Our home burnt to the ground and we are starting over from scratch and my husband I want as green a home as we can possibly build.  We are located in central California.  We definitely get high temps here.  Well over 100 for several weeks in the Summer.
We also get fairly cool in the Winter.  Low 40's and occasionally a freeze here and there, but not often.  The rear of our home will be facing West.

We really liked the idea of of prefab lightweight steel construction, but the more we read here about ICF's and SIP's, we aren't really sure what would be best.  Usually doing research on something leads me closer to knowing what would best suit us,
but the competitive nature of the various system distributors makes it more difficult.  No matter which distributor we talk to, they all believe that ONLY their system is suited to our situation.  Is there anyone here that could enlighten us without too much bias?

Thanks in advance for any help,

Theresa

Theresa;

you probably will not get too much unbiased help, but I'll throw my 2 cents in and list my preference of sytems in order of favorite pecking order of the most common systems:

Steel SIPs
steel framed stud/trusses
OSB SIPs
AAC
ICF's
wood frame
fibercement sips
log cabins

Thanks for your reply Chris.  Can you tell me why steel SIPS would be better than the steel framing, in your opinion?  I guess my main concern about any SIPS is the possibility that the insulated core can become detached over time.  In reading the SIPS forum, I noticed several people complaining about the SIPS becoming noisy with expansion and contraction.  I don't know if any of those people were referring to steel or the OSB but I thought that a benefit of steel was the lack of warping over time with expansion and contraction?  And if you did build with SIPS and there was a problem, how is it remedied?  I'm still leaning heavily towards either steel SIPS or steel framing, but as it's the most important factor, I'm trying to learn all I can.

Thanks,

Theresa

Posted By mzmercury on 01 May 2010 11:36 PM
Thanks for your reply Chris.  Can you tell me why steel SIPS would be better than the steel framing, in your opinion?  I guess my main concern about any SIPS is the possibility that the insulated core can become detached over time.  In reading the SIPS forum, I noticed several people complaining about the SIPS becoming noisy with expansion and contraction.  I don't know if any of those people were referring to steel or the OSB but I thought that a benefit of steel was the lack of warping over time with expansion and contraction?  And if you did build with SIPS and there was a problem, how is it remedied?  I'm still leaning heavily towards either steel SIPS or steel framing, but as it's the most important factor, I'm trying to learn all I can.

Thanks,

Theresa

Theresa;

If I thought delamination was a common problem I would not be in the business or would have built my last 2 personal homes with SIPs,  Steel and Aluminum SIPs have been used for cold storage warehouses for decades and in that commercial environment get put to the test. There is no greater stress on a panel than sub-zero inside and 100 degrees out side like it is for many refrigerated warehouses.

Those people were refering to OSB, I was shocked to hear that OSB panels were having expansion /contraction problems. I occasionally see the expansion / contraction in metal based SIPs, but it is a short term event when new, disapates  in a couple of months and is a subtle noise, not as described for the OSB.

Steel is a more consistent and stable skin, corrosion resistant, impervious to water and termite proof

I don't know if there are steel SIPs available in your area. It is my preference because there is less thermal bridging than steel framing

Thanks so much for the input Chris.  This helps our decision making.  Now I'll just have to wade through all the information about radiant heating!

With much appreciation,

Theresa