Hi all
I am a GC in Northern California that specializes in garages, studios and arenas.  I stick build with
an occasional steel building. I would like to start using sip's but have no training? Here are a few questions;
Where do I get training? Are sip's competitive in small out buildings or does the building need to be
large to be competitive? I have more but this is a good start. Thanks for any help.
Steve

I am thinking there is more to "Green Building" than just installing SIPS, but it is a first step that will certainly please the SIP proponents. There is a SIP forum below where you might get a faster response to your training question if you asked for your thread to be moved there.

Thanks Hybrid I realize there is more to Green Building than just using sip's, I did not
want to be too long winded on my first post. I had a ''vision'' recently and open to
ideas on how to stay in business and cut my carbon footprint
Steve

Look for building conferences in your area this fall, winter & spring they are the best places to learn. Check out the American Solar Energy Society, Passive House groups & any other local "green" organizations for their local meetings and/or annual conferences. you'll meet people doing SIPS, ICFs and many other types of buildings, learn what and how these products can work in the structures you build, and most importantly, the building science behind them.

The advantages of SIP construction over stick-built structures are the speed at which it can go up, and the ease with which it can be air-sealed to a tight standard. But you pay a premium for that. Whether that premium is ultimately cost-competitive against stick-built at any thermal-performance point depends on the cost & quality of your labor, and the "time is money" value of the speed of execution.

Whether the thermal performance of the structure has much value depends on whether and how much the space is conditioned. Most garages are ultimately air-leaky, and often only semi-conditioned. Between the breach in thermal performance of the inherent infiltration rates of opening/closing doors and the minimal heating/cooling of most garages, it's hard to make a case for SIP construction since the performance-adder of SIPs does very little for the comfort or energy use on that type of building. Using more traditional construction and spending the cost delta on grid-tied rooftop photovoltaic panels may in fact be better expenditure of funds in terms of dollars per pound of carbon reduction. Utilizing more expensive high efficiency ductless air source heat pumps rather than standard HVAC may also be more cost-effective carbon-reducer than SIP for that type of building, but that depends the type of local grid sources and whether natural-gas is available as the heating fuel. (Condensing gas is still lower-carb than heat pumps in all but the lowest-carbon local grids, but it's rapidly becoming a wash in many locations as grid green-up, replacing coal and older 30% thermally efficient power plants with 50% efficiency combined-cycle gas and renewables, etc.)

Arenas & studios will have their own inherent use-characteristics that may be more amenable to SIP construction as a net carbon reducer than garages are likely to be.

Steve, If you would like answers send me an e-mail at [email protected] with all your questions. Im more than willing to help someone that is going in the right direction by starting with the envelope.