making it “trade ready” meaning second floor in and all interior walls framed out.  The steel bid included Simonton windows that are double pane, low-e, argon filled.  So My Steel Sip house of 3981 sq ft total, trade ready, with the windows and doors installed, came out to just under $18 sq. ft.  And was trade ready in 9 working days, with a four man crew.  To install the windows and doors took another 3 days.

 
My friend Mack who built at the same time using OSB, for 54 X 36 two story, after the  rental of cranes and extra labor, with a conventional roof, came out to just over $25 sq.ft. and that was without windows.   As someone pointed we have to live in the real world not the theory and maybe.  For what it is worth my experience says I did better in product and price with steel sip.

Donaldson, that does seem like a really great price, especially if it included roof, labor, and windows and doors. I'm guessing steel SIPs must have gone up a bit in the intervening 4 years.

Jelly,

I am guessing everything has gone up in the last 4 years. I saw a 30% bump in prices of drywall and plumbing supplies etc from Aug to Nov. after the hurricanes of '04.

The point of my thread was to make sure everyone took into account the additional cost of heavy equipment, longer build time, which means more construction interest, and on and on. When all things are considered the costs are not very far apart either way. I think OSB sips are a great product compared to anything conventional. And depending on the project they can be just the right thing. I mentioned my friend Mack who built at the same time. One reason he went with OSB was his two story was to be added onto a 2100 sq. ft. house and he felt the conventional roof would match up to his old roof better.