According to the National Association of House Builders (NAHB), the share of construction costs for framing is approximately 18% of the total cost of construction. The cost of construction per square foot rose from $80 per square foot in 2011 to $95 per square foot in 2013 to $103 per square foot in 2015. My question is thus.. since stick framing costs have increased due to lumber costs & shortage of qualified framers; is SIPS and/or ICF construction become more cost attractive in the last 2-4 years?? I'm curious if the general price differences allow one product to become more attractive or if the differences are negligible. Kindly & thank you. James

No. the price of concrete and other materials have increased along side everything else, so no, it hasn't changed much.

If there is any change, it may be due to more builders being familiar with SIPs or ICF.

Around 2003 when I started my business there were alot of fairly new icf exclusive contractors, sip exclusive builders and new panel makers at every conference I'd attend. Now they are basically all gone and in my opinion its all because of the premium and the fact that they were basically entrepenuer startup owners and not guys that were in it because they love building. People want cheap square footage period and most could give a rip about green features. They start with them but usually get cut to make budget, and dont forget about out of whack appraisals. Total walmart economy, the stuff thats selling is lipstick on a pig and the custom market is extremely competitive, basically playing chicken with margins and rolling the dice on expected change orders when its a competitive bid.

Lumber and commodity pricing is down, although sneaking up. My stick package is close or less than packages from the building boom over 10 years ago, way less than a few years ago but trade pricing has gone up and the savings from my sticks gets eaten by "expected features," no thanks to HGTV, I mean i just bought osb at $9 a sheet, it was $7 this winter, thats giveaway pricing.

SIPs & ICF will always be a small market share here in the USA. It's grown but it's still far away from stick wood frame popularity and costs. Wood stick frame is about 95% of the residential market.

Slamming 2x's will always be the least expensive & most popular way to build here in the USA. Lumber rules in the USA.

Like the above person said. Most people don't care about quality or strength. They want cheap, fast, inexpensive and easy. Which equals dimensional lumber.

Lbear, actually thats not what I said at all. Your posting and logic is one of the reasons I quit posting here, how ironic your doing it again with another idiotic post.

Icf, sips, lumber has nothing to do with quality or strength, its the quality of craftsmanship of the system being used which takes more labor hours under a set budget so naturally you have less to spend on materials.